VIRGIN MARY'S HOUSE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26319, 13 January 1951, Page 2

VIRGIN MARY'S HOUSE

Traditional Site At Ephesus INTEREST REAWAKENED IN TURKEY (By HARRY WHYTE, Reuter’S Correspondent in Istanbul.) The proclamation by the Pope of the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary reawakened interest in Turkey in the tradition that the Virgin died at Ephesus. A journalistic error led to some Turkish newspapers reporting that the Virgin’s tomb had been discovered there. This was followed by some controversy about the propriety of exploiting religious beliefs to encourage tourist travel in Turkey. The controversy culminated in a cartoon in the widel-circulating Istanbul newspaper, "Cumhuriyet.” which showed a little man labelled “Tourism” bowing before a figure of the Virgin holding in her arms, not the child, but leather bags stuffed with dollars. A different view of the ethics of the matter was put in a letter sent by the Apostolic Delegation in Turkey to the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club. This thanked the club and the administrative authorities of the Ephesus area for the assistance given to a group of Istanbul Roman Catholics who recently made a pilgrimage to Ephesus. It was apparently this pilgrimage which led to the erroneous report of the discovery of the Virgin's tomb. The pilgrims had. in fact, visited a building on the outskirts of Ephesus which is reputed to be the house in which Our Lady lived during her stay in Ephesus with St. John, the "beloved disciple,” to whose care, the Gospels record. Christ commended His mother as He was dying on the Cross. Church tradition has it that the Virgin did accompany St. John to Ephesus, but after that there is disagreement. One legend has it that she remained there until her death, the other that she returned to Jerusalem. The Lazarist Fathers are leading champions of the Ephesus version, while the Jerusalem one is supported by the Jesuits. What is certain is that the supposed house of the Virgin Mary was not "discovered” in 1950. Pilgrimages have been going there regularly since 1892. under the auspices of the Lazarist Fathers of Izmir. The story of the start of the pilgrimages was told by the French-language newspaper "Istanbul" during the controversy which followed the reputed “discovery” of the tomb. The place where the house would be found. “Istanbul" spid, was first seen in a vision by Catherine Emmerich, a German nun. whose body bore the st'gmata (marks of Christ’s wounds), and who has since been canonised. According to “Istanbul." on reading her description of the place, on a mountain slope outside Ephesus, the chemistry teacher of the Lazarist College at Izmir set out for Ephesus. At Panaya Kapuli. a valley about 1300 feet up the Bulbul Mountain on the outskirts of the ruined city, he found a budding which corresponded with the description given by the German nun and which archaeologists have stated, on the evidence of the style of its masonry, cotud date back to the first century A.D. The Vatican has given no definitive expression of its views on the authenticity of these claims, but has allowed the building a unique privilege. It is the only place in the world where Roman Catholic priests are allowed, on other days than August 15 (Feast of the Assumption), to say Mass, using the Proper of the Assumption, the form normally reserve! for Mass on August 15.

One result of the Turkish press controversy has been a decision by the Ministry of National Education to send four archaeologists to Ephesus for excavations. One of the priests who conducted the pilgrimage announced on his return to Istanbul that a new road is to be built un the hillside to the house. He explained that, at present, access to the house is by a steep and narrow mule track—a fact which did not. he added, prevent one 87-year-old pilgrim from climbing the whole way on foot.

The Turkish Government, he said, is also contemplating the construction of an hotel and restaurant at Ephesus, for the benefit of pilgrims and tourists. "The tradition that the Virgin died in Jerusalem goes back only to the fifth century.” the priest a”dded. “The famous Church of the Council of Ephesus can be considered the oldest sanctuary dedicated to Mary; and dates from the fourth century." After hearing Mass in the Virgin's house, the pilgrims visited the ruins of Ephesus and said prayers at the tomb of St. John.