The Mystery of Mother Mary's House in Ephesus
	Mary in Ephesus
	The Site of Meryem Ana Evi
	The Discovery
	Archaeology
	Pilgrimages
	Two Popes Visited Mary's House

The Mystrey of Mother Mary' s Mouse in Ephesus
The mystery of "Meryem Ana Evi" (Mother Mary's House) in Ephesus is part of a much greater mystery; that of the place where Mary lived after the death and ascension of her son, Jesus. Research up to the present day has still not been able to bring fully to light the details of Mary's life, since during her lifetime, she had carefully tried to stay concealed, leaving the Apostles to present Christ as the unique center of interest.

Mary in Ephesus
A passage of the Gospel according to John seems to suggest that Mary came to Ephesus (John: 19, 25 -27). Entrusted one to the other by Jesus himself, John and Mary must have respected the last wishes of Christ. To begin with, they probably lived in Jerusalem, but as the larger the Christian community in the Palestinian capital grew, the greater the irritation of the Jewish authorities. Persecution began with the stoning of the deacon Stephen, in the year 37. The Christians then began to disperse into Judea and Samaria. John must have taken Mary with him to Asia Minor so that she could live in peace. The indications are that Mary and John came to Ephesus around the year 40. Mary must have been in her sixties by this time.

The writings of Epiphanius, without meaning to, actually lend support to the theory that Mary lived in Ephesus. One of these affirmed that monks and nuns could live together in community. These "Agapets", as they were called, took Mary and John as their example.

In 431, the 3rd Ecumenical Council took place in Ephesus. Its aim was to solemnly pronounce Mary's divine motherhood. The council was called in the then unique church dedicated to Mary. This dedication is recorded not only in the letter of convocation to the council sent by Cyril of Alexandria but also in a dozen passages in the acts of the council and in an inscription from the time of Bishop Hypatios (died in 537). The existence of a church dedicated to Mary in Ephesus, and only in Ephesus, is proof that Mary was thought to have died there.

The Site of Meryem Ana Evi
Gregory of Tours (538-594) in The Book of the Miracles (1,30), a work in which history and legend are sometimes intimately mixed, was the first ecclesiastical writer to speak of a chapel situated on a mountain near Ephesus, saying: "On the summit of a mountain near Ephesus there are four walls without a roof. John lived within these walls "

The people of "Kirkince" (now Sirince), a village about 17 km from Meryem Ana, traditionally believed that there had been a house on "Bulbul Dagi " (Nightingale Hill) where Mary had lived. Every year, on Assumption Day, they made a pilgrimage to "Panaya Kapulu" (Chapel of the All Holy), now Meryem Ana Evi. They believed that Mary was raised to heaven from this place. This may have seemed strange that a group of Orthodox villagers should believe this when the rest of their Church had believed, since the Middle Ages, that Mary spent her last days in Jerusalem. However, it would not be wrong to believe that these were the descendants of the Christians of Ephesus who had taken refuge in the mountains during the persecutions. Although they had adopted the Turkish language, they had kept their ancient traditions.

They must have taken this tradition very seriously because they had to walk for five hours over mountain paths to reach Meryem Ana Evi.

The Discovery
In 1881, a French priest from the diocese of Paris, Julien Gouyet, had the idea of going to Ephesus to verity the exactness of the description of the "House of the Virgin" that the German seer Anna-Katharina Emmerich (1771-1824) had given in the book of Clemens von Brentano, The Life of the Holy Virgin. The Most Rev. Andre Timoni, with the help of the Archbishop of Izmir (then Smyrna), he made an expedition. He returned and said that they had found the "House of the Virgin" and sent reports to Archbishop Timoni to the diocesan authorities in Paris and even to Rome. But no one believed them.

Ten years later, in 1891, Fr. Eugene Poulin, superior of the Sacred Heart College in Izmir, a well-known Hebrew scholar and authority on Judaic customs, having also read Emmerich's book, decided to send an expedition to Ephesus. He sent two Lazarists and two Catholic laymen. On July 29th, at about 11 o'clock, they arrived at a small tobacco field on a plateau. Tired thirsty, they asked the women working there for some water. The women replied that they did not have any but that they could get some at the "monastery" and they pointed the way to a ruined house. Having refreshed themselves, the travelers looked around and saw "the ruined house, a mountain behind the house, the sea in front of them...", exactly as Emmerich had described Mary's house! To make completely sure they checked all the other nearby hilltops but there was no other place from which both Ephesus and the sea could be seen. Now convinced they had found "Mary's House", they returned to Izmir to announce their discovery. Although Fr. Jung's superior, Fr. Poulin, thought he was joking, he decided to organize an expedition.

