Holy House Builders

This chapter first considers Bishop Casal's failed attempt to take a stone from the Holy House and its repercussions. It then surveys multiple iterations of the Holy House of Loreto that were built from blueprints distributed at the Loreto shrine in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It closes by honing in on the replicas of the Jesuits, especially a diverse string of Holy Houses left by one Jesuit, Juan Maria Salvatierra, across Mexico. Individually and as a group, holy house builders in Europe and on the American frontiers wavered between creating accurate, rooted copies that were thoughtfully integrated into their new surroundings, and making imperfect, drifting copies that were unmodified and intrusive to their new settings. This variety suggests that what mattered most in spreading the Loreto devotion was felt intent (mood) rather than following instructions (mind).