The Second Nun's Tale of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is about the life of St. Ceciliae who was martyred in Sicily under Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (c.176 a.d.). It was written sometime between 1387 and Chaucer's death in 1400.

Chaucer begins by explaining the signficance of Cecilia's name:
 
First let me tell you whence her name has sprung,
Cecilia, meaning, as the books agree,
'Lily of Heaven' in our English tongue,
To signify her chase virginity;
Or for the whiteness of her constancy,
The greeness of her conscience, of her fame
The scent and sweetness, 'lily' was her name.

Cecilia may betoken 'path to the blind'
From the example given in her story;
Or in Cecilia some would have us find
A union as it were of 'Heaven's glory' ...

Cecilia may be also said to mean
'Wanting in blindness,' as she had the light
Of sapience and bearing calm and clean; ...

And just as one may look to heaven and see
The sun and moon, and where the stars are hung,
so in this maiden, spiritually,
We see her faith and magnanimity
And the whole clarity of her wisdom thence
In many works of shining excellence.
[quote from pp. 452-453 4-2744]

Chaucer also reminds his readers that when confronted with the threats of her enemy, Almacius, the Emperor's official, Cecilia replied:
Your power is little to be feared indeed;
Power of mortal man is soon discerned
to be a bladder full of wind and spurned;
for prick it with a needle when it's blown
and the inflated boast is overthrown.'
To the end, even when half dead with 'carven neck' from the blows of her assasin's knife,
Cecilia never
ceased in teaching.
The faith she fostered,
and continued preaching.
In time, Raphael's saintly St. Cecilia became less so as images of her 'proliferated throughout' the 16th and 17th centuries. About 1610 the Florentine painter, Orazio Gentileschi portrayed her as a simply dressed young woman playing the organ for an angel:

Strozzi, St. Cecilia, ca. 1618-1620

By the time of Anne Mynne Calvert's death in 1622, Bernardo Strozzi, the master painter of Genoa had depicted her as a quite sensuous, richly dressed, young woman
"with an organ (barely visible pipes, left, rear) - which she is tradtionally credited with having invented- a violin (mid-left), and a lute (center, right)." [Walter's Catalogue, p. 26]
But what does all this about St. Cecilia have to do with the three forgotten Annes of Maryland? For that answer we need to look more closely at the evidence pertaining to all three.

We probably will never know for certain why George Calvert (1578/1579-1632) and Anne Mynne chose to honor St. Cecilia by being married on her feast day, November 22, 1604, at St. Peter's Church, Cornhill in London. Perhaps it was to pay tribute to both the Saint and to honor George Calvert's wealthy patron and political benefactor, Robert Cecil.  What we do know is that 29 years later on the same day, the Ark and the Dove set sail for Maryland and the founding of a new colony intended to bring Religious Freedom to the new world.
 

The Friends of the Archives have donated an 18th century copy of a portrait to the State (in what appears to be a 17th century frame) that is thought to be of Leonard Calvert.  The Gift to the Friends from the Claggett family included funds for restoration in order that it could be properly displayed in the State House.