The church of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) was dedicated today in 435, the first church in Rome to be dedicated to the Mother of God. It is one of four papal basilicas where the Pope has his own throne and altar, and where he officiates at Mass. Santa Maria Maggiore is also sometimes known as Our Lady of the Snows, from an old legend. It is told that in the year 352, a Roman aristocrat and his wife, who had too much money and no children, wanted to bequeath their fortune to the Virgin Mary. In a vision, she told them to build her a church on Rome’s Esquiline Hill, and she would make snow fall on the exact site. The next morning, even though it was high summer, a miraculous snowfall marked the spot.
Toni Morrison, the American novelist, died in New York City today in 2019. She is celebrated for novels which give testimony to African American history and experience, including her best known works, Beloved and Song of Solomon. Her writing ‘possesses the heightened power and resonance of myth’ according to the New York Times.
It is the feast of St Thaddeus of Edessa, who plays a part in an early Christian legend. In the story, the King of a Syrian town, Abgar the Black, wrote a letter to Jesus, asking him to come to see him as he was incurably ill. Jesus wrote back, enclosing an image of himself on cloth, to say he was about to return to his Father, but would send a disciple to heal Abgar and bring him to eternal life. Sure enough, Thaddeus was dispatched by St Thomas shortly after the passion of Jesus, and the King was healed and baptized.
‘Peace to you and your city! I have come for this purpose, to suffer for the world, to rise again, and to raise up the forefathers. But after I have been taken up into the heavens, I will send my disciple Thaddeus to you. He will enlighten and guide you, and your city, into the whole truth.’ The letter of Jesus in the Acts of Thaddeus
Some 900 Cornish people were massacred today in 1549 at Clyst Heath, outside Exeter, for rebelling against Cranmer’s new fangled Book of Common Prayer. The book had been imposed by law across England and Wales a few weeks earlier, replacing the familiar and time-hallowed Latin church services. With widespread anger, and some 7,000 people in rebellion, King Edward VI sent an army, which led to a series of pitched battles, huge loss of life, and too many rebel prisoners to manage. The army commanders ordered the 900 prisoners to have their throats cut, which was carried out in 10 minutes, according to a contemporary chronicler.
‘From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murther, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us. From all sedition and privy conspiracy; from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities; from all false doctrine and heresy; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandment, Good Lord, deliver us.’ The Litany and Suffrages, Book of Common Prayer, 1549
James Gibbs, the Scottish architect who designed St Martins-in-the-Fields, the famous church in Trafalgar Square, London, died today in 1754. Gibbs had originally wanted to replace the crumbling medieval church – built hundreds of years earlier on the fields outside Westminster – with a circular church on Italian lines, but the commissioners said no to that. He then built St Martin’s as a rectangular box, but with the steeple stuck in the middle, which was a much talked-about novelty.
Image: Greg_FOT