Our Lady of the Snows

Our Lady of the Snows
memorial
5 August

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Today is the feast of the dedication of Saint Mary Major in Rome. St. Mary Major is the largest church dedicated to Our Lady in the whole wide world.. This incarnation, Our Lady of the Snows is wrapped up in that dedication and could be part legend, as it became popular a few centuries after the basilica was built.

A pious legend says that during the pontificate of the earliest Pope who has not yet been declared a saint, Liberius (r. 352-366), an aging aristocrat of the city named, John, and his wife, who were childless prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They petitioned that she might make an heir known to them, someone to whom they could will all their possessions. On the night of August 4-5 they were blessed with a dream in which Our Lady appeared to them. She asked if they would build a church in her honor, on the Esquiline Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. They would find the exact spot for its location on the hill the next morning, and it would be outlined in snow in August in Rome!

That same night the pope, Liberius, was also visited by Our Blessed Mother in a dream, probably right after a heavy meal, directing him to the same location on the Esquiline Hill. In the morning, John and his wife hurried to the site, as Pope Liberius arrived in solemn procession. Together, and with many others who followed, they beheld a large area marked by freshly fallen, thick snow. I would guess there were tracks of the Yeti and the Piltdown Man there as well, I am surprised they didn’t dig it all up and sequester it in Area Cinquenta uno.

Anyhoo, upon hearing of Our Lady’s request, some of the men immediately staked off the area. A basilica was completed within two year’s time. John left all his wealth to this church; thus avoiding the State taking possession of it after his death, an early scam or a miraculous intervention? You decide.

Be that as it may, Pope Liberius consecrated it and, later on, Pope Sixtus III (432-442) included an eight-lined dedicatory inscription to Our Lady. But in this dedication there was no mention of any alleged snowfall at this time, you would think something like miraculous snow in August in Rome would note a mention at least. In spite of the lack of real evidence the legend of Our Lady of the Snows remained, and was for some time was even included in the Divine Office that clergy prays on this day. In 1741 it was removed from the Breviary in an early effort to make Roman Catholicism less fun.

Of all the Major Basilica, (there are only 4) Mary Major is my second favorite.