Anita A dead five-year-old girl, at whose grave Padre Jose refuses to pray.
Beckley, Henry The director of the correspondence school who sends Coral Fellows packets of school lessons that are far more elementary than her chronological potential.
Brigitta The illegitimate daughter of the fugitive priest- protagonist.
Calver, James An American bank robber and murderer pursued by the Mexican police throughout the novel; he is finally killed.
Father __________ The new priest who arrives at the end of the novel to replace the executed priest-protagonist.
Fellows, Captain Charles The operator of the Central American Banana Company.
Fellows, Coral The Fellowses' precocious daughter.
Fellows, Mrs. Trix (Trixy) Fellows' wife.
The Half-Caste A mestizo; the Judas who betrays the priest.
An Indian Woman Her child is shot by either Calver or by the soldiers who are pursuing Calver.
The Jefe The lieutenant's superior.
Mr. Lehr A Protestant living in one of the less vehemently anti-religious Mexican states.
Miss Lehr His shortsighted sister.
The Lieutenant Out of a sense of duty, he stalks the priest-protagonist from the beginning of the novel until its end; finally he captures him.
Lopez A hostage who was executed (before the action of the novel begins) for helping priests escape.
Luis A fourteen-year-old Mexican boy; he rebels against the sentimentality of his mother's stories about young Juan.
Luis' Father A cynical, disillusioned man who believes that his wife's Catholic faith is futile, naive folly.
Luis' Mother She fervently and dramatically reads to Luis and his two sisters from the Holy Book.
Maria The mother of Brigitta, the priest-protagonist's daughter.
Miguel He is taken as a hostage and is beaten by the police.
Montez, Pedro The hostage killed at Concepción; the priest-protagonist calls himself "Montez" afterward.
Padre Jose He is a priest who was forced to marry by state regulations and, thus, he was excommunicated.
Padre Jose's Wife A fat and bossy shrew.
The Priest (alias Montez) The protagonist, or main character of the novel; the only active priest still in Mexico.
A Pious Woman She condemns the priest-protagonist for his bad spirituality during their night in jail.
Mr. Tench A dentist who is trapped in Mexico because of the economy.
Tench, Sylvia His estranged wife.
Young Juan A perfect little boy in a religious story, who will become, we assume, a "plaster saint." Luis' mother reads stories in the Holy Book about him to her children.