“San Silvestro” by Tomás B.

I will note that her relationship with the divine was inextricably sexual. Her carnal fantasies she revealed to me, as she revealed all her sins, for I was her confessor. It is in the nature of Man to sin and then sin again. And if they are of our flock, this cycle is unconstrained by repentance, which is to the temporal almost an appurtenance and to the spiritual anything but. I once expressed bitterness to others of my calling regarding this. I was told it is arrogance, approaching blasphemy, to have higher expectations of our sheep than the Lord. Her angel would appear before her hale and calm and more beautiful than those many statues she sculpted of him, his face and body inspiring, though imperfectly, her saints and cherubim. She was adamant about that. That she could capture only a dim projection of him in her art. They would copulate; and this would both renew her infatuation and diminish her piety - you will understand that there is no contradiction in this. In every case, she insisted she was not dreaming. For if he was a dream, she reasoned, that would be proof her mind could fully contain [...] --- First published: June 19th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2DhiEsYMZC9tg6eEz/san-silvestro --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.