St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-17
:1RET'T0:

of brick, the inference being that as
brick buildings were unknown at NaZa-
reth this could not be the house of
Joseph and Mary. 1t does not require
an expert to see that the holy house is
built Of stone, and analysis goes to show
that the stone is not of the neighbour
hood of Loretto, but that its chemical
composition is identical with the lime
sto ne of Nazareth.
AUTHENTICITY.
The arguments in favor of the au-
thenticity of the holy house are neither
few nor overwhelming. The reason
from the nature of the stone is only con-
elusive in answering the objection that
the house was of brick, bnt it is far from
being conclusive in establishing that
the house of Loretto is the real house
where Christ spent his childhood and
Mary lavished her love upon hiE:.
One of the most ancient writer's who
speak of the Santa Casa is Flavius
Blondus, author of "Italia Illustrate"
He was born in 1888. He refers to this
shrine as being n of great celebrity,
and describes the %migratlons of the holy
house almost in the manner already
mentioned. But celebrity does not rise
in a day. We must allow some time
for its growth. And thus we are brought
within the compass of the time when
the legend says the holy house was laid
at Loretto. There IS another quasi
contemporary witness. The bishop of
Macerata. a town near Loretto, pub
lished a book on the famous shrine
t~hlrty-fve years after the holy house is
said to have been carried through the
air. h whole account is contained
In a book on Loretto by Martorelli.
preserved in the library of the British
museum. The following words are an
abstract from this time-honored tome:
~ divine sanctuary, where so many
prayers of the Son of God were sent up
TO His Heavenly Father; where so MANY
tears OF compassion flowed from the
eyes OF the Son and of the Mother for
the salvation of Sinners"
Benedict XII. is said to have granted
certain spiritual privileges to the aged
and infirm of a n~eighborfng town. be-
cause they could not visit Loretto. This
was in the year 1871. Pope Paul III.
issued W bulls in which he speaks of
testimonies most worthy of credit"
regarding the authenticity of the holy
house. The late Plus the Ninth was a
firm believer in it; many authors
nave pronounced in its favor; and
Iorselllni, one of its more enthusiastic
historians, says: UNLESS a man is
willing to destroy all confidence in
human testimony he cannot doubt an
event supported by such a weight of
evidence" To this day no irreverent
| n4n0 nlrn fAnnh fhn rnorOI GALL -,
many examples are mentioned of per-
sons having been punished by heaven
because they presumed to take away a
relic OF the holy house. AS a matter of
historical interest, it may be mentioned
that the foundations of what is known
as the "house of Joseph in Nazareth
were explored by the Franciscans in the
seventeenth century, and these give
evidence that those foundations CORE
spond exactly with the dimensions of
the holy house at Loretto.
The existence of the house at Nazareth
be traced with historical certainty
almost up to the date of its supposed
removal. Phocas, a Greek writer who
it. So does st. Louis of France, who
went there seventy years later.
NOT OBLIGATORY
No one, be his Catholicity ever so
ultramontane, is obliged to accent the
egend of the holy house at Loretto as
authentic. Christianity does not stand
or fall with shrines, statues, medals and
such like. Christianity is really Christie
centric. Ii IS based upon a divine
Christ.and whether shrines are founded
upon fact or fiction is not a vital ques
ton for the religion of the Nazarene.
The presumption Is always against
| fhn mIronnlnnc Tf ic mot N o,ac4yo- -.
to whether God could or could not send
his angels to move the holy house from
Nazareth of Galilee to Loretto of An
coma. 1t is only an Ingersoll who can
consistently deny power to Providence
of doing all things which are of
their own nature impossible. The cues
ton here is one of fact. Did God actu-
ally send his angels to do the work men,
toned? The fact of four removals
makes an uDfavorable impression on
the mind; the absence of all contem-
poraneous evidence establishes a pre-
sumption against the legend; the weight
ed is not so heavy as to make
conviction irresistible. But even
if the legend be not authentic,
that soul must be cold indeed which
cannot see its singular beauty of con-
ception. Messengers from an unseen
world are sent by the Son of God to save
from dissertation the house of Gods
own mother. And If they saw the
whole earth with angelic vision 1t were
hard indeed to find a spot on the foot
stool more famed for scenic beauty than
the one selected. The hill of laurels
itself, the smiling fields and verdant
valleys of the Italian marshes, the
heaven-piercing Apprentices and the
b%lue-green waters of the Adriatic pre-
sent a picture so strikingly picturesque
that even the most shriveled soul must
expand in alteration. Whatever may be
said of the insuticieucy of the
evidence, n cannot dispose of this
beautiful legion in Elsmereian fashion
which would say that miracles-or
rather the supposition of them-were
wholly natural in such a century when
one has the key to that age. For the
country cannot have been very barbar-
Gus nor tie age very obscure which
gave to the world such lights as Thomas
Aquinas and Dante Alighieri. Aqul-
mas had already gone to heaven to re-
ceive his reward for having written so
| we'll Of the founder Of Christianity, and