Lives of the Saints

Vittorio runs to Di Lucci’s bar yelling that his mother has been bitten by a snake. Vittorio, his grandfather, and Di Lucci get into the car, but Di Lucci realizes he doesn’t have the keys. He gets out and yells to his wife asking where the keys are. She says she has no idea and asks him where he is going. Vittorio’s grandfather finds the keys and they drive to the house. The whole village watches the commotion.

They pick up Cristina, who is very calm, and drive away. Di Lucci tells them to tie something around the leg so that the poison doesn’t spread, and they use Vittorio’s shirt. As he drives, Di Lucci asks questions about the snake and how Cristina was bitten. When she admits that she was bitten in the barn while feeding the pigs, Vittorio’s grandfather says she had already fed the pigs that morning. Cristina responds that she was checking their water trough, but Di Lucci is suspicious.

They arrive at the hospital in Rocca Secca, where many people are waiting to see the doctor. Di Lucci tells the receptionist that Cristina has been bitten by a snake and bribes the receptionist so Cristina can get seen more quickly by the doctor. Vittorio sits down next to an old man who tells him about the ailments of the other people waiting. Then, a young woman comes in vomiting. Her “black-habited guide” (21) and Di Lucci argue with the receptionist about who should be seen next. While they argue, Vittorio remembers how his paternal grandfather dropped dead in the middle of a family argument. He thinks his mother looks as his grandfather did that day and cries out that she is dead, but she is just in shock.

The doctor arrives and says he will see Cristina next. The only available stretcher has a dead man on it. They remove the dead body and put Cristina on the stretcher.

The next day, Di Lucci takes Vittorio and his grandfather to visit Cristina in the hospital ward. Earlier that day, Vittorio found a pair of tinted glasses in the stable. He recalls that he found another pair of tinted glasses a year earlier in the hot springs his mother had shown him. When he asked his mother if he could keep them, she took them away and threw them in the river.

That night, Vittorio hides the second pair of glasses under his mattress, and they are crushed. He buries the fragments in the pasture the following afternoon. Two days later, Cristina returns home. His grandfather has purchased a store-bought mattress in Rocca Secca. He tells Vittorio that he will sleep in his own room instead of with his mother from now on. Vittorio thinks about his father, about whom he knows very little.

That night, Vittorio sleeps in his new room where two German soldiers once slept. He imagines or dreams he can hear their ghosts entering his mother’s room and the three of them leaving together in the middle of the night.

Soon after is the Feast of San Camillo de Lellis, a local saint. Vittorio recalls what his schoolteacher, la maestra, told him about San Camillo’s story. She has inspired his interest in religion because his mother and grandfather are not very religious.

That day at church, they listen to the priest, Father Nicola, talk about how “the villagers’ superstitions” come from “the devil” (39) while looking at Cristina. His mother does not like Father Nick. Vittorio describes how the priest comes into the schoolhouse to question the students about the catechism and beats them if they do not know the answer. The priest also tells them stories, like that about his roommate at seminary, Dompietro, who hides his shoe under his bed every day to remind himself to get on his knees and thank God. Cristina thinks those stories are silly.

That afternoon, Vittorio’s aunt and cousin come over, but the family seems tense. The next day, Cristina’s friends Maria and Giuseppina come over. Maria and Cristina gossip about the priests until Giuseppina complains they are being disrespectful and “too proud” (46). When Cristina asks Giuseppina to sit down because she isn’t “contagious” (47), Giuseppina quickly leaves.

Later that day, Vittorio overhears Maria and Giuseppina saying that the snakebite was a sign of God’s judgement, that Vittorio and Cristina are lazy, and that his father will find out.

Vittorio describes how the villagers in the area are all envious of one another. He recounts a myth his grandfather told him about a giant named Gambelunghe who cleared the jungle on the mountain and planted crops. Gambelunghe’s offspring argue amongst themselves over who has the best land and so God curses them. To avoid envy, the offspring split the land evenly, leading to each having small patches of land, sometimes miles apart. He also describes how the villagers are afraid of the evil eye.

No one comes to the house to visit Cristina or Vittorio’s grandfather anymore. One day, Giuseppina comes over. She advises Cristina to go to confession, talk to the priest, or do a ritual sacrifice of a chicken or other animal to rid herself of the evil eye. Cristina laughs and calls it nonsense. Giuseppina warns that Cristina is going to bring a curse on her household. Later that night, no one in the household speaks to one another.