Sainte Cécile is a setting for unaccompanied SATB of a text by St Teresa of Lisieux, in praise of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. However the text concentrates not on her musical connections, but on Cecilia's life story, in which she submitted herself fully to the will of God, and declared Christ as the spouse of her soul. Teresa had a great devotion to Cecilia, and tried to emulate in her own life the values Cecilia had lived in hers.