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The most important church in
the city of Rome dedicated to Our Lady is the Basilica of Saint Mary
Major, erected around the year 352, during the reign of Pope Liberius. (
352-366 ) According to legend, a member of an aristocratic family, John
and his wife were childless and prayed that the Blessed Mother might
designate an heir to bequeath their wealth. They were favored with a dream
in which Our Lady appeared to them on the night of August 4-5. She
requested that they build a church in her honor on the Esquiline hill and
the sign to accompany this dream is that the exact location would be
marked out in snow.
During that hot summer evening, a miraculous snowfall traced the form of
the basilica on the hill. Our Lady also appeared to Pope Liberius in a
dream that same night so that he too could arrive at the location to see
the miraculous snowfall. Many people gathered to see the unusual event of
snow glistening in the August sun. Upon awakening, John and his wife
rushed to the site and Pope Liberius arrived in solemn procession.
Realizing that the snow marked the exact location of the church, the
people staked off the area before the snow melted. The basilica was
completed within two years and consecrated by Pope Liberius, that is why
it is sometimes referred to as the Basilica Liberiana, after the Pope who
consecrated it.
When the Council of Ephesus defined Mary as Theotokos, the God-bearer, in
432 A.D., Pope Sixtus III ( 432-440 ) rebuilt and embellished the
basilica. From the seventh century onward, it was referred to as St. Mary
the Great or Major. The Basilica has also been called Our Lady of the
Snows in commemoration of the miraculous snowfall. The imposing facade was
built by Pope Eugene III ( 1145-1153 )
Among its great treasures is a painting of the Madonna and Child known as
the Salus Populi Romani , the Protectress of the People of Rome, which is
attributed to St. Luke. This image had been brought back from the Holy
Land by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, who also
located the True Cross and other Relics of the Passion in Jerusalem. The
venerable picture hung in the private chapel of Pope Liberius and he
ordered that it be brought to the Basilica for public veneration by the
faithful.
Throughout the centuries there has been a special devotion to this famous
picture of Our Lady. During the pontificate of Pope St. Gregory the Great
( 590-604 ) a plague attacked the people of Rome and the Pope carried the
image in procession to pray to their Protectress for an end to the plague.
In 1837, Pope Gregory XVI ( 1830-1846 ) also carried the image in
procession throughout Rome to ask Our Lady for an end to an epidemic of
cholera. When it soon ended , the Pontiff solemnly placed crowns of gold
and gems on the heads of Mary and the child Jesus on the miraculous image.
Pope Paul V ( 1605 - 1621 ) arranged that a magnificent Chapel be built
for the veneration of the image. On January 27, 1613, it was removed from
the high altar and placed in the new chapel. The manger from the stable of
Bethlehem is venerated under the high altar of the basilica.
The liturgical feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major
is celebrated each year on the fifth of August. On that day, a beautiful
custom is kept each year to commemorate the miraculous snowfall. At the
conclusion of the Solemn Mass a shower of white rose petals falls from the
dome of the Chapel of Our Lady.
source:
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/Summ99.html |
