ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: LA BIENHEUREUSE VIERGE MARIE DE LORETTE, et MÉMOIRE LITURGIQUE DE LA TRANSLATION DE LA MAISON DE LA SAINTE FAMILLE À LORETTE

Saturnino Gatti, Trasporto della della Santa Casa a Loreto (fine XV - inizio XVI secolo; New York, Metropolitan Museum

Notre Dame de Lorette

La Bienheureuse Vierge Marie de Lorette inscrite au calendrier romain: un décret de la Congrégation du Culte divin établit au 10 décembre la mémoire liturgique de la Vierge de Lorette, vénérée et célébrée chaque année par des milliers de pèlerins. (Vatican News le 31 octobre 2019)

La légende dit que la Sainte Maison de Joseph, Marie et Jésus vola à travers les airs, portée par des anges, de Galilée jusque en Italie en traversant ce qui est aujourd'hui l'ex-Yougoslavie. Notre-Dame de Lorette semblait donc tout indiquée pour devenir patronne de tous ceux qui travaillent dans l'aviation. Cette décision fut officiellement approuvée par un décret de la Congrégation Pontificale pour les Sacrements du 24 mars 1920. (Diocèse aux Armées françaises)

Des internautes nous signalent

- "Notre Dame de Loretto est devenue patronne des aviateurs d'après une légende qui dit que des anges auraient transporté sa maison en Italie. Lors du pèlerinage et la fête, des patrouilles aériennes de divers pays passent à basse altitude sur la ville, le défilé est ouvert de droit par la patrouille acrobatique italienne "les flèches tricolores" car elle est chez elle et après suivent les autres patrouilles, les aviateurs italiens font bénir ce jour-là leur arme de cérémonie."

- Dans l'église de Sancé, à quelques kilomètres au nord de Mâcon un important retable illustre le transport de la maison de la Vierge jusqu'à Loretto. (Pastourisme71)

SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12348/Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.html

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Pietro Perugino, Madonna di Loreto (Vergine con il Bambino e i Santi Girolamo e Francesco), oil on panel, circa 1507, 185.5 x 125.5, National Gallery

La Bienheureuse Vierge Marie de Lorette inscrite au calendrier romain

Un décret de la Congrégation du Culte divin établit au 10 décembre la mémoire liturgique de la Vierge de Lorette, vénérée et célébrée chaque année par des milliers de pèlerins.

Le cardinal Robert Sarah, Préfet de la Congrégation pour le Culte Divin et la discipline des Sacrements a signé un décret inscrivant la Bienheureuse Vierge de Lorette au calendrier romain général. C'est désormais le 10 décembre, jour où Notre-Dame de Lorette est fêtée dans son sanctuaire italien des Marches, que cette mémoire liturgique sera célébrée, rappelle le décret.

Situé non loin de la côte adriatique, le sanctuaire marial de Lorette est célèbre dans le monde entier pour abriter la "Maison sainte", celle où la Vierge Marie reçut l’Annonciation de l’Archange Gabriel.

Le Pape François s'était rendu le 25 mars dernier au sanctuaire de Lorette, jour de la solennité de l’Annonciation du Seigneur. En confiant à la Vierge toutes les vocations, le Saint-Père y avait signé l'exhortation apostolique post-synodale, rédigée suite au synode d'octobre 2018 sur "les jeunes, la foi et le discernement vocationnel".

«Cette célébration aidera tout le monde, en particulier les familles, les jeunes, les religieux et les religieuses, à imiter les vertus de celle qui a été disciple parfaite de l’Évangile, la Vierge Marie qui, en concevant le chef de l’Église, nous a également accueillis chez elle» peut-on lire dans le décret.

SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2020/08/18/les-litanies-de-lorette-quand-leglise-chante-son-amour-a-la-vierge/?utm_campaign=Web_Notifications&utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notifications

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Basilica Pontificia della Santa Casa di Loreto

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto

Loreto veduta

Notre-Dame de Lorette : le plus ancien sanctuaire marial international

Isabelle Cousturié ✝ - Marie de Nazareth - ZENIT - publié le 10/12/13

Sa fête, le 10 décembre, a été l’occasion d’une pensée pour Benoit XVI qui avait confié à Notre Dame de Lorette l’Année de la foi.

11/12/2013

Le rayonnement du sanctuaire italien Notre-Dame de Lorette est si grand que le calendrier liturgique catholique romain propose une mémoire liturgique pour célébrer la « Translation de la Sainte Maison de Lorette », le 10 décembre.

Et le 10 décembre, c’est à Marie que le pape François a consacré son tweet, en recommandant à ses followers, sur son compte Pape François @Pontifex_fr, de s’en remettre à elle « quand cela va mal ».

L’occasion de rappeler le pèlerinage que Benoît XVI y avait fait, en octobre 2012, 50 ans après la visite historique de Jean XXIII qui a depuis ce jour-là sa statue tout en haut de la colline.

C’était en 1962, le bon pape Jean s’apprêtait à ouvrir le concile Vatican II et souhaitait confier ses travaux à la Vierge Marie. En 2012, Benoît XVI a souhaité entreprendre la même démarche pour confier de nouveau à Notre Dame de Lorette les 50 ans de l’ouverture du concile et l’Année de la foi qu’il allait ouvrir une semaine plus tard (12 octobre 2012).

C’était sa deuxième visite après celle pour le rassemblement des jeunes catholiques italiens, l’Agora des Jeunes de 2007. (zenit).

Comme pour son prédécesseur, Jean-Paul II, qui y avait effectué trois pèlerinages, la maison de Lorette était « une maison faite pour y demeurer, y habiter » mais « pour mieux avancer » dans la vie, pour se rappeler que « nous sommes tous des pèlerins, que nous devons toujours être en marche vers une autre maison, vers la maison définitive, celle de la Cité éternelle, la demeure de Dieu avec l’humanité rachetée”.

Notre-Dame de Lorette est le tout premier sanctuaire marial international consacré à la Vierge : « Ici à Lorette, nous avons l’opportunité de nous mettre à l’école de Marie, de celle qui a été proclamée bienheureuse parce qu’elle a cru », avait souligné Benoît XVI à l’homélie de la messe célébrée sur le parvis de la basilique.

Et de poursuivre : « Marie, qui est la mère du Christ et aussi notre mère, nous ouvre la porte de sa maison, nous aide à entrer dans la volonté de son Fils. C’est la foi, ainsi, qui nous donne une maison en ce monde, qui nous unit en une seule famille et qui nous rend tous frères et sœurs (…) En contemplant Marie, nous devons nous demander si nous aussi nous voulons être ouverts au Seigneur, si nous voulons offrir notre vie pour qu’elle soit une demeure pour Lui ; ou si nous avons peur que la présence du Seigneur puisse être une limite à notre liberté, et si nous voulons nous réserver une part de notre vie qui n’appartienne qu’à nous-mêmes ».

Au cœur de ce sanctuaire, Benoît XVI avait confié à la très Sainte Mère de Dieu « toutes les difficultés que vit notre monde à la recherche de la sérénité et de la paix, les problèmes de tant de familles qui regardent l’avenir avec préoccupation, les désirs des jeunes qui s’ouvrent à la vie, les souffrances de ceux qui attendent des gestes et des choix de solidarité et d’amour. »

L'histoire de la sainte maison déplacée dans les airs par des anges… est devenue un point de repère familier pour les aviateurs qui ont fait de Notre-Dame de Lorette leur sainte protectrice.

SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2013/12/10/notre-dame-de-lorette-le-plus-ancien-sanctuaire-marial-international

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Loreto: Facciata del Santuario (xilografia). Strafforello Gustavo, La patria, geografia dell'Italia, III. Provincie di Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, Pesaro e Urbino. Unione Tipografico-Editrice, Torino, 1898

Le Pèlerinage à Lorette de quelques voyageurs français entre Renaissance et Lumières.

Conférencier / conférencière

François MOUREAU

Au moment de la découverte, en 1770, du voyage manuscrit de Montaigne, l’intelligentsia parisienne crut tenir dans ce récit de la visite ad limina du philosophe un texte où l’Église de Rome serait jugée d’une manière que l’on supposait être digne d’un des pères fondateurs de la pensée des Lumières. « Ce sera un véritable cadeau pour les philosophes et les gens de lettres », notait alors un anonyme correspondant des Affiches de province . Si un écrivain français passait pour être à la source d’une certaine modernité, c’était bien le seigneur de Montaigne, heureusement mis à l’index dès 1676, magnifié par l’édition du huguenot Pierre Coste comme l’alpha sinon l’oméga de la libre-pensée , celui qui, dans deux gravures célèbres, accueillait aux Champs-Élysées des Philosophes l’homme de Ferney et celui de Montmorency, le père de Candide et celui d’Émile . Accouru à Paris avec sa découverte, l’abbé Prunis, naïf « inventeur » du manuscrit, s’empressa de s’en ouvrir au coryphée de la philosophie : D’Alembert fut consterné de sa lecture et se dispensa d’en favoriser l’édition . Qu’y avait-il de si scandaleux dans ces pages sur le voyage d’Allemagne et d’Italie ? Les trois jours passés au sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lorette donnaient du philosophe une image que la presse de l’époque trouva bien peu conforme à celle d’un des parrains supposés du déisme moderne. Le Journal encyclopédique s’étonna « qu’un philosophe tel que Montaigne », etc., le Journal des savants nota avec quelque perfidie : « Ceux qui chercheront ici l’auteur des Essais pourraient bien ne le trouver nulle part » ; et l’Année littéraire de Fréron se réjouit de la déconvenue des philosophes et d’un Montaigne posthume qui le faisait bon chrétien . Malgré les efforts de l’éditeur Le Jay pour suggérer par une page de titre alléchante un ouvrage de contrebande antireligieuse (fausse adresse romaine et vignette représentant la basilique Saint-Pierre comme pour un vulgaire Compère Mathieu ), le Journal donnait l’impression désolante d’un catholique fort respectueux du magistère romain auquel il soumettait son œuvre et, surtout, d’une dévotion à ce qui paraissait aux esprits éclairés du temps l’une des plus grossières supercheries de l’Église d’Occident : ce conte de fées qui prétendait que les anges avaient transporté de Nazareth à Lorette la maison natale de la Vierge où eut lieu l’Annonciation et où le Christ passa avec sa mère et Joseph le charpentier l’essentiel de sa vie terrestre, sublime témoignage et preuve tangible, on s’en doute, pour tout chrétien du Dieu fait homme en Galilée pour sauver l’Humanité tout entière .

Meunier de Querlon qui se chargea de l’édition la fit précéder d’une dédicace à Buffon destinée d’entrée de jeu à sanctifier philosophiquement le texte montaignien et il consacra, en outre, une partie de son « Discours préliminaire » de 1774 à justifier la faute de goût que constituait pour un esprit libéré l’escapade dévote de Lorette :

« De tous les lieux d’Italie propres à attirer l’attention de Montaigne, celui qu’on pourrait le moins soupçonner qu’il eût été curieux de voir, c’est LORETTE : cependant lui qui n’était resté qu’un jour et demi tout au plus à Tivoli, passa près de trois jours à Lorette. Il est vrai qu’une partie de ce temps fut consacrée tant à faire construire un riche ex-voto composé de quatre figures d’argent […] qu’à solliciter pour son tableau une place qu’il n’obtint qu’avec beaucoup de faveur. Il y fit de plus ses dévotions ; ce qui surprendra peut-être encore plus que le voyage et l’ex-voto même. Si l’auteur de la Dissertation sur la religion de Montaigne , qui vient de paraître avait lu le Journal que nous publions, il en aurait tiré les plus fortes preuves en faveur de son christianisme contre ceux qui croient bien l’honorer en lui refusant toute religion » .

C’est dire combien les mentalités avaient évolué en deux siècles : car ce qui n’était que dévotion à forte coloration sociale et familiale pour le seigneur de Montaigne était devenue l’emblème de la superstition à l’âge des d’Holbach et des Voltaire. Dans les pages qui suivent nous parcourrons en compagnie de quelques pèlerins choisis les chemins de Lorette et leurs échos littéraires.

On sait qu’après un cours séjour sur la rive orientale de l’Adriatique, la Santa Casa de Nazareth toujours portée par des Anges parvint en Italie en décembre 1294 : elle y fut déposée dans un bois de lauriers (lauretum). Le Santuario de la Santa Casa fut édifié par Paul II à partir de 1468 ; ce fut au cœur de cette basilique que l’on installa dans un écrin de marbre la Santa Casa sur les murs de laquelle les pèlerins fixaient des ex-voto. La littérature sur Lorette est fortement liée à ces pèlerinages . Elle fut strictement contrôlée dès l’origine par le Saint-Siège : dès 1507, Jules II avait soustrait le sanctuaire à l’évêque du lieu et l’avait confié à l’autorité pontificale représentée par un gouverneur-légat. En 1532, Girolamo Angelita publia à Venise la Lauretanae Virginis historia: ce texte souvent réédité était inspiré de la Translatio miraculosa, récit rédigé par G. B. Spagnuoli dit: il Mantovano (Baptiste le Mantouan) à la suite de la visite qu’il avait effectuée au sanctuaire en 1489 ; l’ouvrage fut largement traduit et diffusé sous forme manuscrite et imprimée. Mais l’esprit naissant de la Réforme veillait : dès 1546, le Limousin acclimaté à Genève, Eustorg de Beaulieu, chansonne dans sa Chrétienne réjouissance ces pèlerins de l’inutile :

« Brunette, joliette,

Qu’allez-vous tant courir,

À Rome n’à Lorette

Pour de vos maux guarir » .

En 1554, Pietro Paolo Vergerio il Giovane (Pierre Paul Verger le Jeune) publia une contestation de l’authenticité des reliques mariales dans un De Idolo Lauretano, dont une traduction allemande, de grande diffusion en terre luthérienne, parut cinq ans plus tard . Fort heureusement pour le culte lorétain, on allait attribuer en 1571 la victoire navale de Lépante sur l’Infidèle à une particulière intercession de la Madonne de Lorette : favorisant activement le culte marial - vierge et mère - dans une relecture tridentine du culte catholique que l’on nomma plus tard, avec le père Lemoyne, la « dévotion aisée », la Compagnie de Jésus propagea à travers l’Europe les vertus miraculeuses de la « Santa Casa » - symbole de la famille chrétienne - contre l’hérésie et les fausses religions . Si la pensée humaniste de la Renaissance avait quelque méfiance pour « l’errance pèlerine » , source de nombreuses entorses aux bonnes mœurs, l’Église elle-même visait au contrôle de cette activité, le décret touchant les indulgences promulgué en 1563 par la XXVe session du Concile de Trente recommandait de « porter respect aux corps saints des martyrs et des autres saints qui vivent en Jésus Christ » ; mais divers règlements royaux français du XVIIe siècle limitent étroitement la liberté des pèlerins : un édit d’août 1671 stipule que :

« ceux qui voudraient faire des pèlerinages seraient tenus de se présenter devant leur évêque diocésain pour être par lui examinés sur les motifs de leur voyage et de prendre de lui une attestation par écrit » .

Quelques mois après la Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes, une déclaration de janvier 1686 interdisait :

« les pèlerinages hors du royaume, sans une permission expresse du Roi, signée par l’un de ses Secrétaires d’État sur l’approbation de l’évêque diocésain, à peine des galères à perpétuité contre les hommes et contre les femmes » .

Pour ce qui est du domaine littéraire français , le père Louis Richeome, s. j., publia en 1597 à Bordeaux chez Simon Millanges – le premier éditeur des Essais dix-sept ans auparavant - Trois discours pour la religion catholique, des miracles, des saints et des images, qui magnifiaient le culte lorétain. Il y revint en 1604 chez le même libraire par un volume de 983 pages, le Pèlerin de Lorette, vœu à la glorieuse Vierge Marie , ouvrage central de la dévotion jésuite récemment analysé avec finesse par Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud . Nous emprunterons la conclusion de ce savant à un livre traduit en plusieurs langues et dont extraits et abrégés entretinrent longtemps l’influence : « En ces heures de reconquête catholique, le voyageur de Dieu selon Louis Richeome œuvre à sa sanctification personnelle pour gagner d’autres âmes, en devenant un guide spirituel et un apôtre » . Quelques années auparavant, la littérature lorétaine avait été dotée de sa première « histoire », l’Historia Lauretana d’Orazio Torsellini publiée à Rome en 1597, un grand classique réédité et traduit jusqu’au XIXe siècle qui précéda de plus d’un siècle la première bibliographie lorétaine, le Teatro storico della Santa Casa Nazarena (Roma, 1735) par Pietro Valerio Martorelli. Les pèlerins de Lorette avaient donc à leur disposition des livres et des brochures qui ne leur celaient rien de ce morceau de Terre Sainte acclimaté dans la Marche d’Ancône, tels du père Antoine de Saint-Michel les Fumées de la Cour par dialogue entre un Récollet et un gentilhomme faisant ensemble le voyage de Notre-Dame de Lorette […] Avec une exhortation à Messieurs les courtisans (Béziers, 1615) ou de Nicolas de Bralion, la Sainte Chapelle de Laurette ou l’histoire admirable de ce sacré sanctuaire imprimé à Paris en 1665 pour l’édification des voyageurs. Le pèlerinage à Lorette faisait partie, plus généralement, des excursions du Grand Tour, et pas seulement pour les catholiques. Des guides de Rome inclurent dès le XVIIe siècle le sanctuaire lorétain dans les annexes dévotes de la Ville éternelle, comme les Merveilles de la ville de Rome […] Le tout traduit d’Italien en français par Pompée de Launay (Rome, De l’Imprimerie de feu Mascardi, 1668), qui comporte en fin de volume un « Guide de Rome à Notre-Dame de Lorette », illustré de gravures sur bois assez naïves : un pur produit pour pèlerin de moyenne extraction.

Mais le véritable ancêtre des Baedeker et des Joanne, le guide de Maximilien Misson, qui fut l’ouvrage dont presque tous les voyageurs du XVIIIe siècle emportaient un exemplaire – une mine d’érudition pour les relations qu’ils en rédigeaient -, renvoie une autre image du sanctuaire lorétain et des pratiques de pèlerinage. C’est avec Misson que ce qui, depuis le XVIe siècle, formait la vulgate réformée de Lorette atteint le plus vaste public des voyageurs. La Lettre XXe du Nouveau Voyage d’Italie est datée du 26 février 1688 – quelques mois avant le début de la Glorieuse Révolution, le détail a son importance. Dans ce recueil d’un voyageur qui écrit à un correspondant britannique, la lettre consacrée à Lorette est particulièrement illustrée : cinq planches dépliantes hors-texte représentent les quatre faces externes du magnifique écrin et le « dedans de la Santa Casa », plus la statue miraculeuse de Notre-Dame placée dans le même lieu. L’habillage extérieur de marbre de Carrare qui sert de protection à la Santa Casa, avec ses colonnes, ses bas-reliefs et ses statues sculptés par les plus grands artistes, forme contraste – et ce n’est pas une nouvelle fois innocent – avec la médiocrité de la Santa Casa elle-même construite de mauvaises briques et assez délabrée. C’est toute la pompe de l’Église romaine qui est là et qui travestit, une fois de plus, la modeste, mais sublime, vérité du mystère de l’Annonciation. Des numéros renvoient dans la gravure à des lieux ou à des objets où le quotidien prend un sens mystique pour le dévot pèlerin et suscite interrogation sceptique chez l’observateur malveillant: c’est en 12 la « fenêtre par où l’on dit que l’Ange passa » et en 13 l’« armoire où l’on garde quelque vaisselle de terre que l’on dit avoir servi à la Vierge » . On verra que ce dernier vestige sacré intrigua spécialement les voyageurs.

À n’en pas douter, Maximilien Misson, huguenot français réfugié en Angleterre, se montrait fort peu sensible, trois ans après la Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes, à l’idolâtrie romaine : sa lettre sur Lorette est un modèle de rouerie et d’un esprit que l’on pourrait déjà qualifier de voltairien. Le voyageur rapporte d’abord l’histoire de la translation de la Santa Casa sur un ton de naïve crédulité et même avec un enthousiasme suspect : « toute la Nature tressaillit de joie », « les chênes de la forêt » firent chorus, « il ne leur manqua que la voix de ceux de Dodone » (p. 303). Cette présence des mystères du paganisme mise sur le même pied que les divins mystères du christianisme rappelle les débats contemporains sur les « oracles » . Après d’assez extravagants épisodes racontés d’un ton pénétré sur les divers lieux qu’occupa la Santa Casa à Lorette et après avoir suggéré que sa translation sous le pontificat de Boniface VIII, « ce fameux renard » très capable de « fourberie » , pouvait laisser à penser, Misson compose une scène grandiose où il se met en scène dans le sanctuaire lui-même avec un « jésuite anglais » évoquant la naissance miraculeuse du prince de Galles par l’intercession directe de la Madonne et de l’Archange dont Misson reproduit d’après le jésuite le dialogue qu’ils eurent … en latin (p. 309-314). L’allusion au catholicisme de Marie de Modène, qui mit au monde le 10 juin 1688 le futur Jacques III Stuart, seul garçon survivant de la famille royale, ne manquait pas d’humour rétrospectif, car l’année 1688 fut aussi celle de la Glorieuse Révolution qui exila d’Angleterre Jacques II soupçonné de vouloir y rétablir la confession de Rome. De toute évidence, la Madonne et l’Archange avaient abandonné en cours d’année leur dévote princesse. Sans y faire référence, Misson consacre des pages à un commentaire sur la latinité du dialogue entre la Vierge et l’Ange dont le pédantisme burlesque, un peu hors de propos, ravale le séjour de Lorette au niveau d’une parade de superstitions en action et d’absurdités papistes. Le portrait qu’il fait des pèlerins achève de rendre le ridicule de ces entreprises d’autosuggestions collectives : « Il est difficile d’imaginer une chose plus plaisante que les caravanes de pèlerins, quand ces caravanes arrivent ensemble en corps de confréries. […] Ces pèlerins ainsi équipés montent tous sur des ânes. Ces ânes sont réputés avoir quelque odeur de sainteté, à cause de leurs fréquents pèlerinages » (p. 315). En définitive, Lorette n’est qu’un lieu de négoce et l’emblème de cette Église romaine qui a trahi la leçon du Christ . Au cours du siècle des Lumières, les voyageurs anglais de confession réformée en pensèrent ou en écrivirent de même, et parfois avec quelque talent .

La révélation du Journal de Montaigne, en contraste avec ce qu’il faut bien appeler une avalanche de sarcasmes sceptiques sur la « relique » de Lorette, ne pouvait que choquer les esprits un peu philosophes. Qu’on en juge : si l’auteur des Essais n’avait pas la naïveté de croire que le sanctuaire était vierge de pensées mercantiles, si l’on peut même dire que sa relation prouve une dévotion sincère mais sans excès de ferveur mystique , une dévotion uniquement préoccupée de réaliser un « vœu » familial et d’en laisser le témoignage sous forme d’une plaque d’argent compartimentée à son image et à celle de sa famille entourant celle de la Vierge où se reconnaît bien là le seigneur de Montaigne, ce « civis romanus » d’une altière modestie, il n’en demeure pas moins vrai qu’il évoque sans la moindre ironie les divers « remuements » de la Santa Casa et, surtout, le miracle dont la Madonne favorisa un Français, « l’archiligueur » Michel Marteau, seigneur de la Chapelle dont il fit connaissance à Lorette . On est assez loin d’un Érasme, l’un des pères spirituels de Montaigne, qui dans une Virginis Matris apud Lauretum cultæ Liturgia (Bâle, Froben, 1523) passe sous silence le premier « miracle », celui de la « translation » . Montaigne se met commodément à l’abri de la tradition pour authentifier – d’ailleurs avec une curieuse erreur - cette « maisonnette qu’ils tiennent être celle-là propre où en Nazareth naquit Jésus Christ » [sic] . Contrairement à d’autres voyageurs, il n’évoque pas le fabuleux trésor du sanctuaire, sujet d’admiration pour les uns et de scandale pour les autres. De fait, ce qu’il semble penser de Lorette n’est guère éloigné du discours tenu huit ans plus tard sur le même sujet par un « guisard » de la suite du cardinal de Joyeuse qui décrit assez précisément, d’autre part, l’endroit de la Santa Casa où l’on fixait les ex-votos :

« J’ai souvenance qu’il y a l’un des côtés de ladite chapelle qui est le lieu où est la cheminée , lequel est tout couvert depuis le haut jusques en bas d’une infinité de tables d’argent massif, épaisses d’un doigt, esquelles sont les vœux de ceux qui les ont présentées » .

Dans de très nombreux récits ou compilations de voyageurs français (voire « belges » ) imprimés ou restés manuscrits qui évoquent un séjour à Lorette, on rencontre souvent cette discrétion – fruit d’une foi sincère ou d’un scepticisme censuré - sur l’authenticité de la Santa Casa . Il est évident que les voyageurs de confession réformée ou de sensibilité libertine vont moins à Lorette en pèlerins qu’en touristes et jugent sévèrement les marchands du Temple qui prospèrent sur la crédulité publique. Bien souvent, les catholiques font, sans s’interroger trop, provision de médailles et d’agnus-Dei , et les plus curieux insistent sur la splendeur du sanctuaire et de l’écrin de marbre qui sert de cache-misère à la Santa Casa. C’est le cas, par exemple, de Montesquieu qui resta, semble-t-il, une seule journée à Lorette en juillet 1729 : il se limite à des remarques sur les morceaux les plus considérables de la décoration du sanctuaire et sur le trésor – mais sans le moindre jugement critique. Une seule allusion incidente aux Carmes qui auraient fait « voyager » la Santa Casa pourrait passer pour une infraction à l’honnête discrétion qui préside à ce récit . Le président de Brosses n’a pas, quelques années plus tard, cette courtoise cécité. Le fougueux Bourguignon fit un bref séjour à Lorette en février 1740 qu’il traite, dans une lettre récemment publiée, de « belle boutique d’orfèvrerie » . Il consacre au sanctuaire une partie d’une autre lettre à son ami dijonnais Jacques-Philippe Fyot de Neuilly, missive rédigée le « mercredi des cendres » à Modène et qui n’en est pas plus catholique pour cela . Le renvoi que Brosses fait à Misson pour la description intérieure du sanctuaire donne le ton et l’orientation critique de ces pages d’une ironie jubilatoire. Il ne manque pas de faire un sort aux « deux vieilles écuelles ébréchées » (p. 1178), ces restes de la vaisselle familiale dont les voyageurs révéraient dévotement les débris ceinturés d’argent. Mais il se livre surtout à ce que l’on pourrait appeler une enquête scientifique sur la Santa Casa qu’on disait généralement avoir été maçonnée de mauvaises briques : Brosses analyse ce matériau comme de la pierre, et de la pierre de provenance régionale, ce qui ruine l’origine galiléenne de la « relique » : « Cette pierre, fort reconnaissable par son grain singulier et par sa couleur, est commune aux environs de Lorette et de Recanati, comme je l’ai facilement remarqué » (p. 1177). Devant la « robe de la Sainte Vierge » conservée dans la Santa Casa, il opère la même inspection désacralisante: elle est faite d’un « tabis de soie ponceau à gros grains comme du gros de Naples ». Et il poursuit :

« N’allez pas, je vous prie, chicaner cette robe, sur ce que la soie était alors, même en Orient, une marchandise trop rare et trop chère pour servir aux vêtements des gens du commun » (p. 1178).

