The Depopulation

Among each the far-off places, and each the deserted and chartless cities, among each the lawless, godless regions, the Guayrá was an oasis. A small, lush state nether a torn and tattered sunset, retired successful the mediate of the astir uncertain immensity of harsh and barren lands. It was an oasis of untamed vines spilling implicit walls. Of rivers that resembled surviving creatures and of aureate statues of the Virgin, sent for by Father Antonio Ruiz from far-off lands.

It was an oasis of fields of maize and beans, of cassava trees that grew neatly trained successful tiny orchards. But besides of orangish and citrus groves, of rosy-leaved peach trees, of carrots and cabbages. It was an oasis of streets and the children who swept them. Of women spinning fabric successful their hammocks and men mislaid heavy successful the fabric fields.

Of each the happy, hermitic lands, the Guayrá was the jewel. The tacurú stone, unneurotic with the vegetation, was some the lipid and the dust. Antonio Ruiz was the fire. There successful the spot wherever helium sat, 1 of the Guaraní would spell up to him and recount a dream. They called him Antonio Rey (Antonio King) oregon Antonio Luz (Antonio Light). The padre sat, everlastingly successful the midst of an interior imaginativeness oregon offering teachings. At his side, Father Jesús Maceta would perceive to the talks helium gave and perpetrate them to memory. When Ruiz told of a vision, Maceta would beryllium reasoning for a agelong portion afterward, looking for a mode to construe his images.

Administrative matters besides fell to the 2 Jesuits.

“Write this down, Maceta,” Ruiz said. “We person received a missive requesting that we nonstop definite birds to the king from Asunción. Now, constitute the following: We greatly regret that we are incapable to nonstop them to You, due to the fact that said birds unrecorded successful the jungles wherever God placed them, and they alert distant anytime we spell near. We present inquire that God nonstop the astir beauteous of birds, which is the Holy Spirit, to You. We regret having nary vertebrate to nonstop to Your person.”

Father Ruiz signed the letter, Maceta sealed it with the insignia of the Company of Jesus, and went to find the tapererepurá, a quick, skinny antheral who acted arsenic messenger betwixt assorted of the missions. The Guayrá was inactive covered successful a heavy mist astatine that aboriginal hour, but the antheral was retired successful the mediate of the square, looking down into the good and reasoning sleepily astir something.

“Good morning, Maceta.”

“Good morning, the tapererepurá. I privation you to instrumentality this connection to Villa Rica for me.”

The antheral turned his regard northeast, saluted Maceta, and disappeared, moving and glimmering, into the bluish of the mist. Maceta stood contemplating the invincible greenish of the pastureland. When helium felt that the greenish had entered his eyes, helium closed them, arsenic though successful an effort to crush that colour betwixt his eyelids. Ruiz had fixed him a household remedy for his stinging eyes: to look astatine the pastureland without blinking, until tears sprang into them.

*

Father Maceta was learned. He had spent agelong years astatine his studies and been educated successful the arts of precise past Italian colleges. He had travel to the Guayrá to thatch and to civilize. Father Ruiz, who was from Peru, by opposition ever felt a small ashamed of not having studied successful immoderate concerted way. He had spent years trying to read, to entree doctrine via his eyes. But ever concluding that helium could not discarded excessively overmuch clip going down this route. He loved the Scriptures but perceived God with a clarity truthful brazen and vigorous that the beingness of survey seemed to him a benignant of detour.

When helium celebrated Mass, Ruiz would constituent retired the 7 Celestial Princes surrounding the altar. And arsenic helium delivered the homily, an aggravated spirit of roses would sometimes capable his mouth, and helium would deduce that helium was being touched by the Virgin Mary. He often described himself arsenic “a mediocre antheral wounded by a astir chaste emotion of the Lord.” He told Maceta of his encounters with Mary and with Jesus Christ. The archetypal of these had been pleasant and idyllic. The aboriginal ones, mortifying. They ever ended with Ruiz successful bonzer pain.

“Suddenly, Christ appeared by the doorway of the church. He was connected the Cross, but without His crown. And suddenly, I realized that the thorns were transfixing . . . my ain head!”

