Il Ringraziamento. How did I not realize Thanksgiving occurs in the same week as the Festa della Madonna della Salute - the annual feast celebrating the ending of the plague. 

In 1630 the plague had fallen on Venice yet again. Within weeks of the plague arriving the whole city was hit - nearly 47000 of the 100000 residents died including the doge Nicolò Contarini and the patriarch Giovanni Tiepolo. At the culminating moment of the epidemic, in the absence of other solutions, the Republic fell to their knees. They organized a procession of prayer to the Madonna, in which the entire surviving population of Venice participated for 3 days and nights. 

On 22 Oct 1630 the Doge made a solemn vow to erect a grandiose temple if Venice survived. That temple we know now as Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. 

A few weeks after the procession of 1630 the epidemic slowed and slowly regressed until the plague finally died out in Nov 1631. The government decreed to repeat every year, as a sign of thanksgiving, a procession. 

I celebrated the feast on Saturday in Venice. The pilgrims were few, and the celebration altered in deference to our current pandemic but the vigils took place less nonetheless with masks and social distancing. We stood in line an hour outside Salute. For sanitary reasons they chose not to let you light your candle once inside but rather to leave a candle behind in the church - an offering to the Madonna.  

I prayed while I queued giving thanks. 

The day prior a friend told me “you don’t seem particularly happy” His words impacted me because I am a naturally happy person and the stress of the last year has weighed heavily on me. 

Often the cross feels too heavy to bear alone. He advised “don’t think of what isn’t but give gratitude for what is.” So I stood in line and I prayed - not for help for the triage of things gone wrong - but for blessings that are too numerous to count. 

Today is Thanksgiving and I continue to count those blessings. Of those blessings one of the greatest is you. Earlier this year when locked down in Venice in quarantine you kept me company. You reminded me that no matter how alone I felt I was not alone.  For this I am Thankful.

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