Tuesday, Aug 5th is the annual day of celebration to the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. It is one of the largest and most important churches dedicated to the honor of Our Lady. Our Lady indicated in a dream, to a wealthy, childless Roman couple that she wanted a church built in her honor, and the site for the church would be covered with snow. On a hot, sultry morning on August 5, 325 A.D., Esquiline Hill was covered with snow. All Rome proclaimed the summer snows a miracle, and the church was built on the site and called “Mary Major”. Devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows is one of the oldest devotions to her.
Fr. Thomas P. Galarneault