A Canticle For Leibowitz

Francis descends further into the shelter, worried about being discovered; if anyone finds that he has abandoned his vigil, he cannot join the Albertian Order of Leibowitz. He reaches a sign that says INNER HATCH. The discoloration on the door suggests that it hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years, probably before the events he refers to as the Flame Deluge and the Simplification. As he explores, he finds a trove of documents, hardware used for some sort of circuitry, and a skull with a gold tooth.

He finds a rusty box and takes it outside before opening it. Inside are rolls of small papers and tubes with metal whiskers on them. He finds a note addressed to a man named Carl, asking him to keep “Em” there until they know whether they are at war. It is signed with the initials I.E.L. The box also contains a shopping list with various ingredients. The other papers comprise blueprints, sketches, and diagrams of circuits. One blueprint has the words “CIRCUIT DESIGN BY: Leibowitz, I.E” written on it.

Leibowitz was the founder of the Albertian order. Francis now feels blessed to be among the relics of a saint. He believes his discovery is proof that he has been called to be a monk. He hears three bells from the Abbey. He wants to hurry back to tell the others about his discovery but doesn’t want to reveal that he left his vigil, which would end his journey toward the vocation of monk. As he tries to sleep, he ponders that Leibowitz is not officially a saint yet. He wakes during the night and sees a wolf by his fire. He prays for the end of Lent and listens to the wolf’s footsteps.

Father Cheroki visits Francis in the desert. While receiving confession, Francis tells him that he almost took the bread and cheese when the pilgrim offered it. He also admits to splashing the pilgrim with holy water. Cheroki says there was no sin since Francis did not accept the food and claims not to have enjoyed the fantasy of eating it. Francis also confesses to gluttonous thoughts; he wanted to eat a lizard the day prior.

Francis shows Cheroki the alleged papers of Leibowitz. Worried about Francis’s sanity, Cheroki orders Francis to return to the abbey. On his way, Francis wishes he could have shown him the Fallout shelter. He then encounters Brother Fingo, a very ugly, very cheerful man. He tells Fingo that he found some artifacts from Leibowitz and shows him the cylinders from the box. He tells Fingo about the fallout shelter. Fingo checks the entrance and waves back at Francis, affirming that he also sees it.

On the way back to the abbey, Francis faints. Cheroki finds him on the road after speaking with Fingo. Cheroki now thinks it is more likely that Francis was not delirious but probably just misunderstood what he had seen.

Abbott Arkos and Cheroki talk about Francis’s story. Arkos has the contents of the box. Cheroki worries about the old pilgrim, whom Francis keeps mentioning. Arkos says that there have been previous instances of brothers claiming to have found Leibowitz’s relics. He worries that if he reveals all of the documents at once, it could make it more difficult for New Rome to support Leibowitz’s canonization. Too many miracles revealed simultaneously could make it look like he had an agenda to push for the canonization rather than letting it happen organically.

Arkos recognized the Hebrew symbols from the stone. One of them contains the letter “Lamedh,” which could stand for Leibowitz. Soon the abbey is filled with gossip about Francis meeting Leibowitz in the desert. The rumors exasperate Arkos, who visits Francis again to judge his sincerity. He orders Francis to deny the story about the pilgrim. Francis refuses and receives ten strikes on his bare buttocks with a ruler. Arkos orders Francis to finish his vigil in a new location and forbids him to talk about what happened. He repeatedly asks if Francis is sure the pilgrim was only a man, which confuses Francis. He cannot affirm that the pilgrim is, without doubt, just a man. Arkos sends him away.

Francis returns to the desert to resume his vigil. He is surprised by the enthusiastic reaction to his story about the old man. As he ponders his experience, he wonders if there was anything supernatural about the old man and if he should have said anything different to Abbot Arkos. His thoughts consume him, and he forgets to pray. He is desperate to fulfill his vocation, and his desire reminds him of a fable about a “cat who studied ornithology.”

“Ornithophagy”—the eating of birds—comes naturally to a cat, but when the cat formally studies birds, his palate grows more sophisticated. Francis is similar in his appetite for knowledge. The more he learns, the more satisfying the experience of learning becomes.

Francis is unsure of how to proceed. He remembers that as a child, a shaman bought him. Rather than submit to slavery, Francis fled Utah. Returning would be a death sentence since he had stolen his owner’s property by escaping. He had gone to the abbey to learn and become literate in an illiterate world. He thinks again about the cat and ornithologist and worries that the cat never actually rose beyond the level of ornithophage, no matter what he might have told himself.

When Lent ends, Francis and the other novices return to the abbey. Francis raves about seeing an angel in the desert to those who clean him. Arkos summons him and cross-examines him again, demanding that the pilgrim was Leibowitz. Francis can’t deny it with certainty, given that he had never seen Leibowitz before meeting the pilgrim. Arkos tells Francis he will not take his vows this year, which devastates the novice.

Arkos prohibits anyone from discussing the old man in the desert. However, everyone talks about him anyway because some of the monks begin working on the documents found in the fallout shelter. However, Francis is not allowed to help and is saddened at the news that Arkos has closed the fallout shelter.

Soon there is a new rumor: Emily, Leibowitz’s wife, had a gold tooth. Emily Leibowitz vanished at the start of the Flame Deluge, and perhaps it is her skull in the shelter. It was always thought that Emily had perished in the Flame Deluge but that Leibowitz had survived.

Miller switches the narrative to a description of the years following the Flame Deluge. Certain esteemed academics—known as “princes”—received orders to create deadly weapons during the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union. World leaders told each respective prince that each of his enemies already had a weapon, escalating the speed of the arms race. Rather than frightening the princes with the knowledge of mutually assured destruction, it made them greedy. The prince who attacked first could rule the world. The resulting Flame Deluge lasted for weeks and destroyed the majority of human life.

