medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Meg,
Mark's putative relics arrived in Venice well before the Fourth Crusade. In 829 the Venetian doge Giustiniano Particiaco (also Participazio) left money in his will for the erection in his city of a church to house M.'s remains (apparently not including M..'s head, which Alexandrians still claim to have).
The narrative portion (BHL 5284) of the tenth-century Translation of St. Mark to Venice provides a nicely detailed story of how these remains got there from Alexandria. As its cast of characters includes representatives of different places in the early duchy and includes a lengthy evocation of a Venetian trading fleet on its return journey from Egypt, it might be a good text for your student to deal with (assuming her/his Latin is okay). See Nelson McCleary, "Note storiche ed archeologiche sul testo della 'Translatio sancti Marci,'" _Memorie storiche forogiuliesi_ 27 (1931), 223-64, with an edition of the Translation at pp. 235-64. McCleary's dating of the text to the eleventh century is exceptional.
The present San Marco was begun in the eleventh century, when M. was replacing the soldier-saint Theodore as the duchy's principal civic patron. Ashes said to be those of T. (Teodoro, Todaro) repose in Venice's chiesa di San Salvador (though, as all in the Regno know, the saint's remains really repose in the cathedral of Brindisi). Here's a view of his statue on a column erected in the later twelfth century in the Piazzetta next to the Doges' Palace:
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050527-005.jpg
St. Zachary's putative remains have also been in Venice since the ninth century. See (e.g.):
http://tinyurl.com/phrmw
Venice's chiesa di San Lorenzo is an originally ninth-century church built over the foundation of a sixth-century predecessor.
The _diocese_ of Venice is commonly thought to date from ca. 775 and medievally was never coextensive with the duchy. Torcello in the northern part of the lagoon considered itself the home of the diocese of Altino in exile and venerated saints from that part of the _terraferma_, e.g., Heliodorus of Altino and Liberalis of Altino.
In general, you might have a look at G. Musolino, A. Niero and S. Tramontin, _Santi e Beati Veneziani_. Quaranta profili_ (Venezia: Edizioni Studium Cattolico Veneziano, 1963). Also, John Osborne, "Politics, Diplomacy and the Cult of Relics in Venice and the Northern Adriatic in the First Half of the Ninth Century," _Early Medieval Europe_ 8 (1999), 369–386.
Best,
John Dillon
On Sunday, November 25, 2007, at 2:20 pm, Meg Cormack wrote:
> Hi again,
> On a totally different topic, I have a student who wants to do a Venice-related
> project. It strikes me that everything we 'know' about saints in
> Venice, such as its association
> with St. Mark, is the result of relics etc. that arrived in the wake
> of the fourth
> crusade. But what were the major saints in Venice *before* the
> crusade? For that matter,
> I´d be interested in post-crusade material as well, or a survey of the
> changing ecclesiastical
> landscape. Any suggestions? I should add that the student in question
> is going to be
> in Venice, and will be able to visit existing churches, which could be
> compared with
> medieval ones, etc.
> Thanks,
> Meg
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