Miguel Mayor – wikipedia

Miguel Mañara It is a mystery in six paintings written by the Lithuanian playwright Oscar Vadislas de Lubicz Milosz in 1912.

The work refers to the biography of Don Miguel Mañara Vincentelo de Leca, a Spanish religious who lived in Seville in the seventeenth century.

The whole story is set in Seville in the year 1656.

The first picture opens in the Palazzo del Rozzo Don Jaime, in which, despite being a period of Lent, a sumptuous banquet was set up, to which numerous knights agreed. Among them there is also Don Miguel Mañara dei Vincentelo de Leca, a dissolute young, admired for being a shameless seducer of women of every social class. During the evening, however, Don Miguel, with a long speech, admits that he is increasingly bored by his lifestyle and not to feel any pleasure anymore.
Towards the end of the banquet, moreover, he is drawn aside by Don Fernando, an old knight friend of the deceased parents of Don Miguel, Don Tomaso de Leca and Girolama Anfriano. After expressing his disgust for the absence of morality in his conduct, he reveals that he is also extremely sorry for the miserable condition in which he pours. He therefore decides to invite him to participate together with the Sunday mass in the Caridad church in Seville, where he intends to make him know the young and pure Girolama Carillo de Mendoza.
When, then, all the guests leave the room, he presents himself to Don Miguel a spirit which reveals that he is the shadow of his past life.

The second picture is set in the garden of the Carillo de Mendoza house, in which Miguel and Girolama Carillo are located. Some time has passed since their first meeting in the Caridad church, and the two started getting to know each other.
During the interview with Girolama, Don Miguel Mañara is struck by the purity and simplicity of the girl, different from every woman frequented until then.

Finally, the young man, thanking Girolama for having taken him from the abyss in which he was sunk, asks herself courage, asks her to marry him. The question is therefore accepted by the girl who vows to love him for eternity … but after only three months of marriage, Girolama dies.

In the third picture, in fact, the young woman appears, lying on a bed of death, on which Don Miguel is crying. During this fact, the gentleman is also tormented by the visions of the spirits of the earth. When, however, spirits move away, Miguel is comforted by the appearance of the spirit of heaven.

In the fourth panel Mañara goes to the Caridad church for an interview with Abbot. At the end of the intense and profound dialogue, Miguel retires to the convent.

The fifth picture takes place in front of the Caridad church, where numerous faithful are leaving, after listening to a sermon by Miguel Mañara. Many religious are commenting on the speech, of which the great ability to move the hearts and touch the heart, with a very simple language, is especially praised. Suddenly Johannes Mendelez, a crippled one, also released, released after fourteen years of prison, and despised by the population.
The invalid therefore approaches Miguel, to whom he reveals that he has been, in the past enemy of God and that he had had a difficult life. However, as soon as the beggar declares to identify God with love, Don Miguel orders him to throw away crutches and walk by himself. The paralytic gets rid of crutches and begins to stand up alone. Immediately, the crowd present begins to shout to the miracle and to invoke the blessing of Mañara.
The sixth and last picture is set in the courtyard of the Caridad convent, just before dawn. Don Miguel, now elderly, enters the scene. Suddenly a stranger is presented to him wrapped in a cloak, which reveals himself as the spirit of the earth came to try it one last time. Don Miguel manages to give up and the spirit vanishes, to give way to the spirit of heaven. Just at that moment Miguel dies and his lifeless body will be found by the Giardiniere Friar.