Our Lady of the Snows
5 August
A certain noble, John, and his wife, as they were not blessed with children, desired that their worldly goods should be given to the Mother of God. They talked with Pope Liberius who counseled them to commend this desire to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fervently, they besought her to answer by some sign.
During the night of August 5th, 352, the Virgin appeared to them, and to Pope Liberius, telling them to construct a church in her honor on the crest of Esquiline Hill. As a sign, they would find it covered with snow.
Snow is rare in Rome; but this was August, the hottest month. All Rome thronged to Esquiline Hill as the news spread that snow had fallen there during the night, outlining the precise shape of the church requested by Our Lady, as related by John, his wife, and Pope Liberius, a favor from the Immaculate Queen of Heaven.
They measured out the area, and the snow disappeared. The crest of the Esquiline hill became, as she wished, the site of a church dedicated to the Mother of God, under the title: Our Lady of the Snows, and later Santa Maria Maggiore.
 The Church was completed in 360. The present edifice was built by Pope Sixtus III (432-40) near (if not on) the site of Liberius' Marian church.
 In 597, St Gregory the Great, during the black plague, had her miraculous image carried in procession to St Peter's Basilica; St Michael appeared in the sky to signify the end of the pestilence.
 In 1290 Pope Nicholas IV replaced Sixtus III's Mosaics with a portrayal of the Virgin in Glory. "Coronation of the Virgin" became the focal point of the basilica.
 The compartments of the ceiling were gilded with the first gold brought from America by the devout Catholic explorer, Christopher Columbus.
 In 1585, Sixtus V decided to make St. Mary Major the very heart of Rome, the basilica to be the center of a radial series of streets, like the points of a star to connect with Rome's most important sacred sites.
 In 1611, across from Sixtus V's chapel, Pope Paul V built his own chapel to house an earlier icon of the Madonna with child.
 St Ignatius Loyola and Fr Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII) said their first Masses here. Pope St Pius V was buried in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
 In 1741, the current neo-classical facade was designed and executed on the orders of Pope Benedict XIV.
 The altar of the Basilica contains the relics of Our Divine Lord’s crib. The image honored as Our Lady of the Snows is a venerable painting of the Madonna and Child in Greek style, attributed to the Evangelist, St Luke. Relics of many apostles and saints, including the body of St Matthew and the head of St Luke, rest in this favored sanctuary.
Our Lady of the Snows has found pleasure in showering down countless blessings upon her children who invoke her under the title of Our Lady of the Snows.