The church of San Giorgio dei Greci is a religious building in the
city of Venice, located in the Castello district in calle della Madonna,
near the church of San Zaccaria. The bell
tower stands isolated towards the Rio dei Greci. It is one of the oldest
and most historic Orthodox churches in the Diaspora, together with the
church of Santi Pietro e Paolo dei Greci in Naples. It was for centuries
one of the most splendid Orthodox churches in the world.
Its
construction was made possible by contributions from the Orthodox Greeks
of Venice and Greek sailors passing through the city. The permission for
the construction of the church was granted by the Serenissima after
numerous requests and endless negotiations. Two social groups played a
very important role in obtaining this concession: the Greek mercenaries
who served under Venetian arms and the Greek intellectuals. The
construction of the building began in 1539 and ended in 1573.
The building became the
religious seat and the reference point in particular for the Greek
sailors passing through the city, whose profession of faith united them.
In November 1991, with a decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, the church became the cathedral of the Orthodox
Archdiocese of Italy and Malta.
Venice has always known the presence and contacts with Christians
from the Balkans and more Eastern who practice the Eastern rite being a
commercial port in continuous contact with the Byzantine Empire.
In 1081 the Venetians pledged to help the Greeks against the Normans of
Roberto il Guiscardo who was preparing to attack the Byzantine empire;
in exchange, the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus promised, and granted in
1082, the pre-eminence over all other merchants to the Venetian
merchants, so that Roberto il Guiscardo was defeated by the fleet of the
Doge Domenico Silvo.
The pact between the emperor and the Doge
was fundamental for the Republic of Venice, as it marked the beginning
of its political, military and commercial power in the Near East where
its ships could sail.
After 1092 a migratory flow of Venetian
traders developed who reached Constantinople, while many Greek merchants
went to Venice.
With the Fourth Crusade (of 1204), the Venetians
took possession of a large part of the Byzantine Empire (the western
coast of Greece, the Morea, Naxos, Andros, Euboea, Gallipoli, Adrianople
and the ports of Thrace on the Sea of Marmara) so that the displacement
of the Greeks of those lands was facilitated. These were mainly occupied
in navigation and trade, as well as in various other trades.
The Greeks, Christians of the Orthodox rite, who arrived in Venice
used to pray at the church of San Giovanni in Bragora, where papas
Michalis, son of Cosmàs da Eubea, officiated according to the Byzantine
rite. In April 1412 the Council of Ten referred his case to the
inquisitor of heresy, who sentenced the priest to exile. A month later,
the same Council annulled the sentence of the ecclesiastical magistrate,
however forcing the priest to renounce the exercise of sacred offices
under pain of being confined to life. In 1430, papas Michalis, who
continued to officiate according to the Byzantine rite in the parish of
San Martino, was condemned with the threat of exile for five years and
expelled from Venice. In the same year the Council of Ten forbade two
other Greek ecclesiastics to celebrate in Venice and decided to destroy
the chapel erected in the house of Demetrio Filomatis, where Greeks
gathered to practice Orthodox worship.
In 1445, immediately after
the Council of Florence (1439), Pope Eugene IV ordered the bishop of
Castello, Lorenzo Giustiniani, to allow Greek priests to celebrate the
sacred offices without obstacles according to the Byzantine rite, both
in the church of San Biagio and somewhere else.
After the
beginning of the 14th century, the Ottoman threat to Greece became more
and more substantial, forcing a large number of Greeks to take refuge in
Venice; with the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 the Greek diaspora
towards Venice increased further and the number of refugees grew with
the expansion of the Ottoman advance, so that the Greeks became the most
important foreign component in the capital of the Serenissima; so much
so that in 1479 the total population of the Greeks reached about 4,000
people, while the entire population of the city counted on 150,000
souls.
With the increase in the Greek population, their need to
exercise worship according to the Byzantine rite increased, which until
then they practiced only in the small church of San Biagio, which also
served as a Latin parish church. So that the Greeks appealed to the
Serenissima and the pontiff to be able to build a church where they
would officiate according to oriental customs. Now the Greeks were no
longer considered schismatics, but Catholics united with the Roman
Church while practicing the Byzantine rite.
On 18 June 1456 the
Venetian Senate granted the relevant permit and construction of the
church began. But when the Venetians realized that the majority of
Greeks intended to remain orthodox and did not accept union with the
Catholic Church, they stopped the construction of the church and limited
their religious functions to the church of San Biagio only, granting
them space inside the church. inside the church itself.
The
attempts of the Greeks, who were not willing to make concessions either
to the Pope or to the Patriarch of Venice, continued in the following
years too, without any result. Furthermore, in the decree of the Council
of Ten of 28 March 1470, the Greeks were called "sectatores grece
heresis" (heretical followers of the Greek rite) and "schismatics".
