A Sicilian pirate active in the Mediterranean. Among the documented episodes, he is known to have fired on ships that had refused to stop and to have tortured members of the crews of captured ships to get information. He was finally upheld, but he was able to avoid the death sentence. While he was serving his time in prison, he had a mystic revelation, and once free he settled in the Santo Stefano graveyard in Venice, conducting a life of prayers and penitence among the bones of the dead. The body of the pirate was found in the church of Santo Stefano under the main altar, covered by a wooden plank with an engraved ship on its surface, although the attribution of the remains is still uncertain.
Copyright © Alastair Fontana 2013
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of the Old Man in Red, 1652
