IN reply to a petition made to him by the Bishops of the Province of Piceno, in which Loreto stands, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XV. Has issued a Decree, dated April 12, 1916, ordering the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House to be hence forth observed each year, on the roth of December, in all the Dioceses and Religious Congregations of Italy and the adjacent isles. Moreover, by the same Decree he grants permission for the extending of the festival to all other Dioceses and Religious Congregations, on its being applied for by the Ordinaries. The Pontiff expressly grounds the granting of this favour on the acknowledged pre-eminence of the Loreto Sanctuary, it being, as the preamble states, the House itself — translated from Palestine by the ministry of Angels — in which was born the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in which the Word was made ?esh.
