Protectress of Civil Aviation
On March 24 1920, Pope Benedict XV proclaimed our Lady of Loreto as universal Patron of air travellers. Such a proclamation happily crowned a cherished wish of some pioneers of aviation.
The reason for this choice was the flight "of the Archangel Gabriel who descended from heaven to bring Mary 'the happy tidings' of Divine Motherhood" (Lk 1,26-38).
The image of Our Lady of Loreto is linked to some well-known flights in the history of aviation: it was on the 'Spirit of St. Louis', the aircraft with which Charles Lindbergh (1927) flew over the Atlantic Ocean without any stopover and in the balloons named 'Norge' and 'Italia', used by Umberto Nobile in flying over the North Pole (1926 and 1928); in the 'Santa Maria', the S.55 airplane with which Francesco Pinedo (1927) crossed the Atlantic.
The astronaut McDivitt, out of his own volition, got the permission to bring a medal of Our Lady of Loreto on the first lunar 'lem' during the Apollo 9 flight in March 1969.
