Santa Venera - Between East and West: The Journey of a Sometimes Forgotten Saint [Italian]

By: Romagnoli, Federico

One saint, three, or a thousand? Born in Italy, France, or Turkey? In the end, it hardly matters. The story told in this book is a journey through Italy in the footsteps of Santa Venera, also known as Veneranda or Parasceve, a figure who has spanned nearly two thousand years of history, bringing together East and West
From the earliest testimonies in the Roman catacombs, the cult spread like a river, branching into countless paths: the Baroque processions of Acireale with the silver bust carried in triumph, the sober Lombard celebrations of Mortara, the Byzantine icons of the Arb resh communities. Each place tells a different story, and yet the same one: that of a devotion capable of speaking many languages while preserving the same essence.
But this is not only a story of art and tradition. It is also the story of a lost geography: vanished churches, ruined monasteries, and toponyms that, like dormant seeds, preserve the memory of ancient faiths. A heritage at risk of fading unless we learn to recognize its value.
After analyzing the different iconographic traditions between East and West and offering an overview of Orthodox Europe, this work presents a survey of places of worship and sacred art dedicated to the saint. It helps document how a figure considered "minor" in the West, yet highly venerated in the East, has woven invisible threads between distant communities, building bridges where history once created divisions.
A book that is both historical research and an invitation to discovery, a devotional map and a reflection on the meaning of the sacred in the contemporary world. To know Santa Venera is to encounter a part of our deepest identity, one that still, today, quietly unites distant places and communities.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: Italian
• ISBN: B0G1K6HRVL
• ISBN13: 9798273724549
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"