Every life is a riddle.
The answer to mine is a knowledge born of darkness.
It wasn't always so.
In the beginning I still had questions.
In the beginning...
... my mystery still remained.
Brother Dominic.
Scholar of the Catholic arcane.
Believer in the unsanitized Church.
A church that no longer believes in itself.
The church of stigmata...
...and exorcism. Saints...
...and demons.
And me.
I believe in many things.
So do I.
And right now, I believe it's time.
Are you ready to make your confession?
Forgive me, Alex.
I have sinned against you.
There he is. That's Alex.
- He's young. - But an old soul, Clive. He's an old soul.
I need to speak with you.
- Do you always say the Mass in Latin? - It's how I was taught.
It belies your age.
And with your back to your audience, no less.
Six or 700 years ago, they wouldn't have seen you at all...
...and you'd have sung the Mass in Latin behind a huge choir screen...
...out of the sight of a congregation that was only allowed to listen.
I think you would have liked the choir screen, Alex, for a contradiction.
I'm stuck here because the Church doesn't know what to do with me.
The Church doesn't know what the hell to do with itself.
I won't pretend I don't know you have certain qualifications...
...certain skills that set you apart from other priests.
However, the diocese has certain questions about your faith, Alex.
So, what do you want from me?
Well, I have sad news for you.
- Dominic, the head of your order... - I know who he is.
He's dead.
Today. In Rome.
Is this your mother?
Say goodbye, Alex.
It's time to say goodbye.
Goodbye.
Leave your tears here...
...and then forget them.
Alex.
Alex?
Alex.
How is it that a cardinal has enough time to come and tell me this?
Because I loved him.
Because he was my mentor.
And because the circumstances of his death are curious.
I need to go to Rome.
The diocese will arrange a flight.
In the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, I order you back to hell.
Fuck your God!
All mouth, no trousers.
Your Church will be lost, priest.
The dark pope...
...rises.
Hello?
- Thomas, I've been trying to reach you. - Alex.
- How are you, spaghetti-o? - Yeah, listen to me.
Dominic died.
- Dominic? - Yeah.
Oh, no.
- When did it happen? - Last night.
Where are you? In New York? At St. Agnes?
Yeah. Listen, I'm going to Rome, Thomas.
- When? - Tomorrow.
And guess what?
So are you.
Just be there.
Hi.
When did they release you?
I was released today.
Years ago it was a dorm for the priests.
Now it's empty.
You're here.
True.
I'll wait.
We're looking for Alex Bernier.
- That's me, is there something wrong? - Just a heads up, Father. You know a...
...Mara Williams? - Yes.
She escaped from the mental health facility...
...where she was remanded by the court.
Remanded. And what does this have to do with me?
She was locked up for trying to kill you, wasn't she?
That was the main reason, yes.
I just thought you'd like to know she's...
...unaccounted for.
I can have a car drive by once in a while.
No, I'm fine, thank you.
Well, like I said, heads up.
You know, it says here...
...I couldn't make it out in this copy.
She shot you at an exercise class?
No, at an exorcism.
- Have a good night. - You too, Father.
- You lied, you said they released you. - No, I didn't.
I didn't lie.
I said I was released, I didn't say who did it.
Mara.
Alex.
You didn't say goodbye.
They said it'd be better if I didn't see you for a while.
For a year?
I don't know.
I started painting again.
Did you?
Yeah.
Flowers, mostly.
I wanna paint sunflowers, but I don't have the guts.
You think I'm crazy?
I know you're not.
Why'd you come here?
I heard you call me.
Mara, don't say that.
Okay.
I got a feeling that...
...I should be with you, in case...
...one of us has to say goodbye.
I've never been to Rome before.
Is it amazing?
I bet it is.
It scares me.
Ever since I was a boy.
- And you're staying here. - No, I'm not.
I can't stay here.
And you need me, whether you know it or not.
- And... - The nightingales are gone.
- Are they? - Yeah.
They've been gone for about a year.
Same as you.
Alex, look at me.
It's you and me.
You and me till the wheels fall off.
Promise you won't try to kill me.
Cross my heart.
Hope to die.
It's up here.
Hey.
Mara.
What are they?
Orphans.
But of what, I've no idea.
I've been in worse places.
Just needs light, that's all.
What are those?
Aramaic. It's the language of Christ.
What does it say?
"Blood in."
Down there, "blood out."
This must have been where they found Dominic's body.
Alex, what are you thinking?
It was a ceremony.
The message I got said suicide.
Sleeping pills, signore.
