annunciation. In 1291, during the Muslim invasion of Palestine the “Chamber” or House was transported from Nazareth of Illyria, which at that time included modern Dalmatia and Albania, to a place near a castle called Fiume.An ancient tradition recounts that the Holy House of Loreto is the same walled “Chamber” of our Lady that hadexisted in Nazareth, in Galilea, in which Mary was born, was brought up and received the angelicannunciation. In 1291, during the Muslim invasion of Palestine the “Chamber” or House was transported from Nazareth of Illyria, which at that time included modern Dalmatia and Albania, to a place near a castle called Fiume.
During the night between the 9th and the 10th December the House was conveyed to Italy, onto land in the province of Recanati, first to a thicket near its port, a place later called the Banderuola, then from there to a hill called “of the two brothers”, who quarrelled over the offerings donated by pilgrims, for which reason the House came to be definitively settled onto a public road.
Ancient tradition, based on devotion and popular credence, ascribed the transportation of the House of Nazareth to an angelic mission, while recent studies have put forward the hypothesis of a transportation devised by human agency, by sea, with special assistance from above.
Over time, the celebrated “Loreto question” has seen scholars divided into 2 camps: some have cast doubts on theauthenticity of the translation of the Holy House, while others have defended it entirely, including particular detail of the “angelic ministry”. The debate primarily concerned the validity of the written sources, which in fact are of a much later date than the events they describe, the first ones know at the time being dated no earlier than 1470, 179 years after the translation happened.
The excavations have substantially confirmed what is recounted in the tradition of Loreto, that Jesus’ disciples transformed Mary’s House into a Church. Other excavations verified that the Holy House does not have any foundations of its own and that it was located on a public road and was protected by a containing wall built by people from the nearby town of Recanati. Also, the excavations at Loreto have evinced that the original nucleus of the Holy House has only 3 walls, excluding the east wall, site of altar, which did not exist at Nazareth because this is the side opening to the Grotto. Hence it was made sure that this was the Holy House of the Holy Virgin.
Certain documents stated that in the 13th century a noble Byzantine family by name Angeli (“Angels”) descended from the emperors of Constantinople, save the “materials” of Our Lady’s House from the Muslim devastations and had them transported to Loreto in order to rebuild the shrine there. An implicit connection with the Angeli family of Epirus is afforded by 2 coins found in the basement of the Holy House, the only ones among the hundreds found that can be dated to the period of the translation. Now, it was well known that often, in past centuries, coins inserted into the foundations of the buildings, specially sacred once, indicate the period and at times also the protagonists of their construction, in this case the Angeli family.
Because of this legend, the Lady of Loreto was named patron of the aviation. We make a real show of these types of fireworks, on Friday and Saturday nights of the feast, with a total of more than 50 aeroplanes each year.
The statue of the Madonna was modelled by Enrico Quattrini and carved in
the cedar of Lebanon from the Vatican Gardens and painted by LeopoldoCelani, who gave it a tint that is darker than the original. It was commissioned by Pope Pius XI, who crowned it in the Vatican in 1922 and had it transported in solemnity to Loreto, where it was put in place of the 14th century statue that had been destroyed by a fire in the Holy House in 1921. The image was crowned anew by Pope John XXIII in 1962. Since the 16th century it has been garbed in a mantle called “dalmatic”. Scholars have ascertained that the first image venerated in the Holy House was an icon painted on wood, probably Byzantine in origin, which disappeared in the early 16th century and was replaced with a 14th century wooden statue.