Que reste-t-il de ces saintes reliques ? Rien sinon un parfum de mystification, qu’un autre voyageur, après Fougeret de Monbron , le marquis de Sade retrouve dans la « Note sur Lorette » de son Voyage d’Italie . C’est au retour de Naples, où règne une superstition très orientale, que Sade passe en mai 1776 deux jours à Lorette sur la route qui le conduit à Modène et à Parme. Se fondant sur des documents anciens, il avance qu’une église Notre-Dame existait à Lorette plus de cent ans avant la translation, que les croisés avaient l’habitude de reproduire en Europe les hauts lieux de la Terre Sainte, que le récit de la seconde translation copie étroitement la première. Et il conclut :

«Cette inconstance, cette légèreté ne prouvent guère la sagesse d’un Dieu qui permet le déplacement d’une maison dans laquelle on prétend qu’il s’est fait homme pour nous, et dans tout ceci, je reconnais plus l’esprit d’un politique italien que la sagesse de celui et de celle qui en sont l’objet ».

L’esprit critique n’a évidemment que faire en ce siècle éclairé de ces reliques dont l’analyse objective et la pratique d’une méthode historique naissante anéantissent le caractère sacré. Il détruit aussi la part de rêve et de ferveur mystique qui peut être attachée à ce qui n’est, après tout, qu’une pieuse allégorie de l’insondable mystère du Dieu fait homme. C’est pourquoi, plus que pour ces illustres en littérature, le pèlerinage à Lorette d’un prince catholique allemand qui écrivait en français pourrait recentrer le jugement moyen, mais non indifférent, des hommes des Lumières. L’électeur Charles-Albert de Bavière, empereur romain germanique de 1742 à 1745 sous le nom de Charles VII, est l’ultime Wittelsbach monté sur le trône impérial . Fils de l’électeur Max Emmanuel qui vécut un long exil en France, neveu par alliance du Grand Dauphin, c’était un francophile déclaré et un amateur raffiné d’art et de musique. Il avait épousé en 1722 la fort dévote archiduchesse Marie-Amélie qui ne dédaignait pas cependant l’opéra comme leur voyage de noces à Naples en témoigne. Du premier séjour italien, qui dura de décembre 1715 à la fin du mois d’août de l’année suivante, subsistent une relation allemande rédigée par un secrétaire et une traduction partielle française . Le voyage de mai-juin 1737 est, en revanche, totalement en français et de la plume de Charles-Albert. : nous en connaissons des copies confectionnées par Thérèse de Gombert, femme de chambre et confidente de l’Électrice.

En prince très catholique, Charles-Albert sait alterner dans une même journée les devoirs du chrétien et les plaisirs du mélomane, et l’électrice n’est pas la dernière à l’imiter. De son enfance ballottée entre l’exil et la rude éducation militaire qu’il reçut du prince Eugène complétant celle, plus mondaine, des jésuites autrichiens, Charles-Albert avait acquis un sens de l’humour très peu commun dans sa caste et une certaine distance à l’égard des « grandeurs du monde ». Le voyage de 1715 (f. 5) semble mettre en perspective dans une succession sobrement chronologique le pèlerinage « dans l’église de Sainte-Catherine de Bologne, où il a vu le corps de cette sainte » immédiatement suivi d’une représentation d’opéra: télescopage que nous retrouverons souvent sous la plume de Charles-Albert. Le journal de 1737 est composé à la Ich-Form, à la première personne, ce qui élimine d’entrée de jeu la présence de cet intermédiaire, secrétaire ou auteur masqué, qui faisait du voyageur de 1715 le héros muet d’un spectacle de convention. « Nous quittâmes les plaisirs et les masques en quittant les États de Venise et avons entamé le chemin de Lorette qui était le véritable but de notre voyage » (p. 93), note un peu triste, mais déterminé, un Charles-Albert qui sait où est son devoir. Se rendant aux fêtes de saint Antoine à Padoue, il avait déjà évoqué cette singulière dramaturgie « métamorphosant les coureurs de masques en dévots pèlerins » (p. 87). Les Électeurs ne manquent jamais la messe matinale qui est comme l’ouverture de la journée. Marie-Amélie, archiduchesse d’Autriche, a cette religiosité à l’espagnole que la Cour de Vienne conserve de la tradition des Habsbourg du XVIe siècle. Charles-Albert fait mine de s’y plier: « La dévotion de la comtesse de Camb [pseudonyme de voyage de l’Électrice] fut sans doute ce qui me procura une prompte guérison » (p. 92), constate avec une délicate ironie son mari relevant de maladie à Padoue, où l’humour du prince à l’égard de cette très convenable manière de vivre transparaît dans des remarques fines sur la princesse: on fait mine de s’inquiéter de perdre Marie-Amélie dans les jardins-labyrinthes du « noble Papafava » (p. 32); elle n’a pas la chance de son ancêtre l’empereur Maximilien, d’avoir été, comme le rapporte Charles-Albert, remise sur le bon chemin par un aimable ange conducteur (p. 9); ailleurs, on joue à cache-cache avec la princesse pour échapper à quelque cérémonie surnuméraire qui priverait de l’opéra.

Charles-Albert rapporte avec un sérieux un peu trop appuyé les légendes les plus extravagantes qui courent sur les saints personnages que l’on honore ici ou là ; cela commence très tôt, dès les premiers jours du voyage: pour s’en protéger, il va à Benediktbeuern « toucher la tête de sainte Anastasie, grande patronne contre les maux de tête » (p. 2-3). Peu de temps après, il inaugure ces longs récits de miracles et d’épouvantables fantaisies divines dont il aimera émailler son récit et qui forment un contrepoint surnaturel aux plates réalités du voyage. Sans lasser apparemment le mémorialiste, les anecdotes pieuses se succèdent et se font écho d’une présence permanente d’un Dieu qui semble néanmoins avoir oublié depuis un siècle ou deux d’intervenir dans la vie des hommes. À titre d’exception malheureusement invérifiable, on affirme aux princes, lors du second séjour à Padoue, que saint Antoine vient de ressusciter un homme « assassiné et enterré »: hélas! si le miraculé est « actuellement » dans la ville, « cependant, [il] n’en parle à personne » (p. 92). Plus convaincant si l’on veut, au milieu de la cathédrale de Trente, lieu sacré du Concile, un crucifix miraculeux « confirme » pourtant par « un mouvement de tête » les belles vérités qu’on y a proférées (p. 14-15). En contrepoint, l’évocation du saint « enfant de Trente » martyrisé par les juifs « à coups d’épingles, de pincettes et couteaux » rappelle que Satan et la Synagogue font bon ménage et que la vigilance est toujours de mise (p. 15-16). Mais en général, récits fabuleux et achats variés destinées à perpétuer l’effet bénéfique de la protection des saints se complètent harmonieusement dans un discours dont seul l’imperturbable sérieux du narrateur peut faire soupçonner la part de dérision. À Padoue encore, les deux princes rendent hommage de concert à la langue de saint Antoine, puis « font des emplettes consistant en chapelets et médailles qui ont touché les saintes reliques » (p. 33). Par autorisation spéciale - seul le Pape a ce privilège -, ils se rendent au Couvent de Sainte-Catherine à Bologne pour y contempler le corps de la sainte: « [...] c’est certainement un grand miracle de voir cette sainte assise dans un fauteuil sans être appuyée; on dit que se relevant de son tombeau, c’est par obéissance qu’elle s’est mise dans cette situation; tout son Saint Corps se trouve très bien conservé, hormis la peau [qui] est noire; on y voit encore les ongles aux mains et aux pieds, les dents dans la bouche et toutes les parties du visage dans leur entier depuis trois cents ans que cette sainte est morte; nous lui avons baisé les pieds » (p. 124).

Mais c’est à Lorette, que, du 16 au 19 juin, le couple princier et sa suite arrivés fort simplement en chaise de poste déploient une dévotion de la plus belle eau; la tension ironique du récit se note seulement dans l’accumulation de détails d’une trop parfaite convention et par de brusques et singulières ruptures de ton. Lors de son premier voyage en 1716, Charles-Albert avait déjà visité le sanctuaire, mais le secrétaire qui tenait sa plume n’avait rien écrit que de très banal sur le sujet . En 1737, il est encore question assez platement de cette « sainte maison » - « une vraie consolation interne » (p. 98) -, de «cette chapelle déplacée deux fois par les Anges et apportée dans ce lieu » (p. 99). Visites dévotes, dons propitiatoires et achats de précaution se succèdent au cours de quatre journées uniquement consacrées à ces exercices: « [...] cette maison est toute miraculeuse, car tout ce qu’on y observe à présent, et tout ce qui en reste ne subsiste que miraculeusement » (p. 107), remarque très sobrement Charles-Albert. L’Électrice écoute quatre messes, fait le tour de la chapelle à genoux et les époux offrent « sur l’autel nos deux cœurs couvert du bonnet électoral garni des saphirs et diamants, au milieu se trouvaient nos deux chiffres en diamant » (p. 101). « [...] l’après-dîner se passa à faire une petite provision de médailles, chapelets, clochettes et autres, dont plusieurs boutiques furent entièrement vidées » (p. 102). Mais le grand moment est la visite du trésor et de la maison de la Vierge elle-même. Petit mouvement de vanité princière: dans ce « trésor, qui est à la vérité d’un prix inestimable; nous [...] trouvâmes beaucoup des monuments et offrandes de nos deux Maisons et en ressentîmes une vraie consolation » (p. 102-103). Nouveau signe de la vigilance divine: « [...] on nous montra aussi l’endroit, où le pavé enfonça avec un voleur qui s’était laissé enfermer dans cet endroit pour y voler le trésor et dont il ne put sortir se trouvant serré entre le marbre qui enfonça avec lui jusqu’à ce qu’il fut pris » (p. 103). Les instants d’émotion la plus parfaite furent évidemment ceux où ils purent imaginer la vie familiale de la Vierge dans son détail intime. Ils admirèrent la

« cheminée [...] où la Sainte Vierge fit la cuisine, comme dans un petit armoire [sic] on nous montra les petits plats de terre dont la Sainte Famille se servait; le bois qui tient la séparation se trouve encore si bien conservé comme si cela venait d’être fait, ce qui ne se pourrait sans miracle; il y a aussi les portraits de la Sainte Vierge et de Notre Seigneur crucifié peints par saint Luc; j’y ai fait l’observation que ce saint peintre, étant le seul dont on peut s’attendre d’avoir fait le vrai original, a décidé de la dispute qu’on fait si Jésus Christ a été crucifié à trois ou quatre clous: y ayant mis deux aux pieds, et par conséquent décidée par les quatre » (p. 104-105).

La visite se termine par une invitation à se rafraîchir suggérée par le gouverneur de Lorette conscient que les pèlerins venaient de faire « à genoux avec toute notre suite » le tour de la chapelle; « mais comme une sainte chaleur inspirée par la dévotion ne doit jamais être refroidie, nous l’en remerciâmes avec le ferme propos d’en demeurer toujours bien échauffé » (p. 108-109). On pourra aisément gloser sur cette conclusion tout à fait dans la manière de Charles-Albert.

Le pèlerinage à Lorette est dans la littérature de voyage un excellent miroir de la mentalité moyenne du temps . Depuis la Renaissance, les esprits plus ou moins rebelles aux prestiges de la tradition catholique n’ont pas manqué sur les chemins qui conduisaient au sanctuaire. Et il est certain que Montaigne ne peut passer pour le voyageur le plus réfractaire au culte des reliques. Ceux qui suivirent ses pas n’eurent pas toujours cette sereine confiance dans l’authenticité d’un miracle qui favorisait un peu trop l’Église latine et le tourisme dévot. La virulence de la critique réformée se combine au siècle des Lumières avec la critique historique du phénomène : la Santa Casa y perd beaucoup de son aura sacrée. Mais le pèlerinage à Lorette se poursuit, et l’on peut jouer comme Charles-Albert à contourner le discours légendaire par un tour discrètement ironique et par une espèce d’esprit d’enfance qui donne au pèlerinage un air de promenade de conte de fées. La légende lorétaine ne mourut pas avec la Révolution, et l’on songe à cette magnifique Èglise néo-classique de Notre-Dame de Lorette bâtie à Paris en bordure du quartier très romantique de la Nouvelle-Athènes et à ces « lorettes » qui en prirent le nom, ces jeunes filles assez lègères à qui la virginité pesait sans doute un peu.

Bibliographie choisie

Quelques textes de voyageurs concernant le sanctuaire de Lorette

Brosses, Charles de, Lettres familières. Texte établi par Giuseppina Cafasso. Introduction et notes de Letizia Norci Cagiano de Azevedo, Naples, Centre Jean Bérard, 1991, t. III, p. 1176-1179, 1230.

Charles-Albert, électeur de Bavière, « Journal de mon voyage d'Italie de l'année 1737 », un vol. manuscrit in-8° de 136 p. Munich, BStB., cod. gall. 563.

Misson, Maximilien, Nouveau Voyage d’Italie, La Haye, Henry van Bulderen, 1698, Lettre XX, t. I, p. 302-320.

Montaigne, Michel de, Journal de voyage, François Rigolot (éd.), Paris, PUF, 1992, p. 138-143.

Montesquieu, Charles de, « Voyages ». Ch. X : « États de l’Église », Œuvres complètes, Roger Caillois éd., Paris, Gallimard, 1949, t. I, p. 761-762.

Richeome, Louis, s.j., Le Pèlerin de Lorette, vœu à la glorieuse Vierge Marie, Bordeaux, Simon Millanges, 1604.

Sade, D. A. F., marquis de, Voyage d’Italie, Maurice Lever éd., Paris, Fayard, 1995, « Note sur Lorette », p. 305-306.

Voyage de Provence et d’Italie (ms. fr. 5550, B.N. Paris), Luigi Monga éd., Genève, Slatkine, 1994, p. 92 [anonyme français, fin du XVIe siècle].

Voyageurs anglais à Lorette dans la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle : Joseph Addison, Remarks of Several Parts of Italy, Londres , Jacob Tonson, 1705 ; A. D. Chancel, A New Journey over Europe, Londres, John Harding, 1714 ; John Durant Breval, Remarks on several parts of Europe, Londres, Bernard Lintot, 1726, t. II ; Edward Wright, Some Observations made in travelleing through France, Italy, etc., Londres, Th. Ward et E. Wicksteed, 1730 ; Charles Thompson, The Travels, Reading, J. Newbery et C. Micklewright, 1744 ; D. Jeffereys, A Journal from London to Rome by way of Paris, Lyons, Turin, Florence, etc., and from Rome back to London by way of Loretto, London, W. Owen, [1742 ?] ; Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour, Londres, J. Rivington, 1748, 4 vol. ; Dr. Maihows, Letters of several parts of Europe, Londres, J. Davis, 1748.

Etudes

Charles Béné, Charles, « Humanistes et pèlerinages au XVIe siècle : Montaigne à Lorette », Montaigne e l’Italia, Genève, Slatkine, [1991], p. 597-607.

Chélini Jean et Henry Branthomme, Les Chemins de Dieu. Histoire des pèlerinages chrétiens des origines à nos jours, Paris, Hachette, 1982,

Chevalier, U. Notre-Dame de Lorette, étude historique sur l’authenticité de la Santa Casa, Paris, Picard, 1906.

Faurax, Joseph, Bibliographie lorétaine, Paris, 1913.

Gomez-Géraud, Marie-Christine, « Entre chemin d’aventure et parcours d’initiation : Le Pèlerin de Lorette du père Richeome », L’Image du pèlerin au Moyen Âge et sous l’Ancien Régime, Pierre André Sigal éd., [Gramat], Association des Amis de Rocamadour, s. d., p. 231-240.

Grimaldi, Floriano, Il Libro lauretano. Edizioni e illustrazioni (1489-1599), Macerata, Libreria Quondam, 1973.

Legros, H. M. ,« Pèlerins manceaux au XVIIe siècle. Pèlerins du Maine au Mont Saint-Michel, à Saint-Méen, à Rome et à Notre-Dame de Lorette », La Province du Maine, 1913, p. 251.

Santarelli, P. , La Traslazione della Santa Casa di Loreto : tradizione e ipotesi, Lorette, 1988.

Référencé dans la conférence : Séminaire M1FR436A et M3FR436A : Voyages d’Europe (XVIe-XIXe siècles)

Date et heure : mar 10/11/2009 - 00:00

Époque : Du 16e au 18e siècle

Localisation : Italie

Documents

SOURCE : https://www.crlv.org/conference/le-p%C3%A8lerinage-%C3%A0-lorette-de-quelques-voyageurs-fran%C3%A7ais-entre-renaissance-et-lumi%C3%A8res

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Angiolillo arcuccio (attr.), Santa Maria de Lorito, circa 1470, Loreto, Museo del Tesoro

Our Lady of Loreto

Memorial

10 December

Profile

The title Our Lady of Loreto refers to the Holy House of Loreto, the house in which Mary was born, and where the Annunciation occurred, and to an ancient statue of Our Lady which is found there. Tradition says that a band of angels scooped up the little house from the Holy Land, and transported it first to Tersato, Dalmatia in 1291, then Recanati, Italy in 1294, and finally to Loreto, Italy where it has been for centuries. It was this flight that led to her patronage of people involved in aviation, and the long life of the house that has led to the patronage of builders, construction workers, etc. It is the first shrine of international renown dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and has been known as a Marian center for centuries. Popes have always held the Shrine of Loreto in special esteem, and it is under their direct authority and protection.

Patronage

air crews, aircraft pilots, aviation, aviators, flyers, flying (given by decree of 1920)

Air Forces

builders, construction workers

Italy

Associazione Laicale Eucaristica Riparatrice

in Italy

Additional Information

Catholic Encyclopedia: Litany of Loreto

Catholic Encyclopedia: Holy House of Loreto

New Catholic Dictionary: Holy House of Loreto

Roman Martyrology, 1914 edition

CatholicSaints.Info: Blessed Virgin Mary

CatholicSaints.Info: Litany of Loreto

CatholicSaints.Info: Patrons of Loreto

Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

Veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Father B Rohner, O.S.B.

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer

other sites in english

1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, Australian Catholic Truth Society

Catholic Fire

International Marian Research Institute: patronage of aviators

International Marian Research Institute: the Holy House

images

video

fonti in italiano

websites in nederlandse

Heiligen 3s

nettsteder i norsk

Den katolske kirke

MLA Citation

“Our Lady of Loreto“. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 November 2023. Web. 10 December 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/our-lady-of-loreto/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/our-lady-of-loreto/

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Sagron (Sagron Mis, Trentino), chiesa della Madonna di Loreto - Vetrata con Madonna di Loreto

Sagron (Sagron Mis, Trentino, Italy), Our Lady of Loreto church - Stained-glass window with Our Lady of Loreto

PASTORAL VISIT TO LORETO

ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE VISIT OF BLESSED JOHN XXIII

(4 OCTOBER 2012)

HOLY MASS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Our Lady of Loreto Square, Loreto

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On 4 October 1962, Blessed John XXIII came as a pilgrim to this Shrine to entrust to the Virgin Mary the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, due to begin a week later. On that occasion, with deep filial devotion to the Mother of God, he addressed her in these words: “Again today, and in the name of the entire episcopate, I ask you, sweetest Mother, as Help of Bishops, to intercede for me as Bishop of Rome and for all the bishops of the world, to obtain for us the grace to enter the Council Hall of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as the Apostles and the first disciples of Jesus entered the Upper Room: with one heart, one heartbeat of love for Christ and for souls, with one purpose only, to live and to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of individuals and peoples. Thus, by your maternal intercession, in the years and the centuries to come, may it be said that the grace of God prepared, accompanied and crowned the twenty-first Ecumenical Council, filling all the children of the holy Church with a new fervour, a new impulse to generosity, and a renewed firmness of purpose” (AAS 54 [1962], 727).

Fifty years on, having been called by divine Providence to succeed that unforgettable Pope to the See of Peter, I too have come on pilgrimage to entrust to the Mother of God two important ecclesial initiatives: the Year of Faith, which will begin in a week, on 11 October, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which I have convened this October with the theme “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. Dear friends, to all of you I offer my most cordial greetings. I thank the Most Reverend Giovanni Tonucci, Archbishop of Loreto, for his warm words of welcome. I greet the other bishops present, the priests, the Capuchin Fathers, to whom the pastoral care of this shrine is entrusted, and the religious sisters. I also salute Dr Paolo Niccoletti, Mayor of Loreto, thanking him for his courteous words, and I greet the representatives of the government and the civil and military authorities here present. My thanks also go to those who have generously offered their assistance to make my pilgrimage possible.

As I said in my Apostolic Letter announcing the Year of Faith, “I wish to invite my brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter, during this time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us, in recalling the precious gift of faith” (Porta Fidei, 8). It is precisely here at Loreto that we have the opportunity to attend the school of Mary who was called “blessed” because she “believed” (Lk 1:45). This Shrine, built around her earthly home, preserves the memory of the moment when the angel of Lord came to Mary with the great announcement of the Incarnation, and she gave her reply. This humble home is a physical, tangible witness to the greatest event in our history, the Incarnation; the Word became flesh and Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, is the privileged channel through which God came to dwell among us (cf. Jn 1:14). Mary offered her very body; she placed her entire being at the disposal of God’s will, becoming the “place” of his presence, a “place” of dwelling for the Son of God. We are reminded here of the words of the Psalm with which, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ began his earthly life, saying to the Father, “Sacrifices and offering you have not desired, but you have prepared a body for me… Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” (10:5,7). To the Angel who reveals God’s plan for her, Mary replies in similar words: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). The will of Mary coincides with the will of the Son in the Father’s unique project of love and, in her, heaven and earth are united, God the Creator is united to his creature. God becomes man, and Mary becomes a “living house” for the Lord, a temple where the Most High dwells. Here at Loreto fifty years ago, Blessed John XXIII issued an invitation to contemplate this mystery, to “reflect on that union of heaven and earth, which is the purpose of the Incarnation and Redemption”, and he went on to affirm that the aim of the Council itself was to spread ever wider the beneficent impact of the Incarnation and Redemption on all spheres of life (cf. AAS 54 [1962], 724). This invitation resounds today with particular urgency. In the present crisis affecting not only the economy but also many sectors of society, the Incarnation of the Son of God speaks to us of how important man is to God, and God to man. Without God, man ultimately chooses selfishness over solidarity and love, material things over values, having over being. We must return to God, so that man may return to being man. With God, even in difficult times or moments of crisis, there is always a horizon of hope: the Incarnation tells us that we are never alone, that God has come to humanity and that he accompanies us.

The idea of the Son of God dwelling in the “living house”, the temple which is Mary, leads us to another thought: we must recognize that where God dwells, all are “at home”; wherever Christ dwells, his brothers and sisters are no longer strangers. Mary, who is the Mother of Christ, is also our mother, and she open to us the door to her home, she helps us enter into the will of her Son. So it is faith which gives us a home in this world, which brings us together in one family and which makes all of us brothers and sisters. As we contemplate Mary, we must ask if we too wish to be open to the Lord, if we wish to offer our life as his dwelling place; or if we are afraid that the presence of God may somehow place limits on our freedom, if we wish to set aside a part of our life in such a way that it belongs only to us. Yet it is precisely God who liberates our liberty, he frees it from being closed in on itself, from the thirst for power, possessions, and domination; he opens it up to the dimension which completely fulfils it: the gift of self, of love, which in turn becomes service and sharing.

Faith lets us reside, or dwell, but it also lets us walk on the path of life. The Holy House of Loreto contains an important teaching in this respect as well. Its location on a street is well known. At first this might seem strange: after all, a house and a street appear mutually exclusive. In reality, it is precisely here that an unusual message about this House has been preserved. It is not a private house, nor does it belong to a single person or a single family, rather it is an abode open to everyone placed, as it were, on our street. So here in Loreto we find a house which lets us stay, or dwell, and which at the same time lets us continue, or journey, and reminds us that we are pilgrims, that we must always be on the way to another dwelling, towards our final home, the Eternal City, the dwelling place of God and the people he has redeemed (cf. Rev 21:3).

There is one more important point in the Gospel account of the Annunciation which I would like to underline, one which never fails to strike us: God asks for mankind’s “yes”; he has created a free partner in dialogue, from whom he requests a reply in complete liberty. In one of his most celebrated sermons, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux “recreates”, as it were, the scene where God and humanity wait for Mary to say “yes”. Turning to her he begs: “The angel awaits your response, as he must now return to the One who sent him… O Lady, give that reply which the earth, the underworld and the very heavens await. Just as the King and Lord of all wished to behold your beauty, in the same way he earnestly desires your word of consent… Arise, run, open up! Arise with faith, run with your devotion, open up with your consent!” (In laudibus Virginis Matris, Hom. IV,8: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4, 1966, p.53f). God asks for Mary’s free consent that he may become man. To be sure, the “yes” of the Virgin is the fruit of divine grace. But grace does not eliminate freedom; on the contrary it creates and sustains it. Faith removes nothing from the human creature, rather it permits his full and final realization.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this pilgrimage in the footsteps of Blessed John XXIII – and which comes, providentially, on the day in which the Church remembers Saint Francis of Assisi, a veritable “living Gospel” – I wish to entrust to the Most Holy Mother of God all the difficulties affecting our world as it seeks serenity and peace, the problems of the many families who look anxiously to the future, the aspirations of young people at the start of their lives, the suffering of those awaiting signs or decisions of solidarity and love. I also wish to place in the hands of the Mother of God this special time of grace for the Church, now opening up before us. Mother of the “yes”, you who heard Jesus, speak to us of him; tell us of your journey, that we may follow him on the path of faith; help us to proclaim him, that each person may welcome him and become the dwelling place of God. Amen!

SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20121004_loreto.html

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Pietro de Pietri, Notre Dame de Lorette, Louvre - Fonds des dessins et miniatures romains et ombriens

The Liturgical Year: The Translation of the Holy House of Loretto

10 December

This feast is not one of those which is inserted in the universal calendar of the Church, but it is kept at Rome and in the Papal States, in Tuscany, in the Kingdom of Naples, in Spain, in Belgium, in a great many dioceses in all parts of the Christian world, and by almost all the Religious Orders. It was instituted in thanksgiving for the great favour bestowed on the Western Church, whereby God, to console Christians for the loss of the Holy Sepulchre, miraculously translated into a Catholic land the humble yet ever venerable House in which Mary received the message of the Angel, and where, by the consent of this Holy Virgin, the Word was made flesh and began to dwell among us. It is no unusual thing to meet with Catholics, who are sincerely devoted to their holy faith yet who have never heard of the House of Loretto. It is for their sakes that we have resolved to take the opportunity of this Feast to give an exact and concise account of this wonderful event. We take it from the learned and judicious author of the Life of Olier.

“It was during the Pontificate of Celestine V, in 1291, when the Christians had irrevocably lost the Holy places of Palestine, that the House, wherein was achieved the mystery of the Incarnation in the womb of Mary, was translated by the Angels from Nazareth into Dalmatia or Sclavonia, and placed by them on a hill near a little town called Tersatto. The miracles which were continually being wrought in this holy house, the official enquiry made by chosen deputies who visited Nazareth in order to attest the Translation, and, lastly, the universal belief of all countries and the pilgrims who went from all parts to venerate a Sanctuary which had ever been dear to Christians – all this seemed proof enough of the miracle. But God gave another testimony, of which the whole people of Italy and Dalmatia were the vouchers.

“Three years and seven months had elapsed since this first translation, when, in the year 1294, the Holy House was carried across the Adriatic Sea to the territory of Recanati, and placed in a forest the property of a lady called Loretta. The inhabitants of Dalmatia were in the deepest affliction: nothing could have been a greater trial to them. As a slight consolation to themselves, they erected a church on the spot where the house had stood; it was dedicated to our Lady, and was served, later on, by the Franciscan Fathers. Over the porch was placed this inscription: This is the place where stood the Holy House of Nazareth, which now is honoured in the territory of Recanati. Many of the people of Dalmatia went to live in Italy near the Holy House, where they instituted the Society of Corpus Domini (known under the name of Sclavonians), which lasted even to the Pontificate of Paul III.

“This second Translation was soon rumoured throughout Christendom. There came from almost every part of Europe innumerable pilgrims to Recanati, that they might visit the House, which has ever since gone under the name of The House of Loretto. The people of Recanati, anxious that every doubt upon this favour granted them should be removed, sent over, first to Dalmatia and afterwards to Nazareth, sixteen of the most respectable persons of the neighbourhood, who were instructed to make fresh enquiries in both places. But here again, God would certify the prodigy by a third and a fourth Translation, which were made, close upon each other, in the same territory of Recanati, The Holy House had not been in the Forest of Loretto eight months, when it was found that the pilgrims were continually attacked by brigands, who were attracted to the neighbourhood by the hope of booty. The house was miraculously removed the distance of a mile, and placed on a piece of rising ground, which belonged to two brothers of the family of the Antici. These also laid hands on the offerings of the pilgrims; and having quarrelled about the division of their plunder, they took up arms against each other. Then it was that the Holy House, in the year 1295, was once more translated: this time also to a very short distance, but near the high road. There has been built the town of Loretto, and there, to this day, remains the House of Loretto.”

This prodigy has been attested not only by the annalists of the Church, and by the local historians of Loretto (e.g., Tursellini and Martorelli), but by writers whose profound learning has gained them a world-wide reputation, and among them we may cite Papebroke, Natalis Alexander, Benedict XIV, Trombelli, etc. Who, that is not blind with prejudice, could seriously think of preferring an idle repugnance to the authority of such writers as these, who are the received masters of historical criticism, and whose united opinion would not be rejected on any other question?

But, in a Catholic point of view, it is certain that those persons would be guilty of excessive temerity, who would disregard the countless miracles which have been wrought in the Holy House of Loretto. They dare not deny all these miracles; and yet, by denying the fact in question, they are admitting that God is giving his sanction by miracles to what would be, if false, the most absurd and grossest deception. They would incur the imputation of temerity on another ground, inasmuch as they would be slighting the authority of the Holy See, which has been, for upwards of five hundred years, so zealous in defending the truth of this Translation, and in offering it to the veneration of the faithful as a means of honouring the Incarnate Word and his ever Blessed Mother. Among the explicit approbations of the Holy See regarding the miracle of Loretto, we will mention the Bulls of Paul II, of Leo X, of Paul III, of Paul IV, and of Xystus Y; the Decree of Urban VIII, in 1632, establishing this Feast in the Marche of Ancona; the Decree of Innocent XII, in 1699, approving the Proper Office of the Feast; and finally, the Indults of Benedict XIII, and his successors, extending this feast to the several provinces of the Catholic world.

That we may enter into the spirit of the Holy See, which has spared nothing in order to encourage the confidence of the faithful in the Holy House of Nazareth, or rather (as by the divine mercy it has now become) the House of Loretto, we will give the following from the Office of its miraculous Translation:

– from the book The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-liturgical-year-the-translation-of-the-holy-house-of-loretto/

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Medaglia Preghiera dell'aviatore, recto, circa 1935, Collezione Albertomos

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Medaglia Preghiera dell'aviatore, verso, testo della preghiera dell'aviatore, circa 1935, Collezione Albertomos

Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – The Translation of the Holy House of Loretto

Article

By “the Holy House,” we understand the blessed house, or rather a part, a room of it, in which Mary, the Blessed Virgin, lived for three years, and afterwards was greeted by the Angel; in which the only Son of God became man and dwelt for a long time with his pure Mother and his holy foster-father. This sacred dwelling first stood at Nazareth in Galilee, a province of Syria. The Apostles consecrated it as the first Church in Christendom; the first Christians held it in high honor, and pious pilgrims visited it with great devotion. Helena, the great and holy Empress, built over it a magnificent temple, which, in in the course of time, was destroyed by the barbarians. When, in 1291, God in His incomprehensible Wisdom, decreed that the infidels should become possessors of the Holy Land, the Christians were driven out of it, and pilgrims were no longer permitted to visit the holy house. But the Almighty, who would preserve the honor and veneration in which this holy house had until then been held, wrought to this end a miracle such as the world had neither seen nor heard of. In the night of the ninth day of May, in the above year, the holy house was suddenly taken from the ground on which it had stood for more than twelve hundred years, and lifted through the temple erected over it, which parted in the middle, and it was carried by the Angels over land and sea, from Galilee to the far off Dalmatia, where it was placed between Tersatto and Fiume, not far from the Adriatic sea. When, early in the morning of the following day, some people saw this unknown little chapel, they informed the inhabitants of the above-mentioned towns of it, and the amazement of all was indescribable.

Alexander, the provost, or ecclesiastical Superior of Tersatto, who was at that time very ill, greatly desired to know what little church it was, and whence it had come. During his fervent prayers, the Divine Mother appeared to him, and informed him of what he desired to know; with the addition that the immediate re-establishment of his health should be a sure proof of the truth of what she had revealed to him. Alexander awoke, found himself perfectly restored, left his bed, and gave due thanks to God and the Queen of heaven for the grace which had been bestowed upon him. No sooner had daylight appeared, than he went through all the streets of the town and announced to the people the revelation which he had had the night previous in regard to the little church; and, followed by all the inhabitants of the place, he went full of heartfelt devotion to the holy house. There he prostrated himself and gave humble thanks to God, who had so unexpectedly bestowed so great a treasure on him. and his flock. Nicholas Frangipane, the Governor of Dalmatia, desiring to examine the matter thoroughly, sent four respectable men to Nazareth in Galilee. Having arrived there and gained admittance by paying a large sum of money, they asked the few Christians who still dwelt there, where they could find the sacred house wherein the Divine Mother had been greeted by the Angel, and the Son of God had been made man. The Christians replied that it had been suddenly taken away one night, but they did not know by whom, nor why it had been taken, nor where it was at present. They showed them the place where it had been and the foundations on which it had stood; and told them what had been in the house, namely, a picture of the Blessed Virgin and an Altar. The deputies measured the length and breadth of the place where the holy house had stood, and the width of the foundation, and found that all corresponded exactly with the chapel that had appeared in Dalmatia. In like manner, the time at which the holy house had been taken away from Nazareth, agreed with the time of its arrival in Dalmatia. The deputies also had seen, in the little chapel, all those articles which the Christians of Nazareth described as having been in the holy house. Hence there could remain no doubt of the truth of the revelation which had been made to the pious Alexander. Giving due thanks to God, they returned rejoicingly, and publicly announced the result of their journey. From that moment, the people flocked in crowds towards the holy house, and God wrought many miracles on the infirm who took refuge within its holy walls. But the joy of the people of Dalmatia did not last long; for hardly had three years and seven months passed, when the holy house was taken from them. It was carried by Angels over the Adriatic sea, and arrived in Italy, surrounded by a heavenly light, in December, 1 294. The Sovereign Pontiff decreed that the 10th of December, the day on which this happened, should be yearly commemorated in Italy. The happy spot where the holy chapel had placed itself, was a wood near Ancona, which belonged to a widow named Lauretta, from which the house was afterwards called the House of Loretto. Some pious shepherds, who watched by their flock, had seen this miraculous transfer of the Holy House, and approaching the spot where the house had rested, they were not less amazed than the inhabitants of Dalmatia had been when they first perceived it. When this became known, on the following day, every one ran to the Holy House. All were convinced that a miracle had taken place, but had no idea whence the Holy House had come. The many miracles which took place there, as in Dalmatia, on the infirm, drew thither a multitude of pilgrims. Some godless men took the opportunity to attack, plunder and even kill, in the stillness of the wood, many of the pious pilgrims. Such terrible wickedness could not be suffered near the sacred house; and before eight months had passed, the Angels took it again, and placed it nearer to the town of Recanati, where it rested on a hill. This hill belonged to two brothers of the nobility, who at first rejoiced at the grace thus bestowed upon them, but afterwards quarrelled on account of the rich offerings which the pilgrims made to the Holy House, of which each of them desired the larger share. At last, the one challenged the other to a duel. God, however, put an end to this strife. The Holy House, which had hardly stood two months on that spot, was again taken by Angels and placed not far off on the public highway. Thus its site was changed four times in the space of five years. This was done, without doubt, that so great a miracle as this translation should be much more readily believed by all persons, since it had so frequently taken place before the eyes of a great number of people. These frequent changes greatly astonished the inhabitants of Recanati and of all the neighboring places; they did not know what little church it was, nor how or why it changed its place so often. They, however, bore in their hearts great devotion to it; for they could not help perceiving, by the transfers and by the miracles that took place in it, that the Almighty favored this little church. The inhabitants of Dalmatia at last discovered the secret of the holy building; for, as the frequent removal of the house became known, they immediately supposed that it must be the little chapel that had been taken away from them. Hence, crossing the sea, they came to the place where the Holy House stood, and recognizing it, they t wept bitterly that they had lost it. After this they related to the inhabitants of Recanati how sacred this little house was and how greatly honored by the Almighty; who had lived in it; how sacred the mysteries which had taken place in it; and how they had come to this knowledge. All present were greatly amazed at these words, and prostrating themselves, they gave humble thanks to God, and held the house in great honor. But in order to leave nothing undone to arrive at all the facts of so miraculous an event, the inhabitants of Recanati sent a special deputation, first to Dalmatia, and thence to Nazareth in Galilee, to investigate the truth of all that had been told them with regard to the little chapel. At the return of the deputation, there was no longer any doubt that the house or chapel was the sacred dwelling in which the Virgin Mother had been born; where she had received the greeting of the Angel, and where the only Son of God had become man. Another deputation, which was sent for the same purpose some years later, by Pope Clement VII, after having carefully examined, both in Dalmatia and at Nazareth, the above facts, attested the perfect truth of the same. It may be said that there is not a fact to be found in the history of the Church, which has been more thoroughly investigated than this one.

Practical Considerations

• The miraculous transfer of the Holy House, and the many miracles that took place in it, may serve to prove how much we please God by honoring and invoking the Blessed Virgin, and by making pilgrimages in a devout and Christian spirit. Therefore, let no Catholic allow himself to be misled by the heretics, who consider this as useless and superstitious. Let us continue to honor the Blessed Virgin with our whole heart, to invoke her often and devoutly, and to recommend ourselves to her care. We must, however, not forget what I have frequently said, that the most efficacious way to honor her and to obtain her protection is to imitate her virtues. “Whoever desires the protection of Mary,” writes Saint Ambrose, “must follow her example.” Saint Bernard writes: “Do not neglect to imitate her, that you may become worthy of her inter- cession.” Pilgrimages are not commanded in the New Law, but they are pleasing to the Most High. If you wish to perform them, after the example of pious Catholics, do so, as I have already elsewhere instructed you, with pious intentions, and avoiding all that is displeasing to God and that weakens the power of your prayers.

• The history of the Holy House should awaken the memory of the infinite love which Christ manifested to us when He descended front heaven for our salvation and became man in the chaste womb of the Virgin. “He desired to dwell among us on earth, in order to prepare a dwelling for us in heaven,” says Saint Augustine. Of such infinite love, so great a benefit, think especially during the present season of Advent, and give humble thanks to Him, for whose gracious coming the Catholic Church prepares us. As, however, this coming is only a proof of a measureless lore which Christ bears to us, it is but right that you should exercise yourself, during this month, in acts of love to Him. Love Him who has loved you in so incomprehensible a manner. Love Him with your whole heart and with all your strength; but love Him not in words, but in works. “Let us therefore love God; for, God has first loved us,” says Saint John, (1 John 18) “I beseech you to manifest your love to Christ not in words only, but in deeds,” says Saint Bernard.

MLA Citation

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “The Translation of the Holy House of Loretto”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info. 3 June 2018. Web. 11 December 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-the-translation-of-the-holy-house-of-loretto/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-the-translation-of-the-holy-house-of-loretto/

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

An envelope, originally containing dust from the walls of the Casa Santa of Loreto, with a view of the square before the Church and the appearance of the Virgin of Loreto and her house. Etching by Jaffei(?) after L. Vanvitelli.

Santa Casa di Loreto

(The Holy House of Loreto).

Since the fifteenth century, and possibly even earlier, the "Holy House" of Loreto has been numbered among the most famous shrines of Italy. Loreto is a small town a few miles south of Ancona and near the sea. Its most conspicuous building is the basilica. This dome-crowned edifice, which with its various annexes took more than a century to build and adorn under the direction of many famous artists, serves merely as the setting of a tiny cottage standing within the basilica itself. Though the rough walls of the little building have been raised in height and are cased externally in richly sculptured marble, the interior measures only thirty-one feet by thirteen. An altar stands at one end beneath a statue, blackened with age, of the Virgin Mother and her Divine Infant. As the inscription, Hic Verbum caro factum est, reminds us, this building is honoured by Christians as the veritable cottage at Nazareth in which the Holy Family lived, and the Word became incarnate. Another inscription of the sixteenth century which decorates the eastern façade of the basilica sets forth at greater length the tradition which makes this shrine so famous. "Christian pilgrim", it says, "you have before your eyes the Holy House of Loreto, venerable throughout the world on account of the Divine mysteries accomplished in it and the glorious miracles herein wrought. It is here that most holy Mary, Mother of God, was born; here that she was saluted by the Angel, here that the eternal Word of God was made Flesh. Angels conveyed this House from Palestine to the town Tersato in Illyria in the year of salvation 1291 in the pontificate of Nicholas IV. Three years later, in the beginning of the pontificate of Boniface VIII, it was carried again by the ministry of angels and placed in a wood near this hill, in the vicinity of Recanati, in the March of Ancona; where having changed its station thrice in the course of a year, at length, by the will of God, it took up its permanent position on this spot three hundred years ago [now, of course, more than 600]. Ever since that time, both the extraordinary nature of the event having called forth the admiring wonder of the neighbouring people and the fame of the miracles wrought in this sanctuary having spread far and wide, this Holy House, whose walls do not rest on any foundation and yet remain solid and uninjured after so many centuries, has been held in reverence by all nations." That the traditions thus boldly proclaimed to the world have been fully sanctioned by the Holy See cannot for a moment remain in doubt. More than forty-seven popes have in various ways rendered honourto the shrine, and an immense number of Bulls and Briefs proclaim without qualification the identity of the Santa Casa di Loreto with the Holy House of Nazareth. As lately as 1894 Leo XIII, in a Brief conceding various spiritual favours for the sixth centenary of the translation of the Santa Casa to Loreto, summed up its history in these words: "The happy House of Nazareth is justly regarded and honoured as one of the most sacred monuments of the Christian Faith; and this is made clear by the many diplomas and acts, gifts and privileges accorded by Our predecessors. No sooner was it, as the annals of the Church bear witness, miraculously translated to Italy and exposed to the veneration of the faithful on the hills of Loreto than it drew to itself the fervent devotion and pious aspiration of all, and as the ages rolled on, it maintained this devotion ever ardent." If, then, we would sum up the arguments which sustain the popular belief in this miraculous transference of the Holy House from Palestine to Italy by the hands of angels, we may enumerate the following points: (1) The reiterated approval of the tradition by many different popes from Julius II in 1511 down to the present day. This approval was emphasized liturgically by an insertion in the Roman Martyrologium in 1669 and the concession of a proper Office and Mass in 1699, and it has been ratified by the deep veneration paid to the shrine by such holy men as St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and many other servants of God. (2) Loreto has been for centuries the scene of numerous miraculous cures. Even the skeptical Montaigne in 1582 professed himself a believer in the reality of these (Waters, "Journal of Montaigne's Travels", II, 197-207). (3) The stone on which the original walls of the Santa Casa are built and the mortar used in their construction are not such as are known in the neighbourhood of Loreto. But both stone and mortar are, it is alleged, chemically identical with the materials most commonly found in Nazareth. (4) The Santa Casa does not rest and has never rested upon foundations sunk into the earth where it now stands. The point was formally investigated in 1751 under Benedict XIV. What was then found is therefore fully in accord with the tradition of a building transferred bodily from some more primitive site.

It must be acknowledged, however, that recent historical criticism has shown that in other directions the Lauretan tradition is beset with difficulties of the gravest kind. These have been skilfully presented in the much-discussed work of Canon Chevalier, "Notre Dame de Lorette" (Paris, 1906). It is possible that the author has in some directions pressed his evidence too far and has perhaps overstated his case, but despite the efforts of such writers as Eschbach, Faloci-Pulignani, Thomas, and Kresser, the substance of his argument remains intact and has as yet found no adequate reply. The general contention of the work may be summarized under five heads: (1) From the accounts left by pilgrims and others it appears that before the time of the first translation (1291) there was no little cottage venerated at Nazarethwhich could correspond in any satisfactory way with the present Santa Casa at Loreto. So far as there was question at all in Nazareth of the abode in which the Blessed Virgin had lived, what was pointed out to pilgrims was a sort of natural cavern in the rock. (2) Oriental chronicles and similar accounts of pilgrims are absolutely silent as to any change which took place in 1291. There is no word of the disappearance at Nazareth of a shrine formerly held in veneration there. It is not until the sixteenth century that we find among Orientals any hint of a consciousness of their loss and then the ideawas suggested from the West. (3) There are charters and other contemporary documents which prove that a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin already existed at Loreto in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that is to say, before the epoch of the supposed translation. (4) When we eliminate certain documents commonly appealed to as early testimonies to the tradition, but demonstrably spurious, we find that no writer can be shown to have heard of the miraculoustranslation of the Holy House before 1472, i.e., 180 years after the event is supposed to have taken place. The shrine and church of Loreto are indeed often mentioned; the church is said by Paul II in 1464 to have been miraculously founded, and it is further implied that the statue or image of the Blessed Virgin was brought there by angels, but all this differs widely from details of the later accounts. (5) If the papal confirmations of the Loreto tradition are more closely scrutinized it will be perceived that not only are they relatively late (the first Bull mentioning the translation is that of Julius II in 1507), but that they are at first very guarded in expression, for Julius introduces the clause "ut pie creditur et fama est", while they are obviously dependent upon the extravagant leaflet compiled about 1472 by Teramano.

It is clearly impossible to review here at any length the discussions to which Canon Chevalier's book has given rise. As a glance at the appended bibliography will show, the balance of recent Catholic opinion, as represented by the more learned Catholic periodicals, is strongly in his favour. The weight of such arguments as those drawn from the nature of the stone or brick (for even on this point there is no agreement) and the absence of foundations, is hard to estimate. As regards the date at which the translation tradition makes its appearance, much stress has recently been laid by its defenders upon a fresco at Gubbio representing angels carrying a little house, which is assigned by them to about the year 1350 (see Faloci-Pulignani, "La s. Casa di Loreto secondo un affresco di Gubbio", Rome, 1907). Also there are apparently other representations of the same kind for which an early date is claimed (see Monti in "La Scuola Cattolica", Nov. and Dec., 1910). But it is by no means safe to assume that every picture of angels carrying a house must refer to Loreto, while the assigning of dates to such frescoes from internal evidence is one of extreme difficulty. With regard to the papal pronouncements, it is to be remembered that in such decrees which have nothing to do with faith or morals or even with historical facts which can in any way be called dogmatic, theologians have always recognized that there is no intention on the part of the Holy See of defining a truth, or even of placing it outside the sphere of scientific criticism so long as that criticism is respectful and takes due regard of place and season. On the other hand, even if the Loreto tradition be rejected, there is no reason to doubt that the simple faith of those who in all confidence have sought help at this shrine of the Mother of God may often have been rewarded, even miraculously. Further it is quite unnecessary to suppose that any deliberate fraud has found a place in the evolution of this history. There is much to suggest that a sufficient explanation is afforded by the hypothesis that a miracle-working statue or picture of the Madonna was brought from Tersato in Illyria to Loreto by some pious Christians and was then confounded with the ancient rustic chapel in which it was harboured, the veneration formerly given to the statue afterwards passing to the building. Finally, we shall do well to notice that at Walsingham, the principal English shrine of the Blessed Virgin, the legend of "Our Lady's house" (written down about 1465, and consequently earlier than the Loreto translation tradition) supposes that in the time of St. Edward the Confessor a chapel was built at Walsingham, which exactly reproduced the dimensions of the Holy House of Nazareth. When the carpenters could not complete it upon the site that had been chosen, it was transferred and erected by angels'hands at a spot two hundred feet away (see "The Month", Sep., 1901). Curiously enough this spot, like Loreto, was within a short distance of the sea, and Our Lady of Walsingham was known to Erasmus as Diva Parathalassia.

Sources

Of the older works on Loreto it will be sufficient to mention ANGELITA, Historia della Translatione etc. (first printed about 1579, but written in 1531). It is founded upon Baptista Mantuanus, Teramano, and a supposed "tabula, vetustate et carie consumpta". The official history of Loreto may be regarded as contained in TURSELLINUS, Lauretanae Historiae Libri V (Rome, 1697); and MARTORELLI, Teatro istorico della S. Casa nazarena (3 vols., fol., Rome, 1732-1735). In more modern times we have VOGEL, De ecclesiis Recanatensi et Lauretana (written in 1806, but printed only in 1859), and LEOPARDI, La Santa Casa di Loreto (Lugano, 1841). Both these writers showed an appreciation of the grave critical difficulties attending the Loreto tradition, but they did not venture openly to express disbelief.

A new epoch in this discussion, already heralded by FATHER GRISAR at the Munich Congress; by M. BOUDINHON in Revue du Clergé Francais, XXII (1900), 241; by L. DE FEIS, La S. Casa di Nazareth (Florence, 1905), and by LE HARDI, Hist. de Nazareth (Paris, 1905), was brought to a climax by CHEVALIER, Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris, 1906). Among the learned Catholic reviews which have openly pronounced in Chevalier's favour may be mentioned the Analecta Bollandiana, XXV (1907), 478-94; Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, II (1906), 373; Revue Biblique, IV (1907), 467-70; Revue Bénédictine, XXIII (1906), 626-27; Zeitschrift f. Kath. Theologie, XXVI (1906), 109-16; Theologische Quartalschrift, XCIX (1907), 124-27; Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, VII (1906), 639-58; Historisches Jahrbuch, XXVIII (1907), 356; 585; Revue des Questions Historiques, LXXXI (1907), 308-10; Revue Pratique d'Apologétique, III (1906), 758-61; Revue du Clergé Francais, XLIX (1906), 80-86, and many others. On the same side may further be mentioned BOUDINHON, La Question de Loretto (Paris, 1910); BOUFFARD, La Vérité sur le Fait de Loretto (Paris, 1910); and CHEVALIER, La Santa Casa de Loretto (Paris, 1908). See also the articles on Loreto in the Kirchliches Handlexikon (Munich, 1908), and in HERDER'S Konversations-Lexikon (Freiburg, 1907).

The articles that have openly taken part against Chevalier's thesis are comparartively few and unimportant, for example in L'Ami du Clergé (1906-1907); a series of articles by A. MONTI in La Scuola Cattolica (Milan, Jan.-Dec., 1910); and other articles of more weight by G. KRESSER in Theol. praktische Quartalschrift (Tübingen, 1909), 212-247. Isolated works in favour of the Loreto tradition are those of ESCHBACH, La Verité sur le Fait de Lorette (Paris, 1908); F. THOMAS, La Santa Casa dans l'Histoire (Paris, 1909); POISAT, La Question de Loreto (Paris, 1907); FALOCI-PULIGNANI, La Santa Casa di Loreto secondo un affresco di Gubbio (Rome, 1907).

For an account of Loreto in English reproducing the old traditions from an uncritical standpoint see GARRATT, Loreto the New Nazareth (London, 1895).

