In 1295, a house fell from the evening sky onto an Italian coastal road by the Adriatic Sea. Inside, awestruck locals encountered the Virgin Mary, who explained that this humble mud-brick structure was her original residence newly arrived from Nazareth. To keep it from the hands of Muslim invaders, angels had flown it to Loreto, stopping three times along the way. This story of the house of Loreto has been read as an allegory of how Catholicism spread peacefully around the world by dropping miraculously from the heavens. In this book, Karin Vélez calls that interpretation into question by examining historical accounts of the movement of the Holy House across the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century and the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. These records indicate vast and voluntary involvement in the project of formulating a branch of Catholic devotion. Vélez surveys the efforts of European Jesuits, Slavic migrants, and indigenous peoples in Baja California, Canada, and Peru. These individuals contributed to the expansion of Catholicism by acting as unofficial authors, inadvertent pilgrims, unlicensed architects, unacknowledged artists, and unsolicited cataloguers of Loreto. Their participation in portaging Mary’s house challenges traditional views of Christianity as a prepackaged European export, and instead suggests that Christianity is the cumulative product of thousands of self-appointed editors. Vélez also demonstrates how miracle narratives can be treated seriously as historical sources that preserve traces of real events. Drawing on rich archival materials, The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto illustrates how global Catholicism proliferated through independent initiatives of untrained laymen.

This book, with over 125 photographs, maps, and drawings, provides the reader with a view of the actions of the Spanish Empire using missions to colonize California. The author's research resulted in new discoveries and facts which are included in this look at the history and the present conditions of the twenty-seven peninsula missions; many relocated to multiple sites. The nearly 200 missionaries who served in Baja California between 1683 and 1855 are also named. Book jacket.

This Spanish Borderlands classic recounts Jesuit colonization of the Old California, the peninsula now known as Baja California.

Entertaining account of the author's experiences walking with a burro 1,000 miles from the U.S. border to Loreto, Baja California. Mackintosh and his burro traversed scorching desert and frigid pine-covered mountains to visit mission sites along the way.

The story of this journey through northern Baja California's unexplored wilderness to San Diego is actually two stories, crafted by artful and incisive historian Harry Crosby. The first begins well before the expedition commences and involves world events, politics, and the characters who were destined to forge this momentous march. The second is a daily record of the trek itself, told through first-person diary excerpts and the author's own comments as he followed in their footsteps, mapping this historic route for the first time. Together, they show not only the hardships and victories of blazing the difficult trail, but the resolve of this company of fifty heroic men. Gateway to Alta California contains the author's color maps, which provide a graphic statement of the journey into terra incognita, as well as his black-and-white photos of the largely unchanged terrain. Also included are lists of all Hispanic members of the expedition party -- many identified here for the first time -- plus pertinent information on their backgrounds and future lives (including those who continued on in July of 1769 with Gaspar de Portola, seeking the port of Monterey). Book jacket.