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Sergeant Pietro Oliva was a good Catholic. He liked to go into a church and cross himself, genuflect to the alter, and then settle down to a little prayer and contemplation, savouring the coolness, the heavy odours, the darkness, and the sensation of being soaked in the atmosphere of centuries’ worth of devotion that hung in the tenebrous and golden air of churches.

Sergeant Pietro Oliva was a good Catholic. He liked to go into a church and cross himself, genuflect to the alter, and then settle down to a little prayer and contemplation, savouring the coolness, the heavy odours, the darkness, and the sensation of being soaked in the atmosphere of centuries’ worth of devotion that hung in the tenebrous and golden air of churches.

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Louis de Bernières
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Historical period not yet established
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Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 171180; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.