Roman Holiday

          I had the good fortune to be able to go on vacation in Italy recently with a dear friend who has a gift for languages. My friend is a new Catholic and he especially wanted to go to Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the major papal basilicas in Rome. After Mass and after poking around the church together, we went into the Museum Gift Shop where my friend began an animated conversation in Italian with the young man behind the counter. The next thing I knew, the young man found someone to cover for him, grabbed a large ring of keys and we were off on a private tour deep into the rooms, corridors, and inner sanctums of the church and surrounding apartments and offices.

          Our guide was good looking, tall and well, Italian - about thirty years old and apparently single. I secretly wished my daughter, who is almost thirty and single, was there with us so she could meet this charming young man. He spoke only Italian, but was so passionate and expressive that even I got the gist of what he was saying most of the time. He claimed to be part of a special group or brotherhood of men, the Collegium Liberianum, whose purpose is to support the liturgies, celebrations and services of the Basilica. He told us that Santa Maria Maggiore plays an important role in the Catholic Church and as he proudly pointed to a small enameled pin on the lapel of his Italian-cut blue blazer, he assured us he was no ordinary museum clerk.
 
          We walked up and down winding staircases and finally came out onto a balcony overlooking the square. Behind us, on the back wall of the portico, was a colorful and detailed mosaic depicting the story of the miracle behind the name, Our Lady of the Snows.

          "You understand," the young man said passionately in Italian, "this is not a legend; this is a miracle." I told him I had written a book on miracles with two friends and he looked to my companion for translation. Obviously relieved to learn he was speaking to the miracle faithful, he told us the story of how Santa Maria Maggiore came to be first known as Our Lady of the Snows.

          One night, Pope Liberius, who was Pope from 352-366 AD, had a dream. In this dream Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to him, concerned about war and violence in the world and seeking peace. She asked the Pope to build a church in her honor on a particular site, which would be identified by snowfall and had, as many of the locations for the new Roman Catholic churches, once been a Roman temple or palace. A short time later, a childless Roman patrician and his wife came to see the Pope. The man, John, had been thinking about what to do with his wealth when he and his wife died, and he also had a dream in which Mary asked him to do all he could to see that a church was built in her honor. When the Pope and the Roman couple learned that their dreams were very similar and that they occurred on the same night, they went in procession to the site together. There, on the fifth of August, at the height of the Roman summer, just in that one location - the summit of the Esquiline Hill - it started to snow. The snow was said to have outlined the area of the future foundation of the church. To this day, on the fifth of August, the miracle is celebrated when thousands of white rose petals are dropped from the basilica's dome during Mass and float down to cover the floor of the church below.

          How do we know what is truly a miracle? The Catholic Church eliminated the feast of Our Lady of the Snows from the official Roman liturgical calendar and in 1969, while not directly stating there was no miracle, the Church seemed to step around the issue by renaming the August 5th date in honor of the dedication of the basilica of St. Mary.

          For me, the passion and love the young man has for his church and his job, the pride he clearly takes in sharing what he knows about the church's history and its miracle, inspires me to think that the story he tells is more than a legend. Who can say what dreams are the machinations of a troubled mind or what dreams are messages from heaven? As I looked into the beauty of the mosaic of Our Lady of the Snows, the only mosaic this particular artist ever signed in his lifetime, and into the eyes of my deeply committed and faithful guide, I had to believe that there was Grace touching us there at Santa Maria Maggiore. So on the fifth of August next year, I plan to toss white rose petals into the air, to celebrate Our Lady of the Snows, and to remember this special opportunity to learn more about my faith and the faith of others who make up my Church.  - Meb