Our Lady of the Snows

It must also be noted that th is church is the most magnificent in Rome, after the i ncomparable Basilica of Saint Peter and that of the Lateran. It has one of the four doors that are opened solemnly in the Holy Year, and which are closed after the great jubilee has passed; it is also one of the five patriarchal churches and one of the seven principal churches of Rome. The Penitentiaries of the Order of Saint Dominic receive confessions there, just as the Jesuits do at Saint Peter's, the Benedictines at Saint Paul's, and the Franciscans at Saint John Lateran. One sees there two sumptuous chapels: one bui lt by S ixtus V, where the cradle of Our Lord is kept, which is only exposed on Christmas Day; the other built by Paul V, called the Pauline Chapel, where the lifelike painting of the Blessed Virgin, worked by the evangelist Saint L uke, is preserved. It is said that the latter cost more than seven hundred thousand Roman crowns, that is to say, more than two million five hundred thousand francs. The entire body of the church is also very rich. The vault is a gilded ceiling of marvelous artifice, and the floor is of white and black marble mixed with a quantity of mosaic figures. A very great solemnity takes place there on this day, and one sees falling all day long by artifice, in memor y of the ancient miracle of the snows of which we have spoken, white jasmine flowers that fill it with a very pleasant odor.

The other churches of Rome, dedicated to Our Lady, are so numerous that we do not claim to give all their names here. We will only say that almost all secular and regular communities have placed themselves, as if in rivalry, under the protection of this august Princess: the secular Chapters have Saint Mary of the Tiber, Saint Mary of the Rotunda, and Saint Mary in Via Lata; the Carthusians, the church of Our Lady of the Angels; the Dominicans, Our Lady of the Minerva; the Franciscans, Our Lady of Ara Coeli; the Penitents, Our Lady of Miracles; the Augustinians, Our Lady del Popolo; the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, Our Lady of Peace; the Carmelites, Our Lady Transpontina; the Olivetans, Our Lady the New, and the Feuillants, Our Lady of the Way. In all these churches, the praises of this Virgin of virgins are continually celebrated, and one often sees a great gathering of people there to pay her profound homage, and to implore her protection and her help.

Moreover, although the miracle of the snows, and subsequently the dedication of the temple built on the very place where they had fallen, are the true subject of today's solemnity, one must not, nevertheless, doubt that the intention of the Church is also to honor the virginal purity of our incomparable Queen, figured and represented by these snows. This purity is so great and so admirable that there is none among all creatures, and below that of God, which can be compared to it. Indeed, although Holy Scripture, in speaking of the Angels and the heavens, assures us that they are exposed to the infinite light of God's gaze, the heavenly Bridegroom makes it known to us that it is not so with Mary, and that there is no stain, no defect, and no imperfection in her: Et macula non est in te. Saint Bernard says that the inno cence and purity of the Angels cannot approach hers. Saint Thomas, in Opuscu lum VIII, as serts the same thing, and on the first chapter of the Sentences, he adds that God could produce a creature who was so pure that no other creature could ever rise higher, and that Our Lady was such a one.

Her purity consists, firstly, in that her body was exempt from every kind of defilement and corruption, by the most excellent and most perfect virginity that ever was and that one can conceive after that of Jesus Christ, her only Son; secondly, in that her soul was exempt from every stain of sin, having never contracted, nor committed, nor been able to commit any, not by nature like Our Lord, but by the abundance of her grace, in which she was confirmed, and by the singular protection of God; thirdly, in that her heart was perfectly detached from every creature and attached inseparably to God alone, in which consists the sublime purity of the spirit, since it is the mixture of created things that defiles and corrupts us, and it is, on the contrary, the union with the first principle and our final end that purifies and sanctifies us.

One may consult, on this subject: the Triple Crown, by Poiré; the Greatness of the Virgin, by Gibteuf; and the Excellences of Our Lady, by Prusse.