Life of Saint Cecilia is a medieval religious vita, in which Reverend Prosper Gueranger tells the story of Saint Cecilia’s martyrdom. Within this story Gueranger utilizes symbolism, Ambiguity, and paradox to create a story that would leave readers with the impression that the death of this saint is her reward for her life of servitude. This in turn lead the audience to believe that the path of Christianity is superior to Judaism or the religious path of the Roman’s. The violence and torturous methods the Romans used against Saint Cecilia as portrayed in her death would have also possibly repelled anyone on the fence about one 's own religion. The techniques used to portray Saint Cecilia’s demise and the persuasiveness each one had separately
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This was not an ordinary death, but a slow painful suffering death. The paradox here being that if one was loved so much by their God, why would he want them to suffer so callously? How is this a reward for a life lived completely to serve her God? Normally when one has such a love for someone they would want to limit their suffering, not contribute to it or prolong it. These contradictory themes were strown throughout Gueranger’s writing. Gueranger wrote of Cecilia’s suffering as something grand, “Cecilia joyfully entered the place of her martyrdom,” (125) Joyful martyrdom are two opposing ideas again how can you joyfully accept your own suffering. Another example of Gueranger using these contradictory statement to put a positive spin on a horrible death, “A sublime and lamentable spectacle met their eyes. Cecilia in the agonies of death,” (127) This sentence in itself is a paradox, sublime with a positive meaning and lamentable with a negative meaning, both contradicting each other leaving the reader to believe that this was a joyous death, which would confuse the readers on its own. “... the glorious arena where Cecilia had won her crown.” (128), referring to death as the crown and prize that Cecilia had won through her servitude to God. For a Saint martyrdom was the ultimate way to go at this time showing her faithfulness to her god she was rewarded with death, a brutal painful death which
This was not an ordinary death, but a slow painful suffering death. The paradox here being that if one was loved so much by their God, why would he want them to suffer so callously? How is this a reward for a life lived completely to serve her God? Normally when one has such a love for someone they would want to limit their suffering, not contribute to it or prolong it. These contradictory themes were strown throughout Gueranger’s writing. Gueranger wrote of Cecilia’s suffering as something grand, “Cecilia joyfully entered the place of her martyrdom,” (125) Joyful martyrdom are two opposing ideas again how can you joyfully accept your own suffering. Another example of Gueranger using these contradictory statement to put a positive spin on a horrible death, “A sublime and lamentable spectacle met their eyes. Cecilia in the agonies of death,” (127) This sentence in itself is a paradox, sublime with a positive meaning and lamentable with a negative meaning, both contradicting each other leaving the reader to believe that this was a joyous death, which would confuse the readers on its own. “... the glorious arena where Cecilia had won her crown.” (128), referring to death as the crown and prize that Cecilia had won through her servitude to God. For a Saint martyrdom was the ultimate way to go at this time showing her faithfulness to her god she was rewarded with death, a brutal painful death which