Luigi Mattei, Our Lady of the Snow

Dedicated 2001
Bronze
Holy Door of Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, Rome

The door represents the story, dismissed as only legendary by the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, that a miraculous August 5 snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in the 4th century led to its choice as site for a new basilica. According to the story, Pope Liberius marked out in the snow the dimensions of the new church. The basilica has observed August 5 as the feast of "Our Lady of the Snow" since about the 9th century. In the 16th this feast was extended to the universal church.

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Photographed at the basilica by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.