Patriarch of Venice

Patriarch of Venice
Archbishopric
catholic
Francesco Moraglia, the current Patriarch of Venice
Coat of arms
Incumbent: Francesco Moraglia
Location
Ecclesiastical province	Patriarchate of Venice
Information
First holder	Lawrence Giustiniani
Established	1451
Diocese	Archdiocese of Venice
Cathedral	Saint Mark's Basilica
Website
www.patriarcatovenezia.it

The Patriarch of Venice (Latin: Patriarcha Venetiarum; Italian: Patriarca di Venezia) is the ordinary bishop of the Archdiocese of Venice. The bishop is one of only four patriarchs in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. The other three are the Patriarch of Lisbon, the Patriarch of the East Indies and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Presently, the only advantage of this purely formal title is the bishop's place of honor in papal processions. In the case of Venice, an additional privilege allows the patriarch, even if he is not a cardinal, the use of the colour red in non-liturgical vestments. In that case, the red biretta is topped by a tuft, as is the custom with other bishops who are not cardinals.

The diocese of Venice was created in 774 as suffragan of the Patriarchate of Grado. It was only in 1451^[1] that, in consideration of the political influence of the city, its bishops were accorded the title of patriarch by the pope.

By a relatively recent tradition, the Patriarch of Venice is created a cardinal at the consistory following his appointment, though nothing requires the pope to do so. The current patriarch Francesco Moraglia has not been made a cardinal.

In the last centuries of the Republic of Venice (to 1797), exceptionally among Catholic bishops, the patriarch was elected by the Venetian Senate, who always chose a member of one of the hereditary patrician families of the city, and usually a layman who was only ordained to take up the patriarchate. The papacy obliged them to pass an examination in theology, though many evaded this.^[2] Usually the new patriarch was a Venetian diplomat or administrator, as with Lorenzo Priuli in 1591 or Francesco Vendramin in 1608, though some were career clerics, who had usually been previously in positions in Rome, such as Federico Cornaro in 1631. The patriarchs normally remained in Venice, and in this period none were elected pope. Since the end of the republic, patriarchs have rarely been of Venetian origin, and three of them became pope in the 20th century alone: Pius X (1903), John XXIII (1958) and John Paul I (1978).