20 How the Church Has Changed the World in San Marco, in honor of whom Verdi composed his stupendous work of sacred opera. His name was Alessandro Manzoni, the greatest Italian writer of the 19th century, a loyal son of the Church, and to this day a beloved teacher to the nation. What is enlightenment? It would not have been so, if mere human beings had had their way. As I write, I’m looking at a painting of the young Alessandro. He is tall, with a long face, a shock of black hair, and pensive, intelligent eyes. In the wrong place, at the wrong time, he could have done great harm to himself, to others, and to the Church. And he was indeed in the wrong place, at the wrong time. When he was a youth, he joined his divorced mother in Paris, in the fashionable salons, wheremendivided their days between indulging their intellects in falsehood, called reason, and their bodies in debauchery, called liberty. Tear down the unspeakable thing! Voltaire had cried, meaning the Church, and Alessandro agreed. It was convenient to agree. But God had other plans for him. He married a pious Protestant girl, and in 1810, at the age of twenty-five, Alessandro Manzoni was present at her reception into the Catholic Church. From then till the day of his death, Manzoni dedicated himself, his intellect, and his art to Christ, the Church, his beloved Italy, and the poor.
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