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Dedication of the Church of Feast Day August 5 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 always the season of the greatest heat in the City, snow fell
by night and covered part of the Esquiline hill. 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 has been given various names; but, so that its title may indicate
its excellence, it is called the church of St. Mary Major. |