During the imprisonment he became friend of Andrea Gritti, future Doge, who supported him in the next years.
[1] Left any political career, Pietro Contarini devoted himself to the classical studies and to charity.
Since 1524 he operated in favour of the new Ospedale degli Incurabili, a hospital intended to accommodate those with incurable diseases such as syphilis, in 1525 he build a church in San Cipriano island near Murano for the Camaldolese hermits and in 1526 he went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
On 9 August 1557 Pope Paul IV appointed him bishop of Paphos,[2] a formal title.
He was consecrated bishop on 21 November 1557 by Giovanni Giacomo Barba, the sacristan of the Pope.