Ruiz felt aggrieved astatine having these unendurable encounters perpetually visited connected him. He had a long, distinguished chemoreceptor and his sickly-looking eyes glittered similar candles and seemed ne'er to halt watering. Maceta, moved to pity astatine times, would enactment an receptor to his friend’s thorax and perceive however Ruiz’s bosom leaped astir wrong his body, arsenic though trying to alert apart. The humor wrong Ruiz rushed astir rapidly astatine each hours. Maceta was a composed, phlegmatic man, and not fixed to emotion. But Ruiz was his weakness.

“At prayers,” Ruiz was starting to say, “I abruptly felt my organs snatched from my assemblage and taken to the depths of my soul. I had to declaration myself, to the constituent of emptiness. I fell to the crushed and a convulsion came upon me. Then I could consciousness they had travel to instrumentality my eyes arsenic well. The angels, with the usage of their wings, opened a rent successful my eyelids. I was blinded, carved to pieces, hollow. When my organs were returned to my body, I, connected the floor, was fixed to know, by a penetrating dolor, that portion they had been without me, my eyes had looked connected the ineffable fig of Mother and Child.”

“This vision,” Maceta began, his code pacifying, “we tin subordinate to Our Lord’s Passion, wherever bodily suffering volition astatine immoderate aboriginal clip crook to grace and each heavenly riches.”

Ruiz heard Maceta’s words but felt small comforted. Deep down helium wanted to be, astatine immoderate point, happy. But Jesus would ever look retired of the acheronian again, and scoop retired his lingua oregon sew up his rima and eyes and past sprout him afloat of arrows. The carnal symptom was unendurable and unjust. As good arsenic this, determination had already been the prophecy astir his martyrdom being thing cruel and slow.

Ruiz wrote successful his diary:

The predawn airy is the colour of wine, and the ensuing sunrise is the colour of peaches.  

Darkness, seen done the eyelids, is of a lilac color. It is simply a acheronian made soma and bone.

But done the eyelids the shadows of things whitethorn inactive beryllium seen.

One indispensable larn to usage the eyes without request of opening them.  

Light scatters the attention. Thanks to the eyelids, the bosom whitethorn retreat and the caput turn agleam and concentrated.

Maceta saw that Ruiz was spending a large woody of clip with his eyes closed. He sometimes adjacent recovered him walking successful the courtyard similar this. Ruiz would beforehand unflinchingly and greet Maceta lone erstwhile they were upon each other’s toes.

“God beryllium with you, brother.”

He knew it was him without opening his eyes. He obeyed 1 of the guiding principles of the Company of Jesus: If not being utilized to pray, read, oregon devour by, airy is simply a happening 1 whitethorn bash without.

Ruiz gave classes to the children with his eyes closed. He wrote successful his diary astatine night:

Human beings look arsenic reddish silhouettes. Plants, arsenic ocher blotches oregon clouds.

Water is the 1 happening that, adjacent arsenic 1 mightiness travel to it, does not radiance oregon marque itself apparent. Fortunately, it tin beryllium heard.

The assemblage itself is black, similar everything precise adjacent to hand, and possibly successful the region it would beryllium reddish similar the bodies of different humans.

He went on:

Light is deceit. The tone is orderliness. Everything without the tone is tortuous and exhausting.

The tone is orderliness. Light is deceit. Behind the eyelids, we are safe. God made our assemblage arsenic if it were a bastion. When we unfastened our eyes, we spot airy successful the aerial and not colors: lone airy dispersed retired implicit the things of the world.

Only 1 happening gave Ruiz the benignant of consolation that was genuinely the obverse of his carnal pains, and that was the ineffable fig of the Virgin Mary. More specifically, a woody statue of her that was successful portion the enactment of immoderate Guaraní craftsmen, though with hands and feet imported from Europe. For this, Ruiz would often instrumentality a time to himself and spell up the Pepirí River, to the shrine of Our Lady. He would spell determination and prostrate himself astatine her European feet arsenic if she were his existent mother.

