Don Tita

Don Tita is the archpriest whose dealings with parishioners and fellow clergy connect several of the novel’s conflicts: the campaign against Massimo Alberti, the removal of Don Aurelio, and the efforts to influence Lelia’s choices. His blustering humor and instinct for ecclesiastical advantage can make him look like a schemer, but the narrative complicates that impression. He is portrayed as limited in judgment and sometimes self-serving, yet also as a basically honest and faithful churchman.

Position and Manner

Don Tita’s authority is expressed through familiar clerical routines and a highly recognizable manner of speech. He laughs loudly, repeats words when surprised, and peppers exchanges with deferential forms of address. Donna Fedele, who visits him to test whether he will confirm rumors about Massimo, watches his eyes and listens for the small signs that might betray what he knows. His exaggerated geniality does not prevent her from pressing him; when she raises the allegation that Massimo is involved with a married woman, Don Tita is so startled that he stammers before recovering enough to deny personal interest in the matter.

His response reveals both his evasiveness and his limits. He says he knew of the accusation but that the secret belonged to someone else, identifying Don Emanuele as its owner. The narrative suggests that the information reached him through his housekeeper, who had been listening and gossiping. Donna Fedele makes him wait under her questions, but after she accepts coffee and pandoli, she stops the interrogation and speaks to him more calmly. She regards him as weak rather than deeply duplicitous, poorly formed rather than naturally base, and possessed of a blunt, penetrable kind of astuteness. She also recognizes his disinterestedness and sincere wish to serve God. Their encounter therefore introduces a recurring ambiguity: Don Tita is capable of concealment and maneuver, but his faults are not presented as proof that he lacks all good faith.

Don Aurelio’s Departure and the Parish

The conflict over Don Aurelio exposes Don Tita’s public authority and the limits of his credibility. When the people of Lago di Velo learn that their priest must leave, the local headman convenes family fathers and urges orderly appeals to the church superiors rather than a disturbance or pressure on the priest. Don Tita rebukes their first delegation, calling its members ignorant and presumptuous. The rebuff deepens local resentment. Don Aurelio himself asks the parishioners not to press their case, but the villagers continue to seek an extension from the bishop, and a second delegation receives promises from Don Tita that he will act and write on their behalf.

The parishioners listen respectfully to Don Aurelio but do not follow his request to abandon their efforts; nor do they trust Don Tita’s assurances. The account presents him as an intermediary whose reassuring words cannot overcome the community’s suspicion, heightened by his earlier treatment of the delegation. Meanwhile, Don Aurelio’s departure is not merely rumor. Don Tita comes to celebrate in his place at Santa Maria ad Montes, explaining to Marcello Trento that he has been sent by order of the archpriest. Marcello has to draw out the explanation: Don Aurelio is not ill, has left the area, and has written that he recognizes his duty to go. Don Tita’s account makes the removal official to the household, while its belated and reluctant delivery leaves the circumstances feeling concealed rather than openly resolved.

Rumors, Lelia, and Clerical Influence

Don Tita’s role in the rumors surrounding Massimo becomes more active in his conversation with Francesco Molesin. As the two discuss the death of Marcello Trento, the will, and the situation at Montanina, Don Tita raises doubts about Girolamo da Camin’s household in Padua and warns against the possibility that Montanina might pass to Massimo. When Francesco Molesin asks whether the report is true, Don Tita confirms that Lelia attempted to run away and recounts his own interpretation of the episode.

In Don Tita’s telling, Lelia refuses to live with her father, Donna Fedele cannot keep her if her father insists, and the remaining months before Lelia’s majority offer an opportunity to evade that control. He describes a plan in which Lelia would flee by train to Piedmont, staying among Donna Fedele’s relatives until she was free to decide for herself; he also claims that Donna Fedele had brought Massimo from Milan and met him in a secluded place by the Astico River to conspire. These details are Don Tita’s allegations, not an impartial account of the plan. His report turns Lelia’s attempt to escape into evidence of a supposed scheme and places the young woman’s choices inside a clerical struggle over her future.

He also seeks to guide Lelia toward religious observance. When she asks where Donna Fedele intends to travel, Don Tita learns that she might be willing to visit Monte Berico. He eagerly encourages the possibility, then returns privately to suggest that the inspiration comes from the Madonna and that Lelia should meet a Servite priest. The narrative distinguishes Don Tita’s hope that she will approach the sacraments from Don Emanuele’s more ambitious designs. Don Tita considers Lelia unconventional and religiously inexperienced, but trusts that the Church’s paternal mercy can accommodate her once she is brought back into its practice. He does not share the chaplain’s hope of steering her into a religious life.

Advancement and the Limits of His Politics

Don Tita’s own advancement becomes visible when a letter from his cardinal uncle announces that he is to be made bishop. The news excites the household: Girolamo da Camin’s servant tells Francesco Molesin that Don Tita, Siora Bettina Fantuzzo, and Don Emanuele have gone to church after hearing it. Don Tita’s appointment is then publicly known, and he is recalled to Vicenza for its official communication. The promotion gives new weight to the earlier picture of him as an ecclesiastical operator, but it does not confirm the ambitions others attach to him. Don Emanuele expects to become his secretary and praises him at a meal; the narrative explains that Don Tita flatters the chaplain while intending to rid himself of him.

The account’s judgment of Don Tita is deliberately mixed. His conduct can be clumsy, his practical concern for the Church can shade into political calculation, and his handling of parishioners and private information leaves room for distrust. Yet the narrator explicitly calls him an honest and faithful servant, even while noting that he lacks greater intelligence, learning, and evangelical warmth. His charity is uneven: he has little understanding for those who stray in faith, while his responses to other human failings are tempered by an older, more forgiving sense of human weakness. His appointment therefore reads neither as simple vindication nor as a joke at his expense. It sharpens the contrast between institutional success and spiritual understanding, while preserving the possibility that a flawed churchman may sincerely serve an institution whose power he also helps administer.