Thurston, Herbert. "Santa Casa di Loreto." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 11 Dec. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13454b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. For Bothers Ambrose Bettencourt & Augustine Senz, O.S.B.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13454b.htm

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Farinati Paolo, Notre Dame de Lorette

Litany of Loreto

Despite the fact that, from the seventeenth century onwards, the Litany of Loreto has been the subject of endless panegyrics and ascetical writings, there is a great lack of documentary evidence concerning its origin, the growth and development of the litany into the forms under which we know it, and as it was for the first time definitely approved by the Church in the year 1587. Some writers declare that they know nothing of its origin and history; others, on the contrary, trace it back to the translation of the Holy House (1294); others, to Pope Sergius I (687); others, again, to St. Gregory the Great or to the fifth century; while others go as far back as the earliest ages of the Church, and even Apostolic times. Historical criticism, however, proves it to be of more recent origin, and shows that it was composed during the early years of the sixteenth century or the closing years of the fifteenth. The most ancient printed copy hitherto discovered is that of Dillingen in Germany, dating from 1558; it is fairly certain that this is a copy of an earlier Italian one, but so far, in spite of much careful research, the oldest Italian copy that the writer has been able to discover dates from 1576.

In form, the Litany of Loreto is composed on a fixed plan common to several Marian litanies already in existence during the second half of the fifteenth century, which in turn are connected with a notable series of Marian litanies that began to appear in the twelfth century and became numerous in the thirteenth and fourteenth. The Loreto text had, however, the good fortune to be adopted in the famous shrine, and in this way to become known, more than any other, to the many pilgrims who flocked there during the sixteenth century. The text was brought home to the various countries of Christendom, and finally it received for all time the supreme ecclesiastical sanction.

Appended is a brief résumé of the work published by the present writer on this subject, the reference being to the revised and enlarged French edition of 1900, supplemented by any new matter brought to light since that time.

Sauren claims that the first and oldest Marian litany is a pious laus to the Virgin in the "Leabhar Breac", a fourteenth-century manuscript, now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, and written "in the purest style of Gaedhlic", according to O'Curry, who explained its various parts. This laus of fifty-nine eulogies on the Virgin occurs on fol. 121, and O'Curry calls it a litania, attributing it at the latest to about the middle of the eighth century. But it has not at all the form of a litany, being rather a sequence of fervent praises, like so many that occur in the writings of the Fathers, especially after the fourth century. As a matter of fact, Dr. Sicking has shown that the entire laus of the "Leabhar Breac" is copied almost word for word from the first and third of the "Sermones Dubii" of St. Ildephonsus.

The earliest genuine text of a Marian litany thus far known is in a twelfth-century codex in the Mainz Library, with the title "Letania de domina nostra Dei genitrice virgine Maria: oratio valde bona: cottidie pro quacumque tribulatione recitanda est". It is fairly long, and was published in part by Mone, and in its entirety by the present writer. It opens with the usual "Kyrie Eleison"; then follow the invocations of the Trinity, but with amplifications, e.g. "Pater de celis deus, qui elegisti Mariam semper virginem, miserere nobis"; these are followed by invocations of the Virgin Mary in a long series of praises, of which a brief selection will be enough: "Sancta Maria, stirps patriarcharum, vaticinium prophetarum, solatium apostolorum, rosa martirum, predicatio confessorum, lilium virginum, ora pro nobis benedictum ventris tui fructum"; "Sancta Maria, spes humilium, refugium pauperum, portus naufragantium, medicina infirmorum, ora pro nobis benedictum ventris tui fructum"; etc. This goes on for more than fifty times, always repeating the invocation "Sancta Maria", but varying the laudatory titles given. Then, after this manner of the litanies of the saints, a series of petitions occur, e.g.: "Per mundissimum virgineum partum tuum ab omni immundicia mentis et corporis liberet nos benedictus ventris tui fructus"; and farther on, "Ut ecclesiam suam sanctam pacificare, custodire, adunare et regere dignetur benedictus ventris tui fructus, ora mater virgo Maria." The litany concludes with the "Agnus", also amplified, "Agne dei, filius matris virginis Marie qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis Domine", etc.

Lengthy and involved litanies of this type do not seem to have won popularity, though it is possible to find other examples of a like kind. However, during the two centuries that followed, many Marian litanies were composed. Their form remains uncertain and hesitating, but the tendency is always towards brevity and simplicity. To each invocation of "Sancta Maria" it becomes customary to add only one praise, and these praises show in general a better choice or a better arrangement. The petitions are often omitted or are changed into ejaculations in honour of the Blessed Virgin.

A litany of this new form is that of a codex in the Library of St. Mark's, Venice, dating from the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is found, though with occasional variants, in many manuscripts, a sure sign that this text was especially well known and favourably received. It omits the petitions, and consists of seventy-five praises joined to the usual invocation, "Sancta Maria". Here is a short specimen, showing the praises to be met with most frequently also in other litanies of that or of later times: "Holy Mary, Mother and Spouse of Christ, pray for me [other manuscripts have "pray for us"—the "pray" is always repeated]; Holy Mary, Mother inviolate; Holy Mary, Temple of the Holy Ghost; Holy Mary, Queen of Heaven; Holy Mary, Mistress of the Angels; Holy Mary, Star of Heaven; Holy Mary, Gate of Paradise; Holy Mary, Mother of True Counsel; Holy Mary, Gate of Celestial Life; Holy Mary, Our Advocate; Holy Mary, brightest Star of Heaven; Holy Mary, Fountain of True Wisdom; Holy Mary, unfailing Rose; Holy Mary, Beauty of Angels; Holy Mary, Flower of Patriarchs; Holy Mary, Desire of Prophets; Holy Mary, Treasure of Apostles; Holy Mary, Praise of Martyrs; Holy Mary, Glorification of Priests; Holy Mary, Immaculate Virgin; Holy Mary, Splendour of Virgins and Example of Chastity", etc.

The first Marian litanies must have been composed to foster private devotion, as it is not at all probable that they were written for use in public, by reason of their drawn-out and heavy style. But once the custom grew up of reciting Marian litanies privately, and of gradually shortening the text, it was not long until the idea occurred of employing them for public devotion, especially in cases of epidemic, as had been the practice of the Church with the litanies of the Saints, which were sung in penitential processions and during public calamities. Hence it must be emphasized that the earliest certain mention we have of a public recital of Marian Litanies is actually related to a time of pestilence, particularly in the fifteenth century. An incunabulum of the Casanatensian Library in Rome, which contains the Venice litanies referred to above, introduces them with the following words: "Oraciones devote contra imminentes tribulaciones et contra pestem". At Venice, in fact, these same litanies were finally adopted for liturgical use in processions for plague and mortality and asking for rain or for fair weather. Probably they began to be sung in this connection during the calamities of the fifteenth century; but in the following century we find them prescribed, as being an ancient custom, in the ceremonials of St. Mark's, and they were henceforth retained until after the fall of the republic, i.e., until 1820.

In the second half of the fifteenth century we meet another type of litany which was to be publicly chanted tempore pestis sive epydimic. The invocations are very simple and all begin, not with the words "Sancta Maria", but with "Sancta mater", e.g.: Sancta mater Creatoris; Sancta mater Salvatoris; Sancta mater munditie; Sancta mater auxilii; Sancta mater consolationis; Sancta mater intemerata; Sancta mater inviolata; Sancta mater virginum, etc. At the end, however, are a few short petitions such as those found in the litanies of the saints.

Before going further, it may be well to say a few words on the composition of the litanies we have been considering. With regard to their content, which consists mainly of praises of the Blessed Virgin, it would seem to have been taken not so much from the Scriptures and the Fathers, at least directly, as from popular medieval Latin poetry. To be convinced of this, it suffices to glance through the Daniel and Mone collections, and especially through the "Analectica Hymnica medii ævi" of Dreves-Blume. In the earlier and longer litanies whole rhythmic strophes are to be found, taken bodily from such poetry, and employed as praises of the Blessed Virgin. With regard to their form, it is certain that those who first composed the Marian litanies aimed at imitating the litanies of the Saints which had been in use in the Church since the eighth century. During the Middle Ages, as is well known, it was customary to repeat over and over single invocations in the litanies of the saints, and thus we find that the basic principle of the Marian litanies is this constant repetition of the invocation, "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis." And in order that this repetition might not prove monotonous in the Middle Ages recourse was had to an expedient since then universally used, not only in private devotions but even in liturgical prayer, that of amplifying by means of what are called tropes or farcituræ. They had a model in the Kyrie of the Mass, e.g. "Kyrie, fons bonitatis, pater ingenite, a quo bona cuncta procedunt, eleison." It was an easy matter to improvise between the "Sancta Maria" and the "Ora pro nobis", repeated over and over, a series of tropes consisting of different praises, with an occasional added petition, imitated however broadly from the litanies of the saints. Thus the Marian litany was evolved.

Gradually the praises became simpler; at times the petitions were omitted, and, from the second half of the fifteenth century, the repetition of the "Sancta Maria" began to be avoided, so that the praises alone remained, with the accompaniment "Ora pro nobis". This made up the new group of litanies which we must now consider. The connecting link between the litanies we have discussed and this new group may have been a litany found in a manuscript of prayers, copied in 1524 by Fra Giovanni da Falerona. It consists of fifty-seven praises, and the "Sancta Maria" is repeated, but only at intervals of six or seven praises, perhaps because the shape or size of the parchment was so small that it held only six or seven lines to the page, and the copyist contented himself with writing the "Sancta Maria" once at the head of each page. But, because of its archaic form, this litany must be considerably anterior to 1524, and may have been copied from some fifteenth-century manuscript The praises are chosen in part from previous litanies, and in part they are original. Moreover, their arrangement is better and more varied. The first place is given to praises bestowed on the name of "Mater"; then come those expressing the Blessed Virgin's tender love for mankind; then the titles given her in the creeds; then those beginning with "Regina", which are identical with those we now have in the Litany of Loreto. Two new titles are introduced: "Causa nostræ lætitiæ" and "Vas spirituale", which are not found in earlier litanies. Noteworthy also are three invocations, "Advocata christianorum", "Refugium desperatorum", "Auxilium peccatorum", which passed by an easy change into the "Refugium peccatorum" and "Auxilium christianorum" of the Litany of Loreto. In a word, if we omit the petitions of this older form, and its reiteration of the "Sancta Maria", we have a litany which in the choice and arrangement of praises comes very close to the Litany of Loreto.

Now there are many similar examples in which the litany consists of praises alone without the repetition of the "Sancta Maria", and in which arrangement and form come nearer and nearer to the Litany of Loreto. Such are: (1) a litany in a manuscript of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome (formerly, No. 392; second half of the fifteenth century; fol. 123). Except for light variants, it is identical with one printed at Venice in 1561, and another printed at Capri in 1503; (2) a litany found in a manuscript missal of the sixteenth century; (3) a litany printed at Venice in two different editions of the "Officium B. Virginis" in 1513 and 1545; (4) a litany found in a codex of the "Compagnia della Concezione di Maria SS." of Fiorenzuola d'Arda (Piacenza), founded in 1511; (5) a litany found in a codex of the priory of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles, at Montegranaro, in which the baptisms during the years 1548-58 are recorded. This litany is the shortest of all and the closest in similarity to that of Loreto.

This form of litany was widely circulated, both in script and in print, during the sixteenth century. A comparison of the texts will show that they contain the praises in the Loreto Litany, with two exceptions: the "Virgo prudentissima" of the Loreto Litany is found as "Virgo prudens", and the "Auxilium christianorum", though it appears in no text before this time, is, as remarked above, an easy variant of the litany of 1524. So far no manuscript of the Loreto Litany has been discovered, but it cannot be doubted that it is nothing more than a happy arrangement of a text belonging to the last group. And, moreover, it may be laid down as probable that the Loreto text became customary in the Holy House towards the close of the fifteenth century, at a time when in other places similar litanies were being adapted for public use to obtain deliverance from some calamity. It is only in 1531, 1547, and 1554, that the documents afford indications of litanies being sung in that sanctuary, though the text is not given.

The earliest printed copy of the Litany of Loreto so far known is that of Dillingen, which is undated and seems to belong to the end of 1557 or the beginning of 1558. As Dr. Paulus, following up a discovery made by Gass, has observed, it was probably published and circulated in Germany by Blessed Canisius. It is entitled: "Letania Loretana. Ordnung der Letaney von unser lieben Frawen wie sie zu Loreto alle Samstag gehalten" (Order of the Litany of Our Lady as said every Saturday at Loreto). The text is just the same as we have it to-day, except that it has "Mater piissima" and "Mater mirabilis", where we have "Mater purissima" and "Mater admirabilis". Further, the invocations "Mater creatoris" and "Mater salvatoris" are wanting, though this must be due to some oversight of the editor, since they are found in every manuscript of this group; on the other hand, the "Auxilium christianorum" is introduced though it does not occur in the other texts. We find this title in a Litany of Loreto printed in 1558. As already shown in the writer's book on this subject, Pope Pius V could not have introduced the invocation "Auxilium christianorum" in 1571 after the Battle of Lepanto, as stated in the sixth lesson of the Roman Breviary for the feast of S. Maria Auxiliatrix (24 May); and to this conclusion the Dillingen text adds indisputable evidence.

The Litany of Loreto had taken root at Loreto, and was being spread throughout the world, when it ran the grave risk of being lost forever. St. Pius V by Motu Proprio of 20 March, 1571, published 5 April, had prohibited all existing offices of the B. V. Mary, disapproving in general all the prayers therein, and substituting a new "Officium B. Virginis" without those prayers and consequently without any litany. It would seem that this action on the part of the pope led the clergy of Loreto to fear that the text of their litany was likewise prohibited. At all events, in order to keep up the old time custom of singing the litany every Saturday in honour of the Blessed Virgin, a new text was drawn up containing praises drawn directly from the Scriptures, and usually applied to the Bl. Virgin in the Liturgy of the Church. This new litany was set to music by the choirmaster of the Basilica of Loreto, Costanzo Porta, and printed at Venice in 1575. It is the earliest setting to music of a Marian litany that we know of. In the following year (1576) these Scriptural litanies were printed in two different handbooks for the use of pilgrims. In both they bear the title: "Litaniæ deipare Virginis ex Sacra Scriptura depromptæ quæ in alma Domo lauretana omnibus diebus Sabbathi, Vigiliarum et Festorum decantari solent". But in the second handbook, the work of Bernardine Cirillo, archpriest of Loreto, the old text of the litany is also printed, though with the plainer title, "Aliæ Litaniæ Beatæ Mariæ Virginis", a clear sign that it was not quite forgotten.

On 5 Feb., 1578, the archdeacon of Loreto, Giulio Candiotti, sent to Pope Gregory XIII the "Laudi o lettanie moderne della sma Vergine, cavate dalla sacra Scrittura" (New praises or litanies of the most holy Virgin, drawn from Sacred Scripture), with Porta's music and the text apart, expressing the wish that His Holiness would cause it to be sung in St. Peter's and in other churches as was the custom at Loreto. The pope's reply is not known, but we have the opinion of the theologian to whom the matter was referred, in which the composition of the new litany is praised, but which does not judge it opportune to introduce it into Rome or into church use on the authority of the pope, all the more because Pius V "in reforming the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin completely abolished, among other things, some proper litanies of the Blessed Virgin which existed in the old [office], and which (if I remember rightly) were somewhat similar to these". The judgment concludes that the litany might be sung at Loreto as a devotion proper to this shrine, and if others wanted to adopt it they might do so by way of private devotion.

This attempt having failed, the Scriptural litany straightway began to lose favour, and the Loreto text was once more resumed. In another manual for pilgrims, published by Angelita in that same year 1578, the Scriptural litany is omitted, and the old Loreto text appears with the title: "Letanie che si cantano nella Santa Casa di Loreto ogni Sabbato et feste delle Madonna". In a new edition (1584) of Angelita's book, the Scriptural litany is restored but relegated to a secondary position, though included under the title "Altre letanie che si cantano", etc. From this it is clear that for a time both litanies were in use at Loreto. But in subsequent editions of Angelita's manual, and in other manuals of devotion, the Scriptural litany is printed with the bare title "Litaniæ ex S. Scriptura depromptæ", until the seventeenth century when it disappears altogether. Meanwhile, thanks to Angelita's manuals, the Loreto text was introduced elsewhere, and even reached Rome, when Sixtus V, who had entertained a singular devotion for Loreto, by the Bull "Reddituri" of 11 July, 1587, gave formal approval to it, as to the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and recommended preachers everywhere to propagate its use among the faithful.

On the strength of this impulse given to the Litany of Loreto, certain ascetical writers began to publish a great number of litanies in honour of the Saviour, the B. Virgin, and the saints, often ill-advised and containing expressions theologically incorrect, so that Pope Clement VIII had promulgated (6 Sept., 1601) a severe decree of the Holy Office, which, while upholding the litanies contained in the liturgical books as well as the Litany of Loreto, prohibited the publication of new litanies, or use of those already published in public worship, without the approbation of the Congregation of Rites.

At Rome the Litany of Loreto was introduced into the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore by Cardinal Francesco Toledo in 1597; and Paul V, in 1613, ordered it to be sung in that church, morning and evening, on Saturdays and on vigils and feasts of the Madonna. As a result of this example the Loreto Litany began to be used, and is still largely used, in all the churches of Rome. The Dominicans, at their general chapter held at Bologna in 1615, ordered it to be recited in all the convents of their order after the Office on Saturdays at the end of the customary "Salve Regina". Before this they had caused the invocation "Regina sacratissimi rosarii" to be inserted in the litany, and it appears in print for the first time in a Dominican Breviary dated 1614, as has been pointed out by Father Walsh, O.P., in "The Tablet", 24 Oct., 1908. Although by decree of 1631, and by Bull of Alexander VII (1664), it was strictly forbidden to make any additions to the litanies, another decree of the Congregation of Rites, dated 1675, permitted the Confraternity of the Rosary to add the invocation "Regina sacratissimi rosarii", and this was prescribed for the whole Church by Leo XIII (24 Dec., 1883). By decree of 22 April, 1903, the same pope added the invocation "Mater boni consilii", which, under the form of "Mater veri consilii", was contained in the Marian litany used for centuries in St. Mark's Venice, as indicated above. In 1766 Clement XIII granted Spain the privilege of adding after "Mater intemerata" the invocation "Mater immaculata", which is still customary in Spain, notwithstanding the addition of "Regina sine labe originali concepta". This last invocation was originally granted by Pius IX to the Bishop of Mechlin in 1846, and, after the definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the congregation by various rescripts authorized many dioceses to make a like addition, so that in a short time it became the universal practice. For these various decrees of the Congregation of Rites, see Sauren, 27-29; 71-78.

Sources

DE SANTI, Le Litanie lauretaine in Civiltà Cattolica (Dec., 1896-April, 1897); ibid. (Nov., 1899), 456-62; ibid. (Dec., 1899), 637-38; published in book form: DE SANTI, Le litanie lauretane (Rome, 1897); French tr. BOUDINHON, Les Litanies de la Sainte Vierge (Paris, 1900); Germ. tr., NÖRPEL, Die lauretanische Litanei (Paderborn, 1900); VOGEL, De ecclesiis Recanat. et Lauret., I (Recanati, 1859), 315-30; SAUREN, Die lauretanische Litanei (Kempten, 1895); SICKING, Twee litanien der H. Maagd in De Katholick (Leyden, 1900), 329-36; GASS, Die Alter der lauretanischen Litanei in Strassburger Diöcesenblatt (1901), 264-68; PAULUS, Die Einführung der lauretanischen Litanei in Deutschland durch den seligen Canisius in Zeitsch. für kath. theol. (1902), 572-83; WALSH, Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii in The Tablet (24 Oct., 1908), 656; DE SANTI, Per la storia delle Litanie lauretane in Civilta Cattolica (Nov., 1900), 302-13.

Santi, Angelo de. "Litany of Loreto." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09287a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09287a.htm

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Nel centenario del Santuario di Loreto: il Santuario (xilografia). L’illustrazione popolare, Fratelli Treves Editori - Milano, 1895.

Catholic Encyclopedia – Litany of Loreto

Article

Despite the fact that, from the seventeenth century onwards, the Litany of Loreto has been the subject of endless panegyrics and ascetical writings, there is a great lack of documentary evidence concerning its origin, the growth and development of the litany into the forms under which we know it, and as it was for the first time definitely approved by the Church in the year 1587. Some writers declare that they know nothing of its origin and history; others, on the contrary, trace it back to the translation of the Holy House (1294); others, to Pope Sergius I (687); others, again, to Saint Gregory the Great or to the fifth century; while others go as far back as the earliest ages of the Church, and even Apostolic times. Historical criticism, however, proves it to be of more recent origin, and shows that it was composed during the early years of the sixteenth century or the closing years of the fifteenth. The most ancient printed copy hitherto discovered is that of Dillingen in Germany, dating from 1558; it is fairly certain that this is a copy of an earlier Italian one, but so far, in spite of much careful research, the oldest Italian copy that the writer has been able to discover dates from 1576.

Sauren claims that the first and oldest Marian litany is a pious laus to the Virgin in the “Leabhar Breac”, a fourteenth-century manuscript, now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, and written “in the purest style of Gaedhlic”, according to O’Curry, who explained its various parts. This laus of fifty-nine eulogies on the Virgin occurs on fol. 121, and O’Curry calls it a litania, attributing it at the latest to about the middle of the eighth century. But it has not at all the form of a litany, being rather a sequence of fervent praises, like so many that occur in the writings of the Fathers, especially after the fourth century. As a matter of fact, Dr. Sicking has shown that the entire laus of the “Leabhar Breac” is copied almost word for word from the first and third of the “Sermones Dubii” of Saint Ildephonsus.

The earliest genuine text of a Marian litany thus far known is in a twelfth-century codex in the Mainz Library, with the title “Letania de domina nostra Dei genitrice virgine Maria: oratio valde bona: cottidie pro quacumque tribulatione recitanda est”. It is fairly long, and was published in part by Mone, and in its entirety by the present writer. It opens with the usual “Kyrie Eleison”; then follow the invocations of the Trinity, but with amplifications, e.g. “Pater de celis deus, qui elegisti Mariam semper virginem, miserere nobis”; these are followed by invocations of the Virgin Mary in a long series of praises, of which a brief selection will be enough: “Sancta Maria, stirps patriarcharum, vaticinium prophetarum, solatium apostolorum, rosa martirum, predicatio confessorum, lilium virginum, ora pro nobis benedictum ventris tui fructum”; “Sancta Maria, spes humilium, refugium pauperum, portus naufragantium, medicina infirmorum, ora pro nobis benedictum ventris tui fructum”; etc. This goes on for more than fifty times, always repeating the invocation “Sancta Maria”, but varying the laudatory titles given. Then, after this manner of the litanies of the saints, a series of petitions occur, e.g.: “Per mundissimum virgineum partum tuum ab omni immundicia mentis et corporis liberet nos benedictus ventris tui fructus”; and farther on, “Ut ecclesiam suam sanctam pacificare, custodire, adunare et regere dignetur benedictus ventris tui fructus, ora mater virgo Maria.” The litany concludes with the “Agnus”, also amplified, “Agne dei, filius matris virginis Marie qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis Domine”, etc.

Lengthy and involved litanies of this type do not seem to have won popularity, though it is possible to find other examples of a like kind. However, during the two centuries that followed, many Marian litanies were composed. Their form remains uncertain and hesitating, but the tendency is always towards brevity and simplicity. To each invocation of “Sancta Maria” it becomes customary to add only one praise, and these praises show in general a better choice or a better arrangement. The petitions are often omitted or are changed into ejaculations in honour of the Blessed Virgin.

A litany of this new form is that of a codex in the Library of Saint Mark’s, Venice, dating from the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is found, though with occasional variants, in many manuscripts, a sure sign that this text was especially well known and favourably received. It omits the petitions, and consists of seventy-five praises joined to the usual invocation, “Sancta Maria”. Here is a short specimen, showing the praises to be met with most frequently also in other litanies of that or of later times: “Holy Mary, Mother and Spouse of Christ, pray for me [other manuscripts have “pray for us”—the “pray” is always repeated]; Holy Mary, Mother inviolate; Holy Mary, Temple of the Holy Ghost; Holy Mary, Queen of Heaven; Holy Mary, Mistress of the Angels; Holy Mary, Star of Heaven; Holy Mary, Gate of Paradise; Holy Mary, Mother of True Counsel; Holy Mary, Gate of Celestial Life; Holy Mary, Our Advocate; Holy Mary, brightest Star of Heaven; Holy Mary, Fountain of True Wisdom; Holy Mary, unfailing Rose; Holy Mary, Beauty of Angels; Holy Mary, Flower of Patriarchs; Holy Mary, Desire of Prophets; Holy Mary, Treasure of Apostles; Holy Mary, Praise of Martyrs; Holy Mary, Glorification of Priests; Holy Mary, Immaculate Virgin; Holy Mary, Splendour of Virgins and Example of Chastity”, etc.

The first Marian litanies must have been composed to foster private devotion, as it is not at all probable that they were written for use in public, by reason of their drawn-out and heavy style. But once the custom grew up of reciting Marian litanies privately, and of gradually shortening the text, it was not long until the idea occurred of employing them for public devotion, especially in cases of epidemic, as had been the practice of the Church with the litanies of the Saints, which were sung in penitential processions and during public calamities. Hence it must be emphasized that the earliest certain mention we have of a public recital of Marian Litanies is actually related to a time of pestilence, particularly in the fifteenth century. An incunabulum of the Casanatensian Library in Rome, which contains the Venice litanies referred to above, introduces them with the following words: “Oraciones devote contra imminentes tribulaciones et contra pestem”. At Venice, in fact, these same litanies were finally adopted for liturgical use in processions for plague and mortality and asking for rain or for fair weather. Probably they began to be sung in this connection during the calamities of the fifteenth century; but in the following century we find them prescribed, as being an ancient custom, in the ceremonials of Saint Mark’s, and they were henceforth retained until after the fall of the republic, i.e., until 1820.

In the second half of the fifteenth century we meet another type of litany which was to be publicly chanted tempore pestis sive epydimic. The invocations are very simple and all begin, not with the words “Sancta Maria”, but with “Sancta mater”, e.g.: Sancta mater Creatoris; Sancta mater Salvatoris; Sancta mater munditie; Sancta mater auxilii; Sancta mater consolationis; Sancta mater intemerata; Sancta mater inviolata; Sancta mater virginum, etc. At the end, however, are a few short petitions such as those found in the litanies of the saints.

