August 05 2020 - St. Mary Major - Salus Populi Romani

Typically the Church’s Liturgical Calendar calls for the celebration of a holy person, but today we celebrate the dedication of a holy place: St. Mary Major, one of Rome’s four principle basilicas.  The others are St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, and St. Paul outside the Walls. 

The basilica is the largest church in the world honoring God through Mary.  It stands atop one of Rome’s seven hills, and despite many restorations, still has the character of an early Roman basilica, containing ancient mosaics and a breathtaking shrine containing the relics of the crib of Bethlehem. 

What makes St. Mary Major a holy place? Well, it has been a place of pilgrimage for nearly 1500 years. Pilgrims have come from all around the world to honor the she in whose honor the basilica was erected: Our Lady. 

The basilica is of particular importance to the Christians of Rome, for it contains the ancient and venerated image of Mary, the Salus Populi Romani, depicting the Blessed Virgin as the help and protectress of the Roman People. She holds the Christ Child with the Greek Words “Mater Theou—Mother of God.”

According to legend, this image was painted by the Apostle Luke. The story goes that after the crucifixion, the pious women of Jerusalem (like the woman in the Goapel who cries out “Blessed is the womb who bore you”) urged St. Luke to visit Mary in the home of John the Apostle to memorialize her image. While he painted, the Mother of Jesus spoke of the life of her son. Which may explain why St Luke’s Gospel contains those wonderful infancy narratives and the stories prior to the Lord’s birth. Because Luke heard them right from the source! St. Luke brought the painting back to Jerusalem where it remained until it was discovered by Saint Helena in the 4th century

This is a wonderful legend emphasizing that even from the beginning of the Church, while it was still mostly centered in Jerusalem, there was a devotion to Our Lady, a desire to capture her image, that it may be venerated. Venerating images of the blessed mother, making statues, building churches to her honor, all goes back to the earliest generations of Christians.

Already in the year 593, Pope Gregory carried the image through Rome while praying for the end of the plague. We do well to invoke our sweet Lady and protectress, for an end to our current pandemic. Pope Francis has visited the image asking for deliverance as well.

I conclude with the words of Saint John Paul II, in his wonderful encyclical on the Mother of the Redeemer: “Let the entire body of the faithful pour forth persevering prayer to the Mother of God and Mother of mankind. Let them implore that she who aided the beginning of the Church by her prayers may now, exalted as she is in heaven above all the saints and angels, intercede with her Son in the fellowship of all the saints.” For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

That Our Lady may lead all people to the love of Christ, protect the Church from all evil, and aid us in the mission of the Gospel, and for deliverance from all plagues, diseases, especially the Coronavirus.

That all government leaders may be awakened to the supreme dignity of every human life, and that all people of our nation may work together for an end to the culture of death. 

That through Immaculate Mary, Queen of Peace, hatred, violence, and cruelty will cease in the world, especially today, we pray for the victims of violence and human trafficking.

That the sick may draw strength, consolation, and healing by turning to Our Lady, who

intercedes for us from her place in heaven. 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.