Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel (65 page)

Lord, Lord, what have I done? What if it is all true? Then he is the One, then they will seize Him, and scourge Him, and put a crown of thorns on His head, and break Him on the cross!

And I let him go!

But could I have stopped him? He is gentle, kind, awkward, but it is impossible to stop him. The intelligent Procurator realized that only too well.

LAST NIGHT EMMANUEL went into the cave with a red rooster under his arm. And he did not come back.

Today is Saturday.

At first I waited for him, then I realized that he would not come and I sat down to write this letter. I have taken only a single break—to go to the market and buy a red rooster.

I am more experienced now. The new rooster is calm and even redder than yesterday’s. He is here, ogling with his round eye and pecking millet out of a saucer.

I shall leave this letter at the mission, although I am sure that tomorrow morning I shall have to collect it again.

And now I shall send all the money that I have left to Salakh. I never went back to the poor man that night. He must think me an ungrateful creature, hiding from him because I do not wish to pay.

If you do read this letter, please do not think of me as a fugitive nun who has betrayed her vows. After all, I am a Bride of Christ; who else should I follow, if not Him?

I shall be
there
one day after Him. And if He is crucified, I shall wash His body with my tears and anoint it with myrrh and bitter aloe.

Do not frown so, do not frown! I have not lost my mind. It is just that after a sleepless night and an anxious wait, I am prone to exaltation. I understand everything very well. And I know what really happened.

Three years ago an eccentric peasant, a tramp, crept into a cave in the Urals to spend the night, and the cave was a strange one, where people are visited by grotesque visions, and the tramp dreamed of something that took away his memory and his ability to speak, and he imagined that he was Jesus Christ. Certainly, this is a kind of insanity, only it is not malevolent, but benevolent, like the insanity of holy fools.

Am I right?

And the most astounding thing is that it is impossible to prove or verify anything in this story, as is always the case in matters of faith. As a certain novel says, the entire world is built on absurdities, they are too necessary here on earth. If you wish and are able to believe in a miracle, then believe; if you do not wish and you are not able, then choose a rational explanation. And it is well known that there are many phenomena in the world that seem supernatural to us at first, but later are explained by science. Do you remember the Black Monk?

And I also know what happened last night. Emmanuel-Manuila deceived me. He decided to rid himself of this clinging woman, because he likes to walk round the world on his own. He did not want simply to say “Leave me alone, woman”—for, after all, he is kind. He left me the possibility of a miracle as a souvenir and went to travel around the world.

Of course, nothing will happen to me. There will not be any displacement in time and space. What raving nonsense.

But nonetheless, I shall go into the cave tonight, and I shall have a red rooster under my arm.

IN HER LATEST adventure, Sister Pelagia finds herself traveling great distances to apprehend a villainous soul and to untangle the most mysterious and redemptive threads of her faith. On a trail that spans two continents and no fewer than eleven ports of call, by steamer, camel, and stocking feet, Pelagia searches relentlessly for a murderer and for the truth.

AS ALL HER journeys are wont to do, the tale of
Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel
begins in Russia—starting this time in St. Petersburg and Moscow before heading to the lush, mountainous Zavolzhsk landscape that Pelagia calls home.

St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG IS a fitting start for this voyage, as its elaborately decorated ports are to this day centers of nautical travel and cruise-ship activity. The capital of the Russian Empire for more than two centuries, it is often considered Russia’s most Western city—with regard to both its geographic location and its European cultural influences. The “City of the Tsars” represents not only the brilliance of the Russian landscape but the nations intricate political history as well. From its founding by Peter the Great in 1703, its establishment as the Russian capital in 1712, its frequent renaming in the twentieth century, and its loss of capital status to Moscow following the Russian Revolution of 1917, St. Petersburg is a living testament to each of the nations revolutions, wars, and most significant cultural watershed moments.

Moscow

MOSCOW HAS THRIVED as Russia’s largest and most well-known city since its establishment as the seat of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality in the fourteenth century, though the city itself appears in the annals of Russian history as far back as 1147. The city is renowned for its spirit of strength and resilience, stemming from its fortitude against attacks from foreigners of all kinds, beginning with the Mongols, or Tatars, whom Ivan the Great (Ivan III) repelled for sole reign of the city in 1480. The Tatars would attack again over the years (famously during the sixteenth-century reign of Ivan the Terrible), and the city would be periodically besieged by fire and famine up through the twentieth century. The seventeenth-century defeat of the Poles, nineteenth-century rout of Napoleon’s famed French armies, and World War II victory over German forces have cemented Moscow’s reputation as the most powerful gem in the Russian crown. Through the establishment and dissolution of the Soviet Republic, Moscow has remained the Russian capital, and is a monument to the strength and solidarity of its people.

