Completed in 565 AD, the basilica was built over the believed burial site of St. John the Apostle. According to legend, St. John (as the Beloved Disciple) took the Virgin Mary to Ephesus in her final years, and her possible house overlooks the ancient city of Ephesus. Today the ruins are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ephesus.
Built in the 5th centry, possibly for the First Council of Ephesus (the third ecumenical council of the early church). The Second Council of Ephesus may also have been held here.
This house was discovered in 1881 based on the descriptions of Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, a bedridden German nun who had never left her own country. Among other visions of the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, Bl. Emmerich described the land around the house where the Virgin Mary may have spent her final years before her Assumption into heaven. The Catholic Church has not issued an opinion on the veracity of the house, but several popes have conveyed blessings and visited the site....