(Our Lady of the Snows, August 5th)
It is said that some Roman patricians wanted to build a basilica in honor of the Mother of God in Rome. The Virgin, pleased, showed herself to them in a nocturnal vision and indicated to them that the chosen place was a portion of the Esquiline, which they would see covered with snow in the heat of August. The Virgin of the Snows.
The story is even more beautiful than the legend. And the story is that at the Council of Ephesus (year 431) the Fathers acclaimed Mary as Mother of God. The Theotokos, the sancta Dei Genetrix, was already known by this title before (thus in the Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, santa Dei Genetrix, an invocation written in Greek, the oldest prayer we know addressed to the Virgin), but from then on the divine maternity was made explicit in the Christian dogma. Following the Council, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) erected in Rome the Basilica of the Mother of God, which would later be called the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the oldest temple dedicated to the Virgin in the West.
Such is the memory of August 5, so beautiful for that dogmatic background. This is why the hymn sings the mystery of Mary’s maternity. It is thy truth, O Mary, her holy motherhood.
It is your truth, O Mary
thy holy motherhood,
grown in your virgin flesh
as a gift of the Trinity.
Jesus who dwells in thy breast:
that is thy holiness;
his cross, thy grace and beauty,
his glory, your eternity.
Thou art by the Spirit
Mother like no real one,
and being Jesus Only Begotten,
Mother of personal God.
The Church feels you to be hers,
member and Mother alike;
you gave us the First Born,
Mother of the total Christ.
Let us gather beautiful stones
to make temple and altar,
for you, who bring us to Christ,
Mother of Christianity.
Honor to the most holy Son
of Mother daughter of Adam!
In thy sight, O Word,
for your Mother’s sake, have mercy. Amen.
