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URBAN. Pope Urban I, fl. third century A.D., reigned A.D. 222-230. He was martyred in 230, during the reign of Alexander Severus. The Liber pontificalis makes him a martyr during the reign of Diocletian (A.D. 285-305) and thus mistakenly associates him with Cecelia (NCE XIV: 477). The story of his life appears in Legenda aurea LXXVII.

Urban is the pope in The Second Nun's Tale. Cecile sends her husband Valerian to seek the old pope Urban, who lives in a cave near the Via Appia, SNT 141-189, and Urban explains to him the nature of Cecile's vocation, SNT 190-215; he baptizes Valerian, SNT 215-217. Valerian leads his brother Tiburce to Urban, SNT 253-280. Pope Urban baptizes Tiburce, SNT 344-357. Urban buries Cecile's body and sanctifies her church, SNT 540-550. [Almache: Cecile: Maxime: Tiburce: Valerian]

Urban appears once initially, SNT 189; ten times in medial positions, SNT 177, 179, 185, 217, 306, 309, 350, 541, 547, 551; and once in final rhyming position, SNT 305.


Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 299-300; ibid., LA, ed. Th. Graesse, 341-342.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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