The
title "Our Lady of Loreto" is associated with the Holy House of Loreto
in Italy, the house of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
miraculously transported by the angels from Palestine to Europe.
The
house of the Holy Family in Nazareth has always been the object of
Christian veneration. Shortly after 313, St. Helena, mother of the
Emperor Constantine, built a basilica over this holy abode. The Saracens
invaded the Holy Land in 1090, plundering and destroying Christian
shrines, including Constantine’s basilica. Under the ruble, the Holy
House was found intact. During the twelfth century, another basilica was
built to protect the holy dwelling. In 1219 or 1220 St. Francis of
Assisi visited the Holy House in Nazareth. So did King St. Louis IX of
France, when he was leading a crusade to liberate the Holy Land. In
1263, when the Muslims overpowered the crusaders, the basilica was again
destroyed but, once more, the Holy House was found intact.
When the crusaders where completely driven out of the Holy Land in 1291, the Holy House disappeared.
On
May 10, 1291 a parish priest, Fr. Alexander Georgevich in the town of
Tersatto, Dalmatia, (present-day Croatia) noticed the sudden appearance
of a small building resting on a plot of land. Puzzled, he prayed about
it, and in a dream saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who explained that the
structure was the house of the Holy Family, brought there by the power
of God.
In 1294, with the Moslem invasion of Albania, the house
disappeared again. According to the testimony of shepherds, it was seen
on December 10 of that year born aloft by angels over the Adriatic Sea.
This time the Holy House came to rest in a wooded area four miles from
Recanati, Italy. As the news spread fast, thousands flocked there, and
many miracles took place at the site.
Due to contrary
circumstances, twice again the house was moved, finally coming to rest
in the town of Loreto, Italy, its present location.
As miracles
continued to occur in connection with pilgrimages to the house,
deputations were sent to Nazareth to determine its origins in 1292, in
1296, and in 1524. All three declared that the measurements of the house
corresponded to the visible foundations of the house of Nazareth.
In
1871 at the suggestion of Cardinal Bartolini, Professor Ratti of the
University of Rome was given mortar and stones from the house at Loreto,
and similar materials from houses in Nazareth. Ignorant of which was
which, Prof. Ratti ascertained that the composition of the material from
the house of Loreto while not original to Italy was identical to that
of the material from Nazareth.
Other striking facts about the
house in Loreto are that it has no foundations. The walls rest on a plot
that was part field and part road, a sure indication that it was not
built there but placed there. The style of the house of Loreto is not
Italian but Eastern. And the original door was on the long side of the
house, indicating that it was a dwelling and not a church.
Today a
great basilica houses the dwelling of the holiest of families. From
1330, practically all the Popes have considered Loreto the greatest
shrine of Christendom. Bulls in favor of the shrine were issued by Pope
Sixtus IV in 1491 and by Julius II in 1507. While the miracle of the
translation of the house is not a matter of faith, Innocent XII, in the
seventeenth century, appointed a special Mass for the Feast of the
Translation of the Holy House. Numerous saints have visited the
house-relic.
As pilgrims enter the small precinct, they read on the threshold, “Hic Verbum caro factum est” –
“Here the Word became flesh”. Above the altar inside the holy house is
an ancient statue of Our Lady holding the Infant Jesus, known as Our
Lady of Loreto.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Our Lady of Loreto
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