400 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi
lorenzo giustiniani (c.1381–1456) was the protagonist of an experience
of asceticism and flight from the world that aroused great interest in a
city whose human resources were entirely absorbed in the pursuit of an
extraordinary territorial expansion and economic power which reached
their apex in this century. Yet it was precisely a life of prayer and renun-
ciation, the search for the shadows and silence, and the assiduous practice
of charity that marked this patrician as the most qualified candidate for
the position initially of prior and later of superior general of the congrega-
tion of secular canons of san giorgio in Alga, a gathering of laymen which
in 1400 had retired from the world to live an intense spiritual life within
their small community. These same qualities, made even more evident
by the responsibilites he assumed in the direction of the congregation
of san giorgio, contributed to giustiniani’s elevation to the bishopric of
Castello (1433) and later to the prestigious post of the first Patriarch of
Venice (1451). A body of writings both ascetic and edifying in nature testi-
fies to his broad, though not particularly original, religious culture. The
Venetian senate tenaciously promoted giustiniani’s canonization, ideal-
izing him as the model Venetian patrician, capable of equal dedication
to his homeland and to the Church, equally at home in both one and the
other structure.47
A city still basking in its splendor but approaching a crisis was the
Venice in which gasparo Contarini (1483–1542) came to maturity. scion
of a ducal family and blessed with great intellectual and organizational
talents, his formative years were profoundly influenced by a friendship
with two other members of the patriciate, Tommaso giustiniani and
Vincenzo Quirini. The youthful trio was united by a fervent spirituality
which soon brought two of its members, giustiniani and Quirini, to take
monastic vows, the former in the Tuscan hermitage of Camaldoli. But
despite the intense inner spirituality that appeared in the correspondence
that continued to unite the three friends, the trio was never reunited in
the cloister, because Contarini did not share the desire for the monastic
life: in response to giustiniani’s persistent pleas, Contarini responded by
contrasting the dignity of the vita activa to the choice of the vita con-
templativa and arguing, in opposition to the solitude of the hermitage,
for the value of a Christian vocation to be realized in the world. What
he aspired to was, in truth, a political career, to which his ambition and
talents soon opened the door. Ambassador to emperor Charles V in 1520,
47 A biography of st. lorenzo giustianiani is in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,
vol. 66 (Rome, 2006), pp. 73–77.