Zavolzhsk

IN CONTRAST TO these bastions of Russian power and wealth, modern-day Zavolzhsk, whose name means “behind the Volga,” is a bucolic and rural district set right against the famed Volga River. Less famous than neighboring cities Yaroslavl and Ivanovo, Zavolzhsk is a quieter but equally magnificent stop along Russia’s Golden Ring, an ancient route circling out from Moscow. The Golden Ring affords travelers and merchants alike easy access to centuries-old cultural outposts, religious sites, and trading centers.

Like most Ring cities, Zavolzhsk’s Orthodox architecture, represented by Russia’s famed onion domes and white stone facades, pairs gorgeously with the region’s sprawling green countryside, its crystal-clear lakes, and dense forests—populated by a host of vegetation, fauna, and haunting spirits. Zavolzhsk offers all visitors and residents the same sense of serenity and inner peace that Pelagia relishes about her native soil.

PELAGIA’S NEWEST EXCURSION takes her from her homeland to faraway lands she’s never seen before, lands across the sea with heritages even richer in mythology and history than her own, lands that both in her tale and in the chronicles of time have represented the best and worst of religious zealotry. With Manuila’s pilgrims, she voyages to Palestine, and as with many present-day visitors, her life and her faith will never be the same.

Port of Jaffa

FOUNDED BY THE Canaanites in the eighteenth century B.C.E., the town of Jaffa has enjoyed tremendous historical importance because of its port. The crowded, lively, and culturally dense city, whose name means “beautiful,” has not only earned recognition as an international marina, but has also played host to recognizable stories from many different cultures and religious traditions.

According to legend, Jaffa was named after Noah’s son Yefet, who built the city after the Flood. This was also the city from which Jonah fled from God and was promptly engulfed by a whale, and in which some traditions place the Greek myth of Andromeda. Andromeda’s Rock still exists in Jaffa, to which, according to legend, King Cepheus and his wife, Cassiopeia, were forced to tie their virgin daughter, Andromeda, in an effort to appease the angry sea gods.

Courtesy of Jillian Schiavi

Today, Jaffa still thrives among the more advanced cities of the Near and Middle East, now as part of the thriving municipality of Tel Aviv–Yafo. Although the port has changed hands myriad times through various conquests and recaptures, it consistently retains a cosmopolitan population, and the neighborhoods of the port and the old city have become popular tourist attractions.

Jaffa Gate

ONE OF THE eleven gates in Jerusalem’s Old City walls, Jaffa Gate serves as the portal for Jaffa Road, leading from the marina at the port of Jaffa to the Holy City.

Jerusalem is a city laid out in grid formation, quartered into four districts, each with its own distinct religious and racial identity. The northwest quadrant is the Christian Quarter, with the Armenian Quarter immediately to its south. The Muslim Quarter occupies the northeast quadrant, with the Jewish Quarter to its south. Just inside Jaffa Gate are the Arab Marketplace and the Citadel of Jerusalem, a revered and ancient landmark.

Jaffa Gate is heavily used by pedestrians and vehicles, and has given way to expansion for the implementation of shopping stalls and markets. This entrance to Jerusalem is perhaps the most buoyant and lively of the gates situated around the walls of the Holy City.

Gaza

THE GAZA into which Pelagia travels is drastically different from the Gaza Strip of the present-day Palestinian territories. Its population has grown enormously since the nineteenth century, and political and religious discord permeates the streets and the daily lives of its inhabitants.

According to the Old Testament, Gaza was given to the Jewish tribe of Judah roughly 3,700 years ago. One of the oldest cities in the world, it is perhaps most well known as the site of the famous biblical story of David and Goliath.

From 332 B.C.E. to the eighteenth century, Gaza had been continually seized and occupied. It has both flourished and faltered during the Hellenistic Period, as a Roman city, under Arab rule after the Byzantines were vanquished, as a Templar stronghold, under Ottoman rule, and even today, as a hotbed of strife among Israelis, Palestinians, and the region’s small but significant Christian population. However, despite its dense history of multiple occupations, Gaza, whose name derives from the Canaanite/Hebrew term for “strong,” still maintains a diverse culture due to its strategic location on the Mediterranean coastal route between North Africa and the greener lands of the Levant.

The area was once populated with markets, schools of philosophy and pagan temples tucked within its vast vegetation. Once called the Land of Treasures, Gaza’s verdant fertility can still be recognized today simply by studying names given to its individual districts, like Tuffah, meaning “apple,” and Zeitun, or “olive.”