Synthesized answer
The Catholic Church likely banned Antonio Fogazzaro's novel "The Saint" because its protagonist, Piero Maironi, attempts to "reform the Church of Rome from within" [2]. This reformist impulse, coupled with his past sins and complex personal life, could be seen as a challenge to ecclesiastical authority and doctrine.
Furthermore, Maironi's history involves falling in love with Jeanne Dessalle, a woman who "professed agnostic opinions" [4]. This romantic entanglement, occurring while his wife was in a lunatic asylum, and his subsequent profound remorse and spiritual purification, might have been viewed with disapproval by the Church, particularly given the depiction of a secular world of "rank and fashion" and "ecclesiastical life" [1, 2]. The passage detailing his deposition of a "sealed paper describing a prophetic vision concerning his life that had largely contributed to his conversion" [3] also suggests a potentially unorthodox or individualistic spiritual experience that the Church might not endorse.
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
← The Saint ( 1905 ) by Antonio Fogazzaro , translated by Mary Prichard Agnetti Introduction → Written in 1905, translated in 1906. Banned by the Catholic Church. Italian: Il Santo . Antonio Fogazzaro 186593 The Saint 1905 Mary Prichard Agnetti (Upload an image to replace this placeholder.) [Advertisements] The Trilogy of Rome By Antonio Fogazzaro "The Greatest of Italian Novelists" (Authorized American Editions) 1. The Patriot (Piccolo Mondo Antico) 2. The Sinner (Piccolo Mondo Moderno) 3. The Saint (Il Santo) T HE first of these romances is an impassioned story of lovers struggling to…
vivid picture of the Italian world of rank and fashion, and involves, too, a study of political and ecclesiastical life. In The Saint , the concluding novel in the series, the hero of The Sinner and the lover of Jeanne Dessalle appears as a penitent full of religious zeal that finds a double outlet—in asceticism and works of mercy and in an attempt to reform the Church of Rome from within. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS New York London THE SAINT (IL SANTO) By ANTONIO FOGAZZARO Translated from the Italian by M. PRICHARD-AGNETTI With an Introduction by WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK…
had fallen in love with a beautiful woman separated from her husband, Jeanne Dessalle, who professed agnostic opinions. Recalled to a sense of his faith and his honour by an interview with his wife, who sent for him on her death-bed, he was plunged in remorse, and disappeared wholly from the knowledge of friends and relatives after deposking in the hands of a venerable priest, Don Giuseppe Flores, a sealed paper describing a prophetic vision concerning his life that had largely contributed to his conversion. Three years are supposed to have passed between the close of the Piccolo Mondo…
s are said with regard to certain of its characters who have made an appearance in preceding stories by the same author. All needful information of this kind is conveyed in the following paragraph, for which we are indebted to Mrs. Crawford's article, "The Saint in Fiction," which appeared in The Fortnightly Review for April, 1906: "Readers of Fogazzaro's earlier novels will recognise in Piero Maironi, the Saint, the son of the Don Franco Maironi who, in the Piccolo Mondo Antico , gives his life for the cause of freedom, while he himself is the hero of the Piccolo Mondo Moderno . For those…
← Introduction The Saint by Antonio Fogazzaro , translated by Mary Prichard Agnetti Chapter I Chapter II → 186596 The Saint — Chapter I Mary Prichard Agnetti Antonio Fogazzaro THE SAINT CHAPTER I LAC D'AMOUR J eanne was seated by the window with the book which she had been reading open upon her lap. She gazed pensively into the oval sheet of leaden water slumbering at her feet, at the passing clouds, casting their ever-changing shadows on the little villa, on the deserted garden, the trees of the opposite bank, the distant fields, on the bridge to the left, and on the quiet roads, which…
More questions about this book
- Trace the evolution of "patriotism" and "struggle against prejudice" from "The Patriot" through to Piero Maironi's character arc in "The Sinner" and "The Saint." How do these foundational themes manifest differently in each subsequent novel?
- Piero Maironi's journey involves a significant transformation. How does his earlier identity as an "artist and dreamer" and his relationship with Jeanne Dessalle inform or even complicate his later pursuit of "asceticism and works of mercy" and his desire to reform the Church?
- Beyond the individual plotlines, what overarching commentary or critique on Italian society, politics, and religious life does Fogazzaro's "Trilogy of Rome" seem to offer through the progression of its narratives?
- The "NOTE" suggests "The Saint" explains itself completely independently, yet provides extensive character backstory. How might a reader's understanding of Piero Maironi's motivations and the novel's themes be enriched or altered by *prior* knowledge of "The Patriot" and "The Sinner," despite the standalone claim?