Second Nun's Tale

"The Second Nun's Tale" (Middle English: Þe Seconde Nonnes Tale), originally written in late Middle English, is part of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which was a collection of 24 stories telling of various people. Told by a nun concerned only with spiritual matters, "The Second Nun's Tale" tells the story of Saint Cecilia. The hagiography (saint's life) was a popular story format during the life of Chaucer. Like many of the tales told by the pilgrims, "The Second Nun's Tale" incorporates elements from Dante.

The lack of portrait for the second nun in the General Prologue has led some scholars to speculate that the tale is merely the second tale of the single nun or Prioress but this idea is not widely held. Its relationship to the subsequent Canon's Yeoman's tale is to offer a serious and worthy religious-themed story before a much more irreverent view of contemporary religious behaviour of foolish alchemists.

Although it is unconfirmed what order Geoffrey Chaucer intended the Canterbury tales, and therefore where "The Second Nun's Tale" would place, the main scholarly consensus has placed "The Second Nun's Tale" in Fragment VIII (Group G) out of X of the Canterbury Tales.

Contains a segue from the previous tale and the Invocation to Mary.

The Invocation to Mary is a nine paragraph portion of the prologue telling of the origin of the name of Cecilia. The Invocation has been argued to draw from many other sources in terms of its composure, mainly Dante.

A virgin maiden, Cecilia, is to be wedded to a man Valerian. Cecilia asks Valerian to swear not to betray her if she tells her secret, that she has an angel that watches over her, with Christianity being a crime at the time. From there Valerian is skeptical and Cecilia asks him to embark on a journey to see Saint Urban, who would "purge" Valerian of sin and let him see the Angel. Valerian then found Urban who purged him of sin and when Valerian returned he saw Cecilia with an angel. This angel gave Valerian a single wish, of which Valerian answered to give his brother, Tiburce, the same gift he was given, of the truth of Christ. Tiberuce appeared and then accepted the word of Christ. Valerian Then took Tiburce to Urban, who had been condemned to die by the state, and Christened Tiberuce.

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