Excerpt from Term Paper:
We know now that more than one dark night who visited the Ay Lands ostensibly to “rout out the infidel” actually had a more pragmatic agenda: that they brought home loot, everything they will could physically handle plus anything more they will could weight on bunch animals and enlist the help of a squire or a fellow traveler to help them carry away.
In this context, therefore , it’s none very unexpected nor out of the realm of possibility the particular one particular number of mercenaries did find a chance for an actual gold mine to come their very own way-if not really the Holy Grail, then a decent second decision!
Thus it was in 829, the story goes, that two merchants smuggled the body of St Mark from the original funeral place in Alexandria, Egypt, to Venice, where point the Doge promptly declared the church as the apostle’s official burial place and appropriated him as the modern patron st .. This in and of alone wasn’t problems; a town could, after all, have more than one customer saint-and without doubt, they reasoned, where better would The almighty want to bestow this kind of honor than Italy?
However , declaring a saint’s “official” burial destination to be in one particular spot, every time a substantial quantity of Egyptian people could staunchly disagree and even prove or else… now, there was a sticky political issue. The people of Venice had been, after all, a godly kind who couldn’t live a lie pertaining to too long… and fortunately, they will didn’t need to.
Where the tale sprung up, history won’t tell us accurately. But emerge it do, a story completely plausible for the pious people today belonging to the time, and one that honored Venice much more in the discount. Seems in the fourth century-or so the holy men said-Mark was in fact in northern Italy, visiting the Venetian Lagoon, when he fulfilled an angel. The angel greeted him, “Peace to you, Mark, my personal Evangelist. inch Since Mark’s honored position as an evangelist was thereby approved and officially recognized by The almighty himself, it stood to reason that Venice had been preordained and also his last resting place, designated thus by the angel. Would any person argue with God at that time? Not likely, especially since the Doge so plainly believed God would have this no additional way. Therefore, Mark started to be the second recognized patron st of Venice.
As for so what happened to Theodore-no, the Venetian blinds didn’t give him to Alexandria within a sort of godly “exchange software. ” What they did to you was put up two statues, one intended for Mark and one for Theodore, in the area adjacent to the house of worship. This created a unique figure to the whole piazza, having on one hand the Doge’s property, on the other the home of The almighty, and in the center… a house of justice. Certainly, prisons had been located in the nether regions below the Doge’s house, and the Bridge of Sighs was later so named since prisoners believed as they entered that connect to the dungeons, they might well never start to see the beauty in the lagoon as well as its islands again. But well before that, when Venice had its two patrons accessible to supervise citizens’ carry out, the poste soon became a center of not only man’s justice although God’s. Convicted criminals had been executed between these two saints’ images, and soon father and mother even started to use the words and phrases “your fate will be involving the saints” to discipline disobedient children (www.ertrav.com/pathways/html/sanmarco.asp)!
But would the Venetian blinds themselves, while bestowing this honor on both their patrons, feel a ongoing guilt? Are these claims what motivated the “spare no expense” approach to building this house of praise? They may include, if one takes the approach that taking St Mark’s body system from Alexandria was a bit more than one more example of “sacred plunder” about which (no matter what the Doge says) one feels a little anxious.
However , Mark’s body may well not have been plunder at all; it may, indeed, have been a legitimate relic, and a single taken while using most altruistic of motives.
When the evangelist first perished, early Christian believers had to combat against the Alexandrian custom of cremation to prevent his remains from growing in smoke cigars. No quicker had that battle been won although Muslims got control of the location, and many Crusaders honestly assumed those same Muslims were going to desecrate o ground-so they wanted to receive Mark out of there to avoid the unthinkable (http://www.photo.net/italy/venice-san-marco). In order to do therefore , history recounts, they hid the remains to be between pieces of pig; since pig was not just considered soiled by Jews but unacceptable to Muslims, the inspectors wouldn’t proceed near it, and the smuggling mission-holy or otherwise-was successful.
Even all things considered that effort to secure the evangelist’s remains to be, however , these people were still thought lost inside the fire of 976… till they “miraculously reappeared” when the new church was consecrated in 1094. Miracle, or perhaps political manipulation? Many citizens would never know, and more often than not we won’t, either.
Because of the value we have on hand to behold-one which has withstood more than its share of problems to stand today-perhaps is actually not crucial to know which usually story is definitely authentic. Perhaps motivations and secret sins are less crucial than the labor of love that is certainly St . Mark’s and all it stands for. Perhaps all that actually matters is actually we can see prior to us, a treasure which has lasted numerous years-one that uplifts the spirit plus the senses. Maybe that, in and of itself, is sufficient proof that without a doubt “the winged lion” still watches over Venice which has a special fondness.
Works Consulted
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eTrav Pathways – Basilica of San Marco. 1999 -2002. eTrav Educational Travel Cha?non..
Hillman Quality Publications. St . Mark’s Basilica and Tour..
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Web Gallery of Art, Kren, Emil and Marx, Daniel. A Scene from your Life of Saint Draw by Paolo Venezian..
Internet Gallery of Art, Meerrettich, Emil and Marx, Daniel. Labours from the Months (detail) by Gothic Sculptor..
Zang, Ulla. Venice San Ambito. 2000, 2001, 2002. Photo. net.
http://www.photo.net/italy/venice-san-marco
