Case file · Folklore / legend
Saint Mark's body smuggled under pork
In 828 two Venetian merchants took the body of Saint Mark from Alexandria, hiding it under pork so that Muslim customs officers wouldn't search the basket.
828 CE · 31.20, 29.91 · status: legend
The account
Venice built Saint Mark's Basilica around the relic. The mosaics there show the theft. Part of the relic was returned to the Coptic Church in 1968.
The sceptical view
The theft is plausible history, but the details come from Venetian tradition.