Early history , the
Cathedral of the Patriarch of Venice. The Venetian islands at first belonged to the diocese of
Altino or
of Padua, under jurisdiction of the
archbishop of Aquileia, believed to be the successor of
St. Mark. During the
Lombard invasion (568–572) many bishops of the invaded mainland escaped under protection of the
Byzantine fleet in the eastern lagoons. The archbishop himself took refuge in
Grado, where he was claimed as patriarch, during the
schism of the Three Chapters. At the end of the invasion, many of the ancient dioceses of the mainland were restored by the Lombards, while the exiles supported the new sees in the lagoons. Two patriarchs emerged: the
Patriarchate of Old Aquileia on the mainland and
Patriarchate of Grado. In 774 or 775,
Pope Adrian I and John IV, Patriarch of Grado, authorized the establishment of an episcopal see on the
island of Olivolo. The first bishop, Obelerius, was nominated, invested and enthroned by the
doge and consecrated by the patriarch. The Bishop of Olivolo was subordinate to Grado and had jurisdiction over the islands of Olivolo,
Rialto, Luprio, Gemini, Scopulo or
Dorsoduro, Spinalonga, Biria and other minor islands of the central group. The diocese's cathedral was
San Pietro di Castello. In 828 the body of Saint
Mark the Evangelist was smuggled from
Alexandria, Egypt, to Venice. When the ship reached
Olivolo island in Venice, the saint made signs (or so it was claimed) showing he did not want to be placed in the custody of the bishop. Instead, he was taken to the doge's chapel, and planning began to create a magnificent new temple,
St Mark's Basilica, suitable for such important relics. The legend that St. Mark himself had preached the Gospel at Venice grew up in later times. In 1074, the Bishop of Olivolo began to be styled the Bishop of Castello.
Enrico Contarini was the first to hold this title. In 1084 the Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos in his
Golden Bull recognized the full independence of Venice, along with freedom from tributes, trade restrictions and customs duties. The Republic of Venice began its
Golden Age under the Doge
Enrico Dandolo (1192–1205). Under him the French Crusading army of the
Fourth Crusade was used to bring
Trieste and
Zara under Venetian sway, and then to obtain a large part of the Latin Empire of Constantinople along the east coast of the Adriatic, most of the Peloponnesus and settlements in the Sea of Marmora, the Black Sea and the Aegean. The relationship between the bishop, the patriarch and the doge was complex. The bishops of Olivolo, and then Castello, were technically suffragans of the Patriarch of Grado. In practice they maintained independence. From the middle of the 11th century the patriarchs took up residence for most of the time at
San Silvestro, Venice, while the bishop was based at
San Pietro on the east of the city. An important role was played by the
primicerio, based in
Saint Mark's, who represented the doge and the city government. The
primicerio invested the bishops, abbots and patriarchs.
Patriarchate's history , the oldest throne of the diocese of Venice in the co-cathedral of
Saint Peter of Castello. It is likely an ancient Muslim gravestone transported from
Antioch by merchants. In 1451, upon the death of Domenico Michel, Patriarch of Grado,
Pope Nicholas V suppressed the Patriarchate of Grado and the
Diocese of Castello, incorporating them both in the new Patriarchate of Venice by the
Papal Bull "Regis aeterni." Thus Venice succeeded to the whole
metropolitan jurisdiction of Grado's ecclesiastical province, including the sees of
Dalmatia. In 1466 the territory of the Patriarchate was expanded by merging the suppressed
Diocese of Equilio. The election of the patriarch belonged to the Senate of Venice, and this practice sometimes led to differences between the republic and the Holy See. Likewise, parishioners elected their parish priests, by the
right of patronage. Girolamo Quirini,
OP (1519–54), had many disputes with the clergy, the Government, and the Holy See. To avoid these disputes, the Senate decreed that in future only senators should be eligible. Those elected after this were frequently laymen.
Giovanni Trevisan,
OSB (1560), introduced the
Tridentine reforms, founding the seminary, holding synods and collecting the regulations made by his predecessors (Constitutiones et privilegia patriarchatus et cleri Venetiarum). In 1581 the
visita Apostolica was sent to Venice; a
libellus exhortatorius was published, in which the visita highly praised the clergy of Venice. In 1751,
Pope Benedict XIV abolished the
Patriarchate of Aquileia by creating two new archbishops in
Udine and
Gorizia. With this act the Patriarchate of Venice became sole heir to the throne of St. Mark in northeastern Italy. After 1797 and the
fall of the Republic of Venice under the rule of
Napoleon, the bishopric rule of the doge on the Basilica and St. Mark's relics was lacking. Then in 1807, by favor of the
Viceroy of Italy, the Neapolitan Nicola Gambroni was promoted to the Patriarchate and of his own authority transferred the patriarchal seat to the Basilica of St. Mark, uniting the two chapters. He also reduced the number of parish churches from seventy to thirty. The work of enlarging the choir of the basilica brought to light the relics of St. Mark in 1808. In 1811 Napoleon intruded into the See of Venice
Stefano Bonsignore,
Bishop of Faenza, but in 1814 that prelate returned to his own see. In 1819 the
Diocese of Torcello and
Diocese of Caorle were merged in the Patriarchate of Venice, while the dioceses of the Venetian territory were placed under its
metropolitan jurisdiction. Cardinal
Giuseppe Sarto, afterwards Pius X, succeeded in 1893; he was refused recognition by the Italian Government, which claimed the right of nomination formerly employed by the
Habsburg Emperor of Austria and in earlier times by the
Venetian Senate, but after eleven months this pretension was abandoned. During the twentieth century three patriarchs of Venice achieved election as pope: Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, elected
Pope Pius X in 1903; Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, elected
Pope John XXIII in 1958; and Albino Luciani, elected
Pope John Paul I in 1978. , the
main altar: it retains inside the body of the
Apostle St. Mark the Evangelist. ==List of Patriarchs of Venice==