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Plot Summary

"Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" is narrated by Angela Carballino. In a private memoir, Angela describes her changing perceptions of Don Emmanuel, the parish priest of a small mountain village in Spain, where she grew up and lived throughout most of her life. Angela explains that the bishop of the diocese of Renada is initiating the process of beatification of Don Emmanuel, now that he is dead. Over the course of the story, Angela describes how she came to learn the secret of Don Emmanuel's soul.

Angela explains that Don Emmanuel was her "spiritual father." Her mother, like everyone in the village, worships and loves Don Emmanuel. Angela's brother Lazarus lives and works in America, and sends money to support Angela and her mother. When she is ten years old, Angela is sent to a convent school.

Angela leaves the convent school at the age of sixteen and returns to her village. She notes that the whole life of the village by this time revolves around Don Emmanuel. Don Emmanuel is a very active participant in the daily life of the community, sometimes working in the fields alongside the peasants, sometimes accompanying the doctor on his rounds, sometimes helping to teach at the village school. He counsels troubled families, comforts the sick, aids the poor, cares for the children, and attends to the dying. Blasillo, a man in the village who is mentally retarded, becomes especially attached to Don Emmanuel.

As a young woman, Angela helps Don Emmanuel with his various tasks and duties in the church and the community. When she is almost twenty-four, her brother Lazarus returns from America. Lazarus has been influenced by his experiences away from the village and is disdainful of the religious faith of the peasants and their reliance on Don Emmanuel. Lazarus openly expresses atheistic, anti-religious sentiments. But after he goes to hear one of Don Emmanuel's sermons, and learns of his role in the community, Lazarus comes to respect the priest.

Simona, the mother of Angela and Lazarus, becomes mortally ill. As she is on her deathbed, she asks Lazarus to promise that he will pray for her after she is gone. Lazarus is at first resistant, because he is a non-believer, but Don Emmanuel convinces him to make this promise to his mother. After his mother's death, Lazarus begins spending more and more time with Don Emmanuel, taking walks with him along the lake and discussing questions of religious faith and doubt. Before long, Lazarus starts to attend mass on a regular basis.

Lazarus eventually takes holy communion from Don Emmanuel, which the villagers happily interpret as a sign that his atheism has been converted to faith. After the communion, however, Lazarus confesses in private to Angela the true nature of Don Emmanuel's attitudes about religion. He explains that Don Emmanuel convinced him to pretend to believe in God for the sake of the villagers and to keep his religious doubts to himself. When Lazarus asked Don Emmanuel if he truly believes in God, the priest indicated that he does not. Angela describes this revelation of Don Emmanuel's lack of faith as the "tragic secret" of his soul. She is deeply saddened to learn that Don Emmanuel only pretends to believe in God and prays that he and Lazarus will experience a true conversion to genuine faith.

Lazarus further explains to Angela what Don Emmanuel has told him regarding his true attitudes about religion. Don Emmanuel asserted that, although he himself does not have faith, it is important to maintain the faith of the community because without their faith they would be lost. He regards religion as an illusion held by the villagers that gives them comfort in life. He thus encourages Lazarus to do everything he can to maintain the illusion of faith in the community for the sake of their happiness.

After revealing Don Emmanuel's secret to Angela, Lazarus becomes more and more active in helping the priest with his various tasks and duties, both in the church and in the community. He continues to spend much of his time alone with Don Emmanuel, walking along the lake and pursuing his line of questioning, in order to learn the true nature of the priest's attitudes about religion.

The years go by, and Don Emmanuel becomes ill. Knowing that he will soon die, the priest has himself carried to the church, where he gives his final sermon to the people of the village. After the death of Don Emmanuel, Lazarus begins to write down conversations he had with the priest over questions of faith and doubt. Angela later refers to these recorded conversations in the process of writing her memoir. In the absence of Don Emmanuel, Lazarus seems to lose his will to live. Eventually, he grows ill and dies.

Angela, now in her fifties, explains that the story she relates is her private memoir of her life with Saint Emmanuel the Good. She explains that the bishop who has initiated the process of naming Don Emmanuel a saint is writing a biography of the priest. This bishop has asked Angela for information about Don Emmanuel's life. While she has given him plenty of factual information about the priest, she does not reveal the "tragic secret" of Don Emmanuel's lack of faith.

Characters

Bishop of Renada

After the death of Don Emmanuel, the bishop of Renada begins the process of applying to the Catholic Church to proclaim him a saint. The bishop is also in the process of writing a biography of Don Emmanuel and approaches Angela for information about the life of the priest. Although Angela provides the bishop with plenty of factual information, she does not tell him about Don Emmanuel's secret loss of faith.

