Composed in the space of five years (1817-1822), with various interruptions, rethinking and rewriting, La Pentecoste (Pentecost) is the greatest of Manzoni’s sacred poems. It celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, on the fiftieth day (as in the Greek of the title) after the Resurrection. Gathered together in the Cenacle with Mary and the other faithful followers, they formed the first nucleus of the Christian community, the humble and clandestine nucleus of a primitive Church. In the first lines the poet addresses the Church (Madre de’ Santi; immagine / della città superna), recalling that the descent of the Holy Spirit initiated the spread of that small community, through apostolic preaching and a renewal of humanity (su te lo Spirito / rinnovator discese, / e l’inconsunta fiaccola / nella tua destra accese). The hymn is based on the Holy Scriptures and the seventeenth century French moralists, whose influence is felt also in the first part of the Morale Cattolica (1818-19), which has much in common with this hymn. These sources are transfigured into intensely lyrical moments, especially in the second part, which depicts the popular and choral dimension of the sacred event while the first part focuses more on the doctrinal elements of the militant Church. Modulated in highly musical stanzas of seven-syllable lines (proparoxytone, paroxytone and truncated, as in the Cinque Maggio), the second part of the hymn evokes the effects of evangelization, lyrically and movingly describing the spiritual comfort that the new ideas of liberty, equality and justice bring to the souls of the humble and the oppressed. These ideas, together with comforting Grace, make it possible to accept the evils of the world in the certainty of future divine consolation (the vita migliore that Lucia speak of at the end of Manzoni’s novel). The majestic chorality of the final stanzas, describing a world morally enlightened and pacified by faith, end with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, invoked as a guide in all human actions, up to the supreme moment (brilla nel guardo errante / di chi sperando muor).

Manuscript of “Pentecoste” [in Immagini della vita e dei tempi di Alessandro Manzoni, collected and illustrated by Marino Parenti, Florence, Sansoni, 1973, p. 114]