Marian Games

The year 932 was signalized by the remarkable event celebrated in song and story as the "Loss and Recapture of the Brides of Venice."

It is a curious illustration of the manners of a stormy and stirring time. A custom had long prevailed, that every year on St. Mary's Eve all the brides in Venice were to be married; so that there was but one marriage day each year for the nobles of the whole nation.

Each maiden brought her dowry with her in a small cassetta (chest). They went first to the church, and waited for the youths, who having come, mass was celebrated, and the bishop preached, and blessed them.

The bridal costume was always white, the hair flowing loosely over the shoulders interwoven with threads of gold. Gondolas, beautifully decked with flowers and flags, and gay with music, bore the procession of brides to the Church of San Pietro.

The sea-rovers of Trieste, not ignorant of the custom, had this year concealed themselves during the night in an uninhabited locality called Olivolo; and, as soon as the cortege and the beautiful brides had entered the cathedral, they leaped from their hiding-places, burst open the sacred doors, rushed into the midst of the dismayed multitude with flashing swords, and seizing the weeping, shrieking maidens, carried them to their barks, and hoisted sail for Trieste.

The doge (Candiano II.), who was present at the festival, arose in a storm of indignation, and summoned the men to arms.

Leaping into a few vessels, hastily put at their disposal by the Corporation of Trunkmakers, they plied their oars lustily in pursuit of the rovers. They overtook them in a creek still known as the "Porto delle Donzelle." Candiano led the attack, and the Venetians fought with such fury that not one of the sea-rovers escaped their swords.

The brides were brought back to the city in triumph; and in the evening of that eventful day the nuptial rites, so strangely interrupted, were celebrated with unusual pomp.

In memory of this event, a solemn procession of twelve young women took place yearly, and was attended by the doge and the priests to the Church of Santa Maria Formosa, in the trunkmakers' quarter.

The tradition runs, that, when the Doge Candiano proposed to reward the trunkmakers for the use of the vessels, this andata, or anniversary, was all they would accept.

The Marian Games, La Feste delle Marie as they were called, were observed with great splendor until the year 1379, the epoch of the disastrous war of Chiozzia, when they were discontinued, and soon lapsed into desuetude.

It was the custom to elect twelve maidens, two from each of the six divisions of the city; and it was determined by lot which of the centrades, or quarters, of the town, should furnish them with dresses. As this involved a great amount of competition, the dresses were of the costliest description; and frequently the jewels of the treasury of St. Mark were borrowed to enhance their splendor. The celebration commenced on St. Mark's Day, Jan. 31; the next day the procession passed through the streets of the city; and on the 2d of February they repaired to the Church of Santa Maria Formosa.

The festival attracted such a throng of visitors from all parts of Italy, that special police regulations were passed to preserve order, and the Council of Ten were twice summoned.