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| Santa Maria Assunta (Interior) - Torcello |
(Venice, Italy) It seems that every year August 15th is a glorious day here in Venice, both in terms of the weather and in spirit. Yesterday the temperature dropped, and we had strong winds and rain, as if the heavens themselves were sweeping the earth fresh and new for today, Assumption Day, the day that Mary Went Up to Heaven. Today it is sunny and warm, but not too hot, with plenty of pleasant, polite people, but not too crowded. Today Venice is just right.
If you are a long-time reader of
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog, you will know I have written about this day several times before.
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| Tower of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta as seen from Venice lagoon |
Here is an excerpt from 2011, a year I wrote an
extremely long post:
"The influence of the divine female energy upon Italy -- Venice in particular -- cannot
be underestimated. Before Venice came into power, another island in the
lagoon, the island of Torcello, was settled first.
After
the fall of the western Roman Empire, a wondrous city grew up on
Torcello, which was a distant outpost of the Byzantine Empire, trading
with Constantinople. One of the most important things to know about
Venice is that it did not exist
when the empire was based in Rome. It came into existence when the
Roman empire was based in Constantinople and called the Byzantium
Empire. We can imagine that some clever, enlightened people, free from
the direct rule of an empire, built up Torcello before the emperor in
Constantinople figured out what was going on. About the same time, the
story goes, authorities from Padua founded Venice proper at Rialto on
Friday, March 25, 421 at twelve-o'clock noon. Eventually these islands
in the Venetian lagoon would become what we now know as Venice.
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| Torcello - Santa Maria Assunta |
There
are all sorts of stories and myths about how Venice was created. I like
to believe that she -- because everyone agrees that Venice is female --
was born from divine female energy, just as a divine Mary gave birth to
the Son of God. To this day on the island of Torcello, there is a
church called the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, or the Cathedral of
the Assumption of St. Mary that was first founded in 639. Instead
of Christ over the altar, we have Mary.
The late Pope John Paul came
from Venice and startled the world when he proclaimed that 'He (God) is
our father; even more, he is our mother.' This celebration of divine female energy is something else that sets the European culture apart."
To read the entire post, click here:
Today was a true La Serenissima day. Happy Ferragosto!
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
It seems that every year August 15th is a glorious day here in Venice, both in terms of the weather and in spirit. Yesterday the temperature dropped, and we had strong winds and rain, as if the heavens themselves were sweeping the earth fresh and new for today, Assumption Day, the day that Mary Went Up to Heaven. Today it is sunny and warm, but not too hot, with plenty of pleasant, polite people, but not too crowded. Today Venice is just right.
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