The Second Reflection on Emvin Cremona’s Our Lady of Aviation

Besides portraying Our Lady as the patroness of aviation, the artist, through this oil-on-canvas work, also highlights the connection between this title and Our Lady of Loreto, particularly through the depiction of the house at the centre of the painting, partially veiled by the folds of Our Lady’s mantle.

According to tradition, between May 1291 and 10 December 1294, the angels carried the House of Mary at Nazareth—the house in which Mary gave her “Yes” and the Son of God became flesh—with stops at Trsat in present-day Croatia and then at Recanati, until it finally reached Loreto in Italy. There, a magnificent basilica was eventually built around it, making it one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Christian world. It was for this reason that, from the earliest days of aviation, both civil and military, there was a desire to place aviators and air travel under the protection of Our Lady of Loreto. This was officially confirmed by a decree of Pope Benedict XV on 24 March 1920, following a petition by Bishop Alfonso Maria Andreoli of Recanati and Loreto.

Archaeological studies carried out on the structure suggest that, although the stone itself originated in Nazareth, there was also significant human intervention in its relocation. In particular, many of the stones bear numerical markings, indicating that the building was carefully dismantled and later reassembled in its original order with remarkable precision. This also corresponds with the chronology of the Crusades. It appears that, through the intervention of the Byzantine noble family bearing the surname Angelos, the house was dismantled at Nazareth and transported by cart to the port of Acre in the Holy Land—the capital of the Crusader territories, which fell to enemy forces during that same period—before eventually finding its resting place at Loreto. Thus, the story of the “angels” may also preserve the memory of the Angelos family, whose name means “angels”.

Here in Malta we firmly believe in the importance of having not only angels and saints in heaven, but also “angels” on earth, if we are to reach our goals (without going into the rather Machiavellian ethics that such an approach can sometimes imply!). Yet, on a more intimate and personal level, there are also those people whom we regard as part of the family—people who make us feel at home, or who, in particular circumstances, seem to us like angels sent from heaven.

Who are your angels? Who are those people with whom you truly feel at home? Those of whom, in the best sense of the phrase, you can say, “God sent you today”? Those who lead us back to our roots, helping us rediscover who we are and where we began, so that we may be renewed and strengthened as we continue our journey forward?

Give thanks to the Lord for these “angels”, and pray for them by name—or, if you do not even know their names, by remembering them in whatever way you can.

Photograph courtesy of MUŻA – Heritage Malta.