Major Occasion

After getting back Tuesday night from Split, our Station Church Wednesday was Saint Mary Major's, the first church in the West to be dedicated to the Mother of God. Our other early churches, built over the graves of the martyrs, were known by the relics they preserved. In the case of Mary, there were no remains over which to build.

This church holds a special place for me, since it has the same name as my home parish, Our Lady of the Snows (accurately named, in our case). According to the account, Mary appeared to a childless couple, asking them to build a church in her honor. Soon after on August 5, 353 (the year, not the time of day) it snowed on the Esquiline Hill in the outline of the church to be built for her (have you experienced the oven that is a Roman August?). A few decades later, the Universal Church had a little shindig called the Council of Ephesus (AD 431), which confirmed Jesus as being fully Divine and fully Human in one person--and correspondingly Mary was recognized in her motherhood as being the mother of the whole person, thus Mother of God, and not just his human flesh. Pope Sixtus III (not Pope Thirdus the VI) following the conclusion of the council erected today's basilica that was dedicated in honor of the Mother of God.

Saint Francis in the early 13th century is attributed with creating the first manger scene, with living animals and characters. Perhaps he got part of his idea from the crypt below the main altar, where from the seventh century a replica was formed to echo the grotto in Bethlehem.













Fragments of the manger are kept behind the altar.




Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into the language of his day, Latin, lived as a hermit in Bethlehem ('Hmm, I'm going back to the roots of the Word of God; why don't I hang out where the Word of God first showed up?'), and is now buried here in this crypt.

Over the main altar is a radiant representation of the Holy Spirit, who descends in the form of a dove over Christ at his baptism, having descended on his mother decades before in order to make the Word physically present in our world--as is now renewed at the altar today.















In the apse behind the main altar is a stunning mosaic showing Jesus and Mary hanging out in heaven. If you enlarge the image, you can see the 24 elders before the throne of the lamb to the left and right, dressed in white garments. Unfortunately my photo crops the lamb at the top of the image, but below the main depiction you can see scenes from the life of Mary, with the Nativity to the left, the Coming of the Magi to the right, and the Assumption in the middle. Notice Christ holding the white-clothed infant behind Mary, an image of the soul as she rejoins her son. In the main image you can see Saints Peter and Paul (I mean, obviously, Peter, Paul and Mar--OK, maybe not) and Saint Francis, joined by the slightly smaller Pope Nicholas IV (here Nicholas IIII--out of V's that day). On the right are Saints Joseph and John with Saint Anthony of Padua (go Franciscans!) joined by the diminutive James Cardinal Somebody (you try to make it out). In Jesus' left hand, as he places a crown on Mary's head, is an open book reading: "Veni, Electa, et ponam te thronu meu" (thronu: 4th decl. masc. abl.? The Vulgate has 'throno meo'. term apparently later usage--from Gk.), which translated, reads: "Come, Chosen One, and I will place you on my throne" (cf. Rev. 3:21).











'Hey Mom, does this fit?'