On November 28, 1498, the Greeks tried again and applied to the
Council of Ten for the foundation of a "Confraternity of Greek Orthodox
or Greek Nation" (School) which would have San Nicolò as its patron and
the church of San Biagio as its headquarters. On the same day the
request was granted and the statute was immediately drawn up, approved
by the Venetian authorities. They were also allowed to elect their own
priests. Nonetheless, the space problem remained unsolved.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Greeks revived the question
of worshiping in one of their churches. For this purpose, the Greek
soldiers (stradioti) were considered more suitable, who, due to their
great contribution to the wars of Venice against the Ottomans, enjoyed
respect and particular benevolence with the authorities.
In the
request that the Greeks submitted to the Council of Ten on 4 October
1511, they asked for permission to purchase building land to build a
church dedicated to their patron Saint George. The request was accepted,
but definitive approval was given by the Doge himself on 30 April 1514,
after the purchase of the land was ascertained. The Greeks obtained
permission to build a church with a bell tower and annexed cemetery,
with the obligation to pay annually a contribution of five pounds of
white wax, which however was never paid, nor was it ever requested.
On June 3, 1514, Pope Leo X with a Brief confirmed the consent for
the construction of its own church with a bell tower and with the use of
a cemetery. Later the Greeks managed to obtain the issuance of another
bull by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), with which they were granted the
privilege of not being subjected to the jurisdiction of the patriarch of
Venice.
On April 3, 1514, the Greeks nominated Teodoro
Palaeologus of Mistrà (captain of the stradioti), Andrea de Zeta of
Servia, Paolo Coressi of Constantinople and Matteo Barelli of Corfù as
their procurators. These, on 27 September 1526, bought land from Signor
Pietro Contarini di Agostino from London, paying 2,168 ducats.
After obtaining the approval of the Council of Ten of the Serenissima,
and after having spontaneously offered 500 ducats to the Signoria, they
began to build a church and some small cells for the use of priests, and
on 13 March 1527, the first day of Lent, the first mass by the first
chaplain (then elected) Giovanni Augerinò of Kefalonia.
However,
the church was not what we see today; that was of rough workmanship
built temporarily, to leave that of San Biagio and to be able to collect
from the charity of compatriots what was needed for the foundation of a
better and larger church. This is why in 1536 a wooden model was made
which respected the methods and characteristics according to oriental
use with the apse to the east. And on November 1, 1539, during the
administration of Marco Samariari of Zante, the first stone was laid
with great solemnity.
During the long period that goes from the
beginning of the fourteenth century until 1577, the year in which
today's church was completed, discord arose in the Greek community of
Venice between pro- and anti-unionists so that, on March 6, 1542, Pope
Paul III he reacted by reviving the decree of 1534, which required Greek
chaplains to be approved by the Latin patriarch of Venice. In 1546, the
Metropolitan of Caesarea Metrophanes III visited Venice and Rome. He was
the exarch sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius
II (1546-1555) to Venice to resolve the discords born in the Greek
community of Venice. When the "Greek case" seemed to have subsided, Paul
III himself retraced his steps and on June 22, 1549 he revived the bulls
of Pope Leo X which gave Greeks freedom of worship.
In 1564 Pope
Pius IV annulled all the privileges granted by his predecessors (Leo X,
Clement VII and Paul III) to the Greeks of Venice. In 1573 the
"Congregation for the reform of Greeks living in Italy" was founded and
three years later (1576) the Greek College of Rome was opened.
Venice was the seat of a metropolitan who bore the title of
Philadelphia of Lydia. The Eastern rite community throughout its
history, especially the more recent one, oscillated between temptations
to follow the union agreements of the Ecumenical Council of the
Christian Churches of Basel, Ferrara and Florence (1431-1445) and the
strong ties with the orthodoxy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople.
After some prelates, who had already officiated
in the church of San Giorgio, in 1572 the chaplain Gabriele Severo (a
native of Malvasia; † 1616) arrived in Venice and in 1577, as
metropolitan of Philadelphia in Asia Minor, became the spiritual head of
the Greek Orthodox of Venice and forced by the Serenissima to remain in
Venice.
Between the years 1579-1591 a dispute arose between
Severus and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah II. The
latter, to limit the power of the metropolitan of Philadelphia, in 1579
issued a "seal" with which he proclaimed the church of San Giorgio dei
Greci in Venice directly dependent on the patriarchate of Constantinople
and with a letter of 1591 he threatened Severo with deposition, in case
he does not return to his headquarters in Asia Minor within six months.
In the end both problems were resolved thanks to the opposition of the
Greek Brotherhood (1583) regarding Jeremiah's first claim and to the
intervention of the Republic which supported the permanence of the
metropolitan in Venice. In this way the settlement of the Metropolitan
of Philadelphia was established in the lagoon city. From that moment the
metropolitans were called exarchs, legates and patriarchal vicars. The
overseas Orthodox churches, i.e. those of the Ionian Islands, Dalmatia
and Istria, also submitted to their spiritual jurisdiction.
