Life in Venice/Basilica di San Marco

Walking across the narrow streets of Venice, you will know that you are approaching San Marco square, the biggest and most important in Venice, when you find yourself overwhelmed by the smell of Frankincense*, a typical smell of catholic churches. Then the Basilica of san Marco greets you with its huge domes, grotesque architecture that characterizes Byzantine churches. But the Basilica of San Marco is not like any other Byzantine Church and its magic does not only lie in its architecture… Before you enter the church and across the flocks of pigeons that fill the square, you will find in front of the main gates of the church three thin and very tall pillars each one ending with a golden lion, and where do these pillars come from? Alexandria, our own Alexandria! Ok for those who do not know San Marco or Saint Mark the Evangelist as we know him, here is s little bit of info that I believe every single Egyptian should know, for Christianity, I believe, is not just another religion whose believers are fellow Egyptians, Christianity is an integral part of our history that we hardly know anything about, although our Egypt has played a major role in Christianity that cannot be ignored. And although I'm not the best one to talk about that, I will try to give you some basic info about Saint Marc and his relationship with Alexandria and Venice… Saint Mark is one of the four Evangelists (the four writers of the Gospels, the other three are Mathew, Luke and John), and although he was not one of the twelve Apostles (the followers and companions of Jesus) he was called apostolic because he was a follower of Saint Peter, one of the Apostles and the pillar of the Roman Catholic Christianity. Saint Mark was born to a devoted Christian mother who was a member of the earliest believers of Jesus. He is believed to be one of the men who poured water during the marriage at Cana, when Jesus turned this water to wine. It is also believed that he hosted the apostles in his house after Jesus' death and into this very house Jesus visited his companions after his resurrection. Later on, Saint Mark left Jerusalem and went to Egypt, specifically Alexandria, to carry on his holly task and spread the word of Jesus into its lands. A job that would cost him his life, as he was resented by the Egyptians who have been worshipping their traditional Gods for thousands of years and would not give them away that easily. In the year 68 AD Saint Mark faced his martyrdom bravely when he was tied to several horses and dragged through the streets of Alexandria, a common and very famous killing method for heretics at that time. His remains were buried there for almost 8 centuries. During that time, Alexandria being the harbor of Saint Marc, became a centre of Christianity and it was there that Christianity spread to the whole of Egypt which was under the Roman reign that is famous for its fierce torture of the Christians, and it was also in Egypt that monasteries originated as a means of escape and keeping one's religion from the fierce and un-human attacks of the Romans who saw Christians as traitors, having their absolute faith in an unseen God rather than the Emperor and the Roman estate. In the year 828, two devoted Christian merchants from Venice, seeing how Egypt was being transformed into a Muslim country after the Arabic conquest, they stole the remains of Saint Mark and hid them under layers of pork, knowing that Muslims do not touch it, and that was the best way of smuggling the relics of Saint Mark safely to Italy. When they reached Venice, they were met with a ceremony and the Doge (Italian word for Duke) of Venice ordered that a huge cathedral would be built for the honor of San Marco as he came to be called in Italian. ************************ Venice is not like any other city in the world, and since everything it hosts is different, its main cathedral is also different from any other church you can visit. Before entering the cathedral, you can easily tell that it was built across an extremely prolonged periods of time, it is very obvious from the building style and the decorating fashions that work has been on and off in the cathedral through ages. Each of the three gates has a style of its own, and while going in, each single corner can be taken off its settings and serve as a work of art that does not match the rest of the church. And unlike any other church I have visited in Europe, where your neck aches after some time from carrying your inevitably up-lifted head, amazed by the fine details, the integration of colours, the huge walls carrying the domes and their decorations, the coloured glass allowing the shimmering day light to enter gracefully adding a delicate spiritual atmosphere, combined with the characteristic smell of Frankincense, the serene calmness that characterizes Catholic cathedrals and the sad faces of the virgin carrying her only son, sometimes as a beautiful baby and sometimes as a dead body of a crucified man, his hands and feet still bleeding from the huge nails that fixed him on his cross. In the basilica of San Marco (Basilica is an ancient Greek word for royal, now given to Big churches where religious ceremonies take place) you have to look down, because unlike other cathedrals where the floor is a layer of plain marble, this Cathedral has a full exhibition of mosaic and intricate colored pieces in its floor that every inch is a masterpiece of its own. But again, you can easily tell that it has been built across ages, for every square carries a different style, and in spite of the amazing details and the magical combination of colors, the whole scene can sometimes be annoying. I attended the Sunday mass which was of course in Italian so I didn't get a single word, but I wasn't there to understand the preaching priest, nor was I there to ask questions, I was there because there is something magical about churches and specifically Catholic churches and their masses that enchants me and attracts me like a spell, that I cannot visit any city in Europe without visiting its cathedral and attending the mass. I spent another hour in the cathedral absorbing the beauty of its art, the huge marble figures, the beautiful paintings, the breath taking tiny pieces of mosaic combining together in an unearthly harmonious way that tells you how a human hand can work wonders, how a human heart can create beauty from dead things, how human eyes can absorb what they see and how a human mind can capture all this and wonder about his very own nature and how he can be capable of miracles. I left the church overwhelmed by its art, and in my mind I was hearing one word that makes sense behind all what I saw inside, inspiration… To be continued * Frankincense is the resin taken from the trees of Boswellia serrata, also known as Olibanum or locally known as Liban Dakar, a historic incense with deep roots in Christianity as it was one of the gifts given to baby Jesus by the three wise men.