Is that him?
Yes, it's him.
Thank you.
I didn't pay to look at his face, if you don't mind.
- What are these? - Let's go, please, hurry up.
No, no, what are these? Do you know what these are?
Maybe a birthmark. I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
It's not a birthmark.
When's the body to be released to the Church?
It isn't.
When we are done with it...
...it goes to the state, for burial in the state cemetery.
Okay, please, let's go.
Please, come with me.
It's always nice to see a priest.
And a Carolingian, no less.
You've seen others?
A Dominic Souza, perhaps?
Carolingians.
You surpass even the Jesuits in your heretical search for knowledge.
It's important to stay inside the lines.
What lines?
This way.
Those were the marks.
Dominic, what were you doing?
"Bread and salt eaten off the body.
The sins of one man consumed by the Other.
The Sin Eater."
If Hitler had had one in the bunker, he'd be sitting on a cloud right now.
Of course, Sin Eaters haven't existed for two centuries, have they?
- What did Dominic buy from you? - Many things over the years.
Last time...
...a vellum parchment written in Aramaic.
What did it say?
I'm not as clever as Dominic...
...scholar of mysteries.
He delved deep and dark...
...always after knowledge.
I think he'd have sold his soul for knowledge.
Do you?
His heretic soul or something precious to him.
Is there a price tag on your head?
What's that supposed to mean?
Sometimes it's better for a priest not to know.
Knowledge is the enemy of faith.
And sometimes, when you look into the abyss...
...the abyss looks back into you.
Look, his order meant everything to him.
Dominic should be buried with his order in the Concezione Cemetery.
Your order is former order.
The Carolingians. Not many of you left in the world.
We're a dying breed.
Look, and when they die, it's the Concezione Cemetery.
Suicide is a cardinal sin.
Dominic didn't commit suicide.
It makes no difference.
He had been excommunicated, excluded from our society and sacraments.
"There is no..."
"No salvation outside the Church." I know my Latin.
Unlike your manners. Respect what you are.
Well, what I am is my concern, thank you.
Listen.
I'm sorry, I am, I...
I need the Theosophic Council to convene as soon as possible.
The council.
It hasn't convened in years.
For what purpose?
Tell them I found a Sin Eater.
A Sin Eater? Here? At the start of the new millennium?
How many other impossible things do you believe in?
It's not impossible, I've seen the marks on Dominic's body myself.
Your mentor...
...was excommunicated for rejection of articles of faith.
Heresy.
Accept it.
He took his own life because he couldn't bear that.
- Grazie, Franca. - Father Alex.
Ciao, Marie. Ciao.
In the name of God...
...I command you to return from whence you came!
In the name of God...
...in the name of Jesus, God and the Holy Virgin, I order you back to hell!
Fly off to hell yourself.
What kind of a greeting's that?
- You're late. - It's never too late, Alex.
Witness the repentant thief, crucified alongside our Lord Savior.
- A quick thinker, eh? - How you doing?
I'm grand.
- So did you bury him? - Yeah.
A rogue priest reading rites over an excommunicado.
Damn dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
Cheers.
To the last of the Carolingians.
You and me.
Cheers.
What just passed through here, Alex?
Demon spawn in the guise of children.
Nothing I couldn't handle.
- Who summoned those nasties up? - Dominic, I think.
They were camped outside his apartment.
Speaking of the apartment, I met your girlfriend.
- She's not my girlfriend. - Well, she should be.
She said you'd be at the Concezione. You told her it was a restaurant?
- She would have come otherwise. - Women.
Can't live with them...
...can't live with them.
Come on.
"Sin Eater.
In absolution, the burden of guilt would be transmuted to the Sin Eater...
...as would the knowledge of the transgressions."
Wait, you mean he'd know what your sins were?
- Even the details? - He'd know and feel the burden of them.
He'd spend sleepless nights over things others had done.
He'd have the ascendancy to free a man's soul.
And damn his own.
We're Carolingians, Alex and I. Now, in a way, that makes us responsible.
They say the practice of sin eating began with banished members of our order.
That's like saying sheep are responsible for the sweaters made from their wool.
- Maybe they are, Mara, girl. - I found the vellum Dominic bought.
I'll translate it for you.
Okay.
"Place the instrument of delivery over the heart."
Must be some kind of weapon. And then look.
"Blood in, blood out...
...and drive into the heart."
The rest is missing. Still, you get the idea.
- I'm not sure I do. - Well, they're instructions.
On how to kill a Sin Eater.
