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Saint Pietro Orseolo
San Rocco, Venice
OSBCam, Doge of Venice
Born	928 Udine, Republic of Venice
Died	10 January 987 Cuxa, County of Conflent
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	1027 by Arnulf
Canonized	1731, Rome, Papal States, by Pope Clement XII
Major shrine	Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Feast	10 January 19 January (Camaldolese Hermits)

Pietro I Orseolo OSBCam, also known as Peter Urseulus, (928–987) was the Doge of Venice from 976 until 978. He abdicated his office and left in the middle of the night to become a monk. He later entered the order of the Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church.

Early life

Orseolo was born in 928 near Udine to one of the more powerful families in Venice: the Orseolo were the descendants of Doge Teodato Ipato and Doge Orso Ipato. At the age of 20 he was named commander of the Venetian fleet, performing distinguished service as a soldier; he waged successful campaigns against the Dalmatian pirates. He was also devoted to the Catholic Church. He had one son named Pietro II Orseolo, who also became a Doge, and a daughter who married to Giovanni Morosini, a member of the House of Morosini.

Reign

In 976, the sitting doge, Pietro IV Candiano, was killed in a revolution that protested his attempts to create a monarchy. According to a statement by the Camaldolese monk and cardinal, Peter Damian, Orseolo himself had led a conspiracy against Candiano. This statement, however, cannot be verified. Nonetheless, Orseolo was elected as his successor. His wife and consort was Felicia Malipiero.

As doge, Orseolo demonstrated a good deal of talent in restoring order to an unsettled Venice and showed remarkable generosity in the treatment of his predecessor's widow. He built hospitals and cared for widows, orphans and pilgrims. Out of his own resources he began the reconstruction of the ducal chapel, now St. Mark's Basilica, and the Doge's Palace, which had been destroyed during the revolution, along with a great part of the city. Two years later, on 1 September 978, seemingly without notifying anyone, not even his wife and children, he left Venice with Abbot Guarin and three other Venetians (one of whom was St. Romuald) to join the Benedictine (now Cistercian) abbey at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa (Catalan: Sant Miquel de Cuixà) in Prades (Catalan: Prada), southern France.

Here Orseolo led a life of great asceticism, performing the most menial tasks. There is some evidence that he had been considering such an action for some time. His only contact with Venice was to instruct his grandson Otto (who would become doge in 1008) in the life of Christian virtue. After some years as a monk at the abbey, probably with the encouragement of Saint Romuald (who later went on to found the Camaldolese branch of the Benedictines), Orseolo left the monastery to become a hermit in the surrounding forest, a calling he followed for seven years until he died. His body is buried in the village church in Prades (Catalan: Prada), France.

In 1733 the Venetian librarian Giuseppe Bettinelli published an edition of a biography written by the Friar Fulgenzio Manfredi in 1606.

Veneration

Forty years after his death, in 1027, Orseolo was officially recognized as a blessed by the local bishop.

Orseolo is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, his cultus having been confirmed by his equivalent canonization in 1731 by Pope Clement XII, who set his feast day for 14 January. The reform of the liturgical calendar in 1969 transferred the feast to 10 January, the day of his death. The Camaldolese order celebrates his memory on 19 January.

He is likewise also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with a feast day on 10 January.

See also

• Saint Pietro I Orseolo, patron saint archive

References

1. ^ "Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome". www.orthodoxengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
2. ^ "San Pietro Orseolo (Urseolo)". Santi e Beati (in Italian).
3. Marco Pozza (2015). "PIETRO Orseolo, santo". www.treccani.it/enciclopedia. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 83. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
4. Staley, Edgcumbe (1910). The dogaressas of Venice : The wives of the doges. University of California Libraries. London : T. W. Laurie.
5. Turton, W.H. (1928). The Plantagenet Ancestry. London: Phillimore.
6. Guido Grandi (1733). Vita del glorioso prencipe S. Pietro Orseolo doge di Venezia, indi monaco, ed eremita santissimo, primo discepolo di S. Romualdo fondatore dell'Ordine camaldolese; scritta da un religioso di detto Ordine . (in Italian). unknown library. per Giuseppe Bettinelli in Merceria.

External links

• Peter Urseolus at the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.

v t e Doges of Venice
Byzantine period (697–737) Paolo Lucio Anafesto Marcello Tegalliano Orso Ipato
Regime of the magistri militum (738–742) Domenico Leoni Felice Cornicola Teodato Ipato Jovian Ceparius John Fabriacus
Ducal period (742–1148) 8th century Teodato Ipato* Galla Lupanio* Domenico Monegario* Maurizio Galbaio Giovanni Galbaio* 9th century Obelerio degli Antenori*† Agnello Participazio Giustiniano Participazio Giovanni I Participazio* Pietro Tradonico† Orso I Participazio Giovanni II Participazio♦ Pietro I Candiano‡ Pietro Tribuno 10th century Orso II Participazio Pietro II Candiano Pietro Participazio Pietro III Candiano Pietro IV Candiano† Pietro I Orseolo♦ Vitale Candiano♦ Tribuno Memmo Pietro II Orseolo 11th century Otto Orseolo* Pietro Centranico* Domenico Flabanico Domenico I Contarini Domenico Selvo* Vitale Faliero Vitale I Michiel 12th century Ordelafo Faliero Domenico Michiel Pietro Polani * deposed     † executed or assassinated     ‡ killed in battle     ♦ abdicated
Republican period (1148–1797) 12th century Domenico Morosini Vitale II Michiel Sebastiano Ziani Orio Mastropiero Enrico Dandolo 13th century Pietro Ziani Jacopo Tiepolo Marino Morosini Reniero Zeno Lorenzo Tiepolo Jacopo Contarini Giovanni Dandolo Pietro Gradenigo 14th century Marino Zorzi Giovanni Soranzo Francesco Dandolo Bartolomeo Gradenigo Andrea Dandolo Marino Faliero† Giovanni Gradenigo Giovanni Dolfin Lorenzo Celsi Marco Cornaro Andrea Contarini Michele Morosini Antonio Venier 15th century Michele Steno Tommaso Mocenigo Francesco Foscari* Pasquale Malipiero Cristoforo Moro Nicolò Tron Nicolò Marcello Pietro Mocenigo Andrea Vendramin Giovanni Mocenigo Marco Barbarigo Agostino Barbarigo 16th century Leonardo Loredan Antonio Grimani Andrea Gritti Pietro Lando Francesco Donato Marcantonio Trivisan Francesco Venier Lorenzo Priuli Girolamo Priuli Pietro Loredan Alvise I Mocenigo Sebastiano Venier Nicolò da Ponte Pasquale Cicogna Marino Grimani 17th century Leonardo Donato Marcantonio Memmo Giovanni Bembo Nicolò Donato Antonio Priuli Francesco Contarini Giovanni I Cornaro Nicolò Contarini Francesco Erizzo Francesco Molin Carlo Contarini Francesco Cornaro Bertuccio Valier Giovanni Pesaro Domenico II Contarini Nicolò Sagredo Alvise Contarini Marcantonio Giustinian Francesco Morosini Silvestro Valier Alvise II Mocenigo 18th century Giovanni II Cornaro Alvise III Mocenigo Carlo Ruzzini Alvise Pisani Pietro Grimani Francesco Loredan Marco Foscarini Alvise IV Mocenigo Paolo Renier Ludovico Manin* † Marino Faliero (1354–55) was convicted of treason, executed and condemned to damnatio memoriae * Francesco Foscari (1423–57) was forced to abdicate by the Council of Ten * Ludovico Manin (1789–97) was forced to abdicate by Napoleon leading to the Fall of the Republic of Venice

• Saints
• Biography
• Catholicism
• Italy

• 928 births
• 987 deaths
• House of Orseolo
• People from Udine
• 10th-century Doges of Venice
• Camaldolese saints
• Italian Benedictines
• Italian hermits
• Medieval Italian saints
• 10th-century Christian saints
• Canonizations by Pope Clement XII