Mary of the Snows
Life and witness
Under the pontificate of Pope Liberius there lived at Rome a patrician named John, married to a lady of high birth. They had no children, and they resolved to make the Blessed Virgin their heir. They took a vow to devote
The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 09, August · S. MARY OF THE SNOWS.
(a.d. 366).
[Roman Martyrology. Authority : — Tradition.]
Under the pontificate of Pope Liberius there lived at Rome a patrician named John, married to a lady of high birth. They had no children, and they resolved to make the Blessed Virgin their heir. They took a vow to devote
1 For further particulars, see S. Gereon, Oct. 10 ; and “ Zur Geschichte der The- baischen Legion,” von Prof. Dr. Braun : Bonn, 1855.
August 5.]
.S’. Oswald.
63
*
their wealth to her, and only sought how to expend it. The Esquiline hill belonged to them, and they resolved to erect thereon a church dedicated to the immaculate Mother of God. They informed the Pope of their desire, which he highly approved. The plan of the church was to be traced out on the hill-top on the 5th August. During the night, a light snow fell over the Esquiline, softly draping it in white, and when the Pope, the attendant clergy, and the pious bene- factor ascended the hill to trace out the foundation of the church, they found it covered with snow, on which light pure substance the lines of the foundations might be drawn.
The church erected thereon was at first called the Basilica of Liberius, afterwards S. Maria ad Prsesepe, and finally S. Maria Maggiore.