Before going further, it may be well to say a few words on the composition of the litanies we have been considering. With regard to their content, which consists mainly of praises of the Blessed Virgin, it would seem to have been taken not so much from the Scriptures and the Fathers, at least directly, as from popular medieval Latin poetry. To be convinced of this, it suffices to glance through the Daniel and Mone collections, and especially through the “Analectica Hymnica medii ævi” of Dreves-Blume. In the earlier and longer litanies whole rhythmic strophes are to be found, taken bodily from such poetry, and employed as praises of the Blessed Virgin. With regard to their form, it is certain that those who first composed the Marian litanies aimed at imitating the litanies of the Saints which had been in use in the Church since the eighth century. During the Middle Ages, as is well known, it was customary to repeat over and over single invocations in the litanies of the saints, and thus we find that the basic principle of the Marian litanies is this constant repetition of the invocation, “Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.” And in order that this repetition might not prove monotonous in the Middle Ages recourse was had to an expedient since then universally used, not only in private devotions but even in liturgical prayer, that of amplifying by means of what are called tropes or farcituræ. They had a model in the Kyrie of the Mass, e.g. “Kyrie, fons bonitatis, pater ingenite, a quo bona cuncta procedunt, eleison.” It was an easy matter to improvise between the “Sancta Maria” and the “Ora pro nobis”, repeated over and over, a series of tropes consisting of different praises, with an occasional added petition, imitated however broadly from the litanies of the saints. Thus the Marian litany was evolved.

Gradually the praises became simpler; at times the petitions were omitted, and, from the second half of the fifteenth century, the repetition of the “Sancta Maria” began to be avoided, so that the praises alone remained, with the accompaniment “Ora pro nobis”. This made up the new group of litanies which we must now consider. The connecting link between the litanies we have discussed and this new group may have been a litany found in a manuscript of prayers, copied in 1524 by Fra Giovanni da Falerona. It consists of fifty-seven praises, and the “Sancta Maria” is repeated, but only at intervals of six or seven praises, perhaps because the shape or size of the parchment was so small that it held only six or seven lines to the page, and the copyist contented himself with writing the “Sancta Maria” once at the head of each page. But, because of its archaic form, this litany must be considerably anterior to 1524, and may have been copied from some fifteenth-century manuscript The praises are chosen in part from previous litanies, and in part they are original. Moreover, their arrangement is better and more varied. The first place is given to praises bestowed on the name of “Mater”; then come those expressing the Blessed Virgin’s tender love for mankind; then the titles given her in the creeds; then those beginning with “Regina”, which are identical with those we now have in the Litany of Loreto. Two new titles are introduced: “Causa nostræ lætitiæ” and “Vas spirituale”, which are not found in earlier litanies. Noteworthy also are three invocations, “Advocata christianorum”, “Refugium desperatorum”, “Auxilium peccatorum”, which passed by an easy change into the “Refugium peccatorum” and “Auxilium christianorum” of the Litany of Loreto. In a word, if we omit the petitions of this older form, and its reiteration of the “Sancta Maria”, we have a litany which in the choice and arrangement of praises comes very close to the Litany of Loreto.

Now there are many similar examples in which the litany consists of praises alone without the repetition of the “Sancta Maria”, and in which arrangement and form come nearer and nearer to the Litany of Loreto. Such are: (1) a litany in a manuscript of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome (formerly, No. 392; second half of the fifteenth century; fol. 123). Except for light variants, it is identical with one printed at Venice in 1561, and another printed at Capri in 1503; (2) a litany found in a manuscript missal of the sixteenth century; (3) a litany printed at Venice in two different editions of the “Officium B. Virginis” in 1513 and 1545; (4) a litany found in a codex of the “Compagnia della Concezione di Maria SS.” of Fiorenzuola d’Arda (Piacenza), founded in 1511; (5) a litany found in a codex of the priory of Saints Philip and James, Apostles, at Montegranaro, in which the baptisms during the years 1548-58 are recorded. This litany is the shortest of all and the closest in similarity to that of Loreto.

This form of litany was widely circulated, both in script and in print, during the sixteenth century. A comparison of the texts will show that they contain the praises in the Loreto Litany, with two exceptions: the “Virgo prudentissima” of the Loreto Litany is found as “Virgo prudens”, and the “Auxilium christianorum”, though it appears in no text before this time, is, as remarked above, an easy variant of the litany of 1524. So far no manuscript of the Loreto Litany has been discovered, but it cannot be doubted that it is nothing more than a happy arrangement of a text belonging to the last group. And, moreover, it may be laid down as probable that the Loreto text became customary in the Holy House towards the close of the fifteenth century, at a time when in other places similar litanies were being adapted for public use to obtain deliverance from some calamity. It is only in 1531, 1547, and 1554, that the documents afford indications of litanies being sung in that sanctuary, though the text is not given.

The earliest printed copy of the Litany of Loreto so far known is that of Dillingen, which is undated and seems to belong to the end of 1557 or the beginning of 1558. As Dr. Paulus, following up a discovery made by Gass, has observed, it was probably published and circulated in Germany by Blessed Canisius. It is entitled: “Letania Loretana. Ordnung der Letaney von unser lieben Frawen wie sie zu Loreto alle Samstag gehalten” (Order of the Litany of Our Lady as said every Saturday at Loreto). The text is just the same as we have it to-day, except that it has “Mater piissima” and “Mater mirabilis”, where we have “Mater purissima” and “Mater admirabilis”. Further, the invocations “Mater creatoris” and “Mater salvatoris” are wanting, though this must be due to some oversight of the editor, since they are found in every manuscript of this group; on the other hand, the “Auxilium christianorum” is introduced though it does not occur in the other texts. We find this title in a Litany of Loreto printed in 1558. As already shown in the writer’s book on this subject, Pope Pius V could not have introduced the invocation “Auxilium christianorum” in 1571 after the Battle of Lepanto, as stated in the sixth lesson of the Roman Breviary for the feast of S. Maria Auxiliatrix (24 May); and to this conclusion the Dillingen text adds indisputable evidence.

The Litany of Loreto had taken root at Loreto, and was being spread throughout the world, when it ran the grave risk of being lost forever. Saint Pius V by Motu Proprio of 20 March, 1571, published 5 April, had prohibited all existing offices of the B. V. Mary, disapproving in general all the prayers therein, and substituting a new “Officium B. Virginis” without those prayers and consequently without any litany. It would seem that this action on the part of the pope led the clergy of Loreto to fear that the text of their litany was likewise prohibited. At all events, in order to keep up the old time custom of singing the litany every Saturday in honour of the Blessed Virgin, a new text was drawn up containing praises drawn directly from the Scriptures, and usually applied to the Bl. Virgin in the Liturgy of the Church. This new litany was set to music by the choirmaster of the Basilica of Loreto, Costanzo Porta, and printed at Venice in 1575. It is the earliest setting to music of a Marian litany that we know of. In the following year (1576) these Scriptural litanies were printed in two different handbooks for the use of pilgrims. In both they bear the title: “Litaniæ deipare Virginis ex Sacra Scriptura depromptæ quæ in alma Domo lauretana omnibus diebus Sabbathi, Vigiliarum et Festorum decantari solent”. But in the second handbook, the work of Bernardine Cirillo, archpriest of Loreto, the old text of the litany is also printed, though with the plainer title, “Aliæ Litaniæ Beatæ Mariæ Virginis”, a clear sign that it was not quite forgotten.

On 5 Feb., 1578, the archdeacon of Loreto, Giulio Candiotti, sent to Pope Gregory XIII the “Laudi o lettanie moderne della sma Vergine, cavate dalla sacra Scrittura” (New praises or litanies of the most holy Virgin, drawn from Sacred Scripture), with Porta’s music and the text apart, expressing the wish that His Holiness would cause it to be sung in Saint Peter’s and in other churches as was the custom at Loreto. The pope’s reply is not known, but we have the opinion of the theologian to whom the matter was referred, in which the composition of the new litany is praised, but which does not judge it opportune to introduce it into Rome or into church use on the authority of the pope, all the more because Pius V “in reforming the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin completely abolished, among other things, some proper litanies of the Blessed Virgin which existed in the old [office], and which (if I remember rightly) were somewhat similar to these”. The judgment concludes that the litany might be sung at Loreto as a devotion proper to this shrine, and if others wanted to adopt it they might do so by way of private devotion.

This attempt having failed, the Scriptural litany straightway began to lose favour, and the Loreto text was once more resumed. In another manual for pilgrims, published by Angelita in that same year 1578, the Scriptural litany is omitted, and the old Loreto text appears with the title: “Letanie che si cantano nella Santa Casa di Loreto ogni Sabbato et feste delle Madonna”. In a new edition (1584) of Angelita’s book, the Scriptural litany is restored but relegated to a secondary position, though included under the title “Altre letanie che si cantano”, etc. From this it is clear that for a time both litanies were in use at Loreto. But in subsequent editions of Angelita’s manual, and in other manuals of devotion, the Scriptural litany is printed with the bare title “Litaniæ ex S. Scriptura depromptæ”, until the seventeenth century when it disappears altogether. Meanwhile, thanks to Angelita’s manuals, the Loreto text was introduced elsewhere, and even reached Rome, when Sixtus V, who had entertained a singular devotion for Loreto, by the Bull “Reddituri” of 11 July, 1587, gave formal approval to it, as to the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and recommended preachers everywhere to propagate its use among the faithful.

At Rome the Litany of Loreto was introduced into the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore by Cardinal Francesco Toledo in 1597; and Paul V, in 1613, ordered it to be sung in that church, morning and evening, on Saturdays and on vigils and feasts of the Madonna. As a result of this example the Loreto Litany began to be used, and is still largely used, in all the churches of Rome. The Dominicans, at their general chapter held at Bologna in 1615, ordered it to be recited in all the convents of their order after the Office on Saturdays at the end of the customary “Salve Regina”. Before this they had caused the invocation “Regina sacratissimi rosarii” to be inserted in the litany, and it appears in print for the first time in a Dominican Breviary dated 1614, as has been pointed out by Father Walsh, O.P., in “The Tablet”, 24 Oct., 1908. Although by decree of 1631, and by Bull of Alexander VII (1664), it was strictly forbidden to make any additions to the litanies, another decree of the Congregation of Rites, dated 1675, permitted the Confraternity of the Rosary to add the invocation “Regina sacratissimi rosarii”, and this was prescribed for the whole Church by Leo XIII (24 December 1883). By decree of 22 April, 1903, the same pope added the invocation “Mater boni consilii”, which, under the form of “Mater veri consilii”, was contained in the Marian litany used for centuries in Saint Mark’s Venice, as indicated above. In 1766 Clement XIII granted Spain the privilege of adding after “Mater intemerata” the invocation “Mater immaculata”, which is still customary in Spain, notwithstanding the addition of “Regina sine labe originali concepta”. This last invocation was originally granted by Pius IX to the Bishop of Mechlin in 1846, and, after the definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the congregation by various rescripts authorized many dioceses to make a like addition, so that in a short time it became the universal practice.

MLA Citation

Angelo de Santi. “Litany of Loreto”. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 July 2013. Web. 19 August 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-encyclopedia-litany-of-loreto/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-encyclopedia-litany-of-loreto/

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Santa Maria di Loreto, Roma

The Litany of Loretto and Processions, by Father B Rohner, OSB

The Litany of Loretto

Next to the devotion of the holy Rosary, the devotion most tender and most beloved among Catholic people is the recital or the chanting ot litanies.

A chanter, or perhaps the regular choir, pronounces the invocation aloud, while the body of the people in attendance Support the chant with one voice and one heart, and respond vigorously and earnestly, “Have mercy on us,” or “Pray for us.” Experience has proved that in response to prayers thus offered Our Lord has always kept His promise: “I say to you that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)

Such mode of effective prayer to the Blessed Virgin has been in constant practise in the Catholic Church from time immemorial and has always been attended with the most salutary results. This prayer of mingled praise and petition is called the litany of Loretto because it is solemnly chanted every Saturday in the holy house at Loretto. The author of the litany and the time of its origin are unknown. It is certain, however, that it was in use among Catholics before the fourteenth century. The burden of this litany consists of a series of titles, figures and symbols, all indicating and expressing the dignity, beauty, power, and other admirable characteristics, of the Blessed Virgin. A form of praise-prayer such as this one is, would have its origin only in some devout heart deeply influenced by the Holy Spirit. As we read and pronounce the tender and chaste language of the several invocations, how nobly and beautifully, yet gently and lovingly, the blessed Mother of God rises before the eyes of our souls, whether we consider her life on earth, her glory in heaven, or her honored position in the bosom of the Catholic Church.

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that persons hostile to the devotion shown by Catholics to Mary, persons all too solicitous about the adoration due to God, should, in their fastidiousness and self-supposed learning, have found fault with some of the expressions of this litany and endeavored to turn them into arguments against such devotion. To the vain and puny attacks of such fault-finders the Catholic Church would give the following reply: In the year 1664 Pope Alexander V forbade any addition, no matter how orthodox and beautiful, to be made to the then existing form of the litany of Loretto. It was to be rigidly maintained in ancient form, except that the members belonging to the Rosary Society were permitted to add at the end of the invocations, “Queen of the holy Rosary! pray for us.” Again, in 1854, after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the Congregation of Rites, at Rome, granted a limited or qualified permission to the faithful to subjoin at the end of the litany, “Queen conceived without original sin! Pray for us.” Yet this was only a privilege. No one is bound to say these words. Their omission does not imperil the indulgences attached to the litany. From these cautious measures of the Church it may be seen with what careful solicitude she watches over, and hedges in against extravagance, not only the faith and morals of her children, but even the liturgy and private devotions. Surely, dearest reader, you belong to the number of those faithful children of Mary who thus frequently and piously salute the sovereign Queen of heaven and earth, both in the quiet seclusion of their pious homes and at the public religious devotions in the church or chapel.

Processions in Honor of Mary

The word litany comes from the Greek language and means in its literal sense, “a prayer-march.” Indeed the various Church litanies seem never more appropriate, pleasing and edifying than when recited or chanted during religious processions.

Our religious processions, as now conducted and practised in the Church, are simply and really short pilgrimages. They are grounded equally on the nature of man and in the nature of Church worship.

The holy and learned Church Fathers, among them notably Saints Jerome, Chrysostom, and Ambrose, speak of these religious devotions as in practise away back among the early Christians. They used to be observed on a variety of occasions, but especially at the graves of the martyrs, and at the translation of relics to the different churches litanies were always chanted with great devotion.

Such devotional processions in honor of the Blessed Virgin were also practised in times of great need, in famines, epidemics, floods, droughts, and other calamities. The renowned Church historian, Baronius, informs us that Pope Gregory I, as early as the year 590, gave orders that an image of the Blessed Virgin should he carried in such processions.

As the different Confraternities were formed in honor of the Blessed Virgin, they established and carried out with great solemnity a regular series of religious processions in order, first, to encourage devotion on the various festival days, and, still more, in order to give public sanction and expression and encouragement to devotion for the Blessed Virgin.

In all those parishes where the society of the living Rosary was introduced, it soon became a regular custom to hold a procession once every month, in performing which the processionists used to carry banners of the three colors, white in honor of the joyful mysteries, red in honor of the sorrowful mysteries, and gold in honor of the glorious mysteries of the Rosary. In many places, too, a fine statue of the Madonna, holding a rosary in her hand, was borne aloft, with great reverence, by young girls in some of these processions. As a further sign of the respect and love due to the virginal Mother, these young girls were arrayed in pure white garments, with wreaths of white flowers on their heads.

On some of the greater festivals of these confraternities a still more solemn character was added to the procession, and a still greater honor was rendered to the blessed Mother by having the company of her own divine Son in the procession. Yes, Jesus Christ was personally present. For the priest of the parish placed the consecrated Host in the ostensorium and carried it through the line of march.

Thus did the Saviour Himself, by His own divine presence, give His sanction to this form of devotion. By the solemn reverential feeling produced among Catholics by that presence, much was added to the deep piety and impressiveness of the procession, for Jesus Christ Himself honored and glorified His blessed Mother. It also afforded to the pious processionists an opportunity of rendering homage to the divine Son while they honored the Mother who bore Him. Indeed it became a strong rebuke to those who say that Catholics, when they honor Mary, forget Jesus and give to a creature the homage due to the Creator.

If, therefore, our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in order to honor His beloved Mother consented to leave even the sacred retirement of the tabernacle and permitted Himself to be carried in human hands, with deep solemnity, through the highways and byways of the world, and went joyfully and gladly about doing good, may not you, too, and myself as well, feel justified and pleased and happy to offer to our blessed Mother a similar testimony of love and respect by marching in these religious processions.

It would, indeed, he a bad sign for any Christian young woman to be held back from such public devotions through fears of human respect. How silly and inconsistent to be ashamed to appear in plain white garments and to do honor to her guardian Mother and yet to array herself in her best adornments of person in order to please others, or perhaps to cause the envy of her own sex, and to attract the admiring eyes of men!

– text taken from Veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Feasts, Prayers, Religious Orders, and Sodalities, by Father B Rohner, OSB, adapted by Father Richard Brennan, LLD, published in 1898 by Benziger Brothers; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine, Archdiocese of New York, New York, 22 June 1898

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-litany-of-loretto-and-processions-by-father-b-rohner-osb/

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Domenico Fiasella (1589–1669), Madonna di Loreto, circa 1643, Diocesan museum of Genoa

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

10 dicembre

Il Santuario di Loreto è sorto nel luogo in cui, secondo la leggenda, la dimora di Maria Vergine sarebbe stata trasportata prodigiosamente dagli Angeli. Questo santuario risale al IV secolo, ed è uno dei più antichi. Anche oggi questa basilica è meta di continui pellegrinaggi, e considerata la “Lourdes italiana. La convinzione di questa miracolosa traslazione ha spinto papa Benedetto XV a costituire la Beata Vergine di Loreto “Patrona principale presso Dio di tutti gli aeronautici”.

Etimologia: Maria = amata da Dio, dall'egiziano; signora, dall'ebraico

Da circa un trentennio la traslazione angelica della Santa Casa di Nazareth a Loreto, così come raccontato nei secoli dalla tradizione, è stata derubricata a mera leggenda. Le autorità ecclesiastiche lauretane hanno persino tolto dalla Santa Casa il tabernacolo, rendendo così il luogo quasi una semplice meta turistica.

Ad ogni modo, è credibile pensare che il trasporto delle Sante Pareti di Nazareth sia avvenuto per mezzo degli uomini? Usando anche solo un po’ di buon senso, sembrerebbe proprio di no.

La conferma della Chiesa

Il 10 dicembre ricorre liturgicamente la festa della miracolosa Traslazione della Santa Casa di Nazareth a Loreto. L’istituzione di questa festa, presente da sempre a livello locale, avvenne nel 1632, fu inserita nel Martirologio Romano da Clemente IX nel 1669 e dotata di Ufficio e Messa propri, con approvazione della lettura del trasporto miracoloso, da Innocenzo XII nel 1699.

Benedetto XII la estese allo Stato Pontificio e a tutte quelle diocesi e ordini religiosi che ne avessero fatto richiesta. Ebbene, nella VI Lezione del Breviario Romano era descritta brevemente la storia della Traslazione, ricordando i vari spostamenti per mezzo degli angeli.

Ma il trasporto miracoloso delle Sante Pareti non è stato solo confermato dalla liturgia e dalle raffigurazioni artistiche. Benedetto XV, nel dichiarare la Beata Vergine di Loreto Patrona degli aviatori nel 1920, riconobbe come autentico il “volo miracoloso” della Santa Casa.

Leone X in un Breve del 1515 scrisse che «è provato da testimoni degni di fede che la Santa Vergine, dopo aver trasportato per l’onnipotenza divina, la sua immagine e la propria casa da Nazareth in Dalmazia, (…) la fece deporre per il ministero degli angeli, sulla pubblica via ove trovasi tuttora».

Scienza, archeologia e… buon senso a favore del miracolo

Per chi non fosse persuaso da questi argomenti, si possono illustrare altre motivazioni. Dal punto di vista storico-archeologico; infatti, sono indiscutibilmente accertate almeno cinque traslazioni miracolose: a Tersatto (in Dalmazia), ad Ancona, in varie località vicino Loreto e infine sulla pubblica strada, dove ancor oggi si trova, sotto la cupola dell’attuale Basilica lauretana.

Se davvero il trasporto fosse avvenuto per mano umana, perché la gente avrebbe dovuto accettare la versione miracolosa dei fatti? E poi, perché così tanti spostamenti umanamente inspiegabili? Sarebbe stato tecnicamente possibile trasportare così tante volte delle pietre che poi sono state perfettamente risistemate? E ancora: perché collocare definitivamente la Santa Casa nel mezzo di quella che allora era una strada pubblica dove, secondo la legge, nulla si doveva costruire, pena l’abbattimento?

C’è pure un altro elemento da rilevare. La malta con cui le sante pietre sono murate è proveniente dalla Palestina. Come può questo dato essere compatibile con una ricostruzione successiva al trasporto su nave? E come è possibile che, a seguito di tanti spostamenti e di molteplici riedificazioni, non si sia minimamente alterata la perfetta geometria della Santa Casa, che combacia esattamente con le dimensioni delle fondamenta rimaste a Nazareth?

Il problema “degli Angeli”

È stata poi acclarata recentemente la falsità storica del documento che secondo alcuni proverebbe il trasporto umano delle pietre per mezzo della famiglia Angeli o De Angelis. Tra l’altro, il testo, fabbricato nell’Ottocento, risalirebbe al 1294, tre anni dopo il miracoloso trasporto della Santa Casa a Tersatto. E poiché è attestato che nel 1294 questa non era più a Nazareth ma in Dalmazia, la famiglia Angeli non avrebbe potuto portar via nulla direttamente dalla Palestina, come invece si è detto.

Ad avvalorare ciò vi è pure un cespuglio, ancora oggi visibile, schiacciato al centro da una parete della sacra dimora: fatto davvero strano qualora si fosse ricostruito il tutto artificialmente. Insomma, ci vuole davvero molta più fede a credere nell’intervento umano che non a quello divino.

Autore: Federico Catani

Fonte: Radici Cristiane

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

École du Vasari, Notre Dame de Lorette, XVIe, British Museum

Iniziamo questa scheda riportando una riflessione di papa Giovanni Paolo II, riferendosi alla Santa Casa di Loreto: “Quello Lauretano è un Santuario mirabile. In esso è inscritta la trentennale esperienza di condivisione, che Gesù fece con Maria e Giuseppe. Attraverso questo mistero umano e divino, nella casa di Nazaret è come inscritta la storia di tutti gli uomini, poiché ogni uomo è legato ad una ‘casa’, dove nasce, lavora, riposa, incontra gli altri e la storia di ogni uomo, è segnata in modo particolare da una casa: la casa della sua infanzia, dei suoi primi passi nella vita.

Ed è eloquente ed importante per tutti che quest’Uomo unico e singolare, che è il Figlio unigenito di Dio, abbia pure voluto legare la sua storia ad una casa, quella di Nazaret, che secondo il racconto evangelico, ospitò Gesù di Nazaret lungo l’intero arco della sua infanzia, adolescenza e giovinezza, cioè della sua misteriosa maturazione umana… La casa del Figlio dell’uomo è dunque la casa universale di tutti i figli adottivi di Dio. La storia di ogni uomo, in un certo senso, passa attraverso quella casa…”.

A partire da papa Clemente V che con una bolla del 18 luglio 1310 confermò indirettamente l’autenticità della Santa Casa, i papi nei secoli successivi confermarono nuovamente la loro devozione alla Vergine Lauretana, specie in drammatiche circostanze.

Ma le origini dell’antica e devota tradizione della traslazione della Casa dalla Palestina a Loreto, risalgono al 1296, quando in una visione, ne era stata indicata l’esistenza e l’autenticità ad un eremita, fra’ Paolo della Selva e da lui riferita alle Autorità.

Ciò ci è narrato da una cronaca del 1465, redatta da Pier Giorgio di Tolomei, detto il Teramano, che a sua volta l’aveva desunta da una vecchia ‘tabula’ consumata, risalente al 1300. Si riportano alcuni passi più significativi, che poi sono stati tramandati nelle narrazioni, più o meno arricchite nei secoli successivi; “L’alma chiesa di santa Maria di Loreto fu camera della casa della gloriosissima Madre del nostro Signore Gesù Cristo… La quale casa fu in una città della Galilea, chiamata Nazaret.

E in detta casa nacque la Vergine Maria, qui fu allevata e poi dall’Angelo Gabriele salutata; e finalmente nella stessa camera nutrì Gesù Cristo suo figliuolo… Quindi gli apostoli e discepoli consacrarono quella camera in chiesa, ivi celebrando i divini misteri…

Ma dopo che quel popolo di Galilea e di Nazaret abbandonò la fede in Cristo e accettò la fede di Maometto, allora gli Angeli levarono dal suo posto la predetta chiesa e la trasportarono nella Schiavonia, posandola presso un castello chiamato Fiume (1291).

Ma lì non fu affatto onorata come si conveniva alla Vergine… Perciò da quel luogo la tolsero nuovamente gli Angeli e la portarono attraverso il mare, nel territorio di Recanati (1294) e la posero in una selva di cui era padrona una gentildonna chiamata Loreta; da qui prese il nome la chiesa: ‘Santa Maria di Loreta…”.

Per il gran numero di gente, purtroppo succedevano anche ladrocini e violenze, per cui continua il racconto, gli Angeli la spostarono altre due volte, sempre per gli stessi motivi, depositandola alla fine sul colle, nella notte del 9-10 dicembre 1294, dove si trova attualmente.

“Allora accorse tutto il popolo di Recanati a vedere la detta chiesa, che stava sopra la terra senza alcun fondamento. Per la qual cosa, il popolo considerando così gran miracolo e temendo che detta chiesa non venisse a rovina, la fecero circondare da un altro ben grosso muro e di buonissimo fondamento, come ancor oggi chiaramente si vede”.

Questo il racconto del 1465; che si fonda sull’aspetto storico dell’epoca, quando i rapporti culturali e religiosi delle comunità insediate sulle due sponde dell’Adriatico, erano intensi, per l’attraversamento delle navi veneziane e poi di quelle di Ancona e dell’attuale Dubrovnik, che trasportavano i pellegrini ai Luoghi Santi della Palestina.

