What is a summary of Dona Jeronima by Nick Joaquin?

Answer 1

In the days of the galleon (17th century), a certain Archbishop of Manila, an ambitious religious man, got stranded on an island on his way to a council in Mexico. His year-long isolation on the island made him realize that power was more important to him than piety and his conviction showed him to be a fraud. When he was discovered and returned to civilization, he was a changed man; no longer the ambitious and fiery religious personality he once was.

But even though he persistently sought the “stillness” he experienced when he was stranded on the island, his past came back to him in the form of the beautiful and radiant Jeronima, who was the love of his youth. Jeronima wanted to claim him as hers based on his solemn oath, one he made before he became a priest. Even though the Archbishop was shown the ring he gave Jeronima as proof of her pledge, he vehemently refused her. The prelate was unable to find a law to requite Jeronima, and so when they met again for the second time, he asked her to surrender the signet ring and offered to send her nunnery. Jeronima however declined the offer and instead threw the ring to the river, claiming it as the witness to their vows — that only when it yields up the ring shall he be quit of his vow.

The Archbishop then got sick and got well, and upon chancing on Jeronima sobbing in the Cathedral, he found out that she had an illumination about the love she was claiming before as one bound by pride. She asked for absolution and leave to dwell in the cave by the river as a penitent. While she took up abode in the cave, the villages nearby grew in abundance of fruits, fish and cattle. Even the rain fell in its season and barren women suddenly quickened.

The villagers thought she was a witch, especially with the flock of bats coming to her in the cave at her call, and a harlot, especially with villagers’ testimonies about a man staying with her all night until dawn. Jeronima, when brought to the Archbishop due to these accusations, denied all of it and proved herself innocent by showing her withered, wasted face and her back full of scars from self-scourging. Seeing this, the prelate sent her back to her cave and “pray for us sinners.”

Wondering if revelation was at hand, he and his manservant Gaspar rode forth that night to the cave and watched Jeronima go about her ritual of contrition. Gaspar, after witnessing this, declared that she was a holy woman, but immediately took it back and called her a damned witch when they both saw a young man who crossed the river by boat to go to the cave, which was now twinkling with lights and where music and revelry can be dimly heard. Gaspar instantly went to the bank of the cave and saw no lights nor sound of music, but instead found Jeronima, lying dead on the ground. Gaspar went back and reported what he saw to the prelate, who requested to be taken home at once, saying, “For tonight, I have seen my own ghost.”

The Archbishop lingered three days more in his hut in the riverbank, by the window that overlooked the water. Until on the third night, as though he noticed something on the river and raising his hand to wave or salute or surrender to it, the dying man closed his eyes and “gave up the ghost.”

During the pagan times, it was said that a kind nymph inhabited that cave by the river. When the Cross and the Conquistador came, the nymph departed and the cave fell silent, until Doña Jeronima occupied it and became the new diwata.

Answer 2

"Dona Jeronima" by Nick Joaquin is a short story that follows the life of a powerful matriarch in a small town. Dona Jeronima exerts control over her family and the community, but is ultimately betrayed by her own daughter-in-law. The story explores themes of power, betrayal, and the complexities of family relationships.