Another Venetian fleet which had been to the aid of Baldwin in the Holy Land, when returning, about 1125, obtained the body of Saint Isidore at Chios, and that of Saint Donato at Cephalonia. These were brought to Venice at the same time with the "great stone which had stood near one of the gates of Tyre since the time when Our Lord, weary after a journey, sat down to rest upon it," as well as vast treasures of jewels, gold and silver, embroideries and carpets, and all the splendid fabrics of the Orient. But to the reverent Christian all else paled before the bodies of the saints. Saint Isidore is believed now to rest in his own chapel in San Marco. San Donato, the once saintly Bishop of Evorea, was given by Domenico Michieli to Murano, and the Church of Santa Maria soon assumed his name. To Torcello was brought Saint Fosca, a noble virgin who had been martyred under the persecution of Decius at Ravenna; and her church was second {312} only to the Cathedral of Torcello. When to this list of saints we add the bodies of San Pancrazio and Santa Sabina, which were given to the Abbess of San Zaccaria by Pope Benedict III., and Saint Christina, the patron of the Venetian States, and likewise Saint Justina of Padua,--another patron of Venice who is represented in Venetian costume, with the city or the cathedral of San Marco in the distance,--we may call Venice the City of Saints as justly as the City of the Sea. SAN LAZZARO. One saint still remains to whom we must pay our respects; and since his island lies some miles away to the southeast, we must devote to him at least half of a precious Venetian day. The gondola glides like a spirit through the narrow canals, out on the sea, where the motion is but enough to rock one into forgetfulness of all care, even that of self; and the mood which follows is just that in which one should come to the old Armenian convent, with its garden of figs and orange-trees, pomegranates and flowering shrubs. The welcome from the monks adds still another element of peace; and one roams quietly through the restful old place, with its church and convent, and wonders if a less gifted mortal than he who here dwelt and wrote,-- "Around me are the stars and waters,-- Worlds mirrored in the ocean, goodlier sight Than torches glared back by a gaudy glass," could tarry here and grow forgetful of the ought and must of life. At each window a pause is made; and the fascination of the views leads to a feeling of sympathy with that good Mechitar, who founded his convent here one hundred and seventy-six years ago. From the courteous monk who {313} is our guide, we learn that this same Mechitar, who at nine years of age desired to be a priest, and entered a convent at fifteen, was a wonderful scholar, a writer and poet. Some of his hymns are used in the churches of Armenia.