MARY, OUR MOTHER

DEDICATION OF THE BASILICA OF ST. MARY MAJOR IN ROME (OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS)

“Thou art all fair, O my Love, and there is no spot in thee.” Canticles 4:7

Back in the early eighties, having lost my job in Florida, we moved back to New York City for a number of years. My daughter, Elizabeth was about five years old then and had never seen snow. It was April and Elizabeth wanted to know “where was the snow?” I said that she would have to wait till next winter cause it was too late for snow in New York now. Well, the next day, April 8th, (I’ll never forget) we got eight inches of heavy snow! We went crazy trying to find boots and gloves and a sleigh, but the stores had already put everything away for the Spring. I wonder at the power of a child’s suggestion or maybe a prayer, and God gave us a gift of snow!

Improbable as it is for snow to fall in April in New York City, here’s the story of an even more impossible snowfall. Seventeen centuries ago, on August 5, 352 A.D., snow fell during the night in the least likely of places, Rome, where it seldom snows, where entire winters pass without a single snowflake. This is what happened:
There lived in the Eternal City a nobleman named John and his childless wife. They were blessed with much of this worlds goods, but never blessed with a child. They decided to leave their estate to the Mother of God. They prayed to the Blessed Mother asking to know how to do this and for a sign. In answer to their prayers, the Virgin Mother appeared to John and his wife and also to the Holy Father, Pope Liberius, directing them to build a church in her honor on the crown of the Esquiline Hill. The sign? Snow will cover the crest of the hill. Snow in August and in Rome! Sure enough the flakes fell silently throughout the night and the next morning crowds gathered at the hillside to behold the white wonder. The people gave Our Lady a new title “Our Lady of the Snows.”

Of course the church was built by John and his wife and was restored and enlarged at various times in later centuries. First the church was called the Basilica of Liberius, then as St. Mary of the Crib, because it holds relics of the crib of Christ. Finally it was dedicated St. Mary Major to distinguish it from the many other churches in Rome that are dedicated to the Mother of God. St. Mary Major is one of the four basilicas in which Holy Year pilgrims to Rome had to pray in order to gain the indulgence of the Holy Year. Most fittingly do we call Mary, Our Lady of the Snows. The white blanket of that ancient August was a certain sign of the wishes of our Blessed lady. We speak of Mary as being pure as the driven snow. It is a symbol of her greatest glory, her purity. We can also speak of the blessings and favors as the falling snowflakes. Like the snowflakes, the graces she obtains for us are varied--some large, some small. Some are given just for a time; others are lasting. Like the snowflake, every grace is a miracle in itself, something we cannot appreciate or describe in words.

Make this a significant Feast Day by begging Our Blessed Mother to bestow her blessings upon yourself and upon the world the Peace of Christ, as snowflakes throughout the earth!

“Mother Mary, this would be a good day for it to snow!” Amen.
[Adapted from a sermon by Fr. Arthur Tonne, Didde Printing Co.]