Miracles of the lettuce in Venice

Close to the great Frari church in Venice, there is a street called St Nicoletto, because a church dedicated to this saint once stood here. But everyone knew it as the ‘lettuce' church!

It was founded in 1332 by the will of the Prosecutor of Venice Nicholas Lion, who had discovered the conspiracy of Tiepolo Baiamonte, as a vow. One night he was very sick and felt like having some lettuce, so he went to the Friars of the nearby Franciscan monastery and asked if they had any in their well-stocked allotment. After eating it he was miraculously cured and so he built a church and convent in the garden where he had taken the miraculous vegetable. The church and the convent were then entrusted to the Franciscans and in the 16^th century it gained importance due to works by Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Palma il Giovane.

In 1806, because of the repression of Napoleon, the complex was closed and soon fell into disrepair, so much so that in 1830 the church, stripped of its artistic treasures, was demolished. However, the monastery survived, having undergone many changes of use, starting from the twentieth century when it was reported that the initial use was for a Franciscan convent.