Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Stolen Saint
Venice had all the makings of an independent trading centre - ports, a defensible position
against Charlemagne and the Huns, leadership to settle inevitable trade disputes - but no
glorious shrine to mark the city's place on the world map. So Venice did what any ambi-
tious, God-fearing medieval city would do: it procured a patron saint. Under Byzantine
rule, St Theodore (San Teodoro) had been the patron saint. But according to local legend,
the evangelist St Mark (San Marco) had visited the lagoon islands and been told by an an-
gel that his body would rest there - and some Venetian merchants decided to realise this
prophecy.
In AD 828, Venetian smugglers stole St Mark's body from its resting place in Alexandria
(Egypt), apparently hiding the holy corpse in a load of pork to deter inspection by Muslim
customs officials. Venice summoned the best artisans from Byzantium and beyond to en-
shrine these relics in an official ducal church that would impress visitors with the power
and glory of Venice. The usual medieval construction setbacks of riots and fires thrice des-
troyed exterior mosaics and weakened the underlying structure, and St Mark's bones were
misplaced twice in the mayhem. With Basilica di San Marco under construction, the
winged lion of St Mark was officially adopted as the emblem of the Venetian empire, sym-
bolically setting Venice apart from Constantinople and Rome.
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