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Pilgrimages The first Pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary`s house took place in 1896,five years after the discovery of “The House of the Virgin”.Two trains brought pilgrims from Izmir to Ephesus.Most of them made the ascent on foot or on horseback or by donkey.The first pilgrimsfrom abroad came in 1906 led by Prof. Miner and Fr. Kayser.There were 47 people of whom 10 were Protestans.Between 1914 and 1927 a mass was celebrated at the shrine and in 1929,Fr. Euzed found that the chapel floor was covered in cow dung.Between 1937 and 1949 there were no pilgrimages to the House of the Virgin Mary.In 1949,Archbishop Descuffi and a group of Children of Mary celebrated mass in the roofless chapel.A new period in the history of the house of the Virgin Mary began in 1950.The dogma of the Assumption of Mary was defined in Rome.Dr.Karl Gshwind of Basle,who had been trapped in Istanbul by the war and who had used the time to make a study of the antiquities of Asia Minor,planned to lead a pilgrimage to the shrine on 1st November 1950,the day of the definition of the dogma.This pilgrimage was also announced in the Turkish press and the Turkish Ministery of Tourism had a road constructed so that vehicles could go up to the chapel.Since then the number of tourists and pilgrims has increased. |