Loreto

Centre of Catholic pilgrimage in the Marche, Italy, near Ancona. The town, perched on the end of a ridge overlooking the Adriatic, is dominated by an immense basilica which houses, we are reliably informed, the home of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was miraculously transported over from the Holy Land when threatened by destruction by the Turks in 1291, following a brief stopover in Dalmatia; to the best of the noder and his household's knowledge, this is the only religious shrine in existence that features a flying house.

The rest of the town consists of shops selling objects of petty piety, along the lines of illuminated statuettes of the Madonna and postcards with pictures of Jesus with eyes which open and close when you tilt the card. Heathens with literary inclinations may well be tempted to pass on rapidly to nearby Recanati, birthplace of the gloomy poet Leopardi; the nekulturny may prefer the beaches of the Riviera del Conero.

Also (or rather, consequently) the name of a large number of Catholic schools around the world.

Lo*ret"o (?), or Lo*ret"to (?), nuns . [From Loreto, a city in Italy famous for its Holy House, said to be that in which Jesus lived, brought by angels from Nazareth.] (R. C. Ch.)

Members of a congregation of nuns founded by Mrs. Mary Teresa Ball, near Dublin, Ireland, in 1822, and now spread over Ireland, India, Canada, and the United States. The nuns are called also Ladies of Loreto. They are engaged in teaching girls.

© Webster 1913