Sullo sfondo vi è la conquista della Terra Santa da parte dei mamelucchi e poi la lenta penetrazione degli ottomani nella penisola balcanica, dopo la caduta di Costantinopoli.

Da questi eventi scaturirono le Crociate, per liberare i popoli ed i paesi dall’occupazione araba e secondo la tradizione, gli Angeli intervennero per mettere in salvo la casa della Vergine, già trasformata in chiesa sin dai tempi apostolici.

Da allora moltitudini di fedeli si sono recati in pellegrinaggio al grandioso santuario, che racchiude la Santa Casa, iniziato a costruire nel 1468 da papa Paolo II, in breve diventò ed è, secondo una felice definizione di papa Giovanni Paolo II, “cuore mariano della cristianità”.

Fin dall’inizio del Trecento fu già meta di pellegrinaggio, anche per quanti prendendo la strada costiera, erano diretti a S. Michele al Gargano oppure in Terrasanta; il flusso nei secoli XV e XVI diventò enorme, fino ad indurre nel 1520 papa Leone X ad equiparare il voto dei pellegrini del Santuario di Loreto a quello di Gerusalemme, che già man mano Loreto aveva sostituito nelle punte dei grandi pellegrinaggi penitenziali, che vedevano Roma, Santiago di Compostella, Gerusalemme.

Il prodigio eclatante della traslazione della Santa Casa attirò anche, a partire dal secolo XV, la peregrinazione di re e regine, principi, cardinali e papi, che lasciarono doni o ex voto per grazie ricevute; a loro si aggiunsero nei tempi successivi, condottieri, poeti, scrittori, inventori, fondatori di Ordini religiosi, filosofi, artisti, futuri santi e beati.

Grandi architetti furono chiamati a progettare e realizzare le opere edili, che costituiscono il grandioso complesso del santuario, che sorto come chiesa dalle linee goticheggianti, su progetti degli architetti Marino di Marco Cedrino e Giuliano da Maiano; venne poi per necessità di difesa dai pirati, che infierivano sui centri costieri, munita di un cammino di ronda e di stanze per i soldati, ad opera di Baccio Pontelli; ma non fu sufficiente, perché papa Leone X (1475-1521) fece erigere una cinta fortificata intorno al complesso, che divenne in pratica un vero e proprio castello.

Nel frattempo intorno al Santuario, sempre più frequentato dai pellegrini, sorse un borgo che fu chiamato Villa Santa Maria e che in seguito nel 1586 papa Sisto V promosse a sede vescovile.

L’interno del Santuario ebbe varie trasformazioni a cui lavorarono insigni artisti, come Giuliano da Sangallo che innalzò la solenne cupola, Giorgio Marini, il Bramante, il Sansovino, Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane, Luigi Vanvitelli.

Per la facciata nel 1571 lavorò Giovanni Boccalini da Carpi e nel 1587 Giovan Battista Chioldi. Come pittori portarono la loro arte, per citarne alcuni, Melozzo da Forlì, Luca Signorelli, Lorenzo Lotto, Cristofaro Pomarancio, ecc.

L’interno attuale del Santuario è a croce latina a tre navate, ospita sotto la grande cupola la Santa Casa, letteralmente coperta da un rivestimento marmoreo, arricchito da statue e bassorilievi raffiguranti sibille e profeti e narranti otto storie della vita di Maria, oltre a rilievi bronzei narranti alcuni episodi della vita di Gesù.

Un incendio nel 1921, sviluppatosi all’interno della Santa Casa, la danneggiò gravemente, distruggendo anche la venerata immagine lignea della Madonna, attualmente sostituita da una copia, riccamente vestita e con il volto nero dell’originale, scurito dal fumo delle lampade.

La raccolta religiosità dell’interno, ben specifica e fa immaginare la semplice vita di Maria, di Gesù e di Giuseppe, nella Palestina di allora, tutto invita alla preghiera ed al raccoglimento. Trent’anni dopo la costruzione della chiesa, incominciò quella del Palazzo Apostolico, che occupa uno dei lati della piazza della Chiesa e in cui sono conservati capolavori d’arte di ogni genere, compresi gli arazzi, porcellane e tavolette votive, costituenti il tesoro della Santa Casa, donato nei secoli da tanti devoti.
Oltre 50 papi si sono recati in pellegrinaggio a Loreto e sempre è stata grande la loro devozione; alla Vergine si rivolsero i papi Pio II e Paolo II per guarire miracolosamente dalle loro gravi malattie; papa Benedetto XV (1914-1922) in considerazione della traslazione della sua Casa, dalla Palestina a Fiume e poi a Loreto, la proclamò patrona degli aviatori.

Loreto è considerata la Lourdes italiana e tanti pellegrinaggi di malati vengono organizzati ogni anno, con cerimonie collettive come quelle di Lourdes; aggiungo una mia piccola esperienza personale, in ambedue i luoghi sacri a Maria, ho sentito improvvisamente la necessità di piangere, come se avvertissi la spiritualità nei due ambienti permeati della sua presenza.

Innumerevoli sono i luoghi pii, chiese, ospedali o di assistenza, come pure delle Congregazioni religiose, intitolati al nome della Vergine di Loreto, il suo nome cambiato in Loredana è fra i più diffusi fra le donne; infine come non ricordare le “Litanie Lauretane” che dal XII secolo sono divenute una vera e propria orazione alla Vergine, incentrata sui titoli che in ogni tempo le sono stati tributati, anche con riferimenti biblici. Le “Litanie Lauretane” sostituirono nella cristianità, quelle denominate ‘veneziane’ (in uso nella basilica di S. Marco e originarie di Aquileia) e quelle ‘deprecatorie’ (ossia di supplica, originarie della Germania).

La celebrazione liturgica nella Chiesa Cattolica è al 10 dicembre con il nome "Traslazione della Santa Casa di Loreto".

Autore: Antonio Borrelli

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/80900

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Retablo cerámico en una casa, Venta del Moro

VISITA PASTORALE A LORETO

NEL 50° ANNIVERSARIO
DEL VIAGGIO DI GIOVANNI XXIII

(4 OTTOBRE 2012)

SANTA MESSA

OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE BENEDETTO XVI

Piazza della Madonna di Loreto

Giovedì, 4 ottobre 2012

Signori Cardinali,

Venerati Fratelli nell’episcopato,

cari fratelli e sorelle!

Il 4 ottobre del 1962, il Beato Giovanni XXIII venne in pellegrinaggio a questo Santuario per affidare alla Vergine Maria il Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II, che si sarebbe inaugurato una settimana dopo. In quella occasione, egli, che nutriva una filiale e profonda devozione alla Madonna, si rivolse a lei con queste parole: «Oggi, ancora una volta, ed in nome di tutto l’episcopato, a Voi, dolcissima Madre, che siete salutata Auxilium Episcoporum, chiediamo per Noi, Vescovo di Roma e per tutti i Vescovi dell’universo di ottenerci la grazia di entrare nell’aula conciliare della Basilica di San Pietro come entrarono nel Cenacolo gli Apostoli e i primi discepoli di Gesù: un cuor solo, un palpito solo di amore a Cristo e alle anime, un proposito solo di vivere e di immolarci per la salvezza dei singoli e dei popoli. Così, per la vostra materna intercessione, negli anni e nei secoli futuri, si possa dire che la grazia di Dio ha prevenuto, accompagnato e coronato il ventunesimo Concilio Ecumenico, infondendo nei figli tutti della Santa Chiesa nuovo fervore, slancio di generosità, fermezza di propositi» (AAS 54 [1962], 727).

A distanza di cinquant’anni, dopo essere stato chiamato dalla divina Provvidenza a succedere sulla cattedra di Pietro a quel Papa indimenticabile, anch’io sono venuto qui pellegrino per affidare alla Madre di Dio due importanti iniziative ecclesiali: l’Anno della fede, che avrà inizio tra una settimana, l’11 ottobre, nel cinquantesimo anniversario dell’apertura del Concilio Vaticano II, e l’Assemblea Generale Ordinaria del Sinodo dei Vescovi, da me convocata nel mese di ottobre sul tema «La nuova evangelizzazione per la trasmissione della fede cristiana». Cari amici! A voi tutti porgo il mio più cordiale saluto. Ringrazio l’Arcivescovo di Loreto, Mons. Giovanni Tonucci, per le calorose espressioni di benvenuto. Saluto gli altri Vescovi presenti, i Sacerdoti, i Padri Cappuccini, ai quali è affidata la cura pastorale del santuario, e le Religiose. Rivolgo un deferente pensiero al Sindaco, Dott. Paolo Niccoletti, che pure ringrazio per le sue cortesi parole, al Rappresentante del Governo ed alle Autorità civili e militari presenti. E la mia riconoscenza va a tutti coloro che hanno generosamente offerto la loro collaborazione per la realizzazione di questo mio Pellegrinaggio.

Come ricordavo nella Lettera Apostolica di indizione, attraverso l’Anno della fede «intendo invitare i Confratelli Vescovi di tutto l’orbe perché si uniscano al Successore di Pietro, nel tempo di grazia spirituale che il Signore ci offre, per fare memoria del dono prezioso della fede» (Porta fidei, 8). E proprio qui a Loreto abbiamo l’opportunità di metterci alla scuola di Maria, di lei che è stata proclamata «beata» perché «ha creduto» (Lc 1,45). Questo Santuario, costruito attorno alla sua casa terrena, custodisce la memoria del momento in cui l’Angelo del Signore venne da Maria con il grande annuncio dell’Incarnazione, ed ella diede la sua risposta. Questa umile abitazione è una testimonianza concreta e tangibile dell’avvenimento più grande della nostra storia: l’Incarnazione; il Verbo si è fatto carne, e Maria, la serva del Signore, è il canale privilegiato attraverso il quale Dio è venuto ad abitare in mezzo a noi (cfr Gv 1,14). Maria ha offerto la propria carne, ha messo tutta se stessa a disposizione della volontà di Dio, diventando «luogo» della sua presenza, «luogo» in cui dimora il Figlio di Dio. Qui possiamo richiamare le parole del Salmo con le quali, secondo la Lettera agli Ebrei, Cristo ha iniziato la sua vita terrena dicendo al Padre: «Tu non hai voluto né sacrificio né offerta, un corpo invece mi hai preparato…Allora ho detto: “Ecco, io vengo per fare, o Dio, la tua volontà”» (10,5.7). Maria dice parole simili di fronte all’Angelo che le rivela il piano di Dio su di lei: «Ecco la serva del Signore; avvenga per me secondo la tua parola» (Lc 1,38). La volontà di Maria coincide con la volontà del Figlio nell’unico progetto di amore del Padre e in lei si uniscono cielo e terra, Dio creatore e la sua creatura. Dio diventa uomo, Maria si fa «casa vivente» del Signore, tempio dove abita l’Altissimo. Il Beato Giovanni XXIII cinquant’anni fa, qui a Loreto, invitava a contemplare questo mistero, a «riflettere su quel congiungimento del cielo con la terra, che è lo scopo dell’Incarnazione e della Redenzione», e continuava affermando che lo stesso Concilio aveva come scopo di estendere sempre più il raggio benefico dell’Incarnazione e Redenzione di Cristo in tutte le forme della vita sociale (cfr AAS 54 [1962], 724). E’ un invito che risuona oggi con particolare forza. Nella crisi attuale che interessa non solo l’economia, ma vari settori della società, l’Incarnazione del Figlio di Dio ci dice quanto l’uomo sia importante per Dio e Dio per l’uomo. Senza Dio l’uomo finisce per far prevalere il proprio egoismo sulla solidarietà e sull’amore, le cose materiali sui valori, l’avere sull’essere. Bisogna ritornare a Dio perché l’uomo ritorni ad essere uomo. Con Dio anche nei momenti difficili, di crisi, non viene meno l’orizzonte della speranza: l’Incarnazione ci dice che non siamo mai soli, Dio è entrato nella nostra umanità e ci accompagna.

Ma il dimorare del Figlio di Dio nella «casa vivente», nel tempio, che è Maria, ci porta ad un altro pensiero: dove abita Dio, dobbiamo riconoscere che tutti siamo «a casa»; dove abita Cristo, i suoi fratelli e le sue sorelle non sono più stranieri. Maria, che è madre di Cristo è anche nostra madre, ci apre la porta della sua Casa, ci guida ad entrare nella volontà del suo Figlio. È la fede, allora, che ci dà una casa in questo mondo, che ci riunisce in un’unica famiglia e che ci rende tutti fratelli e sorelle. Contemplando Maria, dobbiamo domandarci se anche noi vogliamo essere aperti al Signore, se vogliamo offrire la nostra vita perché sia una dimora per Lui; oppure se abbiamo paura che la presenza del Signore possa essere un limite alla nostra libertà, e se vogliamo riservarci una parte della nostra vita, in modo che possa appartenere solo a noi. Ma è proprio Dio che libera la nostra libertà, la libera dalla chiusura in se stessa, dalla sete di potere, di possesso, di dominio, e la rende capace di aprirsi alla dimensione che la realizza in senso pieno: quella del dono di sé, dell’amore, che si fa servizio e condivisione.

La fede ci fa abitare, dimorare, ma ci fa anche camminare nella via della vita. Anche a questo proposito, la Santa Casa di Loreto conserva un insegnamento importante. Come sappiamo, essa fu collocata sopra una strada. La cosa potrebbe apparire piuttosto strana: dal nostro punto di vista, infatti, la casa e la strada sembrano escludersi. In realtà, proprio in questo particolare aspetto, è custodito un messaggio singolare di questa Casa. Essa non è una casa privata, non appartiene a una persona o a una famiglia, ma è un’abitazione aperta a tutti, che sta, per così dire, sulla strada di tutti noi. Allora, qui a Loreto, troviamo una casa che ci fa rimanere, abitare, e che nello stesso tempo ci fa camminare, ci ricorda che siamo tutti pellegrini, che dobbiamo essere sempre in cammino verso un’altra abitazione, verso la casa definitiva, verso la Città eterna, la dimora di Dio con l’umanità redenta (cfr Ap 21,3).

C’è ancora un punto importante del racconto evangelico dell’Annunciazione che vorrei sottolineare, un aspetto che non finisce mai di stupirci: Dio domanda il «sì» dell’uomo, ha creato un interlocutore libero, chiede che la sua creatura Gli risponda con piena libertà. San Bernardo di Chiaravalle, in uno dei suoi Sermoni più celebri, quasi «rappresenta» l’attesa da parte di Dio e dell’umanità del «sì» di Maria, rivolgendosi a lei con una supplica: «L’angelo attende la tua risposta, perché è ormai tempo di ritornare a colui che lo ha inviato… O Signora, da’ quella risposta, che la terra, che gli inferi, anzi, che i cieli attendono. Come il Re e Signore di tutti desiderava vedere la tua bellezza, così egli desidera ardentemente la tua risposta affermativa… Alzati, corri, apri! Alzati con la fede, affrettati con la tua offerta, apri con la tua adesione!» (In laudibus Virginis Matris, Hom. IV, 8: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4, 1966, p. 53s). Dio chiede la libera adesione di Maria per diventare uomo. Certo, il «sì» della Vergine è frutto della Grazia divina. Ma la grazia non elimina la libertà, al contrario, la crea e la sostiene. La fede non toglie nulla alla creatura umana, ma ne permette la piena e definitiva realizzazione.

Cari fratelli e sorelle, in questo pellegrinaggio che ripercorre quello del Beato Giovanni XXIII - e che avviene, provvidenzialmente, nel giorno in cui si fa memoria di san Francesco di Assisi, vero «Vangelo vivente» - vorrei affidare alla Santissima Madre di Dio tutte le difficoltà che vive il nostro mondo alla ricerca di serenità e di pace, i problemi di tante famiglie che guardano al futuro con preoccupazione, i desideri dei giovani che si aprono alla vita, le sofferenze di chi attende gesti e scelte di solidarietà e di amore. Vorrei affidare alla Madre di Dio anche questo speciale tempo di grazia per la Chiesa, che si apre davanti a noi. Tu, Madre del «sì», che hai ascoltato Gesù, parlaci di Lui, raccontaci il tuo cammino per seguirlo sulla via della fede, aiutaci ad annunciarlo perché ogni uomo possa accoglierlo e diventare dimora di Dio. Amen!

SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20121004_loreto.html

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Statue of Our Lady of Loreto. Loreto, Italy

interno della Santa Casa con la Madonna di Loreto

Vår Frue av Loreto

Minnedag: 10. desember

Skytshelgen for flypiloter og flybesetninger (1920); for det argentinske Flyvåpenet; for bygningsarbeidere

Helt fra det første korstog (1096-99) hadde de kristne i nesten to århundrer vært i stand til å opprettholde Det latinske kongedømmet i Det hellige Land ved hjelp av stadig nye korstog. Men uenighet og maktkamper i vesten hadde gjort at omtanken for Det hellige Land hadde gått sterkt tilbake. I august 1244 falt Jerusalem i hendene på muslimene, og kongeriket Jerusalem opphørte å eksistere etter det alvorlige nederlaget ved Gaza den 17. oktober 1244. Tripoli i Libanon ble i april 1289 erobret av sultanen, og den 28. mai 1291 falt også Akka (Acre), den siste kristne utpost i Det hellige Land. Forgjeves gjorde ordensridderne alt som sto i menneskelig makt for å stanse tyrkernes stormangrep, men forgjeves. Det hellige Land var tapt for kristenheten.

Men mens Kirken sørget over dette tapet, ble den gitt en ny glede: Det hellige Hus fra Nasaret, stedet for Guds Mors fødsel, for hennes tidligste utdannelse og for Bebudelsen, det vil si erkeengelen Gabriels budskap til Maria om at hun skulle føde Guds Sønn, Det inkarnerte Ord. Dette huset var nemlig funnet nær byen Trstat (Tersato/Tersatz) i Dalmatia, nå en bydel i Rijeka (it: Fiume) i Kroatia, på mirakuløst vis transportert dit fra Det hellige Land.

Legenden forteller at keiserinne Helena i 336 foretok en pilegrimsreise til Nasaret og fikk bygd en basilika over Det hellige hus, hvor gudstjenester ble feiret til kongeriket Jerusalems fall. Men da det ble truet av ødeleggelse fra tyrkerne, ble det båret av engler gjennom luften.

Om morgenen den 10. mai 1291 fikk innbyggerne i området øye på dette bemerkelsesverdige lille huset med et klokketårn på som sto uten fundamenter rett på bakken. Inne i huset så de et alter, en gammel statue av Vår Frue og andre religiøse gjenstander. Da sto deres biskop plutselig blant dem, helbredet fra en langvarig sykdom som hadde gjort ham sengeliggende i flere måneder. Han hadde bedt om å bli i stand til å gå og se underverket med egne øyne, og da hadde Guds Mor åpenbart seg for ham og fortalt ham at huset var det huset som hun var født i. Etter hennes død var det konsekrert av apostlene, og alteret var det samme som apostelen Peter hadde plassert der. Sederstatuen var en nøyaktig gjengivelse av hennes utseende, laget av evangelisten Lukas, og krusifikset var brakt dit av apostlene.

Nikolas Frangipani, guvernøren for territoriet Ancona, var ikke til stede, men da nyheten ble brakt til ham, vendte han tilbake fra en krig for å verifisere husets autentisitet. Han sendte biskopen og tre andre personer til Nasaret for å undersøke det opprinnelige stedet hvor huset hadde stått. Og der var det virkelig ikke noe hus, bare fundamentene sto igjen og ble funnet å stemme i alle detaljer og dimensjoner med huset som nå var i Dalmatia. Delegatenes vitnesbyrd ble nedskrevet i henhold til de juridiske formalitetene og stadfestet med en høytidelig ed. Utallige mirakuløse helbredelser beviste husets hellighet. Mariakirken i Trstat har i 700 år vært åsted for religiøse sammenkomster og begivenheter, og den er det eldste kroatiske Mariavalfartsstedet.

Men etter å ha tilbrakt tre år i Dalmatia, forsvant huset igjen i 1294. Paulus della Selva, en hellig eremitt i regionen Ancona i denne perioden, skrev at om natten den 10. desember ble et lys fra himmelen synlig for flere innbyggere ved kysten av Adriaterhavet. De så et hus, omgitt av himmelsk prakt, transportert gjennom luften. Englene satte det ned i en skog, og innbyggerne kunne studere det. Det gamle greske krusifikset nevnt av Maria for biskopen, var laget av tre, og festet til det var et lerret hvor ordene «Jesus av Nasaret, jødenes konge» var malt. Sederstatuen av Jomfru Maria var også malt, hun bar en rød kjole og en blå kappe og holdt Jesusbarnet i sine armer. Hennes høyre hånd var hevet i en velsignelse, og hennes venstre hånd holdt en kule, symbol på Hans suverene makt.

Fra denne skogen av laurbærtrær (lat: lauretum; it: Colli del Lauri), eller fra navnet til skogens eierinne Laureta, fikk kapellet det navnet det fortsatt har (sacellum gloriosae Virginis in Laureto). Det er dette huset som har gitt tittelen Vår Frue av Loreto, som noen ganger brukes om Jomfru Maria.

Men historien var langt fra over. Huset flyttet seg igjen etter at røvere begynte å overfalle pilegrimer som kom gjennom skogen for å besøke mirakelet. To ganger til løftet det seg fra jorden, den første gangen slo det seg ned på privat jord, noe som ble en kilde til disputt mellom to brødre. Den siste gangen slo det seg ned på en høyde, hvor en støvete og humpete offentlig vei ble dets permanente hvilested. Det skal ha skjedd den 7. september 1295. I århundrer kom folket i Dalmatia over havet på pilegrimsreise, mens de ofte ropte ut til Vår Frue og hennes Hus om å komme tilbake til dem! Etter et slikt besøk fra 300 pilegrimer fikk pave Paul IV (1555-59) i 1559 bygd et hospits i Loreto for familier som foretrakk å forbli nær huset i stedet for å vende tilbake til et land som var berøvet dets hellige nærvær.

Den rød-svarte steinen som huset er bygd av, er av et slag som er fullstendig fremmed i Italia, og mørtelen som holder steinene sammen, er også helt forskjellig fra den vulkanaskebaserte mørtelen som brukes i det landet. Innbyggerne i regionen satte opp en massiv murvegg for å beskytte huset, som var utsatt for det voldsomme regnet og vinden på høyden og var helt uten fundamenter. Men ikke før var muren ferdig, før de kom tilbake en morgen bare for å finne at muren hadde flyttet seg bort fra huset, som for å uttrykke sin ærbødighet, til en avstand som tillot et lite barn å gå rundt det med en fakkel i hånden. Budskapet var klart: Han som hadde brakt huset dit uten menneskelig hjelp, var også i stand til å beskytte det der det var.

Episodene med overføringen av Det hellige hus, alle omhyggelig verifisert, ble skrevet ned i dokumenter som ble brakt til pavene i Roma i ulike epoker. Pave Sixtus IV (1471-84) erklærte at huset var Den hellige Stols eiendom, og han utnevnte en spesiell stab til å være dets voktere og fastsatte deres plikter. Pave Leo X (1513-21) utvidet avlaten som ble gitt for å besøke flere kirker i Roma, til også å gjelde Loreto. Med tiden ble en praktfull basilika reist rundt huset, som selv ble innkledd i en édicule (lat: aediculum = liten bygning) av hvit marmor. De fire sidene representer Bebudelsen, Kristi fødsel, Santa Casas ankomst til Loreto og Jomfru Marias fødsel.

Loreto er en liten by i regionen Marche (Marche di Ancona), få kilometer sør for Ancona og nær kysten. Byens mest iøynefallende bygning er basilikaen. Dette kuppelprydete byggverket, som med sine ulike tilbygg tok mer enn hundre år å bygge og utsmykke under ledelse av mange berømte kunstnere, tjener utelukkende som omgivelser for en liten hytte som står inne i selve basilikaen. Selv om de grove veggene i den lille bygningen har blitt påbygd i høyden og utvendig er innkledd i rikt skulpturert marmor, måler det innvendig bare 9 ½x4 meter og er 4 meter høyt. Et alter står i den ene enden under en statue av libanesisk sedertre, svart av elde og av røyken fra alle lampene, av Jomfru Maria og hennes guddommelige Sønn. Denne statuen ble skadet i en brann i 1921 og er nå erstattet av en kopi. Inskripsjonen Hic Verbum caro factum est («HER ble Ordet kjød») minner oss om at denne bygningen æres av kristne som det lille huset i Nasaret som Den hellige Familie bodde i og hvor Ordet ble inkarnert.

En annen inskripsjon fra 1500-tallet som dekorerer basilikaens østfasade, fremstiller inngående den tradisjonen som gjør denne helligdommen så berømt. Den sier:

«Kristne pilegrim, du har foran dine øyne Det hellige hus i Loreto, ærverdig over hele verden på grunn av de guddommelige mysterier som er utrettet i det og de vidunderlige mirakler som har skjedd i det. Det er her at den helligste Maria, Guds Mor ble født, her at hun ble hilst av engelen, her at Guds evige Ord ble gjort til kjød. Engler brakte dette huset fra Palestina til byen Tersato i Illyria i det frelsens år 1291 i pontifikatet til Nikolas IV [1288-92]. Tre år senere, i begynnelsen på pontifikatet til Bonifatius VIII [1294-1303], ble det igjen båret ved hjelp av engler og plassert i en skog nær denne høyden, i nærheten av Recanati i Marche di Ancona, hvor det etter å ha skiftet plassering tre ganger i løpet av et år, til slutt, etter Guds vilje, slo seg ned for godt på dette stedet for 300 år siden [nå er det naturligvis mer enn 700 år siden]. Helt siden den tiden har både begivenhetenes ekstraordinære natur fremkalt beundrende forundring fra de omkringboende menneskene og berømmelsen til de miraklene som er utført i denne helligdommen, spredt seg vidt omkring, dette hellige huset, hvis vegger ikke hviler på noen fundamenter og likevel forblir solid og uskadet etter så mange århundrer, har blitt holdt i ære av alle folkeslag.»

