Mentors and Protégés: Spiritual Evolution in Georges Bernanos' Under Satan's Sun and The Diary of a Country Priest

Abstract

Georges Bernanos' attempt to lay bare the souls of his priest-heroes in both Under Satan's Sun (Sous le soleil de Satan) and The Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un Cure de campagne) cannot be disputed. Though ten years separate the publication in 1926 of Under Satan's Sun, the author's first novel, from The Diary of a Country Priest in 1936, and even though the earlier novel achieved extraordinary success, it was the later one that was honored by the Academie Francaise with its prestigious Grand Prix du Roman. Even today The Diary of a Country Priest remains the best known of the author's novels. Certainly The Diary of a Country Priest can be considered in many ways as similar to Under Satan's Sun. Both works are tales of how a young country priest lives out his call to serve those with whom he comes in contact. Each novel relates how a young, recently ordained priest finds himself caught up in the interior suffering of the people of his parish while at the same time undergoing his own personal experience of the dark night of the soul. External events and detailed descriptions of characters and setting play a secondary role in both novels, being important only insofar as they have an impact on the young priests' spiritual adventures. Approximately one-third of Under Satan's Sun recounts the difficult early days of the priestly ministry of Donissan, the assistant pastor of Campagne. The priest-hero is a young man of peasant origins whose timidity, difficulty in expressing himself, and lack of experience make him feel awkward and embarrassed in the presence of his fellow priests, who seem to him wiser and more refined. He is also overwhelmed by the evil he sees around him and by his fear of Satan's power and God's justice. Through his priestly function of hearing confessions and, more especially, through his interior suffering over the presence of evil, Donissan gradually becomes aware of his call to save sinners from eternal damnation. His attempts to destroy the power of the Evil One are so forceful that he experiences a physical struggle with Satan on a couple of occasions. Michael Robinson Tobin has commented on the resemblance between Donissan and the Cure of Ars, not only in the long hours they both spend in the confessional but also in the similarity of their suffering. Bernanos' priest-hero's greatest suffering, lies, however, in what seems to be his fear of accepting his own weakness and placing his confidence in God's merciful love. The Diary of a Country Priest resembles Under Satan's Sun in being a tale of the difficult early days of a recently ordained priest's parish ministry. Like the young priest in Bernanos' first novel, the nameless Cure of Ambricourt in Diary comes from a lower-income family. He also feels inferior in the presence of his fellow priests and confesses that he is quite unsuitable for taking on the responsibilities of a parish. The Cure of Ambricourt is likewise aware of the presence of evil that is eating away at the heart of his parish and that is symbolized by the stomach cancer slowly destroying him. That he can digest only a little bread and wine points to the importance in this novel of the sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, for the reception of which he is conscientiously preparing the children of his parish. In his loving concern for the spiritual well-being and happiness of not only the young but also the other members of his flock, the young pastor tries to take on their suffering and to bring the message of God's love and peace to them. Like Donissan, the Cure of Ambricourt's greatest suffering consists in dealing with his own human weakness, but, contrary to the priest-hero of Under Satan's Sun, he humbly accepts his weakness and confidently abandons himself to God's merciful love. In each novel Bernanos also presents an older, more experienced priest--Menou-Segrais, the pastor and dean of Campagne, in Under Satan's Sun and the Cure of Torcy, the pastor of a neighboring parish, in The Diary of a Country Priest--with whom the younger priest comes in contact. …