184 | Fleeing “the Vomit of Infidelity”
Contrary winds forced the fleet to remain in Milos for several days; when
the winds changed, they sailed for nearby Crete, where the women lodged in a
monastery before setting out again for Venice. Outside Cerigo contrary winds
forced the ships back to Milos, where the captain anchored the fleet beyond the
main port, anticipating that the flight of such prominent women might have cre-
ated a disturbance. In fact, several of the island’s chief men quickly came to his
ship and anxiously requested that the women be disembarked so that no Otto-
man officials would think “that this was done with the consensus of [the island’s]
inhabitants.” Mocenigo initially claimed that there were no women on his ships;
however, when his visitors countered that they had spoken to Maria, he warned
that even if he were “cut to pieces,” he would not turn them over. The women
remained on board, and shortly thereafter the fleet set out again for the relative
safety of the Adriatic Sea, which was under Venetian control.
In July, Maria and her daughters finally arrived at the fortified island of
Corfu, where they settled into a house in the center of the main town. Corfu was
not an entirely alien cultural space for Maria, and she proved highly effective at
navigating the political, ecclesiastical, and social structures there. On July 15, im-
mediately after her arrival, she had Santo Burlion, “one of the chief gentlemen of
that city” (and her soon-to-be son-in-law), represent her in an audience with the
island’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Benedetto Bragadin. Anticipating many of
the issues that arose in the intense negotiations over their status, this audience
was scripted to present the story in the light most favorable to Maria’s family. The
narrative emphasized several key points, to which she, her daughters, and their
supporters returned during several subsequent inquiries. First, the women were
all Christians and possessed a profound faith; second, they had fled Milos of their
own free will; and third, anticipating one of the central legal issues that arose in
the wake of her flight, they had voluntarily left behind many valuable goods and
now lived in great poverty. Witnesses—including merchants from Milos and the
fleet’s quartermaster—appeared before the archbishop and corroborated the ac-
count’s details. Bragadin was impressed by what he heard and ordered an official
letter of support to be prepared for Maria.
The decision to have Burlion, a well-respected member of the island’s Latin
rite community, present her case before Bragadin hints at Maria’s political savvy
in negotiating the numerous sensitive issues surrounding her family’s flight. She
practiced the Eastern rite and portrayed herself (and there is no reason to doubt
her claims) as exceptionally pious and committed to her faith. Thus, we might
reasonably assume that upon her arrival in Corfu she would have sought recon-
ciliation with her religious birth community by meeting with the island’s chief
Orthodox cleric, the megas protopapas. Instead, she chose to have her case heard
by the archbishop, the most prestigious and powerful religious official on Corfu.
Bragadin came from an important Venetian patrician family: this gave him