Reflection: Our Lady of the Snows and the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major

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. Today is the Feast Day of the Dedication of Saint Mary Major. It is also known as the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Snows, due to a miraculous event which occurred there.

According to legend, an aristocrat John and his wife were unable to have children. They prayed continually and asked the Blessed Mother for her assistance. Our Lady appeared to them in a vision 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. 

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 431 A.D., Pope Sixtus III (432-440) rebuilt and embellished the basilica. From the seventh century onward, it was referred to as Saint 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 are relics of the crib of the Baby Jesus from Bethlehem and a painting of the Madonna and Child known as the Salus Populi Romani, the Protectress of the People of Rome, which is attributed to Saint Luke. This image had been brought back from the Holy Land by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. 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.

The Basilica of Saint Mary Major has great significance to the John 10:10 Prayer Ministry. In 2012, upon the recommendation of a priest, "A Prayer of Entrustment to Mary" was prayed by another priest at the image of the Madonna and Child (shown above). This image, Salus Populi Romani is located in a side chapel. Many popes make an Entrustment to Mary of their papacy at this sacred image..

Our Lady of the Snows, pray for us and all those for whom we pray through this ministry.