 Loreto was an eccclesiastical territory belonging to no diocese and directly subject to the Holy See (Papacy).Pope Sixtus conceived of a plan to honor the Virgin by exalting the town where her shrine was located.On 17 March 1586, he decreed, in the Bull "Pro excellenti", that the town ("oppidum") of Loreto should be raised to the status of a city ("civitas"), and that the city should become the center of a diocese, with its seat at the Basilica of the Virgin Mary.