Blasillo

Blasillo is described as a "congenital idiot" and later referred to as "the fool." Blasillo becomes emotionally attached to Don Emmanuel, who pays a lot of attention to him and patiently teaches him things no one else thought he was capable of learning. After a particularly moving sermon, Blasillo repeats the words from the Psalms, "'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?'" Over the years, Blasillo can often be heard repeating this quotation, although it is not clear if he has any idea what it means. During Don Emmanuel's last church sermon, Blasillo holds tightly onto his hand; when Don Emmanuel dies during this sermon, Blasillo's eyes close and he, too, dies at the same moment.

Angela Carballino

Angela Carballino, nicknamed Angelita, is the narrator of "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr." Her name means "angel" in Spanish. The story itself represents Angela's memoirs, written while she is in her fifties, of her experiences with Don Emmanuel. Angela is sent to a convent school when she is ten years old and returns to her village at the age of sixteen. She becomes especially devoted to Don Emmanuel and helps him with various church activities. She describes him as a man who "pervaded the most secret life of my soul, who was my true spiritual father, the father of my spirit, the spirit of myself."

When Angela is twenty-four, her brother Lazarus reveals to her Don Emmanuel's "tragic secret": he does not actually believe in God or an afterlife. Angela is shaken and upset by this revelation. Although her brother explains to her the details of Don Emmanuel's attitudes about religion, Angela herself never seems to lose faith. While she at first regards Don Emmanuel as a father figure, she later develops a maternal attitude toward him, feeling that she must serve as his spiritual caretaker. On one occasion, Angela goes to make her confession to Don Emmanuel, and seek his forgiveness; however, it is Don Emmanuel who indirectly confesses his lack of faith to Angela, begging her forgiveness, which she gives him. After the death of Don Emmanuel and of her brother, Angela records in a memoir her understanding of the complex religious attitudes of this saint.

Lazarus Carballino

Lazarus Carballino is Angela's brother. As a young man, Lazarus leaves his small village in Spain to live and work in America. He regularly sends enough money back to his mother and sister to support them in relative comfort. When he returns from America, Lazarus is full of new ideas that he has acquired while away from the village. He does not believe in God or religion and is disdainful of the villagers, whose lives are centered around the church. However, he soon gains respect for Don Emmanuel, whom he feels is not like other priests.

Lazarus grows closer and closer to Don Emmanuel, helping him with church and community activities. Eventually, he decides to take holy communion, an outward sign that he has been converted from non-belief to faith in the tenets of the church. However, Lazarus explains to Angela that neither he nor Don Emmanuel truly believes in God or an afterlife. Rather, Lazarus comes to believe, based on the teachings of Don Emmanuel, that religion is a vital source of comfort to the people of the village, who would fall into despair if they lost their faith.

The name Lazarus is that of a biblical figure who was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ four days after he had been buried. The name Lazarus has thus come to symbolize one whose life has been renewed. In Unamuno's story, Lazarus, referring to his biblical name, tells Angela, "'I was a true Lazarus whom [Don Emmanuel] raised from the dead.'" He does not mean that the priest literally brought him back from the dead but that he helped to renew Lazarus's faith in "'the charity of life, in life's joy.'" After Don Emmanuel dies, Lazarus seems to lose his desire to live, and he soon grows ill and dies.

Simona Carballino

Simona Carballino is the mother of Angela and Lazarus. Simona's husband died young, and she was left to care for her two children. Simona is deeply devoted to Don Emmanuel, to the point that her memory of her husband has been eclipsed by her emotional attachment to the priest. When Lazarus claims that he wishes to move his mother and sister to the city, Simona refuses to go, insisting that she cannot leave the lake, the mountain, or Don Emmanuel. As she lies dying on her bed, Simona begs her son, Lazarus, to promise that he will pray for her after she is gone. Although Lazarus is known to be a nonbeliever, the priest encourages him to make and keep this promise, which is his mother's dying wish.

Don Emmanuel

Don Emmanuel is a Catholic priest who presides over the church in the small mountain village of Valverde de Lucerna. Don Emmanuel is deeply loved by all of the villagers, and the entire community centers on him. He is extremely active in the life of the community, personally engaging in their work, their family lives, their physical wellbeing, and their religious needs. Angela's memoir of the experiences of her family with Don Emmanuel reveals his "tragic secret": that he was without faith in God or heaven. Don Emmanuel begins to spend much of his time with Lazarus, who is openly atheistic. He convinces Lazarus to maintain the outward appearance of faith, even if he does not believe. When Don Emmanuel dies, the people of the village, who consider him a saint, mourn their loss. After his death, the bishop of the diocese of Renada, in which the village is located, initiates efforts to officially name Don Emmanuel a saint.

