ROME – Pope Francis on Monday, for the first time in his 11-year papacy, marked the feast of the dedication of his favorite Roman basilica by celebrating Vespers there and praying for the Virgin Mary to intercede in obtaining the gift of peace for the world.

Speaking to faithful gathered in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, one of four papal basilicas in Rome, the pope asked Mary to intercede in obtaining “peace, that peace which is true and lasting only when it flows from repentant and forgiven hearts; that peace which comes from the Cross of Christ, and from his Blood that he took from Mary and shed for the remission of sins.”

He spoke during a special Aug. 5 Vespers service marking the Feast of the Dedication of Saint Mary Major, Pope Francis’s favorite basilica in Rome which he visits before and after every international trip to pray before the famed Maria Salus Populi Romani icon housed in a chapel to the side of the main altar.

According to tradition, the basilica was constructed as the result of a miracle involving an unusual snowfall in the middle of summer.

As the story goes, the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius (352-366), and two pious Roman citizens, a man and his wife, in a dream asking that a church be built in her honor at the site of a snowfall that would take place the night between Aug. 4-5.

(In Rome, August is a month so unbearably hot that most Romans shutter their businesses and take a mandatory two weeks off during. Snow in Rome is also a rarity, happening at the most once a decade, if not less.)

Tradition holds that when the snow fell, Pope Liberius traced the outline of the church in the white dust that covered the ground and construction began. The basilica was finished a century later by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431, which declared Mary to be the Mother of God.

A special feast was then created for the “Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major,” which is marked every year with a three-day celebration culminating with a final Mass during which a shower of white flower petals will fall from the basilica’s ceiling to commemorate the miraculous snowfall in 358.

This year the celebration began Friday, Aug. 2 with Mass celebrated at the basilica by Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, and an Aug. 3 Mass at the basilica celebrated by Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president emeritus of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA).

On Sunday, Aug. 4, Vespers was held in the basilica followed by a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Piero Marini, former Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations and president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

An initial showering of white petals was done during a Mass Monday morning celebrated by Cardinal Stanislaw Rilko, archpriest of the basilica. A second showering of white petals is scheduled to take place during the praying of the Magnificat during the Vespers service presided over by Pope Francis.

In his homily for Vespers, Francis focused on the images of the snowfall, which he said evokes “marvel and amazement” in humanity, and the Maria Salus Populi Romani icon housed in the basilica.

The miraculous snowfall, he said, can be interpreted as “a symbol of grace, that is, of a reality that combines beauty and gratuitousness.”

“Grace cannot be deserved, let alone bought, it can only be received as a gift. As such, it is also totally unpredictable, just like a midsummer snowfall in Rome. Indeed, grace arouses marvel and amazement,” he said.

He then turned to the icon, which is an ancient Byzantine icon of Mary and the Child Jesus traditionally held to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and believed to have arrived in Rome in the 6th century.

A historic favorite among Jesuits, the icon is among the most well-loved and honored images in all of Rome. Over the centuries, it’s been credited with such miraculous feats as ending the Black Plague and a cholera epidemic and ensuring victory in the Battle of Lepanto.

Francis’s own link to the icon goes back to his election as pope when on March 14, 2014, the day after his election, he visited the basilica to pray and to offer his papacy to Mary’s intercession. Since then, he has visited the image before and after every international trip to pray for the voyage and its fruits.

First canonically crowned in 1838 by Pope Gregory XVI and a second time in 1954 by Pope Pius XII, the “Salus,” as it is colloquially referred to, has a history of miraculous tendencies and is currently housed in St. Mary Major’s Pauline Chapel, also known as the “Borghese” chapel.

Speaking of the basilica, Pope Francis said it is the “gem” of the basilica and that it is from the image of Mary and her divine son that “grace fully acquires its Christian form.”

“Grace appears in its concreteness, stripped of every mythological, magical, and spiritualistic vesture always lurking in the religious sphere,” he said.

Mary, he said, alluding to the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, “is full of grace, conceived without sin, immaculate as the freshly fallen snow.”

In the icon, Jesus, he said, holds a holy book in his left hand while giving a blessing with his right hand, “and the first one to be blessed is his mother, blessed among all women…In him alone dwells all the fullness of divinity; and she, with uncovered face, reflects his glory.”

“This is why the faithful come to ask the Holy Mother of God for a blessing, for she is the mediatrix of the grace that always and only flows through Jesus Christ, by the action of the Holy Spirit,” the pope said, noting that countless pilgrims are expected to visit the basilica, and the icon, during the upcoming Jubilee of Hope in 2025.

“Today, we are gathered here as a kind of vanguard, invoking her intercession for the city of Rome and for the whole world, particularly for peace, that peace which is true and lasting only when it flows from repentant and forgiven hearts,” Francis said.

He prayed for “that peace which comes from the Cross of Christ, and from his Blood that he took from Mary and shed for the remission of sins,” and closed his homily asking Mary to intercede for all present.

During an interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki last December, Pope Francis revealed that, in addition to having no intention of resigning, that has already made plans to be buried in Saint Mary Major after he passes away.

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