44 pages • 1 hour read
Miguel de UnamunoSaint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1930A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Page 92-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 92-107 Summary
Angela, confused by Don Manuel’s request that she pray for everyone, confronted him. When she reached the prayer line about sinners, she questioned why people are labeled as such. Don Manuel tenderly addressed her as a daughter, explaining that existence itself is their greatest sin and that death serves as the only remedy.
As Don Manuel faced his final moments, he was not isolated but surrounded by his congregation, to whom he continued imparting his wisdom. Prior to this, he summoned Lázaro and Angela to his residence, charging them with the welfare of his parishioners and the preservation of their faith. He advised Lázaro and then Angela to embrace a faithful demise within the Church’s embrace. In response to Angela’s mourning, Don Manuel attempted to console her by confessing his lifelong yearning for death. He requested a coffin crafted from walnut wood planks, sourced from a tree that he associated with his innocent and faith-filled youth. He shared a reflective analogy, likening his reluctance to recite the Apostles’ Creed’s conclusion to Moses’s experience. Moses was shown the promised land but forbidden entry alongside his people and died in obscurity.
Don Manuel appointed Lázaro as his successor, advising him to shield their people from seeking divine truth. He urged them not to fret over the afterlife, asserting its nonexistence. Despite Angela’s appeals for him to hold on to some hope for an afterlife, Don Manuel remained steadfast in his disbelief.
In his final sermon at the church, with Blasillo by his side, Don Manuel urged his congregation to live joyfully and maintain hope for a reunion beyond life. He asked forgiveness for any unintentional harm, guiding them through the Apostles’ Creed one last time. Don Manuel passed away silently as the church reached the Creed’s affirmation of eternal life, with Blasillo asleep beside him. Both were later found deceased, leaving the community in mourning.
The parishioners gathered at Don Manuel’s residence to distribute his belongings as sacred relics. Lázaro discovered a breviary, which Don Manuel used not for prayers but to preserve flowers, including a carnation.
The villagers, unable to accept Don Manuel’s death, claimed to see his reflection in the lake. Women visited his grave, touching the walnut cross crafted from the tree he once played under in the belief it could exorcise their demons.
Lázaro embraced Don Manuel’s teachings, preserving them in writings that Angela used to compile this memoir. Lázaro credited Don Manuel with his spiritual rebirth, likening himself to Lazarus and attributing his newfound sense of faith’s value to Don Manuel. A new priest arrived in the village and Lázaro mentored him, continuing Don Manuel’s work.
However, Angela observed that Lázaro had a growing fixation on death; he would spend his days at Don Manuel’s grave or gazing at the lake and spoke about Don Manuel’s belief that many saints passed without faith in God or an afterlife. He implored Angela to pray for him and all others upon his death.
Lázaro’s life ultimately ended swiftly due to illness. He reassured Angela, stating that though his death would mean a part of Don Manuel would perish with him, Don Manuel’s essence would persist through her. Lázaro expressed contentment with his impending death, entrusting Angela to carry on their legacy. Upon his passing, the village collectively prayed for Lázaro, commending his spirit to Heaven and to the memory of Don Manuel.
Now alone, Angela upholds Don Manuel’s legacy within her village, adhering to his belief in the importance of community in ensuring the soul’s longevity. She reflects on Don Manuel’s honest approach to converting Lázaro, concluding that truth is the essential element for genuine faith. Proclaiming her faith in God, Angela considers the possibility that God led her brother and Don Manuel merely to believe themselves nonbelievers. Yet she herself battles with doubt, questioning the authenticity of her own beliefs.
During the process of Don Manuel’s beatification, the Lord Bishop seeks details from Angela, who chooses to protect Don Manuel by withholding information. She fears the truth might hinder his sanctification and silently hopes the memoir remains undiscovered.
Epilogue Summary
Unamuno hints that Angela, not he, authored the narrative, expressing greater faith in Angela and Don Manuel’s existence than in his own reality. He connects this narrative to a broader theological context, referencing the dispute between Saint Michael the Archangel and the devil over Moses’s body, emphasizing Saing Michael’s refusal to defame through slander.
He asserts the novel’s authenticity, comparing its truthfulness to that of the Gospel. Unamuno aspires for the story to endure, akin to the timeless presence of the lake and mountains, hoping its essence continues to resonate.
Page 92-Epilogue Analysis
The narrative climax ties together the themes of The Tragedy of Consciousness, The Utility and Morality of Deception, and Saintliness, Legacy, and Mortality through the symbolic six planks of wood and Don Manuel’s death. Don Manuel requests that his coffin be made of wood from a tree he associates with his childhood happiness: “[I]n [its] shade I used to play as a child, when I was beginning to dream … In those days I did believe in life everlasting!” (95). Linked in this way to life, death (the afterlife), and Don Manuel’s loss of faith, the planks transform into a symbol of the happiness and spiritual guidance he has offered his parish. This transformation underscores a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, reflective of Don Manuel’s journey from innocent faith through existential doubt to a legacy of communal peace.
Don Manuel’s death during the Apostles’ Creed’s proclamation of “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting” functions similarly (97). It harkens back to his selective silence during the Creed but also transforms it: The village’s perception of Don Manuel’s final moment, when they sense his soul’s deliverance, juxtaposes his silent struggle with faith but also leaves a lasting imprint, embodying the narrative’s exploration of the interplay between faith, doubt, and the meanings we derive from our mortal lives.
In contrast to the broader community (and in a continuation of her lifelong role), Angela is burdened by the knowledge of Don Manuel’s doubts. She hopes for Don Manuel’s reaffirmation of faith at his end—“I was waiting for an ‘And who knows?’ when Don Manuel choked again” (95)—her longing for Don Manuel and Lázaro’s spiritual peace merging with her protective instincts. This blend of hope and maternal care shapes her approach to faith and community leadership. Angela’s actions, driven by a need to “shield herself” and others from existential fears, highlight her balancing act between preserving communal faith and confronting personal doubts. Her efforts to distract Lázaro from the lake (in keeping with Don Manuel’s guidance against idle thought) demonstrate her commitment to sustaining the spiritual health of her community amid her own uncertainties.
This is of course the role Don Manuel himself played, though their doubts are not precisely the same. As Angela admits, “The fact is that I believed and still do believe that Our Lord God, for I know not what sacred and inscrutable purposes, made them believe themselves to be unbelievers” (103). The confession reveals the complexities of her faith journey, which is shaped not so much by agony over her own skepticism as it is agony over that of others. This, the novella implies, is as it should be, as religion ought to be a communal endeavor. Don Manuel and Lázaro’s request that Angela pray for sinners despite her doubts highlights how prayer serves to unite a community irrespective of personal beliefs: Prayer functions as a way of fostering empathy and solidarity rather than of seeking divine intervention. Their encouragement also acknowledges the importance of questioning in faith, suggesting they hope Angela’s skepticism might evolve into a deeper belief, just as Angela hopes they believed deep down.
The communal nature of religious practice also extends to the novella’s vision of the afterlife. Lázaro’s final reflections and Angela’s memories distill Don Manuel’s beliefs on this subject. Lázaro articulates Don Manuel’s conviction that individuals achieve immortality through the memories of the living, rather than a traditional afterlife: “[A]nother piece of Don Manuel’s soul [dies] with me. But the rest of him will live on with you. Until one day even we dead will die once and for all” (101). This view suggests that the complete erasure from collective memory represents one’s true end. Angela’s memoir both underscores and complicates this portrayal, preserving Don Manuel’s legacy but also hiding it from the public. However, in replicating Don Manuel’s own benevolent dishonesty, Angela ensures his immortality in a different sense.
