Thursday, August 5, 18th Week in Ordinary Time
From left: Pope Liberius tracing out the church design on snow, from a triptych by Masaccio and Masalino, 1492; shower of white petals from the church ceiling on August 5; upper panel, the altar of 'Maria,
Salus Populi Romani', venerated at Santa Maria Maggiore; the icon itself; coronation of Mary from the apse mosaic at SMM; and detail of the mosaic; lower panel, various images of Our Lady of the Snows.
DEDICATION OF 'SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE'
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS
Today's feast commemorates the Roman legend that God responded with a snowfall in August to the gesture of a couple who pledged their treasure to the Church and told them a church should be built on the site, the Esquiline, one of the seven hills of Rome. Pope Liberius first built a church on the site in the mid-4th century, but after the Council of Ephesus affirmed Mary's title as Mother of God, Pope Sixtus rededicated the church to her in 431. It is called Santa Maria Maggiore because it is the largest church dedicated to Mary in the Eternal City. It has undergone many renovations over the centuries but it retains its character as an early Roman basilica. Its 5th-century mosaic decorations are the most ancient in Rome, and its famous coffered ceiling was lined with gold leaf made from the first gold mined in the New World. It is one of four papal basilicas, along with St. Peter, St John Lateran and St Paul outside the Walls. Today, the miracle of the snow is remembered annually at the Basilica on August 5, with a shower of white petals from the ceiling.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/080510.shtml
OR today:
Benedict XVI recalls St. Tarcisius to some 60,000 ministrants at St. Peter's Square:
'Life can be given for Christ, the true and authentic good'
The Pope also offers prayers for victims of summer fires in Russia and widespread floods in Pakistan
Other Page 1 stories: Russian summer fires continue to burn and Moscow itself is under a smoke pall; new troop movements on the Israel-Lebanon border after Lebanese guerrillas fire on Israeli troops who cut down a few trees to improve their sightlines - the UN confirms the trees were on the Israeli side of the border.
The Vatican today announced the official program for the Pope's pastoral visit to Carpineto Romano
on Sunday, Sept. 5, a highlight of the yearlong bicentennial celebration of the birth of Pope Leo XIII
who was born in that city.