Our Lady of Loreto, celebrated by the Church on December 10, is Our Lady of Help for pilots, plane travelers… and also for moving workers. But why this patronage?
Near the city of Ancón, in the Marches region of Italy, there is one of the most revered shrines in the Catholic world: the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto.
The story of this place is strange and true, although it also has a little embellishment to add to the cuteness.
It all started at the beginning of the 14th century, when Rome was informed that they had just given birth to another Marian pilgrimage, in a place called Loreto, "a little laurel grove"; Here people venerate an ancient black statue of Our Lady of Eastern origin carved from pine wood and an image of the Blessed Virgin said to have been painted by Saint Luke.
Here things are quite normal: such shrines are numerous in the Christian world so one does not question the historicity of the venerated relics – the cult of pilgrims often overshadows them. a layer of grace on objects displayed for reverence.
However, the uniqueness of this place is not in the place where the image of the saint and the above statue is located, but in the place where the image is located in the house. If you believe what people say on the spot, the small chapel just mentioned is actually the house in Nazareth, where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary - where the salvation of humanity was manifested... That's the reason. why the faithful poured out and touched those sacred stones reverently, shedding tears of emotion at being able to even go there.
An unimaginable pain
To the place? Yes, because since 1291 with the fall of Saint-Jean d'Acre - the last stronghold of the Latin kingdom in Jerusalem, occupied by the Muslim faction - the Holy Land was almost completely closed to visitors. pilgrims and penitents. The Muslim authorities only issue a trickle permit to enter holy places and the rare Christians who dare to enter here are in great danger.
We are so impatient today that it is difficult to measure how heavy such a need was for our forebears. There was no longer any hope of visiting Galilee to pray in the room in which Mary said the Fiat (Yes), not to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, not to kneel in the basilica of Bethlehem on the star that marked it. where the manger is located, not to bathe in the Jordan, never to see Jerusalem, not to watch in the garden of Gethsemane, not to walk while praying and crying on the road of passion, not to climb Golgotha, no to be able to embrace the stone of the empty tomb… knowing that all has been handed over to the infidels is a pain we cannot imagine.
The Church was sorry to hear that, but what could she do now? Jihad is no longer fashionable. Therefore, to ease the mourning of Catholics, the Church offers other solutions to mourning believers. First of all, direct them to the essential thing: devotion to the Eucharist. It is not necessary to go to the other end of the world to find Christ because He is present daily on the altar and in the tabernacle, even in the smallest chapel. It was in this context that devotion to the Eucharistic Mystery grew like never before.
Relics and Alternative Temples
Another way is to draw attention to the relics of the Passion - numerous and sometimes priceless - such as a fragment of the Cross that Queen Radegonde obtained for her convent at Poitiers (France). ), the crown of thorns purchased by King Saint Louis, or the Shroud of the Lord on display in Lirey in Champagne (France), or fragments of the manger in the basilica of Notre Dame Major in Rome; These objects were brought to Europe in the course of time, mainly to France because the Capet kings took them very seriously. Since it is no longer possible to go to the Holy Land, visiting the testimonies of the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection of the Lord are considered equivalent.
The same goes for trying to find much more modest shrines with only a pebble picked up in Palestine, even a little dust from this place… There were lords or well-off bishops who didn't hesitate to build. alternative shrines – supposedly more or less faithful reproductions of the Holy Land structures, such as the replica of the Holy Sepulcher at Neuvy-Saint-Sépulcre, the Berry region (France), or the Italian reproductions of the the most remarkable place of Jerusalem at that time.
Was the shrine of Loreto simply one of such devotional imitations? Or, as its devotees believe, is this the house in Nazareth, brought back from Palestine by some miracle? This problem has melted a lot of ink.
One thing is true: the temple had sprung up on a parcel of land belonging to the De Angelis family – a wealthy family of merchants and shipowners in Ancone, who had made their fortunes through trade between the East and the West, during its existence. Francs in Palestine. Assuming that the Latin kingdom would survive in Jerusalem – which did not seem like a good idea – the De Angelis invested a portion of their capital in real estate here; They may have bought a lot of land in Nazareth, including the land of Gioakim and Anna, along with their house - the house where on the morning of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel appeared to Germany. Maria.
