Holy House of Nazareth - Dec. 10th

 

 Today, we are celebrating the miraculous transfer of the Holy House from Nazareth to Loreto, Italy. The reason why the feast is celebrated today is because the holy house disappeared on Dec. 10^th, 1294, from Tersatto and landed in various places in Italy.

The house of Nazareth was the home where Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived. After Herod died, the Holy Family returned from Egypt to Nazareth where they lived and worked in this little house. In this the Annunciation occurred, where through the annunciation of the angel Gabriel and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary.

Popes and saints attribute the flying house transfer to the action of angels due to the invasion of Muslims in the Holy Land. It seems God wanted the house to be protected. The house literally flew in the air to various places until it landed in Loreto.

Here is what happened. On May 9, 1291, the Holy House was still in Nazareth. However, on the night of May 9 to 10, 1291, it traveled nearly 2,000 miles and reached Tersatto (now Trsat), in the region of Dalmatia, in what is now a suburb of Rijeka, Croatia. On that occasion, Nicolò Frangipane, a feudal lord of Tersatto, personally sent a delegation to Nazareth to ascertain whether the Holy House had indeed disappeared from its original place. The emissaries not only verified its disappearance but found the foundation the house was built and from which the walls had been taken away as a block.

Three years later, on the night of December 9 to 10, 1294, the Holy House disappeared from Tersatto and landed “in various places” in Italy. For nine months it stayed on a hillside overlooking the port of Ancona, and came to be called Posatora. A church was built on the site as a memorial.

In 1295, after nine months in Posatora, the Holy House was transported by angels to a forest that belonged to a woman called Loreta, near the town of Recanati. That is where the name Loreto comes from.

Between 1295 and 1296, after spending eight months in this location the Holy House was miraculously transported to a farm on Mount Prodo belonging to two brothers of the Antici family. In 1296, after four months at this farm, the Holy House departed and landed on a public road on Mount Prodo connecting Recanati to Ancona, where it remains to this day.

Back in Nazereth, around the foundations where the house was originally located, the Basilica of the Annunciation was built. Inside the Basilica it can be plainly seen how the foundation remains, yet the building is gone.

Archeological studies all indicate the house came from the Holy Land. The stones and bricks are kept together with a mortar whose physical and chemical composition is found only in Palestine and precisely in the region of Nazareth. Today in Loreto, the Holy House stands firmly, without its foundation, directly on the ground. In another words, the house was literally moved and reset on the ground it is currently located.

Moreover, if the house was dismantled and rebuilt in place after place along its journey—one cannot understand how it could possibly have maintained the exact geometric proportions of the Nazareth house, whose foundations, to this day, match perfectly the walls of Loreto. The fact the Holy House finally came to rest across an old dirt highway can be seen by the way the house landed, its three walls, with no foundation, are supported partly on ground and partly over open air.

Various bishops of the region approved the veneration of the miraculous translations. For centuries the Popes renewed the approvals until Urban VIII, in 1624, definitively established December 10 as the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House of Mary, Mother of God. And a few months ago, Pope Francis created the optional memorial of Our Lady of Loreto, which we are now celebrating today.

It’s believed the Litany of Loreto was created in the late 1500’s. And shortly after the litany was composed it was in danger of being forgotten forever, as the pope at the time did not especially like it. However, the priests of the shrine preserved it and it was sung every Saturday in Loreto. People who came on pilgrimage to Loreto, took it to their parishes. By the 17th century the litany became popular in the city of Rome and was sung frequently at the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Ever since, it has remained one of the most popular litanies of the Church. So at the end of Mass today, we will pray the Litany of Loreto.

O loving and merciful Savior, you saved and protected the Holy House you were conceived by the Holy Spirit. It is the house You grew up. It is the house St. Joseph worked and died. It’s the house, the Virgin Mary kept clean and cooked. It is the house your learned the trade of a carpenter.

O Holy Family, come into our home and help our families to be families of love, sacrifice and prayer in imitation of your family. By the action of angels, transport your love upon the foundation of our homes. Amen.