Chapter II
The House Brought by Angels How did the Holy House arrive in Loreto? In recent decades, some began to argue that the stones (mind you, the stones and not the walls, as has been always understood) of the Nazareth house were brought to Italy by men. Today, many have practically degraded the Angelic Translation of the Holy House on the Loreto hill to a pious legend. This operation is part of the process of continuous minimization of miraculous events, intended to make the Church “in sync” with the times, to become more credible in the eyes of the world. In reality, however, this attitude undermines people’s faith. As we will see in a moment, the “modern” version of the Loreto question is more than doubtful. Notwithstanding the fact that it is not a dogma of faith, Pope Saint John Paul II sent an Apostolic Letter to celebrate the 7th Centenary of Loreto, in which he expressed the desire to allow “historical research full freedom to investigate the origin of the Sanctuary and Loreto tradition.” It is precisely this freedom that entitles us to continue to think that the tradi-