Themes

Existential Thought

Unamuno was an important precursor to the branch of philosophy that came to be known as existentialism. While the term existentialism did not gain currency until the World War II era, the philosophical questioning subsequently regarded as existentialism has roots deep in Western culture. Existentialism, broadly speaking, addresses the nature of human existence. Existentialism is in essence concerned with the human condition, insofar as the human condition is defined by the birth and inevitable death of every individual. Existentialism focuses on the unique qualities of each individual and emphasizes the fact that each person is faced with a multitude of choices by which to conduct her or his life.

Existential thinking has influenced such diverse fields of inquiry as philosophy, psychology, theology, atheism, humanism, literature, metaphysics, and phenomenology. Many important modern thinkers have examined existential questions. Among the most important may be included Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Karl Jaspers. In Spain, Unamuno and his contemporary José Ortega y Gasset are regarded as important early existential thinkers.

The characters in "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" explore some of the basic questions posed by existential thought. In this story, Don Emmanuel's preoccupation with death is characteristic of existential thought. Because he does not believe in an afterlife, Don Emmanuel is painfully aware of the limitations placed on the existence of each individual by the fact of death. This awareness leads him to make specific choices as to how he conducts himself as the priest of a small village. Don Emmanuel's primary concern is to help the people around him by easing their suffering and facilitating the experience of joy and happiness. He regards it as his duty to distract the villagers from thinking about the fundamental reality of human existence (as he sees it): that each individual must one day die.

Because of its focus on death as the end of existence for the individual, it may seem that existentialism is by definition an atheistic philosophy. However, existentialism is not necessarily incompatible with religious faith, and existential theology is an important branch of religious thought. Thus, Unamuno has been regarded as a Catholic existentialist, in that he grapples with the apparent contradictions between Christianity and existentialism. Unamuno regards the act of confronting one's faith and doubt as more important than finding absolute answers to age-old questions regarding the human condition.

The New World and the Old World

Through the character of Lazarus, Unamuno creates a set of oppositions that serve as a central thematic focus of his story. Lazarus, upon first returning from America, represents a set of values associated with the New World, the city, and modern society. The villagers, on the other hand, represent a set of values associated with the Old World, the country, and medieval society. Lazarus associates the New World with logic, reason, and atheism, while he associates the Old World with ignorance, cultural backwardness, and outmoded religious beliefs.

When he first returns from America, Lazarus plans to move with his mother and sister to the city, which he considers to be more culturally enlightened than the country. However, the two women refuse to leave their village, because they are so strongly attached to the spiritual life of their rural community, as well as to their priest Don Emmanuel. When Angela goes to visit a school friend in the city of Madrid, she feels stifled by the spiritual emptiness of the urban world and rushes back to the village as soon as possible. With the influence of Don Emmanuel, Lazarus comes to appreciate the values of this devoutly religious Old World community.

Community

Unamuno places a strong emphasis on the life of the remote village community in "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr." The villagers as a group are portrayed as if they were a single composite character. The narrator rarely names or describes individuals within the community but often describes the thoughts and desires of the village as if its people were a homogenous body. After Don Emmanuel and Lazarus die, Angela finds that she is able to go on living through her active engagement in the life of her community. In the end, Angela realizes that Don Emmanuel has taught her the meaning of life, which she interprets as a spiritual merging of her self with the spiritual life of her community.

The Catholic Faith in the Modern World

In "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr," Unamuno explores questions about the role of the Catholic Church in the modern world. The narrative of the story includes many references to Catholic rituals, saints, prayers, and biblical figures. The village in which the story takes place is focused on the activities of their local church, and all of the characters in the story were raised Catholic. This remote village and its rural community in this story come to represent the age-old traditions of the Catholic faith. The challenges Lazarus raises to Catholicism represent the challenges facing the Catholic church in the modern world of the twentieth century. While Lazarus at first regards the religious devotion of the villagers as a sign of ignorance and backwardness, he eventually comes to appreciate the value of a faith deeply rooted in the age-old traditions of the Catholic Church.

