OUR LADY OF LORETO

Day 212: December 10

Our Lady of Loreto, Loreto, Ancona, Italy



Mary's earthly home in Nazareth consisted of two parts: a grotto carved into the rock, still venerated in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and a masonry house in front of it. The Loreto Sanctuary was built in the place where, according to tradition, the home of the Virgin Mary was miraculously transported by the Angels on the night between 9 and 10 December 1294.

It dates back to the fourteenth century. It is the destination of continuous pilgrimages and is considered the Italian "Lourdes." The conviction of this miraculous "flying" translation prompted Pope Benedict XV to name the Blessed Virgin of Loreto "Patroness of all aeronautics."

The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Loreto occurs on December 10, in memory of the date of the arrival of the Holy House of Nazareth in Loreto. The origins of the ancient and devout tradition of the transfer of the House from Palestine to the Marche city date back to 1296, when in a vision, its existence and authenticity were indicated to a hermit, Br Paolo della Selva, and reported by him to the Authorities. This is narrated to us by a chronicle of 1465, written by Pier Giorgio di Tolomei, known as the Teramo, who in turn had deduced it from an old worn 'tabula', dating back to 1300.

Some more significant passages are reported, which were then handed down in the narratives, more or less enriched in the following centuries: "The noble church of Our Lady of Loreto was the chamber of the house of the most glorious Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ... whose house was in a city of Galilee, called Nazareth. And in that house the Virgin Mary was born, here she was brought up and then greeted by the Angel Gabriel; and finally in the same room he nourished Jesus Christ his son... Then the apostles and disciples consecrated that room into a church, celebrating the divine mysteries there... But after those people of Galilee and Nazareth abandoned their faith in Christ and accepted the faith of Mohammed, then the Angels removed the aforesaid church from its place and transported it to Schiavonia, placing it near a castle called Fiume (1291). church: 'Holy Mary of Loreta...'

Due to the large number of people, unfortunately thefts and violence also occurred, so the story continues, the Angels moved it two more times, always for the same reasons, finally placing it on the hill, on the night of 9-10 December 1294, where it is currently located.

"Then all the people of Recanati rushed to see the church, which stood above the ground without any foundation. For which reason, the people, considering such a great miracle and fearing that the church would not be ruined, had it surrounded by another very large wall of very good foundation, as can still be clearly seen today."

This is the story of 1465, which is based on the historical aspect of the time, when the cultural and religious relations of the communities settled on the two shores of the Adriatic were intense, due to the crossing of the Venetian ships and then those of Ancona and present-day Dubrovnik, which transported pilgrims to the Holy Places of Palestine. In the background there is the conquest of the Holy Land by the Mamluks (Turkish militias) and then the slow penetration of the Ottomans into the Balkan peninsula, after the fall of Constantinople. From these events sprang the Crusades, to free peoples and countries from Arab occupation and according to tradition, the Angels intervened to save the house of the Virgin, already transformed into a church since apostolic times.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Doing everything in Mary means conforming completely to Mary's plans, feelings, intentions and wishes so that somehow we become one with her and it can be said that she lives and works in us and we live and work in her."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1997, p. 423)

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