Original scientific paper
MARIAN SANCTUARY IN MONTEORTONE IN THE LAST WILLS OF THE CROATIAN IMMIGRANTS IN VENICE (MID 15TH – BEGINNING OF 16TH CENTURY)
Lovorka ČORALIĆ – Maja KATUŠIĆ
Abstract
Important part within the investigation of history of the Croatian community in Venice is analysis of its religious life including expressions of devotion and relation to the Venetian
ecclesiastical institutions and clerics. Since they were Catholics, Croatian immigrants originating from Slavonia, Istria, Lika, Krbava, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and Boka kotorska perfectly fitted within the ethnically diverse but religiously predominantly Catholic
community of the Venetian lagoon. Investigation of religious daily life and devotion of Croatians in Venice through reading of archival sources revealed that many of testamentary legacies were connected with pilgrimages and bequests to various well known sanctuaries. The main topic of this article is analysis of testamentary bequests of the
Croatian immigrants in Venice to the Marian sanctuary in Montertone (today a part of Abano Terme, Provincia di Padova). On the basis of archival sources kept in the Venetian state Archives (testamentary records from the mid fifteenth century and the beginning of
the sixteenth century) authors have analyzed all the general characteristics of all the Croatian immigrants in Venice, who in their testaments mentioned this Marian sanctuary. In the second part of the article authors portrayed some examples of analyzed testamentary legacies that consisted mostly of substitute pilgrimages to Monteortone, celebration of holy mass within local churches and other bequests to the churches in Monteortone. Authors emphasize that these testamentary legacies of the Croatian immigrants in Venice
correspond to the time when blessed Gracija, who originated form Mul in Boka kotorska, resided in the Augustine sanctuary in Monteortone. At the end authors concluded that this sanctuary in Monteortone – though it was not as important as other famous Italian
sanctuaries like Assisi, Rome and Loreto – played an important role in the religious life of Venice, and therefore it should be investigated more thoroughly in future.
Keywords
Monteortone; Venice; Venetian Republic; blessed Gracija from Mul; Croatian migrations; pilgrimages; late Middle Ages; ecclesiastical history
Hrčak ID:
135380
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2014.
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