[3] Tradition states that he wrote some didactic treatises and that he was burned to death during the reign of Nero.

[4] He is one of the group of Seven Apostolic Men (siete varones apostólicos), seven Christian clerics ordained in Rome by Saints Peter and Paul and sent to evangelize Spain.

Hesychius, Ctesiphon, Torquatus, Euphrasius, Indaletius, and Secundius (Isicio, Cecilio, Tesifonte, Torcuato, Eufrasio, Hesiquio y Segundo).

The fiesta and abbey act as key instruments for the preservation, propagation and dissemination of Caecilius' legend, by which the city of Granada in the 17th century sought to redefine its historic identity, replacing its recent Moorish past with accounts of earlier Christian origins.

The legend states that the catacombs of Sacromonte are the site of Saint Cecil's martyrdom, and the abbey preserves the supposed relics of Cecil and eleven other saints' bones, ashes and the oven in which they were believed to have been burned.