Massimo Alberti and Benedetto Maironi

Massimo Alberti and Benedetto are joined by a mentor-student bond that continues to shape Massimo after Benedetto’s death. As a student in Roma, Massimo encountered him in a village in Lazio and found in his living presence a certainty that had eluded him; later, the very depth of his reverence made it difficult to honor Benedetto publicly once Massimo no longer shared the faith that had defined his teacher. Their relationship therefore persists as more than remembered affection: Benedetto’s example becomes the measure against which Massimo tests his own doubts, duties, and honesty.

The Teacher Who Anchored Massimo’s Faith

Before meeting Benedetto, Massimo had already been troubled by religious doubts. He recalls himself as mentally adrift until, while studying in Roma, he met the man who became his master. Massimo adored him, and while Benedetto lived, Massimo says that doubt did not disturb him. His devotion to the teacher and his confidence in the Roman Catholic Church were closely intertwined: he would gladly have given his life for his faith and the Church, and although he could imagine wishing that Church authority would take a different course in particular matters, rebellion against it did not occur to him.

Benedetto’s influence did not rest on argument alone. Massimo regarded his teacher’s own life as evidence for the Church, more persuasive than any case he could make in speech or writing. That personal authority explains why the relationship remained powerful when Massimo’s intellectual position changed. Benedetto had been a teacher whose presence quieted doubt; after his death, memory could no longer settle Massimo’s questions, but it gave them a human and moral weight.

Separation and the Unraveling of Belief

After Benedetto died, Massimo initially continued in the faith they had shared. Over time, however, his understanding of the Church’s treatment of his teacher, the hostilities directed at Benedetto’s disciples, and Massimo’s own engagement with religious criticism all contributed to a gradual disintegration of belief. In a letter to Donna Fedele, Massimo describes the change as painful rather than triumphant. He fears that Catholicism may be a historical form from which a new religion will emerge, and wonders whether he should become one of the people who proclaim that possibility. The question is agonizing partly because he cannot separate it from the memory of the man who had once made faith seem secure.

The impending funeral brings that private crisis into direct conflict with public obligation. Benedetto had believed unwaveringly in the Church’s enduring life and in obedience to its authority. Massimo now doubts both the Roman Catholic Church’s future and, increasingly, the divinity and resurrection of Christ. He recognizes that his departure from Rome has exposed doubts that religious obligation had long kept under pressure. The prospect of losing belief in a personal God frightens him; in a night of acute distress, he kneels before a devotional image and begs for faith, then turns in anguish to the thought of Lelia. These episodes show a man struggling not simply to reject his teacher’s convictions but to understand what remains of himself when they no longer hold.

The Funeral as a Test of Fidelity

Massimo undertakes practical work for the funeral even as he doubts whether he can participate in it honestly. He arranges for Benedetto’s body to be transported by steamer from Porto Ceresio to Oria. The friends who have entrusted him with the burial arrangements also expect him to speak at the graveside. Yet for Massimo, a public address would imply adherence to beliefs he no longer holds. Refusing would seem an injury to Benedetto; accepting would feel nearly like hypocrisy. He therefore completes the arrangements but declines to deliver the speech, explaining to Don Aurelio in a letter that he no longer feels able to speak as a Catholic.

The distinction between private and public homage defines Massimo’s predicament. He remains happy to honor Benedetto privately as friend and master, and the memory of Benedetto remains sacred and dear to him. The public ceremony, by contrast, would give his words a religious meaning he cannot honestly claim. His refusal is not indifference: it arises from the seriousness with which he regards both Benedetto’s convictions and his own changed state. The relationship makes silence costly, but also makes insincere speech seem worse.

Memory, Example, and Continuing Influence

Benedetto’s influence survives in the standards Massimo applies to himself. His teacher’s Catholic faith and obedience remain the very qualities Massimo can no longer affirm, but they also prevent him from treating the funeral as a mere social obligation. Even in crisis, he measures his choices against Benedetto’s example and fears dishonoring the dead man either by refusing him or by speaking falsely in his name. Their bond thus gives Massimo’s religious doubt an intimate dimension: the question is not only what he believes, but how to remain truthful before someone he loved and revered.

At the funeral, Don Aurelio speaks in Benedetto’s defense, presenting him as a faithful son of the Church who called believers back to the spirit of the Gospel and whose life embodied religious faith in action. He also asks the mourners to forgive those who condemned or mocked Benedetto, and to refrain from judging people whose difficulties they cannot know. This public tribute articulates the tradition Massimo once shared with his teacher, but it does not erase the distance between Massimo’s present belief and Benedetto’s. Instead, the funeral completes the relationship’s central tension: Massimo honors the memory of his master through practical service and grief, while refusing a public declaration of faith he can no longer make. Benedetto remains both the source of Massimo’s former certainty and the measure of the honesty with which he faces its loss.