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In agreement with the last will of Doge Francesco Erizzo († 1646), his heart was buried in San Marco, the political and religious center of the Serenissima, next to the high altar and thus ad sanctos to the relics of Venice's patron saint. This unprecedented privilege not only disrupted the city's restrictive policies concerning public monuments, but her republican ideals in general. Due to the significance of the heart in Christian eschatological thinking and corporal state doctrines his burial elevated Erizzo to the status of an absolute ruler threatening the Republic's sacred constitution. In Venice, however, individual and public interests were closely intertwined. This study therefore analyzes the heart burial in the context of Erizzo's self-fashioning, Venetian state ideology, devotional practices and collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a conference on early Christian cemeteries, held in Regensburg, Germany, from April 19-20, 2013. Focusing mainly on the third century, participants discussed such topics as the catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Callixtus, and Praetextatus in Rome, Italy, Christian funeral laws and customs from the second to the eighth century, and the role of relics in the writings of Greek Christian church father Johannes Chrysostomus.