The Roman martyr Cecilia, whose veneration and festive day (22nd November) have been observed since the 5th century, became the patron saint of music in the 14th or 13th century and in particular music as god-given "harmonia", representing the harmony of the world. As verified hy pictures since the 14th century, the organ became the attribute of the saint as the specific instrument most perfectly embodying the Christian concept of harmony. In Raffael's famous painting the broken instruments lying on the floor provide eloquent evidence of how superior the organ was to them, and how very much it had become a symbolic instrumental the beginning of the 16th century. With such a traditional background it was inevitable that the festivities connected with the saint were observed with far-reaching musical functions. It was at least also for this purpose that Cecilian associations were formed, initially tn Rome towards the end of the 16th century and later in other countries, including England in the wake of the fresh blossomming of church and court music in the Restoration under Charles II, since the founding of the London St. Cecilia Society in 1683. The anthem as the preferred genre of courtly festive and homage music was transferred to the Cecilian feast. The writing and composing of Cecilian odes became a favourite task in English court circles attracting such great composers as Purcell (l692) and Handel, and such insignificant ones as Jeremiah Clark and Thomas Clayton. The continuity of the ode to St. Cecilia as an "institution" surpassing all political changes is clearly underlined by the two works which the greatest English poet of that epoch, John Dryden. wrote for the 22nd Novembre. The "Ode for St Cecilia`s Day" was written in 1687, two years after Dryden's conversion to Roman Catholicism and at the height of power of the Caholic King James II. "Alexanders Feast", a classical scholarly variation of the Cecilian theme, was written ten years later, that is to say after the "Glorious Revolution". For a whole century both poems were  accepted as the definitive classical Cecilian texts. Handel set both of them to music.