SAINT PIETRO ORSEOLO

FEAST DAY: 10 JANUARY 987 AD

DIED: CODALET,FRANCE

Orseolo was born in 928 near Udine to one of the more powerful families in Venice:
the Orseolo who were the descendants of Teodato Ipato and Orso Ipato. At the age of 20 he was
named commander of the Venetian fleet, performing distinguished service as a soldier; he waged
successful campaigns against the Dalmatian pirates. He was also devoted to the Catholic Church

In 976, the sitting doge, Pietro IV Candiano, was killed in a revolution that protested his
attempts to create a monarchy. According to a statement by the Camaldolese monk
and cardinal, Peter Damian, Orseolo himself had led a conspiracy against Candiano. This
statement, however, cannot be verified. Nonetheless, Orseolo was elected as his successor. His
wife and consort was Felicia Malipiero. As doge, Orseolo demonstrated a good deal of talent in
restoring order to an unsettled Venice and showed remarkable generosity in the treatment of his
predecessor's widow. He built hospitals and cared for widows, orphans and pilgrims. Out of his
own resources he began the reconstruction of the ducal chapel, now St. Mark's Basilica, and the
doge's palace, which had been destroyed during the revolution, along with a great part of the city.
Two years later, on September 1, 978, seemingly without notifying anyone, not even his wife
and children, he left Venice with Abbot Guarin and three other Venetians (one of whom was
St. Romuald) to join the Benedictine (now Cistercian) abbey at Saint-Michel-de-
Cuxa (Catalan: Sant Miquel de Cuixà) in Prades (Catalan: Prada), southern France.Here Orseolo
led a life of great asceticism, performing the most menial tasks. There is some evidence that he
had been considering such an action for some time. His only contact with Venice was to instruct
his son Otto (who had become doge in 1008) in the life of Christian virtue. After some years as a
monk at the abbey, probably with the encouragement of Saint Romuald (who later went on to
found the Camaldolese branch of the Benedictines), Orseolo left the monastery to become
a hermit in the surrounding forest, a calling he followed for seven years until he died. His body is
buried in the village church in Prades (Catalan: Prada), France.
SAINT PIETRO ORSEOLO

OUR SIMILARITIES

GOOD

“Demonstrated a good deal of talent” “His wealthy man on his family’’

“Showed remarkable generosity” “His energetic and skillful”

“Excelled in humility” “His a model of humanity”

“Devotion to prayer” “Charity and self-denial”

“He had a passionate and complex personality.” “He has spiritual”

PRAYER OF SAINT PIETRO ORSEOLOS

First of all, SAINT PIETRO ORSEOLOS, thank you for all

The sacrifices that you have done. You are the one of the saints that teach us all.

How to pray to our god and you teach us the word of god.

~AMEN~