August - The Month of Our Blessed Mother too!

A reminder of of some of the traditional feasts dedicated to Our Blessed Mother in August.

August 2:   Our Lady of the Angels

August 5:   Our Lady of the Snows (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)  
August 15:  Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary  

August 21:  Our Lady of Knock   
August 22:  Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary  
August 24:  Our Lady, Health of the Sick  

August 26:  Our Lady of Czestochowa  

August 27:  Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

Apse mosaic in the Papal Basilica of Sancta Maria Maggiore

Ant. Speciosa * facta es et suavis in deliciis tuis, sancta Dei Genitrix.

O Holy Mother of God thou art become beautiful * and gentle in thy gladness.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, the dedication of that great Marian Basilica of St. Mary Major. The third reading from today's Office of Matins tells us about the Feast.

"When Liberius was Pope, a Roman patrician named John, and his wife, also of noble birth, having no children to inherit their goods, vowed their inheritance to the most holy Virgin Mother of God. The blessed Virgin heard their prayers and approved their vow by a miracle. On the 5th of August, which is that time when the heat of summer waxeth greatest in the City, a part of the Esquiline Hill was covered by night with snow. And on that same night, the Mother of God told John and his wife separately in dreams that they should build a church on that place. When John told this to Pope Liberius, he said that he had had the same dream. The Pope therefore went to the snow-covered hill and there marked out a site. The church was built with the money given by John and his wife, and was later restored by Sixtus III. It hath been given various names ; but, so that its title may indicate its excellence, it is called the Church of St. Mary Major."

Archaeological evidence does indeed show an earlier church on the site with the present Basilica dating back to the fifth century AD. Its construction tied to the Council of Ephesus of 431 AD, which proclaimed Mary "Theotokos, Mother of God."

The website of the Papal Basilica of Sancta Maria Maggiore with further images and information to be found by clicking here!

Today would also be an opportune time to begin a Novena in honour of the Feast of the Assumption on the 15th of August.