The Sign of Our Lady of the Snows

According to tradition, the Blessed Virgin herself inspired the building of the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) in Rome, as early as the 4th century A.D. She appeared in a dream to a patrician named John and to Pope Liberius, and asked for a church to be built and dedicated to her, in a place that she would miraculously indicate. In the morning of the 5th of August, the Esquiline Hill appeared covered with snow. The pope traced the perimeter of the new church and John provided the financing. Pope Sixtus III celebrated its dedication in 435, right after the Council of Ephesus (431), which recognized the title of Theotokos, "Mother of God" for the Blessed Virgin. The Basilica Saint Mary Major, the first Marian basilica in the West and the most important of all the churches dedicated to the Mother of God in Rome, is also the only one of the four patriarchal basilicas in Rome that has conserved its paleo-Christian structures. The miraculous icon "Salus Populi Romani" and relics of the manger are venerated there, and the "Miracle of the Snow" is recalled each year on the 5th of August by a solemn celebration, during which a rain of white petals is dropped from the ceiling of the church on the assembly.