Archbishop Timonium began to become seriously interested in the question of Mary's residence in Ephesus. He formed a committee of seven priests and five laymen, himself being chairman. Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey bought the property in her name. There was only four broken down walls without a roof. Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey gave part of her dowry for the restoration of the chapel and the property.

Having owned the property of Meryem Ana for 18 years, Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey transferred the ownership to Fr. Poulin in 1910, five years before her death. Fr. Poulin died in 1928 leaving a will in which he named Fr. Euzet as heir to the property of Meryem Ana Evi. But in 1917 Meryem Ana Evi had been declared abandoned property and confiscated by the Treasury. Finally an appeal court recognized Fr. Euzet’s right to the ownership of the property. In 1951, Fr. Euzet, in agreement with Archbishop Descuffi, gave over the property to an association, "Panaya Kapulu Dernegi", later called "Meryem Ana Evi Dernegi", which was recognized by the Turkish Government and authorized to collect funds for the restoration and upkeep of the ancient Shrine.

In 1950, the Turkish Government ordered the construction of the road that pilgrims now take to go to Meryem Ana Evi.

Archaeology
In 1898, Mr. Carre, a French government architect, made a detailed study and concluded that the building could date from the first century. This was also the opinion of Prof. Hogart of Oxford University, director of the nearby excavations of the temple of Artemis, and of Mr. Rosetti, an Italian Government architect. Fr. Lagrange, of the Biblical School of Jerusalem and Prof. Lambakis, famous archaeologist of Athens, however, believed that the chapel was of a more recent date; so did Prof. Adriano Prandi of Rome who made researches in 1965 and 1967. In his opinion, the monument, which was restored in 1951, is of the Selcuk period (c. 13th century). Again at the Mariological Congress of Lisbon (1967), he declared that the small chapel to the south (the room on the right) had been built on, or around, something, which was there before. Its form was adapted to some older walls, which the builders did not want to knock down. He added that three graves discovered during the excavations were facing Mary's House, which was a sign of respect ("De primordiis cultus Mariani", Acts of the Congress., vol. V, p. 41).

Pilgrimages
The first pilgrimage to Meryem Ana took place in 1896, five years after the discovery of "The House of the Virgin". As Fr. Euzet tells us, two trains brought between 1,300-1,400 pilgrims from Izmir to Ephesus. Most of them made the ascent on foot, on horseback or by donkey. This could be called heroic since at this time there was no road to the shrine, only rough paths. In 1908 a Lazarist priest, exhausted by the difficult climb, collapsed and died a few hundred yards from the chapel.

The first pilgrims from abroad, 47 people, of whom 10 were Protestants, came in 1906 led by Prof. Miner and Fr. Kayser. Between 1914 and 1927 no mass was celebrated at the shrine. However, wishing to reinstitute the pre-war tradition, the Lazarists and the Sisters of Charity organized a pilgrimage of school children to the shrine in 1932 and for the following four years. Between 1937 and 1949 there were no pilgrimages to Meryem Ana. In 1949, Archbishop Descuffi and a group of Children of Mary celebrated mass in the roofless chapel.

A new period in the history of Meryem Ana Evi 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 Ministry of Tourism had a road constructed so that vehicles could go up to the chapel.

Two Popes Visited Mary' s Houses
Paul VI came to pay his respects to Our Lady of Ephesus at Meryem Ana on 26th July 1967. He prayed for a long time in front of the altar and he himself lit the sculpted lamp he had brought. In memory of Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey , he gave the superior of the sisters of Charity who live there a gold chalice for their oratory .

Pope John Paul II also came to Meryem Ana on 30th November 1979, after an official visit to Ankara. He celebrated mass there before a crowd of pilgrims and tourists. The open-air altar was erected on this occasion. He offered to the Capuchin Friars, who celebrate the Holy Eucharist every day at the Shrine, precious liturgical clothes and vessels.