The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

In 1996, Agnes is visited once again by the demonic black dog, a supernatural entity that claims to have killed her lovers. Recalling her love for Nanapush, she fights the tempter and strangles it until it vanishes. The next day, Father Jude finds Father Damien in a state of miraculous intoxication even though no alcohol is present.

Father Jude decides that despite Sister Leopolda’s flaws, she has indeed worked miracles and is worthy of a hagiography. He brings communion to Marie Lazarre, using the ritual as an excuse to interview her as part of his attempt to pen an idealistic biography about Leopolda’s life and supposed miracles. Although initially reluctant to speak with him, Marie eventually reveals that when she was younger, she learned from a woman named Sophie Morrissey that the cruel Leopolda is her biological mother. Marie then recounts her youth as a bootlegger after leaving the convent, providing Jude with crucial details that prove Leopolda’s cruelty and disqualify her from consideration as a saint.

Overwhelmed by these revelations about Leopolda’s true nature, Father Jude turns to other pursuits and falls in love with Lulu despite his attempts to resist. The weight of these discoveries and his unexpected romantic feelings complicate his original mission to document Leopolda’s supposed sanctity.

Father Damien finally reveals to Father Jude that Sister Leopolda was a murderer. He explains that her supposed stigmata were actually wounds from the barbed-wire rosary that she used to kill Napoleon Morrissey. He also explains that Leopolda’s subsequent visionary trance, physical rigidity, and long illness were actually manifestations of tetanus, which she contracted from the rusty wire. Jude realizes that Damien likely kept this secret only because Leopolda knew a secret about him, but Jude does not know what the elderly priest’s secret might be.

While searching through church records, Father Jude finds Lulu’s birth certificate, with its clerical error placing Father Damien’s name alongside Nanapush’s as the father. Jude mistakenly concludes that Damien is secretly Lulu’s father. Seeing this as a sign that Damien will understand his own conundrum, Jude confesses his love for Lulu to Damien and reveals his misguided “discovery” of Lulu’s supposed paternity. Hearing this confession, Agnes strategically declines to correct his misunderstanding. This mutual secret keeping bonds the two priests in an uncomfortable alliance.

Overwhelmed by the extent of Leopolda’s cruelties, Father Jude has a revelation and comes to believe that Father Damien, not Leopolda, is the true saint of Little No Horse.

To prevent her female body from being discovered after her death, Agnes plans her own demise. After sending a final letter to the Pope, she shares a silent, understanding farewell with Mary Kashpaw. Agnes then rows to Spirit Island on Matchimanito Lake, chops up her boat for firewood, and drinks wine while preparing to meet her end. As she sits and contemplates the important moments of her long and unusual life, she finds herself dwelling on Nanapush’s long history of sly tricks and humorous escapades. While laughing uproariously at these memories of Nanapush, Agnes suddenly experiences a fatal stroke.

Mary paddles to the island and finds Agnes’s body, along with a note containing money and specific instructions for her burial. Following the written directions, Mary places the body in the damaged boat, weighs it down with stones, and sinks it in the deepest part of the lake.

In 1997, an anonymous donor gives a fax machine to the convent at Little No Horse. Father Jude, who is now living at the reservation and intends to pursue Father Damien’s canonization, helps Sister Adelphine set up the machine. The fax machine immediately receives a transmission from the Pope. This message is addressed to Damien and explains that the files containing Damien’s long correspondence have been accidentally destroyed. The Pope now requests copies of Damien’s life’s work.

The papal letter is framed and hung in Father Damien’s cabin, which Mary Kashpaw now tends to as a shrine. Mary continues to feel Damien’s presence in the space, and she maintains it as a sacred memorial to the priest she served faithfully throughout her life.