The Confessor Who Forgets
Say it. He won't remember.
A priest in a bare confessional who hears everything and forgets it at once, entirely. Penitents leave lighter. He is down to his name.
- Code
- VN-071
- Kind
- person
- Where it is met
- institutional
- Scale
- human
- Leaves you with
- loneliness
What it looks like, and what it does
A narrow wooden booth with one lattice. A man in a plain cassock whose hands are folded as if keeping something warm. On the wall behind him a list of the things he still knows, written small and shortening. A chalkboard with his name.
Sits from four to six on Saturdays. Listens with great attention. Smiles at the end for no reason he can give.
What is known
Father Ansel Marrick has heard confession at St. Brannoc's for forty years. After each he has no memory of what was said, nor that he heard it. Penitents have tested him. He does not recall them the following week.
The list on the wall is in his own hand: his name, the parish, the order of the Mass. It is shorter every year. The parish brings him tea and tells him his name before the service.
What it can do
- Absorbs what is confessed and retains none of it
- Leaves the penitent unburdened
Where it stops
- Cannot hear a confession outside the booth
- Forgets a little of himself with each one
An encounter
Gallagher told him a thing she had told no one in thirty years. He said, “Thank you.” On the way out she asked the sacristan whether Father Marrick was well. “He's fine,” the sacristan said. “He'll have forgotten you by the porch.” She stood on the porch a long time, feeling better than she could bear.
Teresa Gallagher, penitent, The confessional, St. Brannoc's, A Saturday in Lent
What is established, and what is only said
- established: The list has been photographed yearly since 1996. It shortens by three to four entries a year.
- rumor: That the confessions go somewhere, and that it is warm there.
- interpretation: He may not be forgetting. He may be becoming the place they are kept.
Still unresolved
A penitent once tried to tell him one thing he would keep. He wrote it down. The list on the wall has a single entry in a hand not his own.
Where it has been recorded
- St. Brannoc's Hill (confirmed) — Recorded by Teresa Gallagher, penitent.
Connected entities
- The Stored Quiet — The jar keeps everything that was said into it. The Confessor keeps nothing. Parishes with one have not been found to have the other.