Det kan ikke være tvil om at den tradisjonen som på denne måten uforferdet proklameres for verden, har blitt fullt ut sanksjonert av Den hellige Stol. Mer enn femti paver har på ulike måter uttrykt sin ærbødighet for helligdommen, og et stort antall buller og pavebrev proklamerer uten forbehold at Santa Casa di Loreto er identisk med Det hellige hus i Nasaret. Argumentene som støtter den folkelige troen på at huset ble brakt fra Palestina til Italia med englehender, kan oppsummeres i fire punkter:

1) Den gjentatte stadfestelsen av tradisjonen fra mange ulike paver fra Julius II (1503-13) og til i dag. Denne stadfestelsen har blitt uttrykt liturgisk gjennom innsettelsen i Martyrologium Romanum i 1669 og har blitt ratifisert gjennom den dype venerasjonen for helligdommen fra slike hellige menn som de hellige Karl Borromeus, Frans av Sales, Ignatius av Loyola, Alfons Maria de Liguori og mange andre Guds tjenere.

2) Loreto har i århundrer vært scene for utallige mirakuløse helbredelser. Selv den skeptiske Montaigne bekjente seg i 1582 som en troende på realiteten av disse (Waters, «Journal of Montaigne's Travels», II, 197-207).

3) Den steinen som de opprinnelige veggene i Santa Casa er bygd med og den mørtelen som er brukt i konstruksjonen, er ikke kjent i området rundt Loreto. Men det hevdes at både steinen og mørtelen er kjemisk identisk med materialene som er vanligst i Nasaret.

4) Santa Casa hviler ikke på og har aldri hvilt på fundamenter gravd ned i jorden hvor det nå står. Dette punktet ble formelt undersøkt i 1751 under pave Benedikt XIV (1740-58). Det som da ble funnet, er i full overensstemmelse med tradisjonen av en bygning som ble fysisk overført fra et mer primitivt sted.

Men fremveksten av den historisk-kritiske metoden på slutten av 1800-tallet viste at den lauretanske tradisjonen er full av alvorlige vanskeligheter. Disse ble dyktig fremstilt av kannik Chevalier i den mye omtalte boken Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris 1906). Innholdet kan oppsummeres i fem punkter:

1) Fra beretninger etterlatt av pilegrimer og andre synes det som om det før den første translasjonen i 1291 ikke var noe lite hus som ble æret i Nasaret som på noen tilfredsstillende måte kunne korrespondere med det nåværende Santa Casa i Loreto. I den grad det i hele tatt var spørsmål i Nasaret etter stedet hvor Jomfru Maria bodde, var det som ble utpekt for pilegrimer, en slags naturlig klippehule.

2) Orientalske krøniker og lignende beretninger fra pilegrimer er absolutt tause om noen endring som fant sted i 1291. Det finnes ikke et ord om at det i Nasaret forsvant en helligdom som tidligere var æret der. Det er ikke før på 1500-tallet at vi finner blant orientalere noen antydning til bevissthet om deres tap, og ideen ble innført fra vest.

3) Det finnes chartre og andre samtidige dokumenter som viser at en kirke viet til Jomfru Maria allerede eksisterte i Loreto på 1100- og 1200-tallet, det vil si før den angivelige translasjonen.

4) Når vi eliminerer visse dokumenter som vanligvis påkalles som tidlige bevis på tradisjonen, men som påviselig er tvilsomme, finner vi at ingen forfatter kan vises å ha hørt om den mirakuløse translasjonen av Det hellige hus før 1472, det vil si 180 år etter at begivenheten skulle ha skjedd. Helligdommen og kirken i Loreto blir virkelig nevnt ofte, og kirken ble av pave Paul II (1464-71) beskrevet som mirakuløst grunnlagt, og det er videre inneforstått at statuen eller bildet av Jomfru Maria ble brakt dit av engler, men alt dette er svært forskjellig fra detaljene i senere beretninger.

5) Hvis de pavelige stadfestelsene av tradisjonen fra Loreto studeres nærmere, vil man se at ikke bare er de temmelig sene (den første bullen som nevner translasjonen er av pave Julius II i 1507), men at de også i begynnelsen er svært forsiktige i formuleringene, for Julius introduserer uttrykket ut pie creditur et fama est, mens de åpenbart er basert på den ekstravagante brosjyren som ble samlet rundt 1472 av Teramano.

Noen forsvarere av tradisjonen har pekt på en freske i Gubbio som viser engler som bærer et lite hus og som dateres til rundt 1350. Det finnes andre lignende avbildninger. Men det er for det første svært vanskelig å datere disse bildene, og dessuten er det ikke sikkert at alle bilder av engler som bærer et hus, henviser til Loreto. Når det gjelder de pavelige uttalelsene, er de ikke om spørsmål som gjelder tro eller moral, og dermed ikke ufeilbarlige.

På den andre siden, selv om Loreto-tradisjonen avvises, finnes det ingen grunn til å tvile på at den enkle troen til alle dem som i tillit har søkt hjelp ved Guds Mors helligdom, ofte kan ha blitt belønnet, også på mirakuløst vis. Det er videre helt unødvendig å anta at noen slags overlagt svindel har funnet sted i utviklingen av denne historien. Mye tyder på at en tilforlatelig forklaring tilbys av den hypotesen som sier at en undergjørende statue eller bilde av Jomfru Maria ble brakt fra Trstat i Illyria til Loreto av noen fromme kristne, og at den deretter ble blandet sammen med det gamle rustikke kapellet den ble oppbevart i, slik at den venerasjonen som tidligere var vist statuen, gikk over til bygningen.

Vi skal også merke oss at i Walsingham, den viktigste engelske helligdommen for Jomfru Maria, legenden om «Vår Frues hus», nedskrevet rundt 1465 og dermed eldre enn tradisjonen om translasjonen i Loreto, antar at det på den hellige Edvard Bekjennerens tid ble bygd et kapell i Walsingham som hadde nøyaktig de samme dimensjonene som Det hellige hus i Nasaret. Da tømrerne ikke kunne gjøre det ferdig på det stedet som hadde blitt valgt, ble det flyttet og reist av englehender på et sted to hundre meter unna (se «The Month», september 1901). Kuriøst nok var dette stedet i likhet med Loreto et kort stykke fra havet, og Vår Frue av Walsingham var kjent for Erasmus som Diva Parathalassia.

Det eksisterer en mer vitenskapelig teori enn historien om huset som ble brakt til Europa med englekraft. Ifølge den pavelige arkivaren Giuseppe Lapponi kan en familie ved navn Angeli ha vært de som flyttet huset. Lapponi kom med denne konfidensielle informasjonen den 17. mai 1900 til biskop Landrieux av Dijon. Hans funn viser at familien Angeli nedstammet fra keiseren i Konstantinopel. Kronologisk er faktaene i overensstemmelse med muligheten for at denne familien i 1291 reddet steinene fra Det hellige hus fra muslimenes invasjon (Chartularium Culinanense, s 181). Angivelig sendte Niceforo Angeli i 1294 steinene til Italia som en bryllupsgave til sin datter Ithamar (eller Margherita). Ithamars bryllup med Filip of Anjou, sønn av kong Karl II av Napoli, fant sted i oktober 1294. Ankomsten av Det hellige hus dateres til 10. desember 1294. Under nylige utgravninger under Santa Casa i Loreto har det blitt funnet flere hundre mynter, hvorav to er forbundet med familien Angeli og referere til flyttingen av huset til Loreto (Kirche heute -Aufbruch der Kirche in eine neue Zeit. Monatszeitschrift fur die katholische Kirche im deutschen Sprachraum, nr 19, mai 2004).

Arkeologiske undersøkelser av Det hellige Hus på 1960-tallet gjorde det klart at byggmaterialet var kjent i Palestina, men ikke i Midt-Italia. Steinene er også bearbeidet med en teknikk som var vanlig hos nabateerne, et nabofolk til hebreerne.

Pave Klemens IX (1667-69) satte i 1667 historien om Det hellige Hus inn i Martyrologium Romanum den 10. desember under tittelen: I Loreto, i territoriet Ancona, translasjonen av Maria, Guds Mors hellige Hus, hvor Ordet ble kjød. I 1699 ble det gitt tillatelse til en egen messe og officium. Pave Benedikt XIV, som var en dyktig vitenskapsmann før han ble pave, identifiserte huset som det fra Nasaret mot dem som baktalte det. Festen for Vår Frue av Loreto feires i mange kirkeprovinser den 10. desember, innskrevet i bispedømmenes kalendere av sine biskoper. Et av de fem litaniene som er godkjent for offentlig resitasjon, er oppkalt etter henne, nemlig Det lauretanske litani.

I 1586 fikk Loreto bystatus og kirken ble elevert til en katedral. Men Loreto var eget bispedømme bare fra 1586 til 1592, da det ble slått sammen med bispedømmet Recanati. Bispedømmet Recanati-Loreto skiftet i 1934 navn til Recanati, det har siden bispedømmereformen i 1985 hett Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia. Helligdommen i Loreto ble en basilika i 1728. Den har vært bispesete igjen siden 1965, da Loreto ble opprettet som et territorialprelatur (Territorialis Praelatura ab Alma Domo Lauretana), etter å ha vært et apostolisk administratur siden 1935.

Loreto er den første helligdommen av internasjonal berømmelse som er viet til Jomfru Maria, og det har vært kjent som et mariansk senter i århundrer. Paver har alltid holdt helligdommen i Loreto høyt i akt, og den er direkte under deres autoritet og beskyttelse. En uke før Andre Vatikankonsil foretok den hellige pave Johannes XXIII (1958-63) en valfart til Loreto og Assisi, for der å be for fremgang for konsilet. Det var den første reise som en pave foretok siden den salige pave Pius IX (1846-78) påbegynte et nesten 100 års «fangenskap i Vatikanet».

Over 2.000 hellige, salige og ærverdige barn av Kirken har besøkt Det hellige hus, i tillegg til de allerede nevnte kan vi nevne de hellige Frans Xavier, Johannes Berchmans, Filip Neri, Johannes av Capestrano, Klemens Maria Hofbauer, Ludvig Maria Grignion de Montfort, Benedikt Josef Labre, Johannes Nepomuk Neumann, Johannes don Bosco, Teresa av Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe og Fransiska Xaviera Cabrini. Valfartsstedet besøkes årlig av fem millioner pilegrimer og står sammen med Assisi, Padova og San Giovanni Rotondo øverst på listen over valfartsmål i Italia.

Legenden om Det hellige hus ser ut til å ha oppstått (det er ikke helt klart hvordan) ved slutten av korsfarerperioden. Det blir kortfattet referert til legenden i Italia Illustrata av Flavius Blondus, sekretær for pavene Eugenius IV (1431-47), Nikolas V (1447-55), Callistus III (1455-58) og Pius II (1458-64), mens den kan leses i sin helhet i Redemptoris mundi Matris Ecclesiae Lauretana historia av en viss Pier Giorgio di Tolomei, kalt Teremannus, skrevet i 1465 på basis av en gammel tabula fra 1300 og medtatt i Opera Omnia (1576) av Baptista Mantuanus.

I flygningens barndom satte Flygerselskapet i Torino seg i 1912 under Vår Frue av Loretos beskyttelse. I 1915 fikk det samme selskapet under ledelse av sin president, Carlo Montù, sitt banner dekorert med et bilde av Vår Frue av Loreto. I juni 1917 prøvde den italienske Flyklubben, etter anmodning fra flere medlemmer, å få til enighet mellom alle Flyvåpenforeningene i de allierte nasjonene om å velge Vår Frue av Loreto som den eneste skytshelgenen for flyging. Etter krigen gjorde oberstløytnant Ercole Morello, administrativ sekretær for den italienske Flyklubben, et nytt forsøk og snakket med flere biskoper og kardinaler og ba dem be de kompetente kirkelige organer om å utrope Vår Frue av Loreto som skytshelgen for Flyvåpenet. I denne anmodningen var kardinal Agostino Richelmy av Torino, kardinal Amedeo Ranuzzi de' Bianchi, som hadde vært biskop av Recanati-Loreto (1903-11), and Alfonso Maria Andreoli, biskop av det samme bispedømmet (1911-23), personlig involvert. De henvendte seg til Rituskongregasjonen i Vatikanet, og kardinalprefekt Antonio Vico sendte anmodningen videre til pave Benedikt XV (1914-22). Paven innvilget anmodningen og utstedte et tilsvarende dekret den 24. mars 1920.

Gjennom et dekret fra Liturgikongregasjonen i Vatikanet (Kongregasjonen for Gudstjenesten og Sakramentsordningen), datert den 7. oktober 2019 og offentliggjort den 31. oktober 2019, ble minnedagen for Vår Frue av Loreto (Beata Maria Virgine de Loreto) innskrevet i Kirkens generalkalender den 10. desember som valgfri minnedag. Dekretet var undertegnet av kongregasjonens prefekt, kardinal Robert Sarah.

Kilder: CE, CatholicSaints.Info, santiebeati.it, en.wikipedia.org, magnificat.ca, catholicism.org, campus.udayton.edu, santuarioloreto.it - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden

Opprettet: 28. februar 2007 - Oppdatert: 31. oktober 2019

SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/des10

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

Loreto, Italy, 1894 Medal 600th Anniversary of the Holy House Re-erection. Copper medallion d. = 47 mm

Late medieval religious traditions developed suggesting that this was the house in which the Holy Family had lived while in Judea, the Nazareth house in which Mary had been born and brought up, received the Annunciation, conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and had lived during the childhood of Christ.

Virgin Mary with child, on top of the Holy House of Nazareth, being carried by by angels above the sea to Italy. Surrounding: "* VI · CENTENARIO · A · TRANSLATIONI · ALMAE · DOMUS * LAVRETANAE · MDCCCXIV *" / Around the Black Madonna with the Christ Child above the altar in the Basilica della Santa Casa at Loreto: "S · S · VIRGO LAVRENTANA O · P · N". Numista 438260

This the original Marian image was consumed by fire in 1921, and has since been replaced.

Medallist: (Stabilimento Stefano) Johnson, Milan

Beata Vergine Maria di Loreto

1894 Medal 600th Anniversary of the Holy House Re-erection at Loreto

Maria van Loreto, Italië; overbrenging van het huisje van Nazareth via Dalmatië naar Loreto; 1294.

Feest 10 december.

Wij volgen hier de weergave van Guérin. Hij op zijn beurt zegt zich te baseren op Rohrbacher ‘Vie des Saints’.

‘Introibimus in tabernaculum ejus,
adorabimus in loco ubi steterunt pedes ejus’
[= Wij zullen zijn woning binnengaan
en Hem aanbidden op de plek waar zijn voeten stonden. Psalm 132, 7 (Vulgaat)]

Dalmatië

‘Tegen het eind van de 13e eeuw verspreidde zich het plotselinge en afschuwelijke bericht dat het Heilig Land voor de christenen verloren was gegaan; het bracht diepe droefenis in de harten van de vrome gelovigen. Maar in dezelfde tijd kwam een ander, veel stiller en kalmer bericht de vrome harten verblijden, en dat doet het nog steeds: het heilig huisje van Nazareth, waar de maagd Maria het vlees geworden Woord ontving, was door engelen overgebracht naar Dalmatië, en vandaar naar Loreto in de Marken van Ancona, dichtbij Recanti. Daar bevindt het zich nog steeds.

In 1291 werden de heilige plaatsen van Palestina onder de voet gelopen. De prachtige kerk die keizerin Helena in Nazareth had laten bouwen, was vernield door de slopershamers van de Mohammedanen. Het heilig huisje dat daar stond was waarschijnlijk hetzelfde lot beschoren. Toen gaf God aan zijn engelen de opdracht het over te brengen naar de uitverkoren velden van het gelovige Dalmatië. Het was de tweede nachtwake van de 10e mei dat het heiligdom uit Nazareth werd neergezet op de oevers van Adriatische kust in een plaatsje dat in de volksmond Rauniza werd genoemd, halverwege Tersatz en Fiume. Nicolaas IV stond op dat moment aan het hoofd van de Kerk, Rudolf van Habsburg was keizer. Het stadje Tersatz werd bestuurd door Nicolaas Frangipane, een nakomeling uit het geslacht van de Aniciërs; hun gezag strekte zich uit over geheel Kroatië en Slovenië.

Het huisje

Bij zonsopgang merkten enkele inwoners verbaasd op dat er een nieuw gebouwtje stond op een plek waar nog nooit enig bouwsel had gestaan. Het gerucht hiervan ging als een lopend vuurtje door de omtrek. Van overal kwam men aanlopen, men bekeek het van alle kanten en bewonderde het geheimzinnige gebouwtje dat bestond uit kleine, rode, vierkante steentjes die bijeen gehouden werden door cement. Men verbaasde zich over de eenvoud ervan; het moest al heel oud zijn, en het zag er oosters uit. Niemand begreep hoe het overeind kon blijven, terwijl het gewoon los op de grond stond zonder enig fundament.

Maar de verbazing werd nog groter toen men binnen ging kijken. De kamer bestond uit een rechthoek. De zoldering werd bekroond met een klokje; het plafond was van hout, azuurblauw geverfd; het was in een aantal afdelingen verdeeld, hier en daar beschilderd met gouden sterretjes. De hele kamer rond zag je beneden de lambrisering halve cirkeltjes die om elkaar heen tolden en hadden zodoende veel weg van vazen in verschillende vormen. De muren waren ongeveer één el dik; ze waren ongelijk van structuur en stonden ook niet helemaal verticaal. Ze hadden een bekleding waarop de belangrijkste mysteries van deze heilige plek stonden geschilderd. Men kon bij dit geheimzinnige verblijf naar binnen door een tamelijk brede deur opzij. Het enige venstertje zat rechts. Tegenover de ingang was een altaar uit stevige, vierkante stenen; er stond een antiek Grieks kruis op met een op doek geschilderd kruisbeeld dat op hout was geplakt. Daar stond de naam van onze Heiland op te lezen: “Jezus van Nazareth, koning der Joden”.

Vlak naast het altaar was een verbazend eenvoudig, klein kastje, bestemd voor de meest noodzakelijke dingen van een arm huishouden. Er zaten wat flesjes in die moeders gebruiken om een klein kind te voeden. Links een soort schoorsteen of haard; daarboven een uitbouw die gesteund werd door sierlijke zuiltjes met cannelures en krullen en bekroond door een ronde welving die bestond uit vijf met elkaar verbonden en verweven maantjes. Daarop stond een cederhouten beeldje van de gelukzalige Maagd met het Kind Jezus op de arm. Hun gezicht was zilverkleurig geverfd maar intussen zwart geworden door de tijd en waarschijnlijk ook door de kaarsen die er eerbiedig vóór hadden gebrand. Een paarlen kroon op het hoofd van Maria benadrukte de adeldoom van haar voorhoofd. Haar haren hadden een Nazareense scheiding en golfden over haar hals en schouders. Haar lichaam ging gekleed in een gouden gewaad dat viel tot op haar voeten en bijeengehouden werd door een brede ceintuur. Een blauwe mantel bedekte haar heilige achterzijde. Allebei waren vervaardigd uit hetzelfde hout en vertoonden verfijnde plooien. Het Kind Jezus was groter dan normale kinderen; zijn gezicht straalde goddelijke majesteit uit. Het werd nog verfraaid door zijn haren die in een Nazareense scheiding op zijn voorhoofd vielen; Nazareens waren ook zijn gewaad en ceintuur; het stak zijn eerste vingers van zijn rechterhand omhoog in een zegengebaar; met zijn linker hield hij een wereldbol vast, symbool van zijn opperheerschappij over het heelal. Toen het Mariabeeld arriveerde, was het afgedekt door een rood linnen kleed dat nog steeds wordt bewaard en geen slijtage vertoont. Zo zag het huisje eruit op het moment dat het in Dalmatië aankwam.’

[Hier verwijst Guérin naar A.B.Caillou ‘Histoire critique et religieuse de Notre Dame de Lorette’ Paris, 1843]

Wonderbaarlijke genezing

‘Overal heerste verbazing. Men vroeg zich wat dit onbekende verblijf kon betekenen, door welke hand de wandversieringen waren gemaakt, en wie er in staat was geweest dit nieuwe heiligdom van het ene moment op het andere hier neer te zetten. Allemaal vragen, maar geen antwoord. Totdat plotseling temidden van de menigte de eerbiedwaardige herder van de Sint-Joriskerk opdook, bisschop Alexander; hij was afkomstig uit Modruzia. Zijn aanwezigheid ontlokte overal een kreet van verbazing. Iedereen wist dat de man doodziek was, nagenoeg zonder enige hoop op herstel. En kijk, daar stond hij, blakend van gezondheid! De ziekte was weg. Van koorts geen spoor meer.

’s Nachts had hij op zijn ziekbed een heftig verlangen in zich voelen opkomen om met eigen ogen het wonder te gaan aanschouwen waarover hij hoorde vertellen. Hij vertrouwde zich toe aan Maria wier wonderdadig beeld zo levendig was beschreven. Plotseling had de hemel zich geopend en was de allerheiligste Maagd verschenen temidden van haar omringende engelen, en met een stem zo lieflijk dat het hart erbij opsprong had zij gezegd: “Je hebt geroepen, mijn zoon. Ik ben gekomen om je te helpen en je het geheim te openbaren dat je wilt leren kennen. Weet dan dat het heilige verblijf dat zojuist naar jullie grondgebied is toegebracht, het huisje is waar ik geboren ben en opgegroeid. Daar heb ik ook op het woord van de aartsengel Gabriël door toedoen van de Heilige Geest het goddelijk kind in mijn schoot ontvangen. Daar is het woord vlees geworden. Na mijn dood hebben de apostelen het onderkomen, zo bijzonder door de diepe geheimen, gewijd; ze betwistten elkander de eer er de heilige geheimen te mogen vieren. Het altaar dat is meegekomen werd nog eigenhandig gebouwd door de apostel Petrus. Ook het kruisbeeld dat je er ziet, is destijds door de apostelen geplaatst. Mijn cederhouten afbeelding is eigenhandig gemaakt door de evangelist Lukas; hij was mij zeer toegedaan en heeft mijn trekken kunstig weergegeven zo adequaat als het voor een mens maar mogelijk is. Dit huisje - zo geliefd in de hemel, en zo lang met zorg en eerbied omringd in Galilea, maar heden ten dage beroofd van elk eerbetoon temidden van de geloofsafval - is van Nazareth naar deze streken gekomen. Laat er geen twijfel over bestaan: de bewerker van dit alles is God zelf, bij wie immers niets onmogelijk is. Dus vooruit, jij moet er getuige en verkondiger van zijn. Ontvang daarom je genezing. Het terugkrijgen van je gezondheid na zo’n lange ziekteperiode zal het geloof in dit wonder versterken.

Aldus sprak Maria. Ze verhief zich ten hemel en verdween, een heerlijke, hemelse geur in de kamer achter latend. De trouwe dienaar voelde hoe de pijn week, de koorts afnam en de krachten terugkeerden. Hij móest opstaan, zich op de knieën werpen, zijn weldoenster bedanken en naar het verheven heiligdom toe rennen om er dank te zeggen. Zo kon hij zijn erkentelijkheid tonen en bewijzen dat dit bezoek niet een of andere kinderlijke hersenschim was in een hoofd dat door pijn in de war was.

Officieel onderzoek

De heerser over die streek, Nicolaas Franfipane, was op dat moment afwezig. Hij was met Rudolf van Habsburg ten strijde getrokken. Midden in die militaire onderneming ontving hij het bericht van de wonderlijke gebeurtenissen. De vorst gaf hem toestemming het leger te verlaten om zich van de waarheid op de hoogte te stellen. De lange weg was voor hem geen bezwaar. Hij kwam hoogstpersoonlijk naar Tersatz; zonder zich te laten meeslepen door het eerste enthousiasme, liet hij zich nauwkeurig informeren. Hij was nog helemaal niet overtuigd. Hij koos zelf vier wijze en bedachtzame mannen uit. Onder hen bevonden zich, naast bisschop Alexander, Sigismond Orsich en Jan Grégoruski. Zij begaven zich naar Nazareth om een nader onderzoek in te stellen naar de omstandigheden van dit buitengewone gebeuren. Zij volvoerden hun opdracht met evenveel toeleg als wijsheid. Hun eindrapport luidde: “Het geboortehuisje van de allerheiligste Maagd bevindt zich niet meer in Nazareth, Galilea; het is los gekomen van zijn fundament; dat fundament ligt er nog steeds; er is geen verschil van materiaal tussen de stenen die op het fundament zijn achtergebleven en die waaruit het huisje is opgebouwd; de afmetingen van lengte en breedte komen precies met elkaar overeen.” Hun conclusies stonden op schrift en werden met een plechtige verklaring bekrachtigd. Zij is authentiek volgens alle eisen die de wet eraan stelt.

Geen twijfel of onzekerheid meer mogelijk. De devotie nam een snelle vlucht; mensen kwamen er van overal toe. Het leek wel of de provincies van Bosnië, Servië, Albanië en Kroatië compleet werden leeggeschud en hun inwoners uitstortten op dit door de hemel bevoorrechte stukje grond. Om gedrang onder de pelgrims te voorkomen liet Frangipane de gewijde muren volgens de smaak van daar beschermen met balken en planken; dit soort constructies waren daar heel gebruikelijk. Hij deed royale schenkingen om de schoonheid van dit eerbiedwaardige heiligdom nog te vergroten. Met als gevolg dat de roem ervan zich steeds meer verspreidde.

Vertrek uit Dalmatië

Drie en een half jaar na de aankomst in Tersatz verhief het huisje van Nazareth, gedragen door engelenhanden, zich weer in de lucht en verdween uit het zicht van de teleurgestelde bevolking. De vorst liet op diezelfde plek en op dezelfde restanten een kapelletje bouwen waar tegenwoordig nog te lezen staat: “Dit is de plaats waar ooit het allerheiligste huisje van de gelukzalige Maagd van Loretto heeft gestaan; tegenwoordig wordt het vereerd in de streek van Recanti.” Op de grond liet men in het Italiaans de tekst aanbrengen: “Het heilig huisje van de gelukzalige Maagd kwam op 10 mei 1291 naar Tersatz en vertrok weer op 10 december 1294.” De pausen verleenden meerdere privileges aan de gedachteniskapel van Tersatz. Geestelijken en kerkvolk zingen er nog altijd dit lied: “O Maria, u bent hierheen gekomen met uw huisje om als vrome Moeder van Christus genade te brengen. Nazareth was uw wieg, maar Tersatz was uw eerste halteplaats op zoek naar een nieuw vaderland. U hebt uw geheiligde verblijf naar elders overgebracht, en tegelijk bent u bij ons gebleven, o Koningin van de zachtmoedigheid. Wij prijzen ons gelukkig dat wij waardig waren uw moederlijke aanwezigheid te mogen herbergen.”

