Overview
This church is one of the very few in Western Europe named for the 5th Century patriarch of Constantinople, reflecting the strength of the Byzantine influence in Venice when the first church on the site was built in 1080. The original church burned down in 1475. Work began on the replacement in 1497. Like San Zaccaria this church was designed by Mauro Codussi (it was supposedly his last in Venice) and it shares that church's curvy shapes, whilst the facade is almost identical to his one for San Michele in Isola. Codussi died in 1504, but work here was completed by his son Domenico, with consecration in 1525. The facade was damaged during an air-raid in February 1918, and there had also been a near miss on 13th September 1916. The Sebastiano del Piombo painting over the high altar is “Saint John Crisostomo with Saints John the Baptist, Liberale, Mary Magdalene, Agnes, and Catherine." Henry James thought the Magdalene looked like a 'dangerous but most valuable acquaintance'. This is Sebastiano's only altarpiece in Venice, and was long thought to be by Giorgione, or even by Vasari. Also, the church is home to one of Bellini's last works, “St Jerome, St Christopher and St Augustine" signed 1513. Across the nave from it is Tullio Lombardo's “Coronation of the Virgin."
- Lorenzetti, Venice and Its Lagoon: Historical-Artistic Guide (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1961) as translated and with supplementary content by Taryn Marie Zarrillo, 2012/13