Topics for Further Study

• Unamuno lived through many important events in the history of Spain. Research one of the following major events or eras in Spain's history: the Carlist Wars, the Spanish-American War, the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic, or the Spanish Civil War. What form of government did Spain have during the period you have chosen? What changes took place in Spanish government over the course of this period? What major social and political issues were of concern to Spanish citizens during this period? What role did the Catholic Church play in social and political conflicts in Spain during this time?
• In "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr," the narrator describes her experiences with a man who exerted a tremendous influence on her life. Think of someone in your own life who has been an important influence on you, such as a teacher, parent, religious leader, older sibling, friend, or perhaps a famous person you have never met. Write an essay describing this person's outstanding characteristics, and how this person has influenced your life. Give specific examples of circumstances in which you made an important decision inspired by the influence of this person.
• Unamuno was one of the writers of Spain's Generation of 1898. Write a report on one other important Spanish writer of the Generation of '98, such as the essayists Azorín and José Ortega y Gasset, the novelists Pío Baroja, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, or the poets Juan Ramón Jiménez, Antonio Machado, and Manuel Machado. What significant historical or cultural events in Spain influenced this writer's thinking? What central ideas did this author stress in his writings? In what ways was this author an important influence on Spanish thought and literature?
• Some of the world's greatest artists have lived and worked in Spain. Research an important Spanish artist, such as Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, or Salvador Dali. Where and when did this artist live in Spain? Name some of the major works of this artist, and describe key characteristics of his work. Pick one major work by this artist; in a library book, find a photo reproduction of a drawing, painting, print, or sculpture by this artist. Describe the work of art in specific detail, then discuss your own interpretation of this work.
• Unamuno is regarded as an early existentialist writer, whose ideas were formulated a generation before existentialism emerged as a prominent intellectual movement in philosophy and literature. Learn more about a key figure in existential thought, such as Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Rudolph Bultman, or Karl Jaspers. What major works of existential thought did this writer publish? Learn about the basic ideas put forth by this existentialist, and explain the ideas to the best of your ability. Then discuss your own response to these ideas. To what extent do you find them convincing? Why are they convincing or why are they not?
• One of the themes of "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" is the importance of actively participating in one's community as a way of giving meaning to the life of the individual. Make a list of all the different communities which you are a part of, such as your neighborhood, your town, your ethnic group, your church, as well as any extracurricular groups or organizations you are a part of (a sports team, band, or orchestra, etc.). Pick one of these communities that you consider to be especially important to you. Write an essay describing this community. What is your role in this community, and why is it important to you? Give specific examples of how your participation in this community has influenced your life.

Criticism

Liz Brent

Brent holds a Ph.D. in American culture from the University of Michigan. In this essay, Brent discusses the religious philosophy of the priest in Unamuno's "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr."

Unamuno's central concern in "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" is with religious faith and religious doubt. As a young woman, Angela expresses complete devotion to the Catholic faith, fully accepting its religious tenets. Her brother Lazarus, on the other hand, returns from America confident in his lack of religious faith. Through their association with Don Emmanuel over a period of years, Angela and Lazarus learn of the priest's secret loss of faith, which he conceals with an outward display of devotion. Through the writing of her memoir, Angela comes to understand and appreciate the complexity of Don Emmanuel's lack of faith, as well as his conviction that people need religion in order to live.

Don Emmanuel tells Lazarus that he does not believe in God or an afterlife; however, he believes it is his duty to maintain the religious faith of the villagers. Lazarus comes to understand the reasoning behind Don Emmanuel's seemingly hypocritical stance of leading the villagers to believe that he is a devout worshipper of God, while secretly harboring a complete lack of faith. Lazarus is thus "converted" to Don Emmanuel's religious philosophy, making it his duty to display outward devotion and encourage devotion among the villagers, while privately maintaining the conviction that God does not exist.

When Angela learns through Lazarus of Don Emmanuel's secret lack of faith, she confronts the priest directly with her own religious doubts and questions. She asks if he believes in the devil, in hell, and in heaven. While Don Emmanuel asserts that he does, Angela knows that he is lying. Indirectly admitting to her his lack of faith, the priest finally insists that she should keep her religious questioning to herself and never reveal it to others. Angela continues to harbor her own private doubts, while praying that Lazarus and Don Emmanuel will one day be converted to a true faith in God and belief in an afterlife.

Don Emmanuel believes that to live without faith is to live in agony. His own lack of faith causes him to experience lifelong feelings of sadness, lone-liness, and despair. As he explains to Lazarus, a man who does not believe in God suffers unbearable torment. He asserts, "The truth, Lazarus, is perhaps something so unbearable, so terrible, something so deadly, that simple people could not live with it!"

Through his characterization of Don Emmanuel, a priest who does not believe in an afterlife, Unamuno explores the significance of death to religious faith. Because he does not believe in heaven, hell, or an afterlife, Don Emmanuel anguishes over thoughts of death. He confesses to Lazarus that his greatest temptation is the urge to commit suicide by drowning himself in the lake. He explains that he has struggled against a lifelong urge to commit suicide, so that his life "is a kind of continual suicide, or a struggle against suicide, which is the same thing."

