religious life 395
were merely local saints, like lorenzo giustiniani, who died in an “odor of
sanctity” and was venerated by his fellow citizens long before his cult was
officially recognized in 1690.
We shall briefly track the popularity of giustiniani’s cult so as to delin-
eate the ways in which this osmosis between official and popular piety
might be manifested. The first patriarch was invoked by the faithful in the
case of plague, and preferred even to sebastian and Roche, the saints tra-
ditionally called upon in such instances and officially canonized. This was
likely owed to the fact that civic tradition still preserved memories of gius-
tiniani’s repeated interventions, first as canon and then as bishop, both in
organizing the city’s devotional life with processions, rites and penitential
lauds against the plague, and in interceding with Pope Nicholas V to grant
particular indulgences to those who aided the plague-stricken. The lau-
rentian cult was promoted by members of his congregation (san giorgio
in Alga), by the patriarchate who hoped to see the canonization of its
illustrious founder, and by the Republic who stood to gain prestige from
the sanctification of a member of its own ruling class and one who had
participated in various diplomatic missions in its favor. All of the above
promoted the veneration of giustiniani among the populace: keeping the
memory of his actions alive, commissioning from Jacopo Bellini a half-
length funerary statue in order to favor his contact with the devout for
healing purposes according to the demands of popular piety, and having
him depicted visually as a beato. The first request to institute a regular
canonization trial for giustiniani was forwarded to Rome by the Vene-
tian senate less than twenty years after his death, in concurrence with
the alliance between the papacy and Venice for the crusade against the
ottomans. The question became urgent, however, by the post-Tridentine
period, when the cult of saints was enjoying enormous success; having
a saint who had been a member of the patriciate and a founder of the
Venetian patriarchate would represent an important diplomatic card to
play in Venice’s negotiations with the monarchies of europe. giustiniani’s
canonization was obtained only at the end of the 17th century, and with
the help of a Venetian pope. it coincided with a phase of political and
military recovery for the Republic that needed to be given a certain luster:
in the context of the Morea campaign, Venetian troops had reconquered
the fortresses of Malvasia, Canina, and Valona, an enterprise for which
the Serenissima would gain international recognition nine years later at
Carlowitz. According to its pope, Venice’s religious piety “would be the
preservative of its duration until the end of time,” and the Republic’s
new commitment to battle against the ottomans helped it to merit the