Dominic trained us to deal with ghosts, demons and all manner of undead...
...but this Sin Eater, he's a living man. - Whatever he is, he killed Dominic.
Maybe, maybe not.
I've seen another copy of this somewhere.
So we meet again.
Jeez, the fucking cavalry.
How are you finding our city of emperors, our city of martyrs?
Would you care for a beer, Your Eminence, or something a little stronger?
And you are?
- He's Thomas. - She's Mara.
We're the Catholic Pete, Linc and Julie.
I am Michael, Cardinal Driscoll.
And among other things, I'm head of the Theosophic Council.
A bit like the dead letter department of the post office, I'm afraid.
I believe Michelangelo went blind from candlelight.
Dominic didn't believe in electricity.
Yes, but a Sin Eater? You couldn't have shocked the bishop more if you said...
...you'd been possessed by a Phoenician demon and demanded an exorcism.
The exorcism was on Friday.
Well, today is Monday.
And yet, I think there may be credence to what you say.
As a matter of fact, I know there is.
Sin Eater.
A renegade providing a path to heaven outside of the Church and our Savior.
If you believe this, he has the power to grant redemption to the unrepentant.
Sort of a heretical wrench in the cogs of our Catholic machinery.
You two were Dominic's chosen.
What do you know about his excommunication?
- Nothing. - He wouldn't speak of it.
Dominic believed this Other, this man, was based right here in Rome.
Now, that's all I know, because that's all he told me.
I assume that the two of you plan to seek him out...
...otherwise I am just spinning my wheels here.
Sadly, the Church no longer has the will to dispatch.
Thank God we still have the tools.
The instrument of delivery, if you will.
Now, if you'll excuse me...
...there are more pressing matters weighing on the Vatican tonight.
What could be more important than this?
They say the pope is ill. In fact, they say that he's dying.
And that man, Mara, girl, that American is front-runner for the job.
That man that just asked you to kill somebody.
Left it to our discretion, I'd say.
- When did you get that? - Last year. Got drunk, woke up with it.
That's very strange.
Sailors get anchors, so I'm a priest.
Still strange, Tommy.
I'm glad Dominic believed in bathrooms.
I usually just open the window and lean out.
What's strange is that you're a priest sleeping on the couch...
...instead of a man sleeping in bed with her.
Thomas, two days ago she was in a mental institution.
So she's crazy about you.
Can you look me in the eye and tell me you still want to be a priest?
Can you?
There are other ways to serve.
To serve.
It's knowledge I'm after.
Knowledge. When I look under a rock, my gut reacts to what I see.
I don't wonder how it got under the rock to begin with.
You guys tired?
Go upstairs and get some sleep.
- Night. - Night.
- Sweet dreams, yeah. - You too.
I know who she is, but who is she? Tell me something about her.
She's a painter.
Really good too.
I don't know, there's something about her that...
She sees things differently.
She feels things differently.
I wish, I wish I never saw her face.
Alex, you're a fool.
Same as you were, once.
- Alex, your head rules your heart. - Oh, and what rules yours?
Laughter, of course.
Hey. You laugh to keep from going mad, you laugh to keep the wolves at bay.
It's still laughter. As for you, spaghetti-o, choose life.
- Right. - Let your heart wear the crown...
...not your head.
Here we are.
Time to see Sirach.
Who is he, anyways?
A rising darkness.
A rising darkness?
We're looking for Rosalinda.
Sure. She's over there.
Girl with the faraway eyes.
We need you to take us to Sirach.
Don't start your posturing, you pagan-worshipping pig.
You owe me a debt.
My friend and I are looking for the Other.
Thomas, what does he mean by "the dying"?
Ask him.
Oh, shit.
Where can I find the Sin Eater?
The Other will find you upon the stone...
...where all is built.
He brings you:
The keys to the kingdom of heaven.
"Upon the stone where all is built."
Upon the stone where all is built.
I hate riddles.
Petrus. Stone.
Petrum.
Peter is the stone upon which "all," right, the Church, is built.
St. Peter's.
Well, the Other will find me, then.
St. Peter's. Doesn't anyone just meet for coffee anymore?
And he will bring you...
Alex!
Come on, let's get out of here.
No point in hanging around.
Thomas.
Tommy, love.
How long have you been a priest, Thomas?
Certain pleasures are forever out of reach. Denied.
Thomas, leave it for a sunny day. Come on.
- All mouth, no trousers. - Remember that girl in Dublin?
Meagan was her name.
Did you feel foolish, Tommy?
