The official name is Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile, in homage of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music.

Gounod's new music was acclaimed in the press, rendering details and culminating in an enthusiastic summary: "It is ... the work of a thoroughly trained artist – and what is more, the poetry of a new poet".

In the Agnus Dei, the soloists sing between the three invocations the text "Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" (Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say a word and I shall be healed), sung once by the tenor and again by the soprano.

This simplicity, this grandeur, this serene light which rose before the musical world like a breaking dawn, troubled people enormously.

"[6] He ranked the mass among the best works by Gounod: "In the faint distant future when inexorable time has completed its work and the operas of Gounod are forever in repose in the dusty sanctuary of libraries, the Messe de Sainte Cécile, the Rédemption and the oratorio Mors et Vita will still retain life.