My “Second Nun’s Tale”

introduction:

the story of the second nun begins with a prologue which explains the value of the work and the dangers due to laziness, also there is an invocation to the virgin mary, as well as an interpretation of the meaning of the name Cecilia.

Saint Cecilia, Roman by birth, was destined to receive religious education. Therefore she feared the day in which she was to marry and give up her virginity. However, he had decided to trust Valerian. Arriving on the day of their wedding, under her golden robe she wore a hairshirt, praying to God to remain pure.

On the wedding night Cecilia told Valerian a secret: she had a guardian angel who, if she believed that Valerian had treated her vulgarly, would have killed him. Valerian said he would believe her only if he could see this angel, and she told him to go to Via Appia and find Pope Urban among the poor. Once Urban had eliminated him from his sins, Valerian would have been able to see the angel.

When Valerian reached the Via Appia, Urbano suddenly appeared in front of him and read a passage from the Bible. Another old man, also dressed in bright white clothes, with a book with the golden letters appeared in front of Valerian, asking him if he believed what Cecilia had said to him. When he said yes, Pope Urban baptized him and sent him home.

Returning home, Valerian found the angel with Cecilia. This angel had brought two wreaths of flowers from Paradise that will never fade, one for Cecilia and one for Valerian. The angel claimed that only the pure and chaste would be able to see this crown. Valerian then asked the angel to bless his brother and make him pure.

This brother, Tiberius, came and smelled the smell, but did not see the flowers. Valerian then explained his new faith to him and eventually tried to convince his brother to be baptized. Tiberius, however, did not like the idea of being baptized. Valerian told his brother not to fear death because there was a better life elsewhere. Cecilia instead explained to him the Holy Trinity and other key principles of Christianity, managing to convince Tiberius to be baptized.

Tiberius was baptized and became a perfect Christian – and for a time the three lived happily. However, the sergeants of the city of Rome sought them out and brought them before Almachius the prefect, who ordered their death. During their execution, one of the sergeants, Massimo, claimed to have seen the spirits of Valerian and Tiberius ascending to heaven. Hearing this, many of the witnesses converted to Christianity. For this Almachius had him beaten to death, so Cecilia had him buried together with Valeriano and Tiberio

Almachius summoned Cecilia, but she refused to bow to her power. She also refused to admit any guilt and sentenced Almachius, who then ordered her to be boiled to death, but she, despite having remained all day and night in a fire bath under it, remained cold and didn’t even sweat.

Almachius then ordered his servant to kill her, but although Cecilia was hit by three blows to the neck she did not die. The Christians stopped the blood with the sheets and, although he remained there for three days in agony, he never stopped teaching them the Christian faith. After three days Cecilia died and her body was brought to Pope Urban, who buried her at night among the other saints and consecrated her church, still venerated today as the church of Santa Cecilia.