Shrines Around the World: Our Lady of Loreto

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published September 21, 2024 · Updated September 20, 2024

Photos: santuarioloreto.va, Wikipedia, Claudia Peck

Where’s that: Loreto is located on Italy’s east coast. Our Lady’s connection: Contains Our Lady’s reputed home from Nazareth.

Of Italy’s many great sites of pilgrimage, the coastal Adriatic town of Loreto is one of the most popular, with around four million pilgrims a year.

A pious legend has it that in 1295 angels miraculously carried the preserved house of Mary from Nazareth to Loreto, via Tersatto (Trsat in modern-day Croatia) and nearby Recanati. In the 19th century, the German mystic Bl Anne Catherine Emmerich claimed to have had visions of seven angels carrying the house over the sea.

The truth is not as good a story as that. The three-walled structure — 9m long, 4m wide and 5m high — was likely brought to Italy by a Crusader family. Since they were named De Angelis, the tradition about house-moving angels evolved.

Archaeologists have indicated that the limestone and mortar of the structure likely came from the Holy Land. Its walls are said to fit exactly the foundations excavated in front of the grotto of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and the “missing” wall fits exactly that of the grotto.

The basilica della Santa Casa was built in the 15th century to house the house of Mary, which by then was already a hugely popular site of pilgrimage and reported miracles. The shrine has long been associated with the Litany of Loreto, also called the Litany of Our Lady.

It has also given its name to an order of religious Sisters, which is also active in South Africa. The Loreto Sisters — officially the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary — derive their name from foundress Mother Mary Ward, who used to pray at the shrine.

Thanks to the legend of the angels, Pope Benedict XV in 1920 declared Our Lady of Loreto as the patroness of air travel. The feast day of Our Lady of Loreto is on December 10.

Published in the July 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine