Diskussion:Donatus von Arezzo

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Donatus von Arezzo (* um 300 in Nikomedia; † 7. August 362 in Arezzo) war der zweite Bischof von Arezzo.

Donatus von Arezzo war neben Johannes dem Täufer Schutzpatron des alten Bistums Meißen und ist neben dem hl. Benno von Meißen einer der Schutzpatrone des heutigen Bistums Dresden-Meißen.

Die Johanniskapelle steht geistlich im Zusammenhang mit dem 932 in Meißen gegründeten hersfeldischen Tauf- und Missionskloster Johannes des Täufers. Dieses Patrozinium wurde bei der Bistumsgründung 968 durch den in Deutschland recht selten verehrten Hl. Donatus (Bischof von Arezzo)]] ergänzt. 362 erlitt er den Märtyrertod unter dem römischen Kaiser Julian, dem dessen zahlreiche Heidenbekehrungen missfielen. Für den mit Italien vertrauten Otto I. hingegen könnten sie im 10. Jahrhundert ausschlaggebend gewesen sein bei seiner Wahl eines Schutzpatrones für das frisch eroberte und noch zu missionierende slawische Meißen. Eine Skulptur des Hl. Johannes des Täufers steht in der Johanniskapelle, eine des Hl. Donatus im Ostchor des Domes.


als „Apostel der Toskana“ bezeichnet

sein Wirken bei der Evangelisierung der Heiden war sehr erfolgreich

er hat auch zahlreiche Wunder bewirkt

Donatus von Arezzo

Kirche Santa Maria e San Donato auf der Insel Murano bei Venedig

Basilica di Santi Maria e Donato


April 20, 2011, 3:59 am

The secret history of art

The Dragon Bones of Saint Donato

https://web.archive.org/web/20140808064743/http://blogs.artinfo.com/secrethistoryofart/2011/04/20/the-dragon-bones-of-saint-donato/


Cathedral of Saint Maria and Donato

Murano, Venice

When it comes to slaying dragons, all sorts of techniques come to mind. Rather low on the list is spitting. But apparently the saliva of Saint Donato was sufficiently powerful to slay a dragon on the Greek island of Cephalonia, which was a Venetian possession in the 12th century.



Saint Donato himself was born in Arezzo, Tuscany in the 4th century where he would later become bishop. He was the childhood friend of the future Roman emperor Julianus. There is no record of Donato having ever visited the island of Cephalonia, but there is a lively record of dragons inhabiting the island (a pair of brothers slew another one in the 16th century). The story goes that Saint Donato challenged a dragon which was responsible for poisoning a local well on the island. The dragon was vanquished when the Aretine priest spat upon it. Odd and abrupt as legends go, but there you have it.


The cathedral of Murano was built in the 10th-11th centuries in the Byzantine style, but it really came to prominence in 1125, when Doge Domenico Michele moved the relics of Saint Donato into the church formerly known as Saint Maria. There was something of a duel between churches for who had the best, and most, relics. The rival neighboring church of Saint Stefano claimed to house the bones of two-hundred saints and, not to be outdone, Saint Maria was given the Donato relics, complete with the bones said to have been taken from the dragon slain by Saint Donato.


The bones were brought from Cephalonia in 1125, and the fact that there is no mention of Saint Donato having ever been to the island seems to have had no negative impact on the proliferation of the legend. In 1140 the church was rebuilt and redecorated, and the “dragon bones” were hung where they now rest, displaying behind the altar.


So what are they, if we are to assume for a moment that they do not belong to a dragon? They are huge, certainly much larger than the bones of European animals. Three huge curved bones, perhaps from a rib are most likely those of either a whale or an extinct Ice Age creature, such as a Mastodon. The church has not permit a scientific study of the bones, and so one must guess. But they are a tourist attraction, remembered more vividly and fondly than the artworks around them and the endless stream of colored glass for which the island is famous.

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