Because Don Emmanuel himself does not believe in an afterlife and suffers despair over his awareness of his own mortality, he does his best to maintain the belief of the villagers that they will go to heaven when they die. He feels it is his duty to encourage religious faith in the villagers, because he feels that belief in an afterlife is the only thing that keeps people from falling into despair and committing suicide. Angela asserts that Don Emmanuel, who was always called to the bedside of the dying, "helped everyone to die well." That is, he did his best to comfort the dying with the promise of an afterlife, although he himself was tormented by his lack of belief in an afterlife.

From an early age, Angela intuitively perceives Don Emmanuel's despair and thus regards him with "profound pity." Aware of Don Emmanuel's "infinite, eternal sadness," Angela regards herself as the caretaker of his soul, as if he needs her strong sense of faith in order to keep him from descending into utter despair over his own lack of faith. Over the years, however, this sense of despair takes its toll on Don Emmanuel, and the "deep rooted sadness which consumed him" causes his health to fail.

Don Emmanuel believes that religion is a dream, fantasy, or illusion, by which the common people stave off their fear of death. In private conversation with Lazarus, he refers to God as "our supreme dream." Don Emmanuel feels that his task as the village priest is to do everything he can to maintain the illusion of God and heaven among the villagers. He thus believes it is in the best interests of the people for him to conceal his lack of faith; he advises Angela and Lazarus, also, to conceal their questioning and doubts about religion. Lazarus, repeating Don Emmanuel's lesson, tells Angela, "The people should be allowed to live with their illusion" — that is, the illusion supplied by religious faith.

At one point, Don Emmanuel quotes the socialist theorist Karl Marx, saying, "religion is the opiate of the masses." Marx intended this statement as a criticism of religion, implying that religion distracts people from protesting against unfair economic systems, by lulling them into a false sense of contentment. Don Emmanuel, however, believes that providing people with the fantasy of religion is a positive act, for "We should give them opium, and help them sleep, and dream."

Don Emmanuel particularly feels that it is important to maintain the dream of an afterlife in heaven, to keep the people from falling into despair over the idea that they will one day die. He regards it as his duty to the villagers to "make them dream they are immortal." He goes on to say that all religions serve the same purpose of consoling the people "for having been born only to die."

Don Emmanuel repeatedly asserts that the most important thing is for the people to live, and to go on living. He believes that religious faith gives life meaning, thereby providing people with a reason to go on living. Because he himself has no faith in God, he feels that life is meaningless, and this sense of meaninglessness causes him great despair. Don Emmanuel thus regards it as his duty to promote joy and happiness among the villagers, so that they will be motivated to go on living and will not give in to the despair that comes with realizing that they are "born only to die." Don Emmanuel asserts, "the village must be happy; everyone must be happy to be alive. To be satisfied with life is of first importance." He tells Lazarus, "let them console themselves for having been born, let them live as happily as possible in the illusion that all this has a purpose." As he is dying, Don Emmanuel advises Angela and Lazarus to continue his mission of maintaining the fantasy of religion in the villagers, to "Let them dream, let them dream."

Toward the end of her memoir, Angela develops a more complex understanding of Don Emmanuel's "tragic secret," which is ultimately a paradox. She begins to wonder if Don Emmanuel secretly did have faith in God, and yet merely told Lazarus that he secretly did not have faith in God, as a means of indirectly bringing the young man to have faith in the priest's lack of faith. On the other hand, Angela speculates, perhaps Don Emmanuel truly believed that he lacked faith in God, not knowing that, deep down inside, he in fact did have faith. Thus, Angela asserts that she believes both Don Emmanuel and her brother "died believing they did not believe, but that, without believing in their belief, they actually believed." She adds, "I believed then, and I believe now, that God — as part of I know not what sacred and inscrutable purpose — caused them to believe they were unbelievers."

Angela ultimately asserts that Don Emmanuel, religious doubt and all, was a saint, and that her brother, too, was a saint. She further suggests that perhaps all of the saints harbored doubts similar to those expressed by Don Emmanuel and that they were no less saintly for their doubt. In fact, Don Emmanuel tells Lazarus that he believes many of the saints, and perhaps even Jesus Christ himself, had also died without truly believing in an afterlife. Angela comes to believe that it is this very doubting of faith, coupled with a commitment to promote religious faith in others, that makes a person saintly. Unamuno thus poses to the reader a philosophical and religious paradox on the nature of faith and doubt, putting forth the notion that, while it is possible to doubt one's faith, it is also possible to have faith in one's doubt.