Saint's Prison - Chapter 18

At the End of Faith

Hallelujah.

In the highest place, there is God.

The Lord watches over us and pities us.

His deep mercy is sweet to the soul.

Please save us from sin.

Please save us from evil.

＊＊＊

Priests found purity, chastity, and obedience to God in prayer and labor. Prayer is conducted during Mass, sacred readings, and throughout all times and places of daily life.

Labor includes a variety of tasks such as manuscript copying, construction, and farming. Among these, winemaking holds a particularly important role.

Wine is often referred to as the blood of Christ, sanctified and used in nearly every Mass and religious ritual. Wine is a medium necessary to receive God’s grace, a sacrament.

For this reason, many monasteries have long upheld the tradition of viticulture and wine culture. Stonehurst Monastery is no exception, engaging in winemaking.

However, it is spring now.

The grape harvest is in autumn, and currently, the buds have just sprouted.

We are tending to these buds, pruning them—a crucial task for producing quality grapes.

“Man, with such a vast vineyard, the maintenance must be tough.”

“That’s true. The grounds of this monastery are quite extensive, and so are the fields.”

I struck up a conversation with Francesco, who was picking buds next to me.

Francesco nodded cheerfully, looking around.

“Well, it’s like a village in its own right. Fields, a brewery, an apiary, a chapel, a pilgrim’s lodging, a graveyard. There’s still so much more, and just walking around the monastery is quite the effort.”

“Really, that’s it!”

I nodded in agreement repeatedly.

That’s right. This monastery is vast.

I wonder if one or two Tokyo Domes could fit in this enormous land. A stone wall encloses the vast grounds.

“Hey, are other monasteries like this too?”

“Well, it depends on the monastery, but a scale like this is quite rare, I suppose.”

“Huh, is that so?” I replied, sounding somewhat uninformed.

“But building a monastery in such a remote place must have been quite a challenge, right?”

“Normally, you’d have to clear the land first. But there’s talk that a village stood here a long time ago.”

“Really? That’s new to me. So, they built the monastery where the village was. Did the village move somewhere else?”

“…No, they burned it.”

I was taken aback by his words.

Francesco continued with some difficulty.

“Originally, there was a village here whose inhabitants practiced paganism. So, they burned it.”

“Paganism… because they practiced it.”

“Yes, it’s a matter of what’s orthodox and what’s heretical. The Church is fundamentally exclusive and doesn’t tolerate any gods other than its own. Regardless of whether it’s an ancient indigenous belief or whatever.”

Francesco nodded solemnly, then looked down.

“As a priest, I shouldn’t say this, but I find that aspect of the Church truly terrifying. They call it a crusade, but that’s just a righteous pretext. When you peel back the cover, there’s nothing but conquest and pillage.”

“Francesco…”

“I’ve brought up a rather dark topic, haven’t I?”

He smiled awkwardly and scratched his head. I shook my head.

“Still, they didn’t destroy everything. Look, if you leave the monastery and walk for a few hours, there’s a place where huge stones are placed in a circle. That’s a relic of paganism. Legend has it that they performed rituals to summon gods there or that they sealed monsters within. Well, whether that’s true or not, I don’t know. But it’s said that their traces are left all over the place.”

“That’s…”

The incident flashed through my mind.

The stone circle.

A chill ran down my spine.

So, was that really…?

“Faith is a complicated thing. For someone with my background and a true believer, the nature of faith is different. And since faith is a stone’s throw from blind faith, I have to be careful too.”

“…I’m surprised. Francesco, you think about a lot of things.”

“What do you mean? As if I never think about anything!”

“Was it that obvious…”

Francesco laughed.

I wonder how many people in this monastery think like him.

Faith and blind faith. Indeed, it’s a fine line.

Faith that redeems with someone’s blood, faith that stands on someone’s life. Nothing is more terrifying.

Does God truly desire this?

Does God truly rejoice in this?

Does God truly forgive this?

—I understand nothing.