Svartrau Cathedral is the centerpiece of the side quest A Monk and a Saint, and how you get inside changes what the game asks of you. Walk in through the front during daylight and Coen is handed one of the vaguest objectives in the quest: question people in the cathedral. There are no exact markers over anyone’s head, just a wide search area and a room full of people who mostly ignore you.
Quick answer: Speak to three NPCs inside the cathedral — the Believer sitting in the back pews, the Craftsman working on the window frame along the side wall, and the Deacon standing at the altar. Finishing all three conversations completes the objective and updates the quest.
When the “Question people in the cathedral” objective appears
This objective only exists on the daytime route. Svartrau Cathedral sits in the eastern part of Svartrau City and is easy to pick out thanks to its tower. During the day the building is open to the public, so you can walk in and the quest immediately tells you to start asking questions about the crypt.
At night the doors are locked and the quest takes a completely different shape. You climb the tower with Shadowstep (R2 on PS5, RT on Xbox), drop onto the balcony, and get objectives about the frescoes and the courtyard instead. If you are looking for people to question and the cathedral is sealed, you are simply there at the wrong time of day.
The three NPCs to talk to inside Svartrau Cathedral
Everyone else in the building is set dressing. Only these three carry dialogue that counts toward the objective, and each one points Coen at a different thread.
| NPC | Where they are | What they bring up |
|---|---|---|
| Believer | Seated in the back pews, wearing a yellow hood | The cathedral treasury and Father Florin |
| Craftsman | Working on the window structure along the side wall, in the right-hand corner | The broken stained-glass window depicting St. Mihai |
| Deacon | At the podium by the main altar, at the front | The missing caretaker and the closed library |
How to complete the objective
Her answers are the first useful lead. She talks about the cathedral treasury and name-drops Father Florin, which is what puts the treasury on Coen’s radar as somewhere worth breaking into.
He explains the state of the broken stained-glass window showing St. Mihai. That window matters later, because its pieces carry a clue about the saint and the crypt.
The Deacon is the most important of the three. He controls access to the library and will only hand over the key once Coen helps him track down Radu, the missing caretaker.
What unlocks after all three conversations
Once the last conversation ends you get a QUEST UPDATED prompt and A Monk and a Saint expands from a single vague instruction into several concrete objectives.
| New objective | Status |
|---|---|
| Investigate the cathedral treasury | Optional |
| Gain access to the cathedral library | Required for the crypt lead |
| Help the deacon find the caretaker | Required to get the Library Key |
| Find the broken stained glass in the caretaker’s shed | Optional |
From there the chain runs through the courtyard. Head to the almshouse past the well, pay the resident 100 Denarii to point you at the abandoned wing upstairs, then use Focus Mode (L2 on PS5, LT on Xbox) to spot the scratches on the floor and shove the bookcase aside. Down the stairs you fight for the Caretaker’s Key, which opens the caretaker’s shed and gets you the Glass Shards. Return those to the Craftsman to restore the window, and the Deacon finally hands over the Library Key.
How to confirm the objective completed
The clearest confirmation is the QUEST UPDATED banner followed by the new entries in the journal. Open the quest log and check that “Investigate the cathedral treasury”, “Gain access to the cathedral library”, and “Help the deacon find the caretaker” have replaced the questioning objective. If they are there, you are done inside the cathedral for now.
If nothing updates, there are only two realistic causes. Either you missed one of the three NPCs — the Believer in the back pews is the one players walk straight past — or you entered the cathedral at night through the tower, in which case the game is running the fresco and courtyard version of the quest and this objective never appears at all.
Note: dialogue cutscenes here can be skipped with the on-screen prompt, but let each conversation finish before walking away. Backing out early is the fastest way to end up standing in an empty cathedral wondering why the tracker has not moved.
With the three conversations behind you, the quest stops being a scavenger hunt and turns into a straight line: find the caretaker, fix the window, get into the library, and read your way to St. Mihai’s grave in the courtyard.
