[309] In an arched recess under the high altar of St. Cecilia is a beautiful marble statue of the saint in a recumbent posture, by Stefano Maderna, accompanied by the following inscription: EN TIBI SANCTISSIMAE VIRGINIS CAECILIAE IMAGINEM QVAM IPSE INTEGRAM IN SEPVLCHRO IACENTEM VIDI EADEM TIBI PRORSVS EODEM CORPORIS SITV HOC MARMORE EXPRESSI. “Behold the image of the most holy Virgin Cecilia, whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed for thee the same saint in the very same posture of body.” [310] The modern additions have less claim on our reverence. The skeptical will see no reason why the remains of Cecilia should defy the laws of nature for fourteen centuries, when after only two those of Charles Borromeo, also a saint, which are exhibited at Milan arrayed in costly gold-embroidered robes and sparkling with gems, reveal only a black and decaying head and eyeless sockets, the skin shriveled and ruptured and the shrunken lips parting in a ghastly smile. [311] _Monumen. Art. Crist. Prim._, p. 172. [312] Page 95. [313] This striking object of Christian art has been known, says Mrs. Jameson, to cause in Italian women a devotion leading to hopeless passion, madness, and death. (“Sacred and Legendary Art,” _in loco_.) The soldier saint is regarded as a sort of Christian Apollo, banishing disease and pestilence. [314] Pope Gregory I. first mentions the story, _circ._ A. D. 600, as a reason for refusing to send the head of St. Paul to the Empress Constantina. [315] Discede a me fomes peccati ... quia jam ab alio amatore præventa sum, qui mihi satis meliora obtulit ornamenta, et annulo fidei suæ subarravit me, longe te nobilior, et genere et dignitate.--Ambros., _Epis._ 34. [316] Damasus at the end of the fourth century thus commemorates the event in one of his metrical inscriptions, now in a lateral aisle of the basilica of _S. Agnese fuori le Mura_: FAMA REFERT SANCTOS DVDVM RETVLISSE PARENTES AGNEN CVM LVGVBRES CANTVS TVBA CONCREPVISSET NVTRICIS GREMIVM SVBITO LIQVISSE PVELLAM SPONTE TRVCIS CALCASSE MINAS RABIEMQVE TYRANNI VRERE CVM FLAMMIS VOLVISSET NOBILE CORPVS VIRABVS IMMENSVM PARVIS SVPERASSE TIMOREM NVDAQVE PROFVSVM CRINEM PER MEMBRA DEDISSE NE DOMINI TEMPLVM FACIES PERITVRA VIDERET O VENERANDA MIHI SANCTVM DECVS ALMA PVDORIS VT DAMASI PRECIBVS FAVEAS PRECOR INCLYTA MARTYR.