The Venetian may have built their houses of perishable mud and wattle; but they built their churches of stone and brick

From Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Dplomatic and Cultural Relations by Donald M. Nicol.

The dedication of the cathedral at Torcello to 'the Mother of God', the Theotokos, demonstrates the religious Orthodoxy of the Christians of Venetia. The Council of Ephesos in 431 had confounded the heretics by declaring that Mary was the Mother of God and not simply the Mother of Christ. The definition had been accepted by the church universal, in west and east. In the seventh century the refugees in the Venetian islands may have built their houses of perishable mud and wattle; but they built their churches of stone and brick. The church provided the essential element of stability and continuity in their shattered lives.