Sainte Maison de Lorette
In 1586 Magauran left Spain for Rome. On entering Italy he first went on a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine at Loreto, Marche on foot to fulfill a double vow he made when saved from capture at sea. Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site and it was the foremost Marian Shrine in Europe at that time. The reason Bishop Magauran gave for this pilgrimage to Loreto was that his escape from Drake's search happened on the eve of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had warned one of his companions in a dream. Magauran spent three days at Loreto and left the above account of his adventures in the shrine. He reached Rome before 25 April 1586 as on that date we find him acting as one of the principal co-consecrators of Maol Muire Ó hÚigínn, the new Archbishop of Tuam. Following this visit to Rome he returned to Spain to continue his efforts to extract help with the Counter-Reformation movement in Ireland from King Philip II of Spain. The King selected Magauran to perform the consecration ceremony for the new basilica at El Escorial on 10 August 1586 so he must have been held in high regard. In Spain he associated with the Geraldine exiles from Lisbon such as Maurice Fitzgerald, Edmund Eustace, Charles O'Conor-Faly, and Bishop Cornelius O'Mulrian of Killaloe.