At 13:59 23/11/96 -0600, you wrote:
>>On Fri, 22 Nov 1996 15:03:22 +0000 (GMT) George Ferzoco wrote:
>>
>>> Today, 22 November, is the feast of ...
>>
>>[snip, snip]
>>>
>>> * Cecilia, virgin and martyr (?)
>>> - of patrician birth, she converted her betrothed husband
>>> and his brother to Christianity; martyred by being
>>> suffocated with the steam of a hot bath in her own mansion
>>> (later converted into a church)
>>
>Mark Harris is probably right to suggest that the likely cause of death in
>such instances would be heatstroke rather than suffocation. But in
>Cecilia's case, the legend insists, the first of several miracles intervened
>at this point. Although she was kept in the bath, with a great fire under
>it, for more than 24 hours, she proved so impervious to the heat that, as
>Chaucer puts it, "It made hir not a drope for to swete." In frustration,
>the persecutor ordered her beheaded--and even the executioner's axe couldn't
>finish her off--at least, not immediately. She lived three more days, with
>her head half-severed, still teaching her followers and encouraging them in
>the faith. (And what we're supposed to make of that, beyond the fact that
>legendary martyrs are amazingly hard to kill, I don't know.)
>
>
There were three sword wounds to her neck and she went on preaching. Chaucer
mentions this, `Thre strokes in the nekke he smoot hir tho,/ The tormentour,
but fo no maner chaunce/ He myghte noght smyte al hir nekke atwo;/ And for
there was that tyme an ordinaunce/ That no man sholde doon man swich
penaunce/ The ferthe strook to smyten, softe or soore, This tormentour ne
dorste do namoore' (shades of `Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'!), after
which she preached for three days, her blood being mopped up by sheets, with
Urban I's blessing, before dying, and Julian in the Long Text similarly
wanted three wounds, in the Short Text citing St Cecilia's (the Amherst
Manuscript engrossing the words for emphasis). Wyclif cited Cecilia
preaching in her own house which became her church. Adam Easton, Norwich
Benedictine and Julian's contemporary, learned in Hebrew, which he taught at
Oxford, and owning the complete works of Pseudo-Dionysius, then preached to
the laity in Norwich, bringing his books with him, was Wyclif's opponent,
became Cardinal, his titular basilica being Santa Cecilia in Trastevere,
where he is buried in a fine marble tomb near St Cecilia's, his having on it
his arms surmounted by the Cardinal's hat with tassels and those of England.
He knew both Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena. He earlier defended
Pope Urban VI. When he defended Birgitta's `Revelationes', and her
canonization, he cited Philip's four daughters who were prophets, St
Cecilia, etc., as examples of saintly but preaching women. The detail about
Cecilia preaching is not in the Golden Legend. Though it is there `sword'
and `swordsman', is it not (I only checked a translation)? Julian has it, `I
harde Aman telle of halye kyrke of the Storye of. Saynte Ce=/cylle
[engrossed, rubricated, underlined]. In the whilke schewynge. I vndyrstode
that sche hadde thre woundys with ASwerde. In the nekke withe the whilke
sche py=/ned to the dede. By the styrrynge of this. I conseyved amyghty/
desyre Prayande oure lorde god that he wolde grawnte me thre woundys in my
lyfe tyme . . . . ' (Amherst, fol. 97 verso, lines 16-21). Nor is Pope Urban
I the right one for her dates. But apparantly the ruins of the bathroom
(hypocaust) can still be seen at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. It's
interesting, the reader response by Christina of Markyate, Chaucer's Second
Nun and Julian to the Legend of St Cecilia.
>
>
>
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