A house fell from the sky
It has been argued that, in the time of Christ, the local houses were mainly caves, that is, dug in the rock, and on the other hand they pointed out that the house was attributed to Mary in Nazareth. However, it is possible that at some point, the house was enlarged with a room in the front, with a small area, built of brick and surrounded by three walls; The original cave became the last room of the house. It was the outer room of the house that the De Angelis - alarmed by the course of the situation and confident of a future Muslim reconquest - had carefully dismantled and loaded onto one of their merchant ships. they took it back to Italy, circa 1290.
At first, for some reason, that sacred but bulky package ended up at the port of Trast in Croatia, where the De Angelis family had a commercial store. That Holy House should have stayed here - in Trast people still revere the memory of that "stop". But the ship owners, feeling that Islam would overwhelm the Balkans, decided to take the house back to Italy in 1294 and rebuild it exactly as it was on their land in Loreto. The event happened like that. Soon, miracles began to occur, the fame of the temple spread far and wide, and the number of pilgrims increased.
At the end of the 15th century, Mr. Pietro Tolomei de Terramo - Loreto's first "historian" - presented his own version of it; he claimed this holy house was brought here directly from the air journey mediated by angels. In fact, in Latin, De Angelis can translate that (thanks to the angel); so it's not cheating but just a clever pun, the pious play of the erudite Latinos. However, there is one thing that can give this version of the miracle some weight and perplexity, and that is that the house in Loreto has no foundation: it lies right on the ground, as if it were a house in Loreto. the angels put it there and flew away without caring about it anymore.
Where the Word became man
Of course, this overly poetic version made the Protestants, after the Reformation, laugh a lot; but not only them, even in the heart of the Church, the very wise monks also refused to believe it, claiming that the house that was supposed to belong to Mary, thanks to a clever advertisement, was in time. time to revive the local commerce that was struggling because of the loss of the Holy Land…
Others, equally wise, support the fact of miraculous transference, asserting that only some extraordinary event can explain the success of the Loreto temple. Was the immediate and transcendent appearance of that house to have been placed there by the angels themselves, or to rebuild the real house in Nazareth? This issue is far from consensus, but what is certain is that archaeologists have found real similarities between this holy house and the site of the Annunciation at Nazareth.
Devotion to Our Lady of Loreto is so widespread that many churches and chapels are placed under the intercession of Our Lady of Loreto, especially in France, Austria and the Bavière region of Germany.
In any case, in the midst of an explosion of Marian devotion, the shrine of Loreto was given a global glorification.
In 1450, Pope Paul II gave this small house a beautiful "container" and commissioned the architect Bramante to erect a monumental basilica that encloses the house. In front of the newly built façade, Pope Sixto 5 had the words engraved: "This is the house of the Mother of God where the Word became man".
In 1669, the celebration of the relocation of the holy house of Loreto was recorded in the liturgical calendar, December 10, with its own liturgy. Although since then there have been many other prayers added by Popes to increase their richness, the Litany of Mary, composed in its current form, is the work of Bishop Giulio Candiotti, curator. this basilica - composed them in 1578, inspired by different ancient versions, so called Loreto prayers. These prayers were blessed by Pope Gregory 13 and recited in prayer by the Jesuits, especially by Saint Peter Canisius; The saint considered this the most effective weapon against the Reformation (Protestant), and spread these prayers to the whole world. Devotion to Our Lady of Loreto is so widespread that many churches and chapels are placed under the intercession of Our Lady of Loreto, especially in France, Austria and Bavaria, Germany.
Finally, due to the legend of moving the house on the wings of angels, Our Lady of Loreto became the patroness of pilots and all who fly. And it makes sense to also be the patrons of the moving workers.
Anne Bernet (Aleteia)
Lê Hưng (TGPSG) chuyển ngữ