Chapter 21–Epilogue Summary
Chapter 21
Father Damien wakes up the next morning dizzy as his blood rushes to his heart. He decides he will divulge everything about Leopolda before he dies, even though people will learn that he hid the identity of a murderer. He starts by asking Jude what would happen if a sainthood candidate were proven to be a murderer. The two men recap what they know about Leopolda. There have been miracles and incidents of good deeds, but Damien asks Jude to consider how he would weigh Leopolda’s having been a murderer against those miracles. Jude needs Damien’s proof that Leopolda killed Napoleon before he can respond.
Damien reveals how he kept the rosary and would consider it occasionally, but one day he held it and wrapped it around his hands in a way that left marks. The marks, which he recorded in a drawing, matched the scars in Leopolda’s palms. Damien tells Jude that one of Leopolda’s supposed miracles—the stigmata on her hands—were actually evidence of the murder. The strange trance she entered after supposedly receiving these marks of Christ was actually a tetanus infection from the rosary that dug into her skin.
In the middle of the night, Jude realizes that Damien has known Leopolda to be a murderer for quite a while and has kept the information secret. Jude is troubled that Damien didn’t write to the bishop or attempt to punish Leopolda for her crime. As he tries to work through this puzzle, Jude deduces that Leopolda must have also held a secret about Damien. Father Jude thinks jokingly that he should try to appeal to Leopolda’s spirit, since she is the only one who has the answer to his inquiry.
The next morning, Jude finds a paper that he thinks is indeed a response to his prayer. He goes to the confessional to speak to Father Damien, who immediately recognizes the other priest by scent and voice, even before he starts opening up about his feelings for Lulu. When Jude asks if there is a remedy for lovesickness, Damien tells him the cure is music and promises to play for Jude the next day. Jude then says that he knows Damien’s secret. The older priest is shocked and disturbed, but then Father Jude goes on to reveal that he found Lulu’s birth certificate, which lists Damien as her father. He vows to keep Damien’s secret. Of course, this is not the secret Damien is trying to hide.
Lulu asks Jude again to accompany her to bingo, but he feels an internal conflict about attending. She doesn’t see the harm in playing the game, and she can tell some part of him actually does want to go. Damien won’t help Jude decide whether to go to bingo but does tell him that Lulu is inherently good. When Lulu returns a few hours later, Jude decides to go with her. She interrogates him about what he is doing to Father Damien; she is clearly looking out for her old friend and father figure. Against his better judgment, he tells Lulu about the Leopolda case and its ambiguities.
Jude sets to writing his final report on Leopolda, recalling how much he loved reading the stories of saints when he was training. He attempts to diplomatically record the complexity and contradictions of his subject. He writes about the murder of Napoleon and other cruelties she imposed upon young nuns, which leads him to jump from his chair and pace the room. He continues to weigh in his mind the good and the evil that Leopolda did over the course...
(This entire section contains 1174 words.)
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of her life. Needing a distraction, he begins to consider Father Damien’s life instead. This causes him to consider Damien in the same context in which he has been thinking of Leopolda: sainthood. He wonders whether he has been writing the account of “the wrong saint.”
Chapter 22
Agnes is aware that her death is quickly approaching, so she comes up with a plan. She will seem to disappear but will actually drown herself in the lake, along with all evidence—in the form of her body—of her true identity. Though afraid of ending her life, she is more troubled by the possibility of someone seeing her body after her death and invalidating all the good work she had done in the guise of Father Damien. Agnes, as Damien, writes again to the pope, this time begging him not to reply. Though her letters have long been seeking knowledge, she has now found it on her own and no longer needs his advice.
Agnes delays her plans, “clinging to life” and feeling moved by the smallest, most ordinary details of life. She reflects on the ways in which becoming Damien allowed her full self to blossom. As she says goodbye to Mary Kashpaw, she realizes that Mary knew and kept secret the truth of her identity all these years. Agnes proceeds to prepare her rations and row out to the island. After a night there, Agnes scuttles her boat, eats and drinks, and tells the spirits of the lake to “make room” for her. After drinking a bottle of wine, she starts to feel doubts, questions her identity and what she has made of her life. She calls the spirits to accompany her and feels more calm as she sips another bottle. She thinks about—and invites the spirits to consider—how far she has come and how different her life could have been if she had not transformed into Damien. She then begins to feel as though she is dying and reaches out to embrace her death.
Mary Kashpaw goes out to the island and finds Agnes’s body. She buries her in the lake after finding her supplies and note; loyal as ever, Mary fulfills Agnes’s last wishes.
Epilogue
The epilogue, entitled “A Fax from the Beyond,” recounts a message sent to Little No Horse by the pope in 1997, addressed to Father Damien. Father Jude has since relocated to Little No Horse permanently as he continues to research the potential sainthood of Father Damien Modeste. The message mentions that Damien’s letters were received, read, and enjoyed at the Vatican. The pope mourns the loss of the originals when the Vatican’s files were purged but assures Damien that copies were sent back to his diocese. The rest of the message requests that Damien collect his life’s work so they can be part of the Vatican Library. The pope expresses his appreciation for everything Damien did for his people, assuring the priest of how much good he did in Little No Horse.
The letter was later framed and hung in Damien’s cabin, which has become a “historical shrine” maintained by Mary Kashpaw. She tends carefully to the memorial and, after completing her daily tasks, sits by Damien’s bed. When she dreams, she tries to reach her beloved priest.
