By Funso Aina
Yesterday, the whole world was focused on just one place, and that was the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore), in Rome where Pope Francis was buried. As he was exceptional in life, always wanting his papacy to be remembered for its humility, devoid of the historical trappings of the Vatican, Pope Francis also chose to break from tradition in death, hence he was not buried in the ‘Necropolis of the Popes’ located under the Basilica of Saint Peter, named after Apostle Peter, who was the first Pope, and the first Bishop of Rome. Traditionally, St. Peter’s Basilica serves as the final resting place for Popes of the 20th and 21st centuries, except for the Jesuit Pope, who chose to be named after ‘St. Francis of Assisi.’
So what makes the Basilica of Saint Mary Major special? Well, it is one of the four major ‘Papal Basilicas,’ as well as one of the ‘Seven Pilgrim Churches’ of Rome. It is also the largest Marian church in the city. It enshrines the venerated image of ‘Salus Populi Romani,’ depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary as the protector of the Roman people, which was granted a Canonical coronation by Pope Gregory XVI on 15 August, 1838.
Said to have been built on the Cispian spur of Rome’s Esquiline Hill, under Pope Celestine I (422–432AD), the Basilica is sometimes referred to as ‘Our Lady of the Snows.’ This is because according to legend, c. 352AD, during the pontificate of Liberius, a Roman patrician, John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate all their worldly possessions to the Virgin Mary. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose off their property in her honour. On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. In obedience to a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a Basilica in honour of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow!
However, long before the earliest traces of the story of the miraculous snow, the church was called ‘Saint Mary of the Crib’ (“Sancta Maria ad Praesepe”), a name it was given because of its relic of the crib or manger of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, four boards of sycamore wood believed to have been brought to the church, together with a fifth, in the time of Pope Theodore I (640–649AD) (source: Wikipedia).
Pope Francis, was said to have a very soft spot for the Basilica of Saint Mary, visiting it to pray on more than a hundred occasions. It was his refuge, and after yesterday, it is now sure to become a place of more veneration.
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