The Festa delle Marie in Venice is one of the most important events of the Venetian Carnival: it stages the famous kidnapping as well as the subsequent rescue of twelve brides that happened in Venice at the time of Doge Candiano III in 943.

Since the ninth century, it had been the custom in Venice to bless on February 2, the feast of the Purification of Mary, all couples who were to marry during the year. Among the participants of the blessing, which took place in the church of San Pietro di Castello, the twelve poorest women were chosen.

They were dressed in splendid clothes and adorned with precious jewelry borrowed from the most important churches of the city. During the ceremony, the rich Venetian families of the city presented the young ladies with donations; the Doge sometimes even lent them jewels from the treasury of Saint Mark’s Cathedral.

However, in 943 pirates from Istria came to Venice and they kidnapped all the brides, robbing them of their jewelry and taking them as brides themselves. Together with a group of brave men, the Doge pursued the pirates and near Caorle, 60 km north-east of Venice, the Venetians caught up with them and freed the twelve brides to bring them safely back to Venice. In Caorle, all the pirates were killed and their bodies were thrown into the sea so that no one could commemorate them. In honor of the ladies, the port where they were rescued was called “porto delle donzelle” and it is still called that.

To commemorate the rescue and to thank St. Mary for the happy outcome, the Doge created the Festa delle Marie in Venice, celebrated every year with a beautiful procession through the city to show everyone the beauty of the girls and their elegant dresses, supported by the Venetian aristocracy. Along with the procession, the Doge also organized regattas, festivals and other events to give Venice an eight-day celebration every year.

Marian feast: The young women were replaced by unattractive wooden statues

The original feast was held for many centuries, until 1349, when the ladies were represented by wooden figures. This decision was made because the Venetians, and not only them, were more interested in wooing brides than in following religious ceremonies. The decision soon became quite unpopular and the male population in particular reacted with indignation and anger to the replacement, as citizens began to throw objects and vegetables at the figures.

In the same year (1349), the Republic of Venice had to pass a law stipulating that anyone throwing vegetables at the procession of wooden figures was punishable by imprisonment, but this only further weakened the reputation of the Marian festival. Thirty years later (1379) the Marian feast was finally abolished in Venice.

From these episodes comes a common saying in Venice: Venetians still say Maria de Tola (literally, Mary the Wooden Board) to refer to a cool, detached woman.

The revival of the Festa delle Marie in Venice

However, the Festa delle Marie in Venice was gradually forgotten until Bruno Tosi, a well-known Venetian journalist and cultural critic, decided to revive the festival and in 1999 he made it one of the opening events of the Venice Carnival. The beauty of the ladies and their dresses was indeed ideal to give the carnival an ideal start.

In the modern version, twelve girls are selected by a jury from the applicants, who must either be born in Venice or be residents of the lagoon city, and the parade with more than 300 participants moves from San Pietro di Castello to St. Mark’s Cathedral. The event is fantastic, because all the dresses and ornaments correspond to the originals of the Renaissance in Venice. Then, in Piazza San Marco, the Maria of the Year is chosen by the jury.

The Marian feast on the Venice Carnival

For more on this year’s Festa delle Marie in Venice, as well as the famous Venice Carnival, click here.

The official website for the Festa delle Marie in Venice is: festadellemarie.com. Official information about the Venice Carnival can be found here: carnevale.venezia.it/en.

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This article was first published on salvati.photography.