n the time of the Croatian king Cresimir. The
papacy desired to unify the ritual of the Church, substituting the Latin
language and the Roman use for the national liturgies, as it had done in
Spain, in Milan, and Aquileia. At this time there was no bishop of Trau.
The piety and strict life of S. Giovanni were soon noised abroad, and
the people desired him for their bishop. In this they were supported by
the legate, and he was consecrated in 1064 by Archbishop Laurentius of
Spalato. He dismissed his servants, and went through long night-watches,
lying naked on straw spread on the floor, to mortify the flesh. The fame
of miraculous occurrences accompanied his austerities. His hand on the
wine-press produced abundance of juice; he escaped dry-shod from a wreck
near Sebenico; and destroyed by his words the war-engines of Coloman in
1105, when he was attacking Zara. A white dove which settled on his
head when in conference with the king at Castell, near Sebenico, was
taken as a spiritual symbol. He prophesied his own death and the
destruction of Sebenico, and miracles were performed at his grave. The
body was found in Bua after the Traurines returned from Spalato in 1152,
though another account says that it was discovered within the area of
the cathedral, near the high-altar where there is now a well. In 1174 he
is reported to have appeared above the building in the form of a shining
star; and after that the commune adopted a comet as the arms of the
city. The chapel stands on the site of the more ancient double chapel of
SS. Doimus and Anastasius. It was begun under Bishop Turlon in 1468, the
architects being Masters Nicolo Fiorentino and Andrea Alexci of Durazzo,
the stipulated price being 3,300 ducats, and the work occupying six
years. The chapel is rectangular, with a barrel vault. Round the walls a
seat runs, the front of which is ornamented with diamond forms filled
with foliage. Above it is a kind of stylobate with pilasters supporting
the columns of the next stage, the spaces between them decorated with
reliefs of torch-bearing _putti_, who are represented as issuing from
partly open double doors, some of which are very pretty. Each side
contains six arches, two of which are pierced with windows, the others
having shell-headed niches divided by channelled pilasters or twisted
columns, and tenanted by statues nearly life-size. Those which are named
are "S. Tomas, S. Ioannes Evangelista, S. Pavlvs, and S. Filippo."
Other