The “Holy House” in Loretto, Italy was recently voted the least believable Catholic legend according to a recent Pew Survey.
Legend has it that early Christians preserved the exact house in Nazareth where the Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived during Jesus’ youth. As Muslim expansion threatened to destroy the holy site, angels miraculously carried it in 1291 to Tersatto, Italy. However, they apparently didn’t account for the crime in the area, because three years later the angels picked it up again and moved it to the much more suitable town of Loretto.
“It just seems a little far-fetched to me,” angelologist Dr. Zelig Baumann said. “I mean, really, angels picking up a house?”
Even the sisters of Loretto, longtime caretakers of the shrine, have their doubts.
“I don’t know, something about it seems a little fantastical to me,” Mother Angelina Casita told The Daily Inquisition. “How can—wait a minute, it says here ‘angeli’ actually refers to a Byzantine family of that name who paid for the transport of the shrine to Italy after the sack of Constantinople.”
She read further on the historical placards surrounding the site. “And, seems like chemical tests on the structure determine the mortar is from 1st century Palestine. The dimensions even match up exactly with the foundations of the Grotto of the Annunciation in Nazareth!”
“Huh, maybe it is true after all,” she said. “I should really read these plaques.”
