Chapter 8, Part 1 Summary

This chapter is set fifteen years later, in May of 1910.

"Relics" pp. 234-242 This chapter begins with a reference to "the old Salina ladies," three elderly sisters whose right to have private masses in their home is, as the chapter begins, being investigated by representatives of the local Cardinal. That investigation, narration suggests, is being undertaken because the ladies have certain relics in their home that, according to rumor, may not be authentic. Eventually, narration reveals the ladies are the three daughters of the Prince - the authoritarian Concetta, the blunt-spoken Carolina, and the paralyzed Caterina. As the priests enter the chapel, they are surprised to see a sensuously-painted Madonna hanging behind the altar, and walls lined with "relics" (fragments of a saint's body or clothing). Narration describes how the sisters collected these relics through an intermediary, Donna Rosa, to whom...