A gorgeous shrine with an interesting connection to the history of the shrines of Venice.
This corte in Castello was the birthplace of Doge Domenico Michiel, who ruled Venice from 1118-1130. He was a medieval hero who led the Venetian fleet to victory in a number of decisive Mediterranean battles, defeating the Egyptians, taking control of Tyre, and greatly expanding Venice’s territory and trade routes.
In 1128, Doge Michiel decreed that lamps should be lit each evening in all the city’s shrines, a public works project of sorts that made Venice the first city in the world to have street lights. The decree specified that parish priests were responsible for lighting the lamps each night and that the government would pay for the oil and the lamps. How cool to think about wandering around Venice after dark with the only lights being those in the shrines.
While traveling around the Holy Land defeating infidels, Doge Michiel picked up a few interesting souvenirs that can still be seen in Venice today. The first is the enormous rock that resides on the high altar of the Baptistery of the Basilica di San Marco. I remember the first time I saw this thing….it looks so out of place next to all the polished marble and mosaics because it’s basically just this huge slab of rough granite that must weigh a ton. Doge Michiel hauled it home because it’s the rock that Jesus stood on when he gave the Sermon of the Mount.
The other relic that he brought back is even quirkier. San Donato is a 4th century dragon-slaying saint, similar to St. George, and Doge Michiel brought the saint’s relics back to Venice where they reside in church of San Donato on Murano. But he not only delivered the saint, he also brought the bones of the dragon the saint killed (!) and those bones are hanging on the wall behind the high altar (that area has been roped off when I’ve visited this church, so I haven’t seen the dragon bones yet!).
Doge Michiel is unusual in that he didn’t die in office like most doges, he retired and entered the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, and his tomb is in that church.
The image in the Corte Michiel shrine is “Cuore Immacolato di Maria,” the Immaculate Heart of Mary.