Note 581 — Chapter II · THE SAINTS’ DAYS (continued 2)
Reading edition
Kirchenlexikon, viii. 2nd ed. 818; Brev. Rom. Dom i., Oct. lectio 7-9. On the 5th August takes place the local feast of Our Lady of the Snows, “Maria ad Nives,” in the basilica of Sta. Maria Maggiore in Rome. As the office has been incorporated in the Breviary, a short account of it may be justified in this place. Pope Liberius erected a basilica on the Esquiline, on the site of Livia’s market, which was called after him “Liberiana.” In the next century, Sixtus III. restored the church and changed its title, dedicating it to the Mother of God (Lib. Pont., Liberius, No. 52, Xystus III., No. 63). From henceforth it was known as “Basilica S. Mariæ,” at the present day, Sta. Maria Maggiore. The miracle of the snow is not mentioned in any of the original documents, but only in mediæval writings. The 5th August may have been the day of the dedication of the basilica. See Grisar, Gesch. Roms., i. 153 A. 1. The legend of the translation of the Holy House of Loreto (10th Dec.) will not stand historical investigation. According to trustworthy accounts, pilgrims to Nazareth already in the eighth century found the holy house there no longer, but only a church on the site where it had stood. Adamnan, De Locis Sanctis, 2, 26; Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxxviii. 304. Antoninus Plac., Itinerarium, c. 5, in Geyser, Itinerarium Hieros., 161, 197; Nicephorus Call., (Hist. Eccl., 8, 30), names Helena as the foundress of the church built on the spot where the house of the Anunnciation had stood. See L. de Feis, La Santa Casa di Loreto ed il Santuario di Nazareth, Florence, 1904.
[For Our Lady’s feasts as observed in England, see Fr. Bridgett, op. cit., chap. vi. For what may be urged in favour of the Holy House of Loreto, see an article by the Rev. G. E. Phillips, S.J., in the Ushaw Magazine, March 1908. Trans.]