Miller calls the aftermath “Simplification,” a time in which academics and scientists—blamed for the war—were ripped to pieces. The academics then refused to participate in the violence, referring to the members of the mobs as “Simpletons.” Mobs destroyed all scientific inventions and texts they could find.

Eventually, once the learned had fled into monasteries, the rage transferred to the literate. Anyone who could read became a target. As a result, Isaac Edward Leibowitz fled to the Cistercian order of monks for years. After 12 years, he received permission from the Holy See to found the order of Albert Magnus for men of science. Leibowitz’s order had a unique mission: his monks memorized and smuggled books, vocations known as “memorizers” and “bookleggers,” both performed with the intent of preserving the knowledge of the texts.

A mob caught Leibowitz on a smuggling run, hanged him, and simultaneously burned him alive. Francis’s story began six centuries later. The knowledge the Albertian monks guard is fragmented and inconclusive. They believe that one day someone will appear to reunite the knowledge and fill in the missing pieces.

Back in Francis’s present, Arkos has confiscated the documents and sealed them away. One year later, Francis completes another vigil and reports to Arkos. Because he still refuses to state that the old man was only a normal, mortal man, Arkos refuses to let him take his vows for another year.

Seven years later, Francis is still a novice. During his time in the desert, he learns how to imitate wolves. A messenger from New Rome—the new location of the Vatican after the Flame Deluge annihilated Rome—arrives and tells Francis that further study has determined that some of the documents are authentic. The messenger grants Francis permission to speak and says the case about Leibowitz’s potential canonization will reopen soon. They are also going to reopen the shelter.

Days later, Arkos tells Francis he can take his vows. Francis faints with excitement and takes his vows two weeks later. He begins working as a copyist but will also have one hour per day to work on his own projects. Francis chooses to use his hours to copy the Leibowitz blueprint. The blueprint fascinates him, but he cannot understand its technical language or its mention of terms like “electrons.” He does not have the scientific tools to interpret what the blueprint is trying to say. He thinks it represents an abstract concept rather than an object. He realizes he must reverse the color scheme; the white and black blueprint was an accident. He makes an illuminated copy—dark lines on white background, with artistic flourishes, similar to the lavishly produced tomes of the Middle Ages.

Arkos questions Francis about the blueprint and wants to know why it is so different than a normal blueprint. Francis explains his intention to make a beautiful illumination, then faints again under Arkos’s scrutiny.

Eleven years have passed since Francis’s first vigil. Arkos appears to have forgotten about the documents, and Francis works in relative peace. He spends a good deal of time with Fingo as the man works on a wooden statue of Leibowitz. As the carving takes shape, it looks familiar to Francis. He realizes that Fingo carved the face from Francis’s sketches of the pilgrim’s face.

When Horner, the lead copyist, dies, Brother Jeris becomes the copy room master. He tells Francis to abandon the illumination and make lampshades instead. Francis agrees, tells himself to be patient, and waits for the day when Jeris dies. He will resume the illumination as soon as he can.

That summer Monsignor Malfreddo Aguerra arrives. As the “postulator” (or advocate) for the case of Leibowitz’s potential canonization, he will reopen the shelter and study the relics. Arkos tells Francis to be careful when talking to Aguerra, but Francis finds the man relaxing, interested in him, and well-mannered.

Aguerra asks Francis to repeat the story of his first vigil. He then gives Francis a scroll that purports to be an accurate account—compiled by other monks—of Francis’s encounter with the old pilgrim. Other monks have provided many florid details that Francis never gave, such as a carpet of roses spreading wherever the pilgrim stepped. Francis once again recounts the simple story and refutes the embellishments. When Francis shows Aguerra the illumination, the postulator is impressed and orders him to continue work, superseding Jeris’s order.

Monsignor Flaught visits from New Rome. As a counterpoint to Aguerra, he performs the role of devil’s advocate, opposing Leibowitz’s canonization. He questions Francis with a ruthless cross-examining. Francis responds in the same way he responds to Arkos’s former questions: he cannot affirm with total certainty that the old pilgrim was conclusively a mere mortal.

Flaught asks to see the illuminated blueprint and then leaves for New Rome. Years later, on the Feast of the Five Fools, a messenger from the Vatican says that Flaught no longer objects to the canonization. The Pope endorses the canonization the following year. Arkos tells Francis he is invited to New Rome, along with the Leibowitz blueprint and his illuminated copy.

The trip will take three months by donkey. En route, Francis wears an eye patch, hoping to scare off peasants who might think he had the evil eye. After two months, he meets a robber in the Valley of the Misborn. The Misborn are people who have mutations due to the Flame Deluge and its aftermath. Church doctrine states that the Misborn are equals, and they are called the “Pope’s children” by some.

The robber is with two Misborn. The man laughs at Francis when he says he spent 15 years working on the illumination, which he begs to keep. He challenges Francis to a wrestling match: the winner keeps the blueprint. After Francis loses, the robber takes the illuminated copy. Its beauty convinces him that it is the more valuable, original blueprint. He says if Francis returns with two “heklos” of gold, he can have it back.

Francis visits the Pope after the canonization ceremony. The Pope is impressed by the illuminated copy and gives him two heklos of gold for the robber. Francis returns to the spot where the robber said he could bring the gold. While waiting, he sees someone approaching on the horizon. The robber’s companions are waiting in ambush. One of them kills Francis with an arrow. The figure from the horizon approaches. It is the old pilgrim. Soon it is the year 3174.