Back to: Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
In this article will discuss The Prioress Tale Summary in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
One day, in an Asian town, where Jews lived in a ghetto practising usury—acts that Christians condemned, a boy, a Christian boy, who could sing Ave Marie and Alma Redemptoris, could speak Latin and was devoted to his faith was killed when he was coming from the school singing his Alma Redemptoris by the person hired by the Jews who got angry to hear him singing the song.
He is thrown into the cesspit after slitting his throat. His mother, the widow, searched for him the whole night asking Jews where she could find but no one helps her find his son.
She, however, gets an idea to sing the song to find her son. When she sings the song, her son sings back. The Christian from all over the city comes near the cesspit to see the miracle.
The provost cursed the Jews and tied them up to hang them to death as a punishment for them. The child is taken in honourable procession and holy water is sprinkled upon him before he is buried.
The Provost asks him the boy how could he sing when he has died. The child answers that the Virgin Mary has placed a grain in his through. The provost removes the grain and the boy is buried in a marble tomb as a martyr.
