The Holy House that flew from Nazareth

Loreto, Marche, Italy · 9 to 10 de diembre de 1294

The home of the Annunciation

In Nazareth, Galilee, there was a small stone house where, according to Christian tradition, the Virgin Mary lived with her parents Joaquin and Anne, and where the archangel Gabriel announced that she would be the mother of the Son of God. The first Christians turned that humble abode into a place of prayer. St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, visited Nazareth in the fourth century and ordered a basilica to be built around the house.

In 1263, the Crusaders saw the armies of Sultan Baybars conquer the Holy Land and systematically destroy the sacred places of Christianity. The threat of the Annunciation house being demolished was imminent. It was then that, according to tradition, the angels intervened.

The miraculous translation of 1294

On the night of 9-10 December 1294, shepherds from Dalmatia (now Croatia) witnessed an extraordinary scene: a full house of stone crossed the Adriatic carried by angels. The same house that had been in Nazareth, then briefly in Tersac (Dalmatia), finally reappeared on a laurel -lauro- on the hill of Recanati, in the Italian Marks, giving name to the place: Loreto.

Modern historical research has provided an interesting nuance: documents of the noble Angeli family (whose Greek name means precisely "angels") record that they carried stones from the house of Nazareth to Italy in the years when the Crusaders evacuated the Holy Land. What tradition calls "angelic translation" may reflect the physical transfer organized by this family to save the relic from destruction.

Pattern of the aviators since 1920

Pope Benedict XV, in 1920, proclaimed Our Lady of Loreto as patron of aviators, pilots and aircrew. The reasoning is as poetic as it is precise: if the Holy House was transported by the air sustained by angels, it is natural for the Virgin to protect those who surpass the heavens. During World War II, many pilots - from different nations - carried Loreto medals on their combat flights.

Today the Holy House, locked in a marble lining of Bramante and Antonio da Sangallo, is venerated inside the great Basilica of Loreto. The archaeological analyses carried out in the 20th century confirm that the stones of the house are of a type of calcareous area of Nazareth, not of the Italian region where it is located.

"Our Lady of Loreto, who the angels accompanied you,
You accompany all who travel through heaven and earth. "