The Catholic Church celebrates this Thursday the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, Italy, one of the four major Roman basilicas, and the most important church dedicated to the Blessed Mother. In Rome, the traditional triduum in honor of the feast was held last August 1-3, followed by a two-day celebration that ends this Thursday, August 5, with a pontifical mass.
Pilgrims traditionally drop white rose petals from the dome after the feast mass in honorration of a miracle attributed to the Blessed Mother.
In the country, commemorative rites will be held in Dumarao, Capiz; Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental; Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte; and El Salvador, Misamis Oriental.
Also known as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Snows, the Blessed Mother, in an apparition in 352, requested a church to be dedicated in her honor on the spot to be indicated by a miraculous fall of snow on a hot summer night.
Pope Liberius built a church on the site of the snowfall in the Esquiline Hill, which was later enlarged and consecrated by Pope Sixtus III in 435.