The Quest for St. Aquin

Boucher, Anthony. "The Quest for St. Aquin." New Tales of Space and Time. Raymond J. Healy, ed. New York: Holt, 1951. Coll. The Compleat Boucher: The Complete Short Science Fiction and Fantasy of Anthony Boucher. Ed. James A. Mann. Framingham, MA: NESFA P, 1999. Frequently rpt. including The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Vol. 1. Robert Silverberg, ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.

In a postholocaust world, "ruled by the Technarchy," a pope "commissions one Thomas to set one on a quest for the saint of the title, which he does riding a 'robass' (a robotic ass)." As in the Biblical story of Balaam, the ass talks, and "An extended dialogue between Thomas and the robass raises the issue of means and ends: why not tell the lie that Aquin has been found if that results in greater belief? When Thomas finally locates the body of the saint, it turns out to be a robot." Summary from David Seed, "Recycling the Texts of the Culture: Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, Extrapolation 37.3 (Fall 1996): 266. Kingsley Amis notes that "Since the robot's brain is by definition perfectly logical, its embracing of Roman Catholicism is understood as inaugurating a new ecclesiastical era" (K. Amis, New Maps of Hell; Amis contrasts this story with I. Asimov's "Reason." (RDE, 13/10/96)