“Le Terre del Sacramento”, Jovine’s latest novel published posthumously in 1950 and Viareggio award winner, tells us about the events of the remote County of Molise in the fascist era: a territory linked to secular rites and pagan legends that meets, or rather clashes, with the course of history. By reading the book and visiting its locations, you will be able to perceive the ancient rough essence of this region in which modernity creeps in with difficulty.
The events take place in Morutri, the imaginary name for Guardialfiera, the author’s birthplace, and they revolve around the management of the fiefdom of the Sacramento, owned by the Cannavale family but previously expropriated from the Church and therefore considered cursed and unusable. Scary legends are told in the village about those areas:
«Alcuni pastori che avevano tentato di raccogliere le pecore e riportarle nelle stalle, avevano visto nettamente, tra le nuvole, apparire il Santissimo, un disco luminoso e raggiante, da cui si staccavano i fulmini che piovevano sulla cappella. Venti pecore erano state carbonizzate; uno dei pastori si era trovato, svegliandosi dal sonno, nudo come un verme. Era fuggito verso Morutri, inseguito da diecine di diavoli che uscivano dai ruderi della cappella saltabeccando e sibilando nel buio».
(F. Jovine, Le Terre del Sacramento, Torino, Einaudi 1972, pp. 60-61)
However, at a certain point in the story, Laura, the owner of the fiefdom, promises that part of the value of the land will be given in concession to those who agree to work it; the fear of the peasants thus fades, also thanks to the persuasive action of Luca Marano, a young intermediary between the peasant world and the noble one. For the first time the discreet dream of obtaining a job and a property, together with a new concept of dignity that makes its way through the consciences, prevails over the superstitious fear of not being able to cultivate those cursed lands.
Only at the end of the novel the reader and the workers will understand that they have been deceived. The socialist dream will be set aside with the re-establishment of the ancient hierarchies and the mothers will mourn the fallen of this peasant resistance according to ancestral and poignant rites:
«Quando la notte divenne buia, i vecchi accesero i fuochi alle spalle dei morti. […] “Non lo vuole la terra il tuo sangue cristiano. Difendevi le terre del Sacramento. Erano nostre, nostre le terre.” […] Cantarono grande parte della notte, rimandandosi le voci, parlando tra loro con ritmo lungo, promettendo tutto il loro dolore ai morti».
(F. Jovine, cit., p. 251)
“Le Terre del Sacramento” is the latest novel by writer and journalist Francesco Jovine, published posthumously in 1950 and winner of the Viareggio award. Only Jovine could have revealed with so much poetry and sincerity the essence of Molise, where he was born and raised. Although the author evidently denounces a very backward situation, his careful descriptions show the love for his native land and for its ancient traditions, still alive after a century of history despite the evolution of contexts and social dynamics
Even today during your trip to Molise you can hear legends about places haunted by ghosts or strange presences, you can see the elderly women dressed in black, mindful of a sacred and eternal mourning or notice the farmer who, despite the bad weather, hoes the hard and stony earth.
Rest assured that even the welcome will be what it once was!
Silvia Di Menna
Guardialfiera, province of Campobasso (photo: R. Vaudo)