From
Severus' successor onwards, the metropolitans were elected by the
General Chapter of the Confraternity, kept the title of "Philadelphia"
and depended directly on the diocese (of Philadelphia), not recognizing
the authority of the Pope. For Venice, the allocation of the
metropolitan of Philadelphia in the capital did not mean the
introduction of any novelty in the ecclesiastical status of the Greeks;
according to the Serenissima, the metropolitan was not a "second" bishop
in Venice, as claimed by the Holy See, but the religious head of his
Greek Orthodox subjects.
XVIII century
The Brotherhood of the
Greek Orthodox followed the fate of the Serenissima. With the arrival of
the Napoleonic troops and after the fall of Venice (1797) the decline of
the community was inevitable. Deposits in the bank and the church's
precious objects and vestments were confiscated; the Greeks of the
brotherhood sought a new homeland in other commercial centers of Italy
(Trieste, Livorno etc.) or returned to Greece, contributing to the
decline of the Greek colony of Venice and the end of the institution of
the metropolitan of Philadelphia, an institution which it was considered
very important by the Greek world of the time. In 1798 the title of
Philadelphia returned to its old seat in Asia Minor. From then on the
Greek Confraternity of Venice continued to elect the chaplains of San
Giorgio.
20th century
After the end of the Second World War,
although it still retained an important part of its movable and
immovable assets, the brotherhood had only 30 members. At this critical
moment the diplomatic efforts of Greece and Italy and the determination
of the last members of the Brotherhood succeeded in saving not only the
patrimony, but also its cultural heritage.
In November 1991, by
decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Sacred
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Exarchate for Southern Europe
was established and its first metropolitan was installed.
The construction of the building, in late Renaissance style, began in 1536[20] based on a project by Sante Lombardo and the works were completed in 1561 under the guidance of the architect Giannantonio Ciona (originally from Ciona, a hamlet of Carona). The exterior of the building was finally completed in 1571 with the construction of the dome.
The interior has a single nave structure and is covered with frescoes
by Giovanni di Cipro, with a two-order wooden choir (dating back to the
period between 1574 and 1577) along the side walls and a pulpit by
Giovanni Grapiglia from 1597 Opposite the pulpit is an early work by the
architect Baldassare Longhena, the cenotaph of Archbishop Gabriele
Severo of Philadelphia, who died in 1616.
The iconostasis is
characterized by marble decorations and paintings by Michele Damasceno
depicting various saints and, on the architrave, the Twelve Feasts. The
decoration of the iconostasis is completed by an anonymous Byzantine
Christ Pantocrator, dating back to the end of the fourteenth century and
placed in the central part and a series of eighteenth-century Greek
school paintings on the sides and along the pillars.
Also in the
hieron there is a fresco by Michele Damasceno (Apostles and Greek
Saints), on the small apse above the main altar, while the apse and the
triumphal arch are covered with mosaics from the early seventeenth
century. There are also numerous other pictorial works: Ascension by
Giovanni Ciprioto, the panel Last Supper by the Cretan Benedetto
Emporios and Deposition by Michele Damasceno.
On the walls of the
chapel that houses the altar of the Preparation there is an icon of the
Virgin with a silver jacket, which was brought to Venice from
Constantinople following the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453.
The work dates back to XIII-XIV century and is the oldest icon preserved
in the church.
The furnishings of the church are completed by a
lectern from 1663 in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl and four bronze
candelabra from the early seventeenth century.
In the building adjacent to the church there is a small museum of Greek-Byzantine icons and sacred Orthodox vestments.
The bell tower stands alone in the churchyard towards the Rio dei Greci and is the work of Bernardo Ongarin. Built between 1587 and 1603, today, strongly inclined due to a subsidence of the foundations which, according to the chronicles, already occurred during the construction phase and before the belfry was completed.
George Trivisios (* before 1423; † 1485) of Crete, chaplain in the
church of St. George (c. 1464-after 1482)
John Rossos (1480- )
Metrophanes, Metropolitan of Caesarea (1546-1547)
Pachomios Macris,
bishop of Kefalonia and Zakynthos
Gabriele Seviro, hieromonk;
Metropolitan of Philadelphia from 1577 (1572-1616)
Theofanis Xenakis,
priest and reviser of ecclesiastical books (1617-1632)
Nicodemus
Metaxàs, archbishop of Kefalonia and Zakynthos (1632-1635)
Attanasio
Vallerianò, bishop of Cerigo (1635-1656)
Meletios Chortatsis of
Crete, priest, teacher and writer (1657-1677)
Methodius, patriarch of
Constantinople from 1668 to 1671; (1677-1679)
Gerassimos Vlachos of
Crete, theologian, philosopher and philologist (1679-1685)
Meletios
Tipaldos, Metropolitan (1685-1712)
Pierantonio Muazzo, vicar-governor
of the church of San Giorgio (1741-1758)
Spiridione Milia,
vicar-governor of the church of San Giorgio (1758-1761)
Sofronios
Cutuvalis, archbishop of Kefalonia and Zakynthos (1780-1790)
Gerassimos Ziguras, chaplain of the church of San Giorgio (1790-1820)