Basilica of St. Mary Major

The hill on which the «major» church of all the countless ones dedicated to Our Lady in Rome was to be built, namely the Esquiline Hill, was a macabre, desolate place in the days of the Republic. The hill was outside the Servian walls, and it was here that the dead bodies of those who had no burial place of their own were thrown into a big common grave.
In the days of the Empire, under Augustus, a stupendous and very extensive villa was built there by Maecenas, where he used to welcome and give hospitality to the artists of all Rome. Then the whole area completely changed its aspect, becoming enriched with patrician villas, monuments and basilicas.
However, when the Empire declined into decadence and eventually fell al-together, the sumptuous villas on the Esquiline Hill slowly began to go to rack and ruin.
The invaluable document entitled Curiosum urbis Romae makes it clear that some large constructions stile existed on the Esquiline Hill in the 4th century. These included the Licinian Basilica which, ac-cording to Ammianus Marcelhnus, had be-come a meeting place for Christians. Grisar
in fact put forward the theory that the ruins found during excavations carried out in the Piazza di S. Maria Maggiore in 1886 belonged to the Licinian Basilica.
There is an extremely well-known legend according to which a rich patrician named Johannes and his wife, both advanced in years and having no heirs, decided to use their wealth to provide a building that would honor the Mother of God in a special way.

The legend goes on to say that the Holy Virgin appeared in a dream to the two faithful persons, telling them where the church in her honor was to be built.
On the following morning, Johannes and his wife found that some snow had miraculously fallen on the very spot indicates on the top of the Esquiline Hill during the night: it was miraculous inasmuch as the night concerned was that between the 4th and 5th August 352. A similar phenomenon occurred some years ago, and was reported in the news-papers at that time.
But to return to the good Johannes, we can well understand his great astonishment when, on going to report the miraculous event to Pope Liberius (352-366), he learnt that the Holy Father had had the same vision in a dream on the same night. That very day, therefore, the Pope determined to walk in solemn procession to the Esquiline Hill and, in the snow that stile looked fresh, he traced out the perimeter of the new church: the church, that is, which Johannes and his devout wife supposedly built at their expense. The latest studies, based on the Liber Pontìficatis, recognize that Pope Liberius had a church constructed on the Esquiline Hill. However, this church was not the

present one. In any case, the fact that a church was built there can also be argued on the basis of Ammianus Marcellinus' account of the existence of Christian meeting places on the Esquiline Hill, and also as regards what the same Ammianus tells us happened upon the death of Liberius (366).
Unfortunately, even the Church founded by Christ - and made of the divine and the human at the same time - has often been torn by partisan quarrels and questions of supremacy.
In the present case, the basilica was the object of violent, blood-thirsty encounters between those who upheld the true legitimacy of Pope Damasus, elected in 366 upon the death of Liberius, and the partisans of the antipope Ursinus, whom the Prefect of Rome enjoined to restore the church to the Pope (by order of the Emperor Valentiman).
Be that as it may, the present basilica continued to be called «Liberian», though in reality it is rather the work of Pope Sixtus III (432-440), as was borne out by an inscription in verse inside the church, visible until the 6th century, and also by the inception Sixtus episcopus plebis Dei on the triumphal arch.
The building of the basilica, or rather its dedication in glory of the dogmatic truth proclaimed in the Council of Ephesus, has its part in the series of monumental glorifications of Truths denied but finally triumphant.
Before being called St. Mary Major, the church was given the name of Basilica maior by the ancients. After being initially known as the Basilica Liberi, both by St. Gregory the Great and in the Liber Pontificala, it was named ad (and also post) Praesepe, and was also called the Basilica ad nives (after the 1Oth century). A supposed relic of the crib of the Holy Babe Jesus was venerated in this basilica. However, this rich was brought to Rome in the 7th century, when the title of «S. Maria ad Praesepe» had already been in use for about a century. Nor must it be forgotten that John VII created his marvelous chapel in the Vatican basilica, hearing the same name «S. Maria ad Praesepe», in the following 8th century.