Our Lady of Loreto del Cusco, a laurethane advocation venerated in the Loreto chapel next to the cathedral and the temple of the Society of Jesus of Cusco

Marian devotion of Cusco (Cusco)

La Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto the Cusco was built in the 17th century, 1651, next to the church of the Society of Jesus, in the Plaza de Armas del Cusco. Its initial purpose was to attend to the cult of the indigenous people and was consecrated from the beginning to the Virgin of Loreto. This laurethane dedication links it to the ancient devotion to the Holy House of Nazarethwhose miraculous transfer to Loreto (Italy) is the core of the Lauretana advocation.

Main data

Origin and history

La Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto the Cusco was built in the 17th century, 1651, next to the church of the Society of Jesus, in the Plaza de Armas del Cusco. Its initial purpose was to attend to the cult of the indigenous people and was consecrated from the beginning to the Virgin of Loreto. This laurethane dedication links it to the ancient devotion to the Holy House of Nazarethwhose miraculous transfer to Loreto (Italy) is the core of the Lauretana advocation.

From the perspective of the documented historythe sources agree that the Cuban chapel took the title of Our Lady of Loreto up to 1894the year when the bishops Pedro José Tordoya and Juan Antonio Falcón officially changed their vocation to the Virgin of Lourdes. From then on, the ecclesiastical documentation appears as the chapel of Lourdes, although the historical memory has retained the old name "Loreto" for the building, given its artistic value and its emblematic location next to the Cathedral and the Society of Jesus.

As for the tradition local, various tourist and devotional reviews highlight the Jesuit character of the chapel and its proximity to the educational field, which has favored the survival of the Lauretana devotion as a protector of Cuban students and youth, in continuity with the special esteem that the Society of Jesus has historically had the Virgin of Loreto. However, there is no specific legal formulation of patronage of students at the diocesan level in official sources.

The image and the sanctuary

The chapel is now officially known as Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto / Chapel of Lourdes, a small Catholic temple attached to the side of the Church of the Society of Jesusin Cusco's Plaza de Armas. It is part of the monumental ensemble of the historical centre and is characterized by its relatively simple plant and its role as an annexed chapel, originally intended for the service of the indigenous people. It does not know that it has the rank of a minor basilica or a national sanctuary; the sources describe it only as chapel within the whole Society of Jesus.

The sources consulted focus on the building and hardly describe the Marian image currently venerated inside. It is indicated that, following the change of advocation in 1894, the chapel was dedicated to the Virgin of Lourdes, which presupposes the presence of an image or sculpture with that iconography (the Virgin in the grotto, standing, hands together), but does not contain a detailed description, material, or exact typology of the primitive image of Our Lady of Loreto who presided over the temple until the end of the 19th century.

From a strictly historical point of view, the "Our Lady of Loreto of the Cusco" today, especially the memory of the ancient advocation of the temple, rather than a specific image simultaneously documented in veneration with that title.

Sponsorship and coronation

The accessible documentation does not contain an official statement to the Our Lady of Loreto del Cusco as a patron of the city, of the department or of the diocese, or as a canonically proclaimed patron of students or of a particular educational center; that connection with the student world appears rather in the context of the Jesuit and educational tradition associated with the laurean advocation in general. Therefore, in the legal and ecclesial plane does not contain a canonically defined patronage for this specific advocation in Cusco.

On a canonical coronation, the sources on the Loreto / Lourdes chapel in Cusco do not record a pontifical decree or official coronation ceremony of an image under the title of Our Lady of Loreto. Therefore, according to the available data, does not contain a documented canonical coronation for this advocation in the Cusco.

Party and devotion

La litigation fiesta general of Our Lady of Loreto in the Universal Church is celebrated the 10 December, memory linked to the tradition of the transfer of the Holy House to Loreto. This date is the one that appears usually associated with the laurethane advocation in calendars and devotional materials. However, in the specific sources on the Cuban chapel they are not explicitly documented local parties of their own, processions or current pastoral programs in honor of Our Lady of Loreto, because the temple has been officially dedicated to the Virgin of Lourdes for more than a century.

Tampoco constant cuantitative datos of afluencia de fieles no detailed descriptions of current pilgrimages specifically linked to the former title of Loreto in Cusco. The laurethane devotion rather subsists within the framework of the historical memory of the templein the Jesuit spirituality and in the general devotion to Our Lady of Loreto, extended throughout the Catholic world, especially among those who remember the old name of the chapel and its origin linked to the indigenous and educational apostolate.

Link to the Rosary

The sources consulted on the Loreto / Lourdes del Cusco chapel do not document a specific and stable link between the local advocation of Our Lady of Loreto and the prayer of Rosary (for example, co-fradies of the Rosary expressly linked to this title, particular indulgences, or other own practices). Therefore, no consta a peculiar or exclusive relationship of this Cuban advocation with the Rosary beyond common Marian piety.

From a general mariological perspective, the advocation of Loreto remite a la Casa de Nazaretthe place of the Annunciation and of the hidden life of Jesus, which is one of the mysteries contemplated in the Rosary. The meditation of the joyful mysteries In particular, the Annunciation and Incarnation of the Word is deeply aligned with the laurean spirituality, which focuses on the home of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Thus, even if there is no rosarian practice of its own documented in the chapel of the Cusco, the prayer of the Rosary is presented as a privileged way to unite devotion to Our Lady of Loreto with the prayer contemplation of the mysteries of Christ's life lived in the humility of the Holy House.