What if I told you, “It’s going to snow today.” Surely, you would think I was crazy. But that’s exactly what happened. In the 4th century, there was a rich man and the pope who both dreamt that the Blessed Virgin Mary said it would snow in Rome on Aug. 5th.
Today we celebrate the memorial St. Mary Major, the oldest Church dedicated in the West to the Mother of God located in Rome. Today is also called the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows because of a miraculous snow.
The wealthy man prayed to the Blessed Virgin, to guide him, so that he would know what he was to do with his money. So in the early hours of Aug. 5th, in separate dreams, Our Lady told both the Pope, as well as the wealthy man, to build a church in Her honor, in the place where snow was to appear that morning. That same morning snow miraculously appeared on the site where the church was to be built.
The Church was first called the Liberian basilica, after Pope Liberius. However, since the dogma of Mary, the Mother of God, was promulgated by the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Church was then dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Mother of God.
Today, the relics of the original manger in which Jesus from Bethlehem are now located in this magnificent church in Rome.
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