San Giorgio Monastery

The San Giorgio Monastery (St. George Monastery) was a Benedictine monastery in Venice, Italy, located on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. It stands next to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, which serves the monastic community. The old monastic buildings currently serves as the headquarters of the Cini Foundation.

The monastery was founded in AD 982 following the donation of the island by the Doge Tribuno Memmo in response to a request by the Blessed John Morosini, O.S.B., who wished to establish a monastery there, and who then became the first abbot. Among the first monks of the community which developed there was St. Gerard of Csanád (Hungarian: Szent Gellért) (980-1046), a bishop and martyr who helped establish Christianity in Hungary. He was murdered in Budapest—on the hill which now bears his name—in the course of a pagan insurrection against the Venetian king then ruling the Hungarians.