Rodrigues' Apostasy

Rodrigues' apostasy is the pivotal moment in Shusaku Endo's Silence, the event that resolves the novel's central crisis of faith. After months of imprisonment, psychological erosion, and the unbearable sound of Christians groaning in the pit torture, Rodrigues is brought before a fumie—a copper plaque bearing the face of Christ, worn smooth by the feet of countless apostates. Guided by the apostate priest Christovao Ferreira, who tells him that "Christ would certainly have apostatised for them," Rodrigues raises his foot. The act is not a simple renunciation but a profound, agonizing choice: he tramples on what he has loved most, believing that his suffering will end the torment of the peasants suspended in the pit. The dawn breaks, and far in the distance a cock crows, echoing Peter's denial of Christ.

Background and Psychological Preparation

Rodrigues' apostasy is the culmination of a long process of spiritual and physical attrition. From the moment he arrived in Japan, he had carried an idealized image of Christ—a face of "vigour and strength" that he had loved since his seminary days, a face that was "the most beautiful, the most precious thing in the world." This image sustained him through his early successes in Tomogi and Goto, through the martyrdom of Mokichi and Ichizo, and through his own capture. But in prison, the silence of God in the face of relentless suffering began to erode his certainty. He witnessed the execution of the one-eyed Christian Chokichi, the drowning of Garrpe and three Christians, and the daily groaning of peasants in the pit. The interpreter's taunt—"you came to this country to lay down your life for them. But in fact they are laying down their lives for you"—pierced him deeply. The Lord of Chikugo, Inoue, had deliberately treated him well, providing three meals a day and straw mats, to weaken his physical and spiritual resistance. Rodrigues recognized this strategy: "the Japanese officials and their magistrate were making no move because, like a spider watching its prey caught in the web, they were waiting for his spirit to weaken."

The Night of Decision

The night before his apostasy, Rodrigues is confined in a dark, urine-soaked cell. He discovers the Latin words "Laudate Eum" carved into the wall by a previous prisoner—Ferreira himself. The groaning of Christians hanging in the pit, which he had mistaken for a guard's snoring, fills the darkness. Ferreira appears and tells him that he too had once endured the pit without apostatizing, but that he finally broke when he heard the voices of those for whom "God did nothing." Ferreira's argument is devastating: "If you say that you will apostatise, those people will be taken out of the pit. They will be saved from suffering. And you refuse to do so. It's because you dread to betray the Church." Then Ferreira delivers the final blow: "Certainly Christ would have apostatised for them." Rodrigues, covering his face, cries out "No, no!" but the words have already entered his heart.

The Act of Trampling

At dawn, Ferreira guides Rodrigues along a corridor to where the interpreter and guards wait with the fumie. The interpreter urges him: "It is only a formality. What do formalities matter?" Rodrigues takes the wooden plaque in his hands and stares at the face of Christ—"sunken and utterly exhausted," worn down by the feet of countless apostates. In that moment, the bronze Christ speaks to him: "Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried my cross." Rodrigues places his foot on the fumie. The dawn breaks, and the cock crows. The act is not a defeat but a painful act of love, a choice to share the suffering of the weak rather than preserve his own heroic image.

Consequences and Aftermath

Rodrigues' apostasy transforms his life utterly. He is given a Japanese name, Okada San'emon, and a wife, and is confined to a Christian residence in Edo, where he lives for thirty years until his death. He is known as "Apostate Paul," a counterpart to Ferreira's "Apostate Peter." He is summoned to the magistrate's office to identify Christian objects and writes a disavowal of his religion. Yet his faith does not die; it changes. He continues to hear confessions, including that of Kichijiro, who returns to him again and again. He reflects that his Lord is "different from the God that is preached in the Church"—a God who suffers beside him, who was not silent but shared his pain. The novel's final appendix records his death in 1685, at age sixty-four, and his burial at Muryoin Temple in Koishikawa. The official record notes only that he was "born in Portugal, Europe" and that he died of illness, but the narrative makes clear that his apostasy was not an end but a transformation—a descent into the "swamp of Japan" that paradoxically brought him closer to the Christ he had trampled.