The village had thirty-one painted saints and an empty cart. An ecclesiastical historian explained that the committee could commemorate a local carpenter without pretending to canonize him. (ecclesiastical: church-related, clerical, religious; commemorate: memorialize, honor, remember; canonize: saint, declare a saint) A devout member worried that seating his effigy beside a sacred figure would look sacrilegious. (devout: pious, religious, faithful; sacrilegious: profane, blasphemous, irreverent) His sister, whose own outlook was secular, offered to pull the empty cart herself. (secular: nonreligious, worldly, temporal)
The chairman produced a sermon on piety. (sermon: homily, discourse, preaching; piety: devotion, reverence, religious faithfulness) It turned into a homily about the cardinal virtue of prudence. (homily: sermon, preachment, moral lecture; cardinal virtue: principal virtue, fundamental virtue; prudence: caution, discretion, circumspection) Someone at the back thought it heresy to call the carpenter prudent: he had once repaired a steeple from a washing line. (heresy: heterodoxy, unorthodoxy, dissent) The historian said one might revere a man's work and remain doubtful about his methods. (revere: venerate, reverence, honor) Even the most reverent tribute could allow him a fault. (reverent: respectful, venerating, devout; tribute: homage, testimonial, accolade)
The sister wheeled the cart into the sun. Its wheels had been carved by her brother, as had the thrones beneath every figure in the street. A boy crawled underneath and found a name scratched into each axle. They decided to leave the cart empty. At the head of the procession the sister let the children steer it, the first job the carpenter had let her do.