Santa Maria Maggiore in Rom.

Santa Maria Maggiore – the Greater Cathedral of the Virgin Mary in Rome has a feast day today. It is a joyful event, especially for all Slovaks. In this basilica, in the spring of 868, the Holy Father Hadrian II had a Mass celebrated in Slav. This was thanks to Saints Cyril and Methodius, who came to Rome and obtained permission from the Pope to use the old Slovak language in the Divine Liturgy as the fourth liturgical language in history, alongside Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
The temple is built to commemorate the apparition of the Virgin Mary to two husbands. She appeared to the two separately in Rome in the 4th century on August 4-5, 352. Patricius John and his wife were very wealthy, but had no children. For many years, they prayed and begged the Mother of God for help. They begged her to let them know how to dispose of their possessions when they had no children. And Our Lady appeared to both of them separately. But She told them the same thing:
“Build me a temple in Rome on that hill, which tomorrow will be covered with snow.”
The next day, August 5, the Romans could not stop wondering. It was the summer heat of August in that city. In the morning, Esquiline Hill was under the snow. This was in the year that St. Tiberius was consecrated Pope. The two husbands went to the Holy Father and told him about the apparition. St. Liberius had the same shade. So it was decided.
The Pope went with the priests to Esquiline to give thanks to God. The palace of Livia originally stood there. She was once the mother of Emperor Tiberius. Many Christians were martyred in her house. Now the snow has overtaken the site of the temple. It is also called the Temple of Our Lady of the Snows. It also has another name, Mary ad Praesepe, which means Mary at the manager. The man manager brought it to the temple from Bethlehem and displayed it in a chapel underground on a silver altar. Now they are behind a metal plate in a silver cabinet.
Within a year, St. Liberius consecrated the finished temple. The present high altar is a coffin. It contains the remains of the evangelist St. Matthew. It also has the relics of other saints.
The temple has the highest bell tower in Rome, which is in Romanesque style and is seventy-five meters high. Other popes have also paid special homage to the temple. In the 5th century, the Church was under the delusion of the priest Nestorius, who denied that the Virgin Mary was the Mother of God. Pope Sixtus III had the temple rebuilt to commemorate his victory over Nestorius’ error at the Council of Ephesus in 431. And in Pope Paul V’s 17th-century chapel, there is a miraculous image of the Virgin and Child called Salus Populi Romani, or Salvation of the Roman People, which dates from the 6th century.
In 590, a plague raged in Rome. Pope Gregory had the image carried through the city’s streets, with the epidemic disappearing and people being healed. In doing so, Holy Father Gregory and the people heard angels singing from heaven:
Rejoice, Queen of Heaven, alleluia!
Gregor fell to his knees and prayed these words:
“Pray that He may receive us to Himself, alleluia!”
Ever since then, this song has been sung through the Easter season. The plague ceased throughout Italy; Romans prayed for centuries before the image with answered petitions. That is why the Virgin Mary is venerated in the image as the protector of the Roman people.
Before the image was blinded, the murderer was sent to kill Pope St. Martin I in the 7th century. The Pope to whom the chapel with the idea is dedicated, Paul V, had a Corinthian column from the Roman Forum transferred from the Basilica of Constantine in front of the Greater Basilica of the Virgin Mary in the 17th century. He placed a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary on it and had the words engraved at the base of the column:
“He dedicated it to the Virgin, the fountain of peace.”