Jurgen · Character

St. Peter

Heaven's exasperated gatekeeper, an Apostle and a gentleman wearied by the centuries of scoundrels who arrive smirking and expect admission.

supporting

First appearance: xli of compromises in heaven

As a supporting figure in Jurgen, St. Peter is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Guards Heaven's gate, laments the actions of zealous Christians who misuse the Apostles' names, and explains the War Roof.

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St. Peter sits at the wicket of Heaven with his fellow Apostles, and the view from there has made him chronically uncomfortable: every atrocity done in the Church's name eventually shows up at his gate claiming fellowship. He is prickly about Jurgen's jokes at the Church's expense, yet visibly starved for a visitor who treats him as a man rather than a monument, and he warms to anyone who grants that the Twelve meant well. His weary, testy, oddly generous judgment is the last hurdle Jurgen must clear, which makes him the story's final arbiter of what a flawed man deserves.

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See St. Peter in xli of compromises in heaven