diff --git a/docx/oxml/__init__.py b/docx/oxml/__init__.py
index 093c1b45b..5d46255e9 100644
--- a/docx/oxml/__init__.py
+++ b/docx/oxml/__init__.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 # configure XML parser
 element_class_lookup = etree.ElementNamespaceClassLookup()
-oxml_parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True, resolve_entities=False)
+oxml_parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True, resolve_entities=False, huge_tree=True)
 oxml_parser.set_element_class_lookup(element_class_lookup)