When the Guaraní saw Ruiz mounting disconnected connected his raft, immoderate of them would aquatics over, wanting to propulsion him along. The children placed garlands connected his head, arsenic though helium were dead. They accompanied him. Ruiz was besides amiable and generous-hearted successful these moments, little terrible than usual, and accepted their help. He went on successful the h2o with everybody calling retired greetings. He went on gazing astatine the shores of the Tayatí and Ibititirumbetá lands. Far successful the distance, helium saw the Yú portion thinly veiled successful mist. Farther downstream, determination was the Lake of the Jarayés and the delta; upstream, the large swamp. As helium drew person to the shrine, helium would commencement to consciousness greatly improved, capable to respire again, arsenic though each the angels had not, connected each nighttime of his life, chopped disconnected his limbs and mortified him successful different ways. Feet dangling successful the water, helium sat connected the raft singing songs. He would deliberation of each the words helium would accidental successful aboriginal homilies, words helium imagined past being repeated among the faithful.

What 1 needs to larn is to determination the psyche done the satellite with a greater and greater slowness, helium wrote successful his notes.

Ruiz was happy, going up the Pepirí. He was blessed similar a kid who knows nothing, suspects nothing, and does not adjacent inquire for anything. His accomplishment astatine the shrine was calm. He would moor the raft and enactment determination the full day, cleaning the spot and praying.

Alone, lasting earlier Our Lady, Ruiz would accidental Mass for himself, lasting connected a benignant of stool helium ever took with him tied to his back. He would accidental the words earlier the shrine, his backmost to the stream and his look turned toward himself and his tribulations. But helium would implicit the Mass punctually and successful a beatified way. Then helium would spot flowers connected the statue of Our Lady and sprinkle it with water.

In the aboriginal portion of the day, helium would person his siesta nether the statue. The flies had not travel up this far. But determination were beetles and worms and mosquitoes.

Betimes the insects travel and instrumentality of me, Ruiz wrote.

Letting them bash what they would, Ruiz slept, feeling their abdomens and legs connected his eyelids. He could archer the beetles isolated due to the fact that their legs were acold but their abdomens lukewarm. The worms were tiny and warm. He recovered thing particularly pleasant astir the featherweight arachnids. He would sometimes spell to unfastened his eyes and there, resting connected his eyelids, find a grasshopper.

Sometimes the Virgin would beryllium covered successful spiderwebs and, alternatively than region them, helium would basal and look astatine them, arsenic though immoderate meaning was contained successful each insect that hung from the web. He had observed that, successful definite species, the tremendous pistillate spiders would beryllium overrun with tiny antheral spiders. This, to him, seemed an representation of Our Lady and her veneration. So, Ruiz would walk a definite magnitude of clip not doing anything, not reasoning anything, and not dreaming of anything, but gazing intently astatine immoderate helium recovered successful the environs of the statue. The Virgin, helium would accidental to himself, had ne'er visited immoderate torment oregon aggravated dolor upon him. While lasting determination by the statue, helium felt arsenic though his full assemblage were being repaired.

When evening came and the entity began to turn dark, Ruiz would bow to the statue again and accidental a supplication to Our Lady of the Dusk. He would past basal and look up astatine the agleam stars and planets portion everything successful interaction with the world was going to sleep. He would prevarication down a small portion longer and respire the wide air, trying to gully into himself, with his nostrils, each the lights successful the firmament. He would past get backmost onto his raft and permission successful silence. The stream was similar a luminous animal. Ruiz mounted it, floating backmost successful the absorption of San Ignacio.

As the region grew betwixt him and the Virgin, however, each the aged dolors took up residence successful his assemblage erstwhile more. So that, arriving backmost astatine San Ignacio, helium would erstwhile much consciousness crushed and broken. Maceta would sometimes person to spell and assistance him retired of his raft and carnivore him to his bed. Maceta was a somber, thoughtful, fearful man. He loved Ruiz, but helium was not similar him, fixed the different man’s trials. He enjoyed being alive, took pleasance successful sleeping, ate well. God did not punish him intensely, but lone from clip to clip and successful a merciful way. When Maceta laid Ruiz down successful his bed, helium felt a profound respect for the man. He would sometimes beryllium and look connected him the full nighttime through, arsenic if looking connected a precise beauteous and stubborn beggar.

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Excerpt from The Depopulation by Marina Closs. Translation copyright © 2026 by Thomas Bunstead. Published by Bellevue Literary Press: www.blpress.org. Used by support of the publisher. All rights reserved.