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Rosicrucian
Simony refers to the (now-defunct) practice in the Catholic Church of paying for entrance to heaven, which was particularly rampant in the 9th and 10th centuries. Early in the story, the narrator dreams that he is smiling at Father Flynn, absolving him of the sin of simony. The implication that Father Flynn participated in the illicit practice of accepting money from parishioners to secure their entrance to heaven is one of several hints in the story that the deceased priest may have been corrupt in multiple ways.
Simony Quotes in The Sisters
The The Sisters quotes below are all either spoken by Simony or refer to Simony. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Sisters
Quotes
Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.
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Simony Term Timeline in The Sisters
The timeline below shows where the term Simony appears in The Sisters. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Sisters
...the word is just as mysterious as certain words in the Catechism, like gnomon and simony. The narrator both fears paralysis and is curious to see what effects it has on...
(full context)
...The narrator imagines that he smiles back at the face, “as if to absolve the simoniac of his sin.”
(full context)
