Many have subscribed to the idea that the Promessi Sposi is a “novel of Providence”. Critics have read the work as a dramatic and difficult “Christian Odyssey” experienced by the protagonists and other characters according to a providential plan with a positive final outcome. In the close relationship between faith and reason characterizing Manzoni’s religious beliefs and literary poetics, Providence is the rational order governing the manifestation of God’s will in human history in general and in the lives of individuals. Father Cristoforo, the character in Manzoni’s novel who is depicted as the highest executor of God’s plan for humankind, clarifies the notion of “Providence”. After the failure of his conversation with Don Rodrigo, he is unexpectedly helped by Don Rodrigo’s servant who warns him about his master’s evil plans for Lucia. At this, he thinks (and tells the young couple) that he has found a “thread” offered by Providence. Like Ariadne’s thread in the mythical labyrinth, the thread of Providence should enable the “humble” of this world to save themselves from the physical and moral dangers of life. However, the intricate nature of the developments taking place before Renzo and Lucia can be reunited give rise to a number of issues, if not the actual existence of the providential plan, at least its comprehensibility. Trusting in and complying with Providence, Father Cristoforo sends Renzo to Milan to a friar who is to help him, and Lucia to the convent at Monza to the woman who is supposed to protect her. Things turn out badly in both cases, on account of the misfortunes that befall the two young people in precisely those places they were sent. In the novel, Providence seems closer to “chance” or “coincidence” rather than to a comprehensible design: it reunites the betrothed couple with the help of the plague, but the plague also kills Father Cristoforo, the champion of Christian charity, while leaving the hero of selfishness, Don Abbondio, alive and well.