Cardinal Law presides over popular Our Lady of Snows feast in Rome

Published: 2004-08-05

ROME (CNS) -- In the sweltering heat of a humid August day, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the former archbishop of Boston, presided over one of the most unusual traditional Masses in Rome. Before white flower petals were dropped from the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Mary Major Aug. 5, the cardinal -- now the basilica's archpriest -- celebrated Mass for what is popularly called the feast of Our Lady of the Snows. The cardinal told reporters after the Mass, "It was a very moving experience for me." The "snowfall" of flower petals inside the basilica in the morning and outside as night falls is a traditional part of the celebration of the Aug. 5 feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The popular reference to Our Lady of the Snows comes from a pious tradition that on Aug. 4, 358, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius and to a noble Roman couple asking them to build a church in her honor on the spot in Rome where she would make it snow the next day. The snow fell Aug. 5 on the Esquiline Hill, and the pope ordered a church built there. The patrician and his wife paid for the construction.

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