I visited the spot in Jerusalem from which Mary was supposedly taken to heaven. Thus, the mention of an Ephesus home was confusing.
I found the following article at a Roman Catholic site, NewAdvent.org:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02006b.htm
Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death, nothing certain is known. The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius (d. 403) acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it (Haer., lxxix, 11). The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favours Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favour of Ephesus. The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem.
The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is founded on the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the book De Transitu Virginis, falsely ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite. If we consult genuine writings in the East, it is mentioned in the sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus of Jerusalem and others. In the West, St. Gregory of Tours (De gloria mart., I, iv) mentions it first. The sermons of St. Jerome and St. Augustine for this feast, however, are spurious. St. John of Damascus (P. G., I, 96) thus formulates the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem:
St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.
Today, the belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is universal in the East and in the West; according to Benedict XIV (De Festis B.V.M., I, viii, 18) it is a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous.
Fascinating history. Thank you for posting those details.
I visited the Holy House of Loreto in Italy. According to ancient tradition, the Holy House--that of Mary and Jesus, where the Word of God became flesh--arrived by sky or sea, we don't know, on the hill of Loreto at the end of the 13th century. It reached Loreto, Italy after a brief stay at Tersato, Dalmatia, 1291, and landed 1294 at a location called Recanati (today's Loreto) in a wooded area belonging to a nobleman named Loreta. The dimensions of the House of Loreto are identical to those of the House of the Holy Family that is missing from its enshrinement place at the Nazareth Basilica. Bas-reliefs of the 16th c suggest transport of the Holy House by sea. The Church of St. Mary of Loreto was first mentioned in 1315. Construction of a large church is cited in 1468. In 1586, Loreto was granted city status and the church was raised to a cathedral, only to become a basilica in 1728. It has been an episcopal cathedral since 1965.
The Holy House of Loreto is one of the most revered Marian shrines in the world. Since medieval times, the Holy House has been believed to be the very home in which the Virgin Mary lived, conceived and raised the young Jesus.
The Miracle of the Holy House of Loreto
I think that there are many supposed sites of Mary's last home[s].
Ephesus, Rome, Jerusalem
I do think that some of the early Fathers of the Church wrote about her being in Ephesus -- so perhaps there ARE multiple locations.
The one I visited in Eastern Europe was merely a model. We were too early to go inside.