The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto : Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World / Karin Vélez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vélez, Karin, author.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Loreto (Italy)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Loreto (Italy).

Europe.

Italy--Loreto.

Catholic Church--Europe--History.

Catholic Church.

Santa Casa (Loreto, Italy).

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Shrines--Italy--Loreto.

Mary.

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Apparitions and miracles.

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (294 pages)

Edition:

Hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.In this book, Karin Vélez calls that interpretation into question by examining historical accounts of the movement of the Holy House across the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century and the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. These records indicate vast and voluntary involvement in the project of formulating a branch of Catholic devotion. Vélez surveys the efforts of European Jesuits, Slavic migrants, and indigenous peoples in Baja California, Canada, and Peru. These individuals contributed to the expansion of Catholicism by acting as unofficial authors, inadvertent pilgrims, unlicensed architects, unacknowledged artists, and unsolicited cataloguers of Loreto. Their participation in portaging Mary's house challenges traditional views of Christianity as a prepackaged European export, and instead suggests that Christianity is the cumulative product of thousands of self-appointed editors. Vélez also demonstrates how miracle narratives can be treated seriously as historical sources that preserve traces of real events.Drawing on rich archival materials, The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto illustrates how global Catholicism proliferated through independent initiatives of untrained laymen.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part I. First Landings

CHAPTER 1. Introduction

CHAPTER 2. Deconstructing a Miracle

Part II. Approaching Loreto

CHAPTER 3. First Authors

CHAPTER 4. Accidental Pilgrims

Part III. Leaving Loreto

CHAPTER 5. Holy House Builders

CHAPTER 6. Anonymous Renovators of Icons

CHAPTER 7. Counters, Namers, and Processers

Part IV.New Departures

CHAPTER 8. Reconstructing Catholic Expansion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691184494

0691184496

OCLC:

1080551721