TABERNACLE OF STONE THAT SHELTERED THE SAVIOR

The childhood home of the Blessed Virgin Mary later became the haven where she and Joseph raised Jesus. This is the abode where St Joseph had authority over the Christ Child, where the Holy Family ate, slept and prayed. Every nook and cranny was blessed by the presence of the Christ Child, His Blessed Mother and St Joseph. Ah, if those walls could speak! They would tell of the time the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of God and of the Incarnation when she conceived Jesus. Mary's womb was Jesus's first tabernacle, but pregnant Mary was protected from the elements by this hallowed house.

This was Jesus's refuge on earth; the tabernacle of stones and wood that sheltered His Divine Flesh. Mary's house was in Nazareth for 13 centuries - this is another case of the number 13 having high significance for her. Then in 1291, the house was moved! There was an urgent need to transport it miraculously to safety; lest it be reduced to rubble in an act of sacrilegious destruction.The air-freight carriers were 7 angels. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was afforded frequent visions of the transportation of the Holy House, "I saw the Holy house borne over the sea by 7 angels. It had no foundation, but there was under it a shining surface of light...3 angels carried it on one side and 3 on the other; the 7th hovered in front of it, a long train of light after him." I submit that the league of 7 angels may have been the Archangels with St Michael leading the voyage. 

3 years after it was moved, Nazareth was sacked by invading Mamluks. 

First the house arrived in modern-day Croatia, where it stayed for 3 years, but it blessed the country in a special way during that time. Then on December 10th, 1294, the house vanished and was taken by angels across the Adriatic Sea and it landed in Piceno, Italy. It was on land owned by two brothers who fought over who owned the house; but it was not their sacred shelter to argue over; and it took flight again, until it was found in nearby Loreto. I read in Father Calloway's Consecration to St Joseph that, "in 1296, one year after the Holy House arrived in Loreto, the Church appointed 16 envoys to investigate everything. The envoys visited Loreto, Croatia and Nazareth." Their approach was forensic and they took measurements of the dents left in the ground by the house in the 3 different countries - in all 3 sites - the measurements were exactly the same! 

England's St John Henry Newman totally believed that the Holy House of Loreto was moved by angels to Italy and he pronounced, "I feel no difficulty in believing it." The house has been the site of miracles and a place where people receive the gift of Faith. St Alphonsus Liguori said he left his heart there. Blessed Anthony Grassi was in prayer at the house when he was miraculously cured of a chronic and agonizing problem in his digestion. 

December 10th is the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House. It was instituted as a Feast day by Pope Benedict XV, and previously Pope Benedict XIV said of it, "The Holy House of Loreto is the dwelling in which the divine Word assumed human flesh, and which was translated by the ministry of angels." He was one of 50 Popes who upheld that the house was carried and flown by angels from the Holy Land to Loreto. 

I agree with other writers that the house is an awesome relic of the Almighty, but it is more, this is our hallowed inheritance, the Lord has bequeathed His home to us. 

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This post was informed by Father Donald Calloway's Consecration to St Joseph. There is also an amazing pilgrimage to Italy planned for September 2023 with a stop at Loreto so the pilgrims may venerate the Holy House of Loreto and be within the Tabernacle of the Lord; their inheritance from Him.

Murillo's painting of The Holy Family accompanies this post.