Many are the Maltese pilgrims, myself included, who had the spiritually very rewarding opportunity to visit the Marian sanctuary known as the House of the Virgin Mary on the Nightingale Mountain, in Smyrna, Ephesus, Turkey.

On my way there, together with my wife and a number of Maltese friends, I found myself reflecting on whether it was in Jerusalem or Ephesus that the Blessed Virgin Mary spent her last days in this world before her assumption into heaven.

The Council of Ephesus, also known as the Third Ecumenical Council, which, in the year 431, held several discussions at the church of St Mary in Ephesus, quickly came to mind. Many believe that the church where the council met was the first church to be dedicated to Mary in the whole world. Moreover, it may have been built at the place where the body of the Virgin Mary had rested before her assumption.

There is also the famous sentence that the Ephesus assembly of 199 bishops included in a letter sent to the clergy and people of Constantinople about Nestorius (the author of the impious heresy that Mary as a human being could give birth only to a human being and not to God): “having come to the country of the Ephesians, to the place where John the Theologian and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, arrived.”

Inside the Marian sanctuary

The remains of the House of Mary in Ephesus, situated in a quiet environment away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just half an hour away from the tomb of St John, were discovered in 1892 following two expeditions in 1891.

Anna Katharina Emmerich (1774-1824), a humble nun from Germany, had made some revelations about the Blessed Virgin’s stay and death in Ephesus.

According to these revelations, after Jesus’s ascension, Mary lived for three years on Mount Sion, for three years in Bethany and for nine years in Ephesus, where St John took her for safety after Lazarus and his sisters started to be persecuted.

The saintly nun additionally provided a detailed description of the house, which became the source of the discovery of Mary’s sanctuary. She said that the house was made of stone and consisted of two rooms, a front and a back one. Her description corresponded exactly with that of the small house found in ruins.

It did not take long for pilgrims to start going to the shrine to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary and seek her intercession.

The first great pilgrimage dates from 1896.

Successive popes looked positively on the Ephesus tradition.

On April 18, 1896, Pope Leo XIII, through a special letter, removed the plenary indulgence for ‘Mary’s Tomb’ in Jerusalem. He also noted, in the Diario Romano that, “according to the most probable opinion, it is in Ephesus that Mary died”.

Many healings have taken place following prayers by pilgrims

Pope Pius X granted a one-time plenary indulgence to a 1914 pilgrimage to Mary’s House.

In 1951, Pope Pius XII declared Mary’s House an official sanctuary for pilgrims and granted permission for the celebration of the votive mass of the Assumption at Mary’s House.

On August 18, 1961, Pope John XXIII granted the plenary indulgence under the usual conditions to pilgrims of the shrine.

Pope Paul VI, who recognised the shrine as a place of pilgrimage, visited it on July 26, 1967. Pope John Paul II followed him on November 30, 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI on November 29, 2006, during his four-day pastoral trip to Turkey.

Many healings have taken place following prayers by pilgrims to the House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus.

Since 1950, the shrine has been in the care of the Association of the House of the Virgin Mary, whose current president is Noël Micaleff.

Noël Micaleff, the  current president of the Association of the House of the Virgin Mary,is of Maltese descent. His family moved to Izmir in the 1860s.

Micaleff’s Maltese family went to Izmir in the 1860s, at a time when migration from the Maltese islands increased; many started to migrate to other places in the Mediterranean, including the western part of Turkey, especially Istanbul and Izmir, in search of jobs.

Members of the Micaleff family and other Maltese descendants have been involved in the association, originally established to repair and restore the holy place, from its very beginnings. Original records mention people such as Polycarpe Micaleff, Charles Micaleff and Nicholas Tonna.

The solemn inauguration of the restored sanctuary was celebrated on August 9, 1951.

Since 1938, the Micaleff family has been a prominent producer of olive oil. The project was started by Anthony Micaleff. In 1945, the Micaleffs introduced the now widely diffused Kristal brand, named after the ship that took their grandfather, Carmelo to Turkey. Carmelo, born around 1834, died in Smyrne, Izmir, in 1917, aged about 83.

After Anthony Micaleff, it was one of his sons, Charles, who started to manage the company.

Then, following the death of Charles, Noël took over the direction, also focusing on preparing his nephew, Christopher Dolog to replace him. Christopher started working at the company in 2003. The project continued to flourish.

Meanwhile, the Micaleffs, as well as other Maltese descendants, continued to be prominent benefactors of Mary’s shrine.

At the end of his mass in the tranquil garden of the sanctuary, on November 29, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI met the officials in charge of the physical well-being of the holy place. Noël, already president of the Association of the House of Mary, welcomed the Holy Father and presented him with a silver statuette of the Virgin Mary.

On that occasion, Benedict XVI described the shrine as “one of the most dear to the Christian community”. A few days later, back in Rome, the Holy Father had this to add about the sanctuary: “It is an ancient little chapel, located in a small house which, according to a very ancient tradition, the apostle St John had built for the Virgin Mary, after having brought her with him to Ephesus.”

Religious services at the shrine remain the responsibility of a religious community, while the association, led by Noël, takes care of whatever is needed for the maintenance and upkeep of the place, including the structures built to accommodate the pilgrims who visit the sanctuary. The latter are often in search of a deep, personal experience and an opportunity to connect with the divine amid a profound sense of peace and serenity.