Chaucer’s Nuns

Sister Mary Madeleva (1887-1964) was known for poetry, eloquence, and scholarship. She became the third president of Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, from which she had herself graduated. After joining the Holy Cross Sisters she obtained her M.A. from Notre Dame and her doctorate from the University of California. Her poetry is alive with religious mysticism, and her essays–as in the present example–both lively and sure. Here she defends the Prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales against a great many false interpretations. [For more of these Catholic essays, see the Table of Contents.]

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