page_title: Patriarch of Venice
section_title: Patriarchate's history
hierarchical_section_title: Patriarch of Venice / Ecclesiastical history / Patriarchate's history
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Chiesa di San Pietro di Castello a Venezia - Cattedra di San Pietro
context_page_description: The Patriarch of Venice is the ordinary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice. The bishop is one of the few patriarchs in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Presently, the only advantage of this purely formal title is the bishop's place of honor in papal processions. In the case of Venice, an additional privilege allows the patriarch, even if he is not a cardinal, the use of the colour red in non-liturgical vestments. In that case, the red biretta is topped by a tuft, as is the custom with other bishops who are not cardinals.
  The diocese of Venice was created in 774 as suffragan of the Patriarchate of Grado. It was only in 1451 that, in consideration of the political influence of the city, its bishops were accorded the title of patriarch by the pope.
  By a relatively recent tradition, the Patriarch of Venice is created a cardinal at the consistory following his appointment, although the pope is not bound by law to do so and is yet to do so for current Patriarch Francesco Moraglia, who remains an archbishop.
context_section_description: 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, O.P. (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 Trevisano, O.S.B. (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, no less than 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.
caption: Saint Peter's Chair, 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.
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