Entre claustro e cátedra São Lourenço Justiniano e as transformações de um modelo de santidade

Abstract

In 1956, the commemoration of the fifth centenary of the death of St Lawrence Justinian, Protopatriarch of Venice, made him the object of interest of historians and theologians. The studies produced at the time, which highlighted his spiritual and reforming dimension, his life journey and his prelatic activity, received ample encouragement from Patriarch Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli.The interest of the future John XXIII in his predecessor in the Patriarchate, and the sense given to the research by the various authors, reveal the appeal that the figure of the first Patriarch of Venice would have for the contemporary world.Between the profile of holiness constructed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and its recovery by the Venetian Church in the twentieth century, it is possible to discern different visions of Lawrence Justinian, born of the particularities of each era, and the mirroring that each one did on the profile of the Protopatriarch. While at first Lawrence Justinian was praised for the perfection of his life and for being an exemplary prelate, the 20th century focused on his reforming and theological dimension, recovering for the aggiornamento movement of the Church all his exemplary qualities as a pre-Tridentine reforming prelate.