The Second Nun's Tale
"[1] The Invocation to Mary (Invocacio ad Mariam) is a nine paragraph portion of the prologue, telling of the origin of the name of Cecilia.
Cecilia asks Valerian to swear not to betray her if she tells her secret, that she has an angel that watches over her, Christianity being a crime at the time.
Valerian must be baptized and purged of sin before he can see the angel, so Cecilia sends him on a journey to Saint Urban, who is in hiding.
Both Tiburce and Valerian nonetheless submit to the execution as an act of martyrdom to their new faith, and as their heads fall their spirits rise up to heaven, a miracle which Maximus uses to convert many others.
Even when she was betrothed to a man named Valerian, on her wedding day she begged God again to protect her virginity and sang to him, "O Lord, keep my soul and my body unspotted, lest I be confounded."
When Valerian asked to see the angel, Cecilia told him that he must "go forth to the Appian Way," and get baptised by Saint Urban.
After his baptism, during which he saw God who appeared as an old man in pure white garments, Valerian returned home and saw the angel.
Cecilia referred to them as, "nothing but vain things, for they are dumb and deaf…" Tiburce went with his brother to Pope Urban, and got christened, which allowed him also to see the angel of God.
Eventually, Almachius the prefect heard of this and ordered his officers to take these saints to the idol of Jupiter, and to behead anyone who does not make a sacrifice.
Cecilia baptised them all together, and told Valerian and Tiburce that they had served well, and preserved their faith, and in order to save their lives, they should do the sacrifice.
Enraged by her boldness and steadfast faith, Almachius commanded his men to bring her to the bathhouse and "burn her right in a bath of red flames."
She laid in the bath for the day and night however her body, representative of her unwavering faith, remained unharmed that "she sat cold and felt no pain; it did not make her sweat even a drop".
She then tells her husband, Valerian, that if he were to "touch or love [her] ignobly, without delay [the angel] will slay you on the spot; and thus [he] would die in [his] youth".He hears this and he respects her wishes.
Despite the physical torture that Cecilia's body endures through the beating, burning, and slashing of her throat, she still remains alive for three days, and is able to convert many non-believers through her preachings.
In "Body Symbolism in the Book of Margery Kempe", Susan Morgan states that, "medieval theologians and hagiographers viewed female sin as intrinsically bodily and sexual, emanating from within.
"[6] By keeping her virginity intact, Cecilia's body was able to evade this "sin" which ultimately helped her maintain her devotion, and led to her being a saint.
Cecilia prayed to God to protect her virginity, and "for the love of Him who died upon a tree she fasted every second or third day.
Susan Morgan states that, "[t]he link between eating and sexual domination has a long history in Christian tradition" and "[w]hen women…fasted…they were…punishing and disciplining their flesh in pursuit of the higher goal of asexuality or chastity.
Cathy Hampton states that, '[a]ll virtuous women must accede directly to the call to chastity, an imperative that places them on equal footing rather than in a relationship of hierarchy.
In the Second Nun's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer's characters' senses of sight, smell, and touch allows them to perceive the divine nature of things and gain a deeper spiritual understanding, which helped some of them ultimately reach martyrdom.
Elizabeth Robertson states that, "Chaucer validates the body's ability to apprehend the meaning of Christianity through senses.
"[13] Overcoming their limited sight and seeing the angel, parallels to them gaining a deeper understanding of Christianity and religion.
