Pietro I Orseolo
Pietro Orseolo (Latin Petrus Urseolus; * 928 Rivo Alto in Udine, † 10 January 987 in Cuxa in Perpignan, France) was 976-978 Doge of Venice, and is a saint of the Catholic Church.
Family
Pietro came from a very influential in the 10th and 11th century noble family. He married 946 Venetian nobleman Felicitas Malipiero. This connection came from Pietro II Orseolo, who was elected head of the Mark Republic later as his father.
Life
On August 11, 976 a group of conspirators plunged the Doge Pietro IV Candiano and killed him. During this uprising, the conspirators set fire to the palace Candianos, then the uncontrolled spread and also the churches of San Marco, San Teodoro and Santa Maria di Zobenigo and more than 300 houses destroyed. The following day, Pietro Orseolo was elected to the church of San Pietro di Castello for the Doge.
According to tradition itself Orseolo has actively participated in the overthrow of his predecessor. His few years later made withdrawal from politics and from worldly life at all appreciated Peter Damian in his Vita et acta Sanctissimi patris et partriarchae Romualdi, fundatoris Camaldulensium as atonement.
During his brief tenure as Doge Orseolo occurred mainly as a founder in appearance. The reconstruction of the Doge 's Palace and the work at the new building of the church of San Marco, he was mainly perform at his own expense. The golden altarpiece ( Pala d' oro ) was donated by him. He had given the decorated with sapphires, emeralds, rubies and enamel inlay artwork in Constantinople Opel in order. Thousand pounds in gold to Orseolo have distributed to the victims of the fire of 976, and once again he donated the same sum for the poor.
In the foreign policy of the Republic, he did not set new accents. He kept good relations with the Byzantine Empire maintained and renewed the treaty of protection with Koper in Istria.
In order not to further suspend the Republic of the Candiano family revenge, he decided to forever leave Venice and join a monastery. Thus the office of doge for a man to be free, who belonged to none of the warring political blocs in the lagoon city. In the night of 1 to 2 September 978 he left secretly and went to the Benedictine Abbey of Cuxa in Roussillon at the foot of the Pyrenees. In this monastery he is said to have led an exemplary monastic life, the Holy. Romuald has been his spiritual companion for some time.
As a saint
In the 11th century, Pietro Orseolo was revered as a saint. Officially, the worship was before 1731 by Pope Clement XII. permitted. Commemoration of the Holy is the 10th of January.
Representation
The hl. Pietro Orseolo is mapped either as a monk or in the guise of the Doge.
In the workshop of Giovanni Bellini was born in 1490 an image that represents Pietro Orseolo and his wife Felicita Malipiero as praying. It is owned by the Museo Correr in Venice.