Birth of the Virgin. Detail of the polyptych of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary. Vittore Crivelli, 1485-1489. “Vittore Crivelli” Civic Art Gallery of Sant’Elpidio a Mare (FM).
Chapter III
Where Was Our Lady Born? Let us now concentrate on another striking event that took place in the Holy House, in addition to the fundamental one, the Annunciation. Is the home of Nazareth, now in Loreto, also the place where Our Lady was born? Indeed, September 8, Feast of the Nativity of Mary Most Holy, is solemnly celebrated in the sanctuary. Several Pontiffs (for example, Popes Julius II in 1507, Pius IV in 1560, Sixtus V in 1586, and Clement VIII, in 1595), and the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in 1916, granted special indulgences and privileges for that day and confirmed in writing that the dawn of Redemption, the birth of the Mother of God, arose among those three holy walls. Some popes, including Blessed Pius IX, went so far as to write that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary also took place there (Bull Inter omnia, 1852).
