The miraculous flying house of Loreto

In 1295, a house fell from the evening sky onto an Italian coastal road by the Adriatic Sea.

Inside, awestruck locals encountered the Virgin Mary, who explained that this humble mud-brick structure was her original residence newly arrived from Nazareth.

To keep it from the hands of Muslim invaders, angels had flown it to Loreto, stopping three times along the way.

This story of the house of Loreto has been read as an allegory of how Catholicism spread peacefully around the world by dropping miraculously from the heavens.

The author calls that interpretation into question by examining historical accounts of the movement of the Holy House across the Mediterranean in the 13th century and the Atlantic in the 17th century.

These records indicate vast and voluntary involvement in the project of formulating a branch of Catholic devotion.