Loreto: A place of healing and conversion

When Christopher Columbus' ship was caught in a storm, he vowed to send a pilgrim to Santa Maria di Loreto, "which is in the march of Anconia, land of the pope; it's the house where Our Lady did and still does many great miracles."

Leo X published a famous bulla, on account of the Holy House, in which he first exalted the glories of this incomparable sanctuary, then proclaimed the innumerable and continuous miracles which God, through Mary's intercession, performs in this church.

Pope Pius IX, in particular, found healing there:

According to his biographers, the young Count Jean-Marie Mastaï Ferretti had been consecrated to the Virgin from infancy: "My parents," he told a French bishop one day, "used to travel each year to the Santa Casa and to take my brother and I along; and as soon as I heard we were going, I couldn't sleep anymore." When he left high school, he chose a military profession in order to become a soldier and defend of the Holy See. But he was suddenly struck by severe epilepsy; his health was profoundly affected. His doctors declared themselves unable to battle against the disease and announced his imminent death. Pope Pius VII loved Mastaï. He asked the young man if he had thought about the holiness of the religious state. Jean-Marie answered that yes, he had, especially since he had become ill with the disease that pleased the Lord to send him. However told the pope that he felt his current health prevented him to consider this state as well as the profession of arms.

The pope consoled him and assured him that he would recover if he accepted to give himself to the service of God. Encouraged by these words, the young count went to Loreto to implore his recovery in Mary's room, and made the vow, if he obtained that favor, to embrace the ecclesiastical state. The Holy Virgin answered his prayers; he was radically healed and returned to Rome to become a priest. He was twenty one years of age.

Later, Pius IX was to acquit himself of his debt to the Virgin magnificently, by proclaiming to the entire world the dogma of her Immaculate Conception.

We can add the graces of conversion to the list of the graces of healing:

Here is a testimony from a holy Frenchman called Mr. Olier:

"Beside receiving healing for my eyes, I then received a strong desire to pray. This was the most striking occurence in my conversion. I was born to grace in that holy place; I was reborn to God through Mary, in the very place where she had given birth to Jesus Christ."

As for Saint Joseph of Cupertino's vision, he saw angels enter the house with their hands full of heavenly gifts. He then told his companion:

"Look and see the mercies of God which, like an abundant rain, flood the sanctuary! O this holy place ! O this blessed house !"