Rome Newsroom, Mar 25, 2021 / 17:00 pm
Venice traces its founding back to 1,600 years ago when the cornerstone of its first Catholic church was laid on the feast of the Annunciation.
The Italian city of canals and lagoons celebrated its 1,600th anniversary Thursday with a Mass in St. Mark’s Basilica.
The Patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, said in his homily on March 25 that the city of Venice was built on “foundations that were not only human and therefore transitory, but in some way transcendent.”
“Venice wanted to link its beginning and its history to a foundational event of the Christian faith and so the city joined the Mother of Jesus, Mary, with whom it will always maintain a direct and uninterrupted thread,” Moraglia said.