Day 10 of our Greek Island Travel Devotional Tour began with us back in Ravenna going through the off-boarding process from our cruise ship to get us to buses that would take us to Venice.
We were herded down the plank off the ship, into an exceedingly long walk in the sun with our luggage, until we were finally corralled until the buses. I thought I heard mooing.
Three attempted robberies
On our way from Ravenna to Venice, our bus stopped at the same rest stop we had stopped at when traveling in the opposite direction on Day 3. I wondered if Nurse Ratched would be waiting inside again for us. She was.
The line was long, but the man in front of me said, “the men’s line is over here,” and he walked to the right past the entire line on his left. There were men in the line he bypassed, so I said, “Are you sure?” But he just kept going. This is how people act after a week of being herded like animals–all the niceties and unspoken rules about queuing up are tossed aside, and its every bovine for himself.
This time, I had a 1 euro coin and my nephew behind me in line. Having been robbed a week ago at this pay-to-play privy, I was determined to get my money’s worth. I inserted the coin and entered, and then called my nephew through as well, but the turnstile would not turn. This time I preemptively scowled at Nurse Ratched and indicated the problem, and she let my nephew through without a scene.
The remainder of the trip to Venice was uneventful until a pickpocket standing next to me while waiting for our water bus to Venice was seen with his hand in a woman’s purse. Fortunately, the guy behind me saw it, yelled at him, and he quickly left.
By the time we dropped off the bags at the hotel, everyone was starving. Elisheba bought a sandwich at one of the cafes near St. Mark’s Square. As she was walking along and eating the sandwich, a seagull swooped over her head, grabbed the sandwich out of her hand, and carried it off to who-knows-where.
This was now the third attempted robbery on the group in a few short hours (one by machine at the rest stop, the second on the platform by the pickpocket, and the third by a bird). Fortunately, the last was the only one to succeed. I mention all the attempts though as a warning to other GSB readers who may venture to Italy.
Venice – Round 2
By the time we were able to head out on our last day to see anything it was already 3:00 p.m. With all the herding on and off of buses, restrooms, and water buses,, while dodging people pickpocketry and bird banditry, there wasn’t much time left in the day, so we needed to plan and act quickly.
We decided to split up. Brohead and I decided to go to the Marciana Library (St. Mark’s Library) and the Church of San Zaccaria, and the rest of the team went shopping.
Marciana Library
The Bible says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), and sometimes that person is your brother, or as I like to call him, “Bro, Brostein, or Brofessor.”
We started at the Marciana Library. This library was founded in 1468 A.D. when Cardinal Bessarion bequeathed his library to Venice. Bessarion had amassed copies of the writings of classical Greek authors after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 in an effort to preserve the works. He bequeathed his collection to Venice on the condition Venice build a library to preserve the documents.
Unfortunately, there were no manuscripts on display and nothing that looked remotely like a library, just a beautiful hall with paintings on the walls and ceilings. I wanted to quote Paul in 2 timothy 4:13, “bring the scrolls, especially the parchments. . .” I wanted to don the plastic gloves, pull an ancient book off the shelf, dust it off, and thumb through its pages. But it was not to be. At least not for us.
I think they may allow this for academics. However, with only 15 minutes available allotted for our stop, we didn’t have time for the vetting process or to make all the proper introductions. Plus we were in shorts, baseball caps, and smelled of sweat and from excessive Italian heat and queing.
The Church of San Zaccaria
The Church of San Zaccaria is a hidden gem. It’s hidden behind other buildings and can’t be seen on a water approach. Our reason for coming to San Zaccaria was in a large stone reliquary on the wall above an altar to the right as one enters the sanctuary — the bones of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
Now look, I’m a rational man, and I thought this one was a stretch, but a little research indicated that in 9th century the Venetians obtained Zechariah’s remains from Byzantine emperor Leo V in Constantinople. This is a good sign for authenticity because after Constantine the Great became a Christian he sent his mother, Helena, to Israel where she collected relics. This is would have been a little less than 300 years after John the Baptist died.
It is not hard to believe that in light of Jesus’ resurrection and the story of Zechariah and the events surrounding John the Baptist’s birth, which ended up being recorded in the Gospel of Luke, that locals would have known exactly where Zechariah was buried.
An unexpected find at the Church of San Zaccaria were the bones of Saint Athanasius, displayed in sarcophagus below Zechariah. The story about Athanasius’ bones is similar to that of Zechariah’s, and the evidence of authenticity probably even stronger.
Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria in the the 4th Century, attended the Council of Nicaea, and was one of the key figures in disputing Arianism. He served the purpose of God in his generation by standing firm on the orthodox principles of the Incarnation and Christology against all opposition, suffering repeated exiles and persecution as a result.
Completing the work given us
After the Church of San Zaccaria, I felt our work was done. We had mined what Christian history could be mined in the the time allotted us. We had accomplished the work we had been given to do here.
For each of us, that work is different. For Athanasius, it was to secure a proper understanding of Jesus and the incarnation. For us, it was to explore Christian history in the places we visited to find lessons applicable today for our GSB readers.
We all have the same opportunity to glorify God by completing the work He has given us. In doing so we should take our cues from Jesus:
I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.
John 17:3
After some shopping, the whole group gathered for our last meal together on the tour, a short distance from Saint Mark’s Square. We enjoyed authentic Italian food, talked about our favorite parts of tour, and ended the evening with a round of Limoncello. We had completed our tour. GS
