18 MAR - OUR MOTHER OF LORETO

 The Church of Loreto has been adorned by the Popes, 

    who have often come here on a pilgrimage like the common faithful. The miraculous statue of the Madonna is thirty-three inches high; 

    it is carved in cedar wood, covered with magnificent drapery, and placed on an altar glittering with precious stones. 

    The place which it occupies is covered with plates of gold. 

    The beautiful litany of Our Mother of Loreto was the votive offering with which a celebrated Florentine composer Barroni, repaid a miracle of the Blessed Virgin. 

    This composer was all at once lost his hearing; after having exhausted the succor of art without success, 

    he invoked Mary and set out on a pilgrimage to Our Mother of Loreto. There he was cured and in his gratitude to the Holy Madonna, 

    he composed a chorus and performed for the first time in 1737. The front area of the Church was constructed during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V in 1586, 

    and it was he who founded the order of Knights of Loreto who were a company of knights especially devoted to defend the shores of the Italian Mediterranean 

    against the intruders.




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