Catholic Church. Congregatio Lauretana.

The sanctuary of Loreto was a very popular destination for pilgrims in the late Middle Ages. According to tradition, the home of the Virgin Mary, when threatened by destruction by the Turks, was carried from Nazareth by angels and deposited (in 1291) on a hill at Tersatto in Dalmatia, where an alleged apparition of Mary and subsequent cures attested to the holiness of the house. Three years later it was transported in like manner across the Adriatic to a laurel grove (hence Loreto) near Recanati (the Marches), Italy, and from there removed in 1295 to its present site. Because of its popularity, the administration of the sanctuary ammassed substantial holdings. Located in the diocese of Recanati, the shrine was removed from the jurisdiction of that diocese in 1476. Sixtus IV, with his constitution Ad ecclesiam (Nov. 28, 1476), placed it, with all its vast possessions, directly under the jurisdiction of the Holy See. However, because of protests from the people of the area, he himself revoked this arrangement with the constitution Romanus Pontifex (Feb. 8, 1477). Julius II, with his constitution In sublimia (Oct. 21, 1507), reclaimed the jurisdiction and, in the course of time, nominated a governor, removable at will, under whose spiritual and temporal jurisdiction were placed not only the inhabitants of Loreto and all connected with the Holy House of Loreto, but also visitors and pilgrims during their stay in the Lauretan territory.

Other successive pontiffs accorded the sanctuary new privileges. Leo X (constitution Ex supernae providentia, 8 Dec 1514) erected the collegiate church Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae de Laureto, confirming at the same time exemption from episcopal jurisdiction for pilgrims and those attlached to the sanctuary. Clement VII extended the limits of the exemptions (brief, Cum nonnulli Romani Pontifices, 17 Apr 1525), which Paul III confirmed with the constitution, Ad sacram beati Petri sedem (18 Feb 1536).

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