Van toen af tot in onze dagen ziet men elk jaar grote groepen Dalmatiërs de Adriatische Zee oversteken en naar Loreto komen; enerzijds bewenen zij hun verlies, anderzijds vereren zij de wieg van Maria. Telkens weer nemen zij deze plechtige woorden in de mond: “Kom naar ons terug, Maria, kom terug!” Zo kwamen er in het jaar 1559 meer dan driehonderd pelgrims uit die streek naar Loreto met brandende kaarsen; eerst hielden zij stil bij de hoofdingang waar zij zich ter aarde wierpen om de hulp van God en de Heilige Maria af te smeken. Vervolgens werden zij door de meegekomen priesters keurig in rijen op hun knieën gezet; zo gingen zij hun heiligdom binnen en riepen als uit één mond in hun eigen taal: “Kom terug, kom naar ons terug, Maria! Maria, kom terug naar Fiume!” Hun verdriet was zo heftig en hun gebed zo vurig dat degene die hiervan getuige was en deze geschiedenis heeft opgeschreven, hun het zwijgen probeerde op te leggen uit vrees – zo zei hij – dat zulke vurige gebeden verhoord zouden worden en dat de heilige kapel aan Italië ontrukt zou worden en weer zijn oude plaats zou innemen in Tersatz. De paus wenste de devotie van dit vrome volk tegemoet te komen. Hij stichtte in Loreto een gasthuis waar meerdere Dalmatische gezinnen tegelijk ondergebracht konden worden, als ze het niet over hun hart konden verkrijgen naar huis terug te keren en de Maagd van Nazareth te verlaten, en zodoende hun vaderland lieten voor wat het was en verkozen te blijven op de plek die ook Maria voor zichzelf had uitgekozen.

Overbrenging naar Loreto

Hoe verliep die nieuwe overbrenging? Hier volgt de weergave zoals die door een kluizenaar uit die tijd in een brief aan koning Charles II werd opgeschreven.

"Op zaterdag 10 december van het jaar Onzes Heren 1294, halverwege de nacht, toen alles in stilte was gehuld, drong er een hemels licht door in de ogen van meerdere bewoners van de Dalmatische kust. Een goddelijke muziekkapel wekte zelfs de diepste slapers en haalde hun uit de slaap om getuige te kunnen te zijn van een groter wonder dan welk natuurverschijnsel ook. Zij kwamen toelopen en zagen hoe een huisje, in een hemels licht gehuld en gedragen door engelenhanden, door de lucht werd vervoerd. Boeren en herders onderbraken stomverwonderd hun bezigheden bij het zien van dit groot wonder; ze vielen op hun knieën in aanbidding zo lang als het wonder duurde. Intussen werd het door engelen gedragen huisje midden in een groot bos neergezet, waarbij de bomen zich bogen alsof ook zij de Koningin des Hemels hulde wilden brengen. Tot op de dag van vandaag zie je ze nog altijd krom gebogen staan alsof zij hun vreugde te kennen willen geven. Men weet te vertellen dat er vroeger ooit op die plek een tempel heeft gestaan die aan een of andere onwaarachtige godin was toegewijd. Daar was een laurierbos omheen aangelegd. Dat zou verklaren waarom het daar nog altijd Loreto heet.

De morgen was nog maar nauwelijks aangebroken of de boeren haastten zich naar Recanti om te vertellen wat er gebeurd was. En heel de bevolking liep uit naar het Laurierbos om te gaan kijken wat er waar was van het verhaal. Onder de edelen en de gewone bevolking stonden er velen sprakeloos van verbazing; er waren er heel wat die het wonder maar amper konden geloven. De besten konden hun tranen niet bedwingen en zeiden met de profeet: ‘Wij hebben hem gevonden in het bos;’ of ook: ‘Zo heeft hij met andere volken niet gedaan!’ Zij vereerden het kleine, heilige huisje, gingen er met grote schroom naar binnen en brachten hulde aan het houten beeld van de goddelijke Maagd Maria met haar Zoon op de arm. Eenmaal terug in Recanti vervulden zij de straten met vreugdekreten. Vaak verlieten zij hun woonplaats om het heilige kapelletje te vereren. Het was een eeuwig komen en gaan van mensen die elkaar onderweg tegenkwamen.

Intussen vermeerderde de gelukzalige Maagd Maria de tekenen en wonderen. Het gerucht van dit grote wonder verspreidde zich tot in de verre omtrek, alsmede in de omliggende provincies, en allen kwamen naar het Laurierbos dat al gauw vol kwam te staan met houten gebouwtjes die als onderkomen moesten dienen voor de pelgrims. Terwijl dit alles plaats vond, wist de helse leeuw die altijd op zoek is naar wie hij kan verslinden, een paar schurken zover te krijgen vuile handen te maken door een aantal diefstallen en zelfs moorden te plegen, met als gevolg dat de devotie afnam uit vrees voor die boosdoeners.

Tweemaal verandering van plek

Na acht maanden werd het eerste wonder bekrachtigd door een tweede. Het heilige huisje verliet het vermaledijde bos en werd door engelen midden op een heuvel geplaatst die deel uitmaakte van het bezit van twee broers uit Recanti: de edelen Stefano en Simone Rainaldi de Antiquis. Gaandeweg nam de devotie van de gelovigen weer toe en het kleine heilige huisje werd verrijkt met grote giften en schenkingen. De beide adellijke broers voerden er het beheer over. Maar al gauw waren ze in de greep van de hebzucht, ze eigenden zich de schenkingen toe en dreven hun schandelijk gedrag zelfs zo ver dat ze ook elkaar het bezit van de kostbaarheden begonnen te betwisten.

Dus trok het heilige huisje vier maanden na zijn aankomst zich terug van de heuvels van de beide broers en werd door een derde wonder door engelen overgebracht naar een nieuwe plek ongeveer op één steenworp afstand: midden op de openbare weg die van Recanti naar de kust loopt. Daar zie ik het tot op de dag van vandaag en heb ik elke dag zicht op de rijke genadegaven die het schenkt aan al degenen die er naar toe komen om er te bidden.”

Intussen zagen de inwoners van Recanti met bezorgdheid aan hoe zwak de heilige muren waren. Rustend op de grond hadden ze geen fundament waarop ze konden steunen. Was het niet te vrezen dat ze van lieverlee zouden afbrokkelen en dat aldus het land van een van zijn allermooiste sieraden zou worden beroofd? Hun angst werd nog vergroot door het feit dat die plek open lag voor luchtverplaatsingen; er was vaak zulk heftig onweer alsof storm en regen wel met elkaar een samenzwering gesloten leken te hebben. Zij besloten daarom rond dit kwetsbare bouwwerk een stevige muur op te trekken die gefundeerd moest zijn op harde in vuur gebakken stenen. Ze deden nog meer. Elke dag liet God er talrijke wonderen gebeuren dankzij dit deugdzame heilige huisje. Zij riepen daarom kundige schilders om met penseel op de muren – vooral die aan de noordzijde gelegen waren – nauwkeurig alle facetten van de wonderbaarlijke geschiedenis te schilderen. Zo zou iedereen – maar vooral degenen die nergens van wisten – dit wonder kunnen verstaan en er de allerheiligste Maagd om kunnen bedanken.

Het oude huisje en de aangebrachte vernieuwingen

Voor wat er verder gebeurde volgen we het getuigenis van de historicus Pater Riéra: “De volksmond in de provincie Ancona weet te vertellen dat er een groot wonder is gebeurd. Op het moment dat de werkzaamheden klaar waren, bleken de nieuwe muren zo ver van de oude af te staan dat een kind, wanneer het die verwijding zou willen laten zien, er gemakkelijk met een kaars tussendoor kon lopen. Dat wonder bracht hevige beroering te weeg. Temeer, omdat men er zeker van was dat ze tevoren zo dicht tegen elkaar stonden dat je er zelfs geen haar tussen had kunnen krijgen. Vandaar dat de overtuiging heeft post gevat dat er niets tegen de muren van het verheven huisje van Loreto aan moet komen, omdat de heilige Maagd het zo heeft gewild: wij mogen niet denken dat haar eerbiedwaardige verblijf ook maar enige menselijke hulp nodig zou hebben om overeind te blijven. Wat hiervan de oorzaak ook mag zijn, het betreft hier een onaanvechtbaar feit. Immers tot op de dag van vandaag zijn er nog getuigen in leven die dit wonder met eigen ogen hebben aanschouwd. Ten tijde van paus Clemens VII wilde de architect van de heilige kapel, Rainero Nerucci, die sindsdien bij mij als boezemvriend is blijven wonen, op last van de paus de stenen muur afbreken die in de loop van de tijd al praktisch volkomen in verval was geraakt, om er het prachtige, huidige marmeren monument voor in de plaats te zetten. Daarbij bemerkte hij tot zijn niet geringe verbazing dat geheel tegen de wetten van de architectuur en de menselijke kunstvaardigheid in, alle stenen die niet tot de oorspronkelijke bouw hadden behoord, zich van het heilig huisje hadden verwijderd; het leek wel of ze op die manier het heiligdom eer wilden brengen. Diezelfde Rainero – en trouwens heel wat anderen ook – hebben mij verteld dat er in de loop van de tijd zoveel speelruimte tussen de stenen van die muur was ontstaan dat je er dwars doorheen het oorspronkelijke bouwwerkje kon bewonderen en kon genieten van de uitstraling die het had.”

Pausen bevorderen de devotie tot OLV van Loreto

In het begin van de 14e eeuw bouwden de inwoners van Recanti in Loreto een heiligdom waarbinnen de heilige kapel besloten lag. Er ontstond een stadje rondom. De pausen hebben er onophoudelijk geestelijke en materiële privileges aan verleend. In 1464 schonk paus Pius II aan Onze Lieve Vrouw van Loreto een gouden kelk om genezing van ziekte verkrijgen; wat hem inderdaad gegeven werd. In datzelfde jaar liet zijn opvolger Paulus II een nieuwe basiliek bouwen rond de heilige kapel. In een bul van 15 oktober zei hij: ‘Men hoeft er niet aan te twijfelen dat God op voorspraak van de allerheiligste Maagd en moeder van zijn goddelijke Zoon, elke dag opnieuw de gelovigen verhoort die Hem hun bijzondere dank betuigen; en dat de kerken die aan haar zijn toegewijd met de grootste devotie moeten worden bejegend. En in het bijzonder dan die kerken waar de Allerhoogste op voorspraak van de verheven Maagd Maria des te vaker en des te groter wonderwerken verricht. Het is duidelijk dat de kerk van Onze Lieve Vrouw te Loreto in het bisdom Recanti op basis van de grote, ongehoorde en herhaalde wonderen die er door toedoen van de Heilige Maagd gebeuren en die wijzelf aan den lijve hebben ondervonden, mensen aantrekt uit alle hoeken van de wereld.’

Sixtus IV

De opvolger van Paulus II, Sixtus IV, verklaarde dat Loreto voortaan deel uitmaakte van de Kerkelijke Staat. Alle mensen die er te werk waren gesteld, vielen onmiddellijk onder hem en waren ontheven aan elke andere jurisdictie. De paus benoemt steeds twee bekwame onderdanen: de een krijgt de naam van vicaris: hij zorgt voor het geestelijk welzijn; de andere wordt gouverneur: hij draagt zorg voor alle materiële voorzieningen. De vicaris stelt acht kapelaans aan die aan de residentie verbonden zijn en die elke dag een plechtige, gezongen votiefmis moeten opdragen. De biechtvaders hebben naast de reeds verleende volmacht om zonden te vergeven ook het recht iemand van geloften te ontslaan of liever ze om te zetten in goede werken of de nodige bijdragen aan het onderhoud van de kapel. De Karmelieten die al tot taak hadden in Palestina de heilige plaatsen te beheren, werden geroepen om de zorg op zich te nemen voor de kamer van de Moeder Gods.

Leo X

Leo X hernieuwde alle privileges die in het verleden waren verleend en voegde er nog in overvloed nieuwe aan toe. Er werd een collegiale kerk gesticht waar twaalf kanunniken, twaalf vaste priesters en zes koorzangers aan verbonden werden. De aflaten die behoorden bij de apostolische staties in Rome, werden uitgebreid naar het heiligdom in Loreto waar men door het bezoek aan één kerk meer verdiensten opbouwde dan door een bezoek aan een aantal kerken in de hoofdstad van de christelijke wereld. De herfstmarkten van Ancona, Pisaurië en andere plekken werden opgeheven om des te meer gewicht te geven aan die van Recanti die gehouden werd tegen Kerstmis. Je zag er niet alleen katholieken, maar ook Grieken en Armeniërs, die hoewel schismatiek, uit devotie tot Maria in gesprek gingen met de gelovige kinderen van de katholieke Kerk. De gelofte tot het doen van een pelgrimsreis naar Loreto werd voorbehouden aan de paus, juist zoals in het geval van een bezoek aan de apostelgraven of het graf van Jezus Christus. De beeldhouwer Sansovino kreeg de opdracht het kostbare heiligdom rondom te voorzien van een magnifiek beeldhouwwerk vervaardigd uit wit marmer van Carrara. De door de paus benoemde gouverneur kreeg het voorrecht in pontificale kledij de mis op te dragen en de mensen de bisschoppelijke zegen te geven. Er werden orders uitgevaardigd om het kasteel te versterken en om boulevards, fortificaties en grachten aan te leggen, dit alles verdedigd door flinke stukken artillerie; aldus zorgde men ervoor dat de het heiligdom werd beschermd tegen onverwachte aanvallen.

Clemens VII

Clemens VII voerde het fantastische plan uit van zijn aanverwante voorganger Leo X: het plan om de eenvoudige muren van het heilig huisje aan de buitenkant te voorzien van schitterende decoraties bestaande uit beeldhouwwerk in wit marmer. Daartoe deed hij een beroep op de beroemdste kunstenaars die met elkaar in talent en vindingrijkheid moesten wedijveren om zo’n edel werk tot voltooiing te brengen. Tot hoofdarchitect die zoweel op de kerk als op de gaanderij toezicht moest houden, benoemde hij de fameuze Nerucci. Het marmerwerk had al de juiste maat en de versieringen stonden klaar om aangebracht te worden. Nerucci liet de oude muren neerhalen die – zoals gezegd – op enige afstand om de kwetsbare muren van het wonderdadige kamertje heen stonden. Zo stond het enige dagen in al zijn eenvoud bloot aan de gretige blikken van de devote en nieuwsgierige bevolking. Ieder kon zien dat het op de kale grond stond zonder fundamenten. Eronder was korrelige aarde, zoals op wegen waar veel verkeer overheen gaat. Je kon zelfs nog een doornstruik zien waar de heilige last van het huisje door engelen boven op was gezet. Alles sprak van iets dat toegankelijk was voor iedereen, geheel in overeenstemming met de traditie. Maar nu moest er begonnen worden aan graafwerk om fundament te geven aan de marmeren kostbaarheden. Het was voor iedereen zonneklaar dat het heilig muurwerk op zulk oneffen en korrelig terrein was geplaatst met alle voorlopigheid van dien. In zijn officiële rapportage aan paus Clemens VII maakt Girolamo Angelita melding van al deze wonderbaarlijke omstandigheden. Er kan dus geen twijfel over bestaan.

De fundamenten staken al boven de grond uit, toen bekend werd dat de plannen zoals ze waren onderbroken door Leo X, maar weer goedgekeurd door Clemens VII met zich meebrachten dat de enige deur van het huisje zou worden dicht gemetseld, en dat er drie voor in de plaats kwamen die op het plein uit zouden komen; daarmee wilde men de ongelukken vermijden die nu steeds gebeurden omdat er te weinig plaats was voor de vrome pelgrims die elkaar herhaaldelijk verdrongen. Toen dit nieuws bekend werd, ontstond er hevige consternatie onder de bevolking. Plotseling dreigde overal opstand. Wie had het lef om met een brutale hamer muren geweld aan te doen die door de eeuwen met respect waren behandeld? Toch stond de paus erop. Het ging om het algemeen belang. En om de schoonheid van de ingreep. De architect Nerucci hief dus moedig de hand om de eerste slag toe te brengen. Maar op datzelfde moment verbleekte hij, begon te trillen, voelde zijn krachten wegvloeien, en viel bewusteloos op de grond. Men bracht hem over naar zijn huis; zijn toestand was kritiek; hij leek in acuut levensgevaar. Toen zijn vrome echtgenote hem in die toestand zag, viel ze wanhopig Maria te voet en riep de voorspraak in van de beschermheilige van Loreto. Haar gebeden werden verhoord; de toestand van algehele zwakte verdween en de onfortuinlijke architect kon gelukkig weer terug naar zijn familie en aan het werk.

Intussen had men de paus van dit wonderlijke gebeuren op de hoogte gebracht; men vroeg zijn raad in deze delicate affaire. Hij antwoordde aldus: “Wees niet bang om de muren van het verheven heiligdom te doorbreken en er deuren in te maken: aldus bepaalt Clemens VII.” Hoe uitdrukkelijk deze bepaling ook was, nog wel voorzien van alle gezag van de Heilige Stoel, toch was het niet voldoende om de vrees bij architect Nerucci weg te nemen en te gehoorzamen. Tevergeefs probeerde men hem aan te sporen en over te halen. Alle pogingen strandden. Enerzijds voerde het bevel van de paus de druk op om aan het werk te gaan, anderzijds werd het belemmerd door de verbijstering van de bevolking. Ineens verscheen er een man die zich aanbood het gevaarlijke werk aan te pakken. Hij behoorde tot de lagere geestelijkheid en zong mee in het koor van het heiligdom. Hij heette Ventura Perini. Om te beginnen nam hij drie dagen om zich met intensief gebed en strenge vasten voor te bereiden op de onderneming. Tegen de avond van de derde dag begaf hij zich, omstuwd door een dichte drom van ontelbare mensen, naar de heilige plaats. Hij maakt een kniebuiging, kuste en kuste wel duizend keer de heilige muur en pakte een hamer. Maar voor hij toesloeg, richtte hij zich, reeds met de arm geheven, tot Maria en sprak vertrouwvol: “Vergeef mij, heilig huisje van de allerzuiverste Maagd. Niet ik ben het die een gat in u gaat maken, het is Clemens, de plaatsbekleder van Jezus Christus, in zijn verlangen u mooier te maken. Sta het hem toe, Maria, en kom tegemoet aan zijn hartsverlangen.” Daarop bracht hij een eerste slag toe, gevolgd door nog een aantal, en hij ondervond er geen enkel probleem bij. Andere werklieden vatten moed en volgden hem na in zijn werk evenzeer als in zijn devotie. De deuropeningen werden zichtbaar; de stenen werden eerbiedig opzij gelegd en hergebruikt bij het dichtmetselen van de enige deuropening die tot dan toe toegang had gegeven tot het kostbare heiligdom. De balk die dienst had gedaan als architraaf werd bewaard in het metselwerk als een monumentale herinnering aan de oude situatie en de vernieuwing met zijn prachtige beeldhouwwerk kwam tot voltooiing.

Sixtus V

In 1585 werd Sixtus V paus. Hij sprak: “Overwegende dat de stad Loreto over de hele wereld beroemd is geworden en dat zij binnen haar muren een belangwekkende collegiale kerk herbergt die is toegewijd aan de gelukzalige maagd Maria; en overwegende hoe eerbiedwaardig deze kerk is, waarin het verheven huisje staat, dat is geheiligd door goddelijke geheimen, omdat de zuiverste Maagd daar is geboren en begroet door de engel en omdat zij daar van de Heilige Geest de Verlosser van de wereld heeft ontvangen; en overwegende dat dit huisje naar hier is overgebracht door dienstvaardige engelen, en dat er elke dag wonderen gebeuren op voorspraak en door de verdiensten van de heilige patrones, en dat de gelovige dienaren van Jezus Christus er elke dag in grote drommen van over de hele wereld in vrome bedevaart naar toe komen, verheffen wij het plaatsje Loreto tot de rang van stad, en maken wij de kerk tot kathedraal door er een bisdom te vestigen.”

Clemens VIII

Clemens VIII werd paus in 1592. Hij ondernam hoogstpersoonlijk een bedevaart naar Loreto en verbood dat er een andere litanie gezongen zou worden dan degene die nu gebruikelijk is in de Kerk, en die men doorgaans de Litanie van Loreto noemt. Het was immers in deze kerk dat ze voor het eerst werd gezonden, opgesteld door kardinaal Savelli aan wie ze doorgaans word toegeschreven. Hij liet ze in 1483 op een zilveren blad ingraveren. Onderaan staat te lezen: “Paul Savelli, vorst van Albano en keizerlijk afgezant.”

Clemens IX en Innocentius XII

Clemens IX werd paus in 1667. Na een uiterst zorgvuldig onderzoek door de Congregatie van de Riten bepaalde hij middels een plechtig decreet dat de geschiedenis van het indrukwekkende Loretowonder met de volgende opmerkelijke woorden zou worden opgenomen in het Romeins Martelarenboek: “Te Loreto, in het streek van Ancona, het overbrengen van het heilig huis van de Moeder Gods Maria waarin het woord is vlees geworden.” In 1691 ontwierp Innocentius XII een officie en een speciaal misformulier, en voegde in het Romeins brevier na de zesde lezing de geschiedenis van het wonder toe.

Benedictus XIV

Voor zijn verheffing tot de Heilige Stoel had Benedictus XIV zich al een even geleerd als toegewijd verdediger van het heilige huisje betoond. Hij had zich op voortreffelijke wijze vereenzelvigd met de identiteit van het nederige en bescheiden verblijf uit Nazareth tegen de kritiek van de protestant Casaubon en andere bestrijders van de waarheid. We hoeven ons er dan ook niet over te verbazen dat hij alle privileges en voorrechten van zijn voorgangers bevestigde. Daarnaast werkte hij aan de verfraaiing van het verheven heiligdom door een stevige klokkentoren te bouwen en een mooi terras aan te leggen voor het apostolisch paleis.

Maar tijdens zijn regering heeft deze paus verder geen noemenswaardige dingen ondernomen voor Loreto, behalve dan dat de vloer van de heilige kapel opnieuw is betegeld, en die welke het gevolg waren van een onderzoek dat was ingesteld. Dat was in 1751. Giovanni-Battista Stella uit Bologna stond aan het hoofd van de stad. Op het moment dat hij de werkzaamheden wilde starten, leek het hem toch goed – en terecht – zich te omringen met enkele respectabele medewerkers. Zo vroeg hij monseigneur Alexander Borgia om hulp; daarnaast nodigde hij nog vier andere bisschoppen uit: die van Iesi, Ascoli, Macerata en Loreto. Hij vertrouwde het werk toe aan een architect en vier metselaars. Daar werden nog drie architecten uit den vreemde aan toegevoegd; zij waren juist in de stad om het heiligdom te bezoeken. Allen waren erbij toen het graafwerk begon. Al gauw had men de basis van de heilige muren bereikt: ze staken minder dan een voet de grond in. De architect en de meestermetselaars die het eerst in het gat waren afgedaald haalden droge aarde, vermengd met kleine vergruizelde steentjes naar boven, precies zoals je ze vindt op plat getreden paden en openbare wegen.

Intussen wilde een van de kundigste architecten met alle geweld doorgraven om te zien op welke diepte zich eigenlijk de vaste grond begon waarop men gewoonlijk de fundamenten aanbracht wilde men stevig bouwen. Hij was aan één kant al zo diep gegaan dat hij er helemaal in verdween. Op dat moment begon de bewaker Saviero Monti doodsbenauwd te worden: “De muur van het heiligdom is zo dun! Gaat dat niet instorten? Of misschien hier en daar verzakken?” Tevergeefs sprak hij zijn ongerustheid uit. De nieuwsgierige architect bleef doorgaan met zoeken. De grondwerkers waren al op een diepte van zo’n acht of negen voet gekomen, toen er plotseling een kreet weerklonk: “De vaste grond! De vaste grond!” Hij verzamelde een handvol en eenmaal weer boven, toonde hij het enthousiast aan de aanwezigen. Die keerden zich in tot een zegenbede aan God wiens hand tegen alle regels van de architectuur in al sinds eeuwen ondanks aardschokken en andere trillingen het nederige en bescheiden huisje van Maria ondersteunt.

Laatste beschrijving van het huisje

Het huisje is niet - zoals sommigen denken – opgetrokken uit baksteen, maar het bestaat uit lichtelijk bewerkte, roodkleurige, enigszins poreuze natuurstenen waar omheen de geur van oudheid hangt. Het is gebouwd met materiaal dat in Italië niet voorkomt, maar in Nazareth heel gewoon is. Alle voorwerpen komen uit de antieke tijd en hebben een enigszins oosters, en zeker geen westers karakter. De afmetingen komen exact overeen met de in Nazareth achtergebleven fundamenten. Dat het blijft staan, temidden van veel steviger gebouwen die alweer vergaan zijn, is op zich een wonder, want het is zomaar zonder fundament op de grond neergezet. Het heeft altijd iets onaantastbaars gehad; nooit heeft men straffeloos er ook maar een piepklein stukje van kunnen afhalen. Het huisje van Loreto is dus geen gewoon bouwwerk. Het is een ruimte die heel speciaal de almachtige bescherming van Gods hand geniet. Het is dus ook niet in vroeger tijden in Italië opgebouwd, maar van overzee aangevoerd. Het is wel degelijk het kamertje waarvan de resterende fundamenten in Galilea gebleven zijn, het kamertje dus van Maria, het kamertje waar zich de verhevenste van onze geloofsgeheimen hebben afgespeeld.

Om voor altijd de herinnering van het wonder van de overbrenging van het heilig huisje van de Maagd Maria levend te houden, gaf Clemens VII (1378-1394) toestemming dat feest in de basiliek van Loreto te vieren. Urbanus VIII (1623-1644) breidde dit feest uit over alle kerken van de Mark Ancona. Innocentius XII (1691-1700) gaf zijn goedkeuring aan een eigen formulier voor dit feest. In 1724 breidde Benedictus XIII het uit over de gehele kerkelijke staat. Het is ook populair in Frankrijk; er zijn al heel wat bisschoppen die het hebben bijgeschreven op het feesteigen van hun bisdom.’

Bronnen

[Gué.1880/14p:169-178; Dries van den Akker s.j./2008.12.10]

SOURCE : https://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/12/10/12-10-1294-maria.php