The Bridge Of Saint Luis Rey Chapter Summaries

Iveth Franco
Book Summary
The book “The Bridge of Saint Luis Rey”, tells the story of the unfortunate event that happened on Friday July 20th, 1714 at noon. The finest bridge in Peru made of Inca rope collapse bringing five people to their death. Franciscan, Brother Juniper, witnessed the event and made his life work to investigate the lives of the five dead. He was hopeful that he would be able to answer as to why those five people where at that place at that time and why had they been the ones to plummet to their death. Brother Juniper thought it would be a good opportunity to apply theology in the exact sciences, this event provided a control and subject group. He investigated for six years and was determined to know everything about them.

Brother Juniper’s work produced an enormous book, which was burned as it was considered a heresy.
Part two focus on the life of Doña Maria and Pepita. Doña Maria was born to a cloth-merchant who had money, she was ugly and stuttered. Doña Maria loved her daughter, bur her daughter was indifferent to this affection, they communicated through letters. Doña Maria was a drunk and extravagant lady. Doña Maria had taken Pepita as a companion, an orphan who was raised by the Abbess in the convent and seen as her possible successor. Doña Maria learned that her daughter was pregnant and made the supreme rite, a pilgrimage to Santa Maria de Cluxambuqua. On this trip, Pepita writes a letter to the Abbess in which she expresses how lonely she feels and complains about her misery. Doña Maria reads this letter, and it transforms her, she feels she has not being brave enough in her own life and to love her daughter, she decides she will start a new life. It is own her way to Lima two days later that Doña Maria and Pepita fell to their death.
Part three talks about Esteban, he had a twin brother Manuel, and both were raised by the Abbess at the Convent of Santa Maria Rosa de las Rosas. They were inseparable and even developed a secret language. Their relationship was strained when Manuel starts writing letter for the actress Camila Perichole. In an accident Manuel cuts his leg open with metal and it becomes infected. Esteban is instructed to do cold compresses, which are extremely painful for Manuel. Manuel dies, and it is hard for Esteban. The Abbess sends Capitan Alvarado to el Cuzco to look for Esteban. Esteban agrees to work for the Capital, but he gets into an argument with him, and then he tries to commit suicide. Capital Alvarado saves him. The next day on the way to Lima, when they reached the bridge, Capital Alvarado went down to the water to supervise the transport of some merchandise and Esteban crossed to bridge that plummeted.
Part four details the life of Uncle Pio, and we get to know more about Camila Perichole and her son Don Jaime. Uncle Pio was the illegitimate son of a Madrid aristocrat, he was smart, travel and was around people of power. He new he like to be independent, surrounded by beautiful women and work with the masterpieces of Spanish literature, the theater. He discovered Micaela Villegas, singing in a café, she was only twelve years old, the one that we later know as Camilla Perichole. He teaches her, and she becomes a great actress, becoming the viceroy mistress and giving him 3 children, including Don Jaime. Uncle Pio wants to teach Don Jaime, Camila’s son who suffers from seizures. They were on their way to Lima when the bridge collapsed.
In part five we can read that through those years Brother Juniper could not find the support he needed for his hypothesis. He thought people worth more had a better chance of surviving than people who were not worthy. The church found his work heretical and he was burned at the stake and his work destroyed, but a copy remained in the University of San Marcos in Lima. At the end of this part, Camila seeks the Abbess Maria del Pilar to ask her how to continue with the loss of her son and uncle Pio and becomes a helper, likewise, Clara, Doña Maria’s daughter visits the Abbess. It is the Abbess who concludes that the bridge is love and the only survival, the only meaning.
Theodicies in the book
Brother Juniper says that the “the poor obstinate converts believe that their pains were inserted into their lives for their own good” (Pag. 8), “Either we live by accident, and die by accident or we live by plan and die by plan” (Pag. 7) and the narrator says, “to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrow do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God” (Pag. 9). Brother Juniper’s conclusion ends with generalities “In the same accident he saw the wicked visited by destruction and the good called early to Heaven. He thought he saw pride and wealth confounded as an object lesson to the world, and he thought he saw humility crowned and rewarded for the edification of the city” (Pag. 101).
The Abbess says that the nuns at the convent believe that “All the misery in the world was worth his caress” (Pag. 28). The Marquesa felt she had provoked God with too much prayer, “after all it is in the hands of another, what will be, will be” (Pag. 35). Camila thought “another comment from the skies; that was the third time she had been spoke to her small-pox, Don Jaime’s illness and the fall from the bridge” (Pag. 103).
Connections
Throughout the book we find many theodicies that coincide with theodicies we have encountered during the semester.

One of the first readings we did was the Book of Job, in this book one of Job’s friends argues that job’s suffering was as a result of his sins. This coincide with the theodicy mentioned by Camila Perichole, she believed that her suffering, her disfigurement, her son’s illness and the death of her son and Uncle Pio, was a calling from God because all her sins. Likewise, the same theodicy is presented by Doña Maria; she says that she feels that she has antagonized God, thus suggesting that her suffering and subsequent premature dead was because of

sin.
Brother Juniper references many theodicies; one of them is in relation to converts.

Converts “believe that their pains were inserted into their lives for their own good” (Pag. 8). The nuns at the Abbess’s convent believe that their suffering and misery had a purpose, which it was worth living through. This correlates with what we read in Against Heresies and in The Irenaean Theodicy in Encountering Evil’s article by John Hicks. Hicks suggested humans are created as morally and spiritually immatures creatures. Consequently, natural evil and moral evil exist and have a purpose because are necessary in the process to become perfected finite beings. But in many occasions, humans are unable to reach such stage of perfection. Therefore, it is necessary to think about it eschatologically, as the nuns believed, their misery would be worth it at the end.
The main theme of the book is Brother Juniper’s question about theodicy, whether our lives are predetermined, or it is a convergence of random factors. Brother Juniper says, “Either we live by accident and die by accident” (Pag. 7). The concept of free will is presented, humans can take decisions without any external influences, therefore the results of those decisions are one’s own responsibility. This is an aspect of the theodicy we read in the article written by Stephen Davis. Evil and suffering are the result of human’s free will, but all suffering will be redeemed by

God.
On the other hand, if we considered that everything has already been determined “we live by plan and die by plan” then it is God acting upon every decision we make, then the evil we experience, God has created or permitted. Humans cannot be held responsible for the decisions made and evil that results from those decisions. This coincides with Hick’s theodicy, thus God has allowed evil, but God’s have given a purpose to this evil, to make us stronger. Brother Juniper tried to answer the question and at the end he was unable to conclude anything specific. Through his investigation Brother Juniper tried to answer if the people who died had been predestined to die or if they did something that deserves dying. He could only conclude that these people had suffered a lot and they all were headed to a positive change in their lives. These are aspect match Davis’ theodicy because that level of maturity to have a positive change in their lives can only be obtained through suffering.
Word Count: 1499