In love with a whore?
Thomas.
It's personal, ignore it.
- The first and only lesson, remember? - Tommy, love.
Oh, Tommy.
- I love you, Tommy. - Come on, mate.
- Never give them an inch. - Tommy?
- Not one fucking inch. - Thomas.
Thomas! Thomas!
In the name of God, of Jesus Christ, to hell with you!
I love you, Tommy.
I'll pray for you, Tommy.
I said there was no point in hanging around.
You never laugh, Alex. It's not good for the soul.
- I thought you might be the nurse. - Thomas, what happened?
- Where's Alex? - He's searching for coffee.
As for me, I was hoisted up by me own petard.
Mara...
...if I can ask...
...what happened between you and Alex?
It's okay.
If I was embarrassed, I'd wear bracelets.
My little brother was murdered and they brought Alex in to consult.
The Fillmore murders. Dominic sent Alex.
That was the first time on his own.
Mara...
...I hear confession all the time.
Nightingales.
What about them?
Those are the birds that I'd hear singing...
...right before the headaches started.
These headaches, they'd go on for weeks.
They were...
...blinding.
So I did this. Even that didn't help.
And Alex performed an exorcism.
Yeah.
Alex took away my pain...
...and I fell in love with a priest who couldn't love me back.
Love?
You traded one pain for another.
Something terrible is going to happen to Alex, Thomas.
I don't know what it is, but I know that it's worse than death.
Am I the answer to your prayer?
My friends call me William.
William Eden.
I'm not your friend.
That remains to be seen.
I know what you're feeling, Alex. And you're right.
God exists.
He just doesn't give a damn.
Magnificence.
Flesh rots. St. Peter's remains.
This impossible dome, Alex...
...it was raised by my brother when I was still a boy.
Blood and sweat built this, not faith.
It was Michelangelo who drew the dome on a piece of paper...
...but it was left to my brother to figure out a way to raise it...
...halfway to heaven.
And it was my honor each day to bring him something to eat...
...and ask him of the world outside of my own.
William, you brought some food.
Thank you.
Tell me a story, Phillip. A story of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem?
Phillip!
He's dying.
I can give no absolution.
He was excommunicated last year in Jerusalem.
Good enough to build God's house, but not to let him enter his kingdom...
...is that it?
William, go.
Fetch the Sin Eater.
In Jerusalem my brother gave a dying Arab a drink of water.
There was no well, so he gave him holy water.
My brother gave the Church his youth in Jerusalem...
...his blood at St. Peter's.
But when he lay dying...
...they deserted him.
When his soul stretched out, caught between heaven and hell...
...it was the Other who delivered him.
It was the Other who gave him peace.
I always loved my brother, Alex.
But the Church I grew to hate.
This...
...is the other way.
I can teach you...
...if you are willing.
I was willing...
...and so I was taught.
Did you kill Dominic Souza?
The Church killed him.
He died when he was excommunicated.
His body continued on a while, but his spirit was dead.
- That's a lie. - He was, Alex. He was ruined.
Broken, not plagued. And don't talk to me of lies.
I lost it in 1602.
I had dinner with Caravaggio and drank too much wine.
It's a means. An instrument for ridding the world of the Other.
Answer my question. Did you kill Dominic?
He killed himself, Alex...
...after the Church abandoned him. After they took away his reason to live.
They did to him as they did to my brother, Alex.
And you know what I did?
You know what I did for Dominic?
I gave him absolution.
I took on the burden of his sins and I gave him peace.
Not the Church.
I.
So don't talk to me of lies, Alex.
Dominic was like a father to me.
I'm just trying to understand.
Come with me.
Every fear hides a wish, don't you think?
So, what is it to be a Sin Eater?
What is it not to be one?
I know of no other way to be.
It seems beyond a man's judgment.
Forgiveness is God's domain.
I'm just an instrument. Like any great power, it depends on how it's used.
- And how do you use it? - As I see fit.
I'm not a threat to the Church.
I'm an insult, an embarrassment.
Well, you're a Carolingian, you know how it feels to be outside.
I serve the Church.
Serve yourself?
Get Alex some fresh clothes. And a hot bath, if he would like.
Then take him someplace quiet where he can sit.
If you'd like anything, anything can be arranged.
How long have I been asleep for?
A few hours.
What is it you want, Alex?
- I want to learn the truth. - Truth?
The terrible thing about searching for the truth is that sometimes you find it.
Not to mention it makes you very unwelcome at parties.
It makes you unwelcome anywhere...
...even in church.