| 词条 | Draft:The Miracle of Saint Odilia |
| 释义 |
{{Infobox book | name = The Miracle of Saint Odilia | title_orig = Il miracolo di santa Odilia | translator = Sarah E. Christopher and Colleen Regalbuto | image = | caption = | author = Laura Mancinelli | cover_artist = | country = Italy | language = Italian | series = | genre = Historical novel | publisher = Einaudi (Italy) Troubador (UK) | pub_date = 1989 | english_pub_date = 2003 | media_type = Print (Paperback) | pages = 216 pp | isbn = 1-89-929354-X | dewey = | congress = | oclc = 53243562 | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}The Miracle of Saint Odilia ({{lang-it|Il miracolo di santa Odilia}}) is an historical novel by Laura Mancinelli published in 1989 and winner of the City of Rome Prize in the same year. Plot summaryThe story takes place on the hills of Montferrat, in the Early Middle Ages. The beautiful Odilia, from the noble family of the Counts of Agliano, from a very young age was destined by her relatives to the convent, so that she followed the traces of her aunt of the same name, abbess who died in the smell of holiness but was unable to perform, neither as a living nor a dead man, a miracle, so as to give her relative the glory of having a saint in the family. Before making her vows, Odilia attended a tournament of knights leaving for a Crusade in the Holy Land. A young man with blue eyes and a turquoise cloak stops in front of the stage where he is sitting, waiting to receive a sign of homage and benevolence from her. Odilia throws him moved by the little crown of flowers that he wears on his head on the white veil of novice. The years pass. The young woman, not yet twenty, is already a abbess and shows that she knows how to carefully administer the income of the convent as well as being a ligand to all the sacred duties of a nun. To counter the melancholy and loneliness that assail her on long, unactive evenings, she embroidered with her sisters a magnificent tapestry that, with threads of precious coloured silks, portrayed a Lady with the liocorn. When the tapestry is finished, Odilia realizes that the maiden has her own face and the eyes of the loafer are those of the knight that she has never forgotten. One day, at the door of the convent, pilgrims knock on: among them is he, the knight who, in turn, has never forgotten Odilia: he is tired, grayed and sad. The Crusade was not an adventure of glory but only an enterprise of theft and infamy. From that day on, at the behest of the abbess, the knight will remain a permanent guest in the convent, making himself useful to the community in many ways. This will also allow him to stay close to his beloved and protect her, with a chaste, platonic love made of friendly evening walks hand in hand and gentle looks silent as eloquent. Other characters are part of the story: Ser Francesco, the noble neighbour who supplies the abbess's cellars with very fine wine, but who also proposes to Odilia to cultivate the vine herself in the excellent land around her. The convent soon became a site where agricultural and hydraulic works were carried out, with the active collaboration of the knight and especially of Blondo Gerardo, servant of Ser Francesco, a young man of excellent character and with a mysterious past. But a host of children from the nearby village also fill the days of the monastery: a small school is set up where the little ones, dressed and refreshed, learn to read and write, to do useful crafts, to sing in choir and play flutes and tureens. Bishop Zenone, a somewhat suspicious but good-natured man, also visited the convent to see and admire its cheerful fervour: it was a world of joy, purity of purpose, productivity, and also good food. The cook, Sister Buccia, is one of the most characteristic characters: simple and grumbling, she takes care every day, among couple and pots, to bake bread and focaccia, meat and vegetables, always with the fear that the excessive generosity of the abbess, towards the poor but also towards her guests, leads one day to the shortage of supplies and poverty. In such active joy, in such care for the goods given to man by the earth, at the end, in a mysterious escape of the whole valley, at the tomb of his old aunt Abbess the hoped for "miracle of Saint Odilia" happens: the doubt remains whether by divine will or only by passionate human constancy. Characters
See also{{portal|Novels}}NotesSources
| first = Laura | last = Mancinelli | title = The Miracle of Saint Odilia | publisher = Troubador | year = 2003 External links{{Laura Mancinelli}}{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Miracle of Saint Odilia, The}}Category:1989 novelsCategory:Novels by Laura MancinelliCategory:Novels set in ItalyCategory:Novels set in the Middle AgesCategory:Novels set in the Early Middle AgesCategory:Postmodern novelsCategory:20th-century Italian novels |
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