On August 5, Pope Francis will take part in the annual festivities at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Holy See Press Office announced on July 11, 2024. In this papal basilica near Termini station, where the pontiff has said he would like to be buried and possibly even retire, he will attend the traditional shower of rose petals commemorating the "miracle of the snow" that gave rise to the building.
The miracle
According to legend, on the night of August 4-5, 358, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to Pope Liberus (352-366). She asked him to build a church in her honor in a place she would miraculously indicate. The next morning, in the middle of August, the Esquiline hill appeared covered in snow, a sign of Our Lady's will.
To commemorate this anniversary, on the feast of the dedication of the major basilica, Pope Francis will go in person to attend the vespers celebrated at 5:30 p.m. by the archpriest coadjutor, Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas. During the celebration, thousands of rose petals will fall from the dome onto the crowd in memory of the miraculous snowfall.
The basilica is home to the icon of the Virgin Mary Salus populi romani (“Health of the Roman People”). The image is dear to the Romans, and Pope Francis has a great devotion to it. Since his election in 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has come to pray at her feet 115 times, notably before and after each trip. On December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, he honored her with a Golden Rose.
Retirement at St. Mary Major?
Recently, Francis has expressed his wish to be buried in this basilica.
"Just beyond the sculpture of the Queen of Peace, there's a small recess, a door that leads to a room where candelabras were stored. I saw it and thought, ‘This is the place.’ And that's where the burial site was prepared. I've been told it's ready," he reports in his recent book El Sucesor ("The Successor"), written with Vaticanist Javier Martìnez-Brocal.
Behind a discreet wooden door, the former candelabra closet — the future tomb of the 266th pope — lies behind the Salus populi romani chapel and the Sforza chapel, which is a space reserved for silent adoration.
In the event of his resignation, the pope could also choose to spend the last years of his life at St. Mary Major. Indeed, work has already been carried out in preparation for this eventuality, I.MEDIA has learned. According to both a Vatican source and a separate Roman source, a secure apartment has been prepared for him in the area reserved for the canons — the priests in charge of the basilica's spiritual service.
In his biography Life: My Story through History, published in March 2023, the Argentine pontiff raised this possibility. He explained that he considered the pontifical ministry to be "ad vitam" (“for life”) and saw "no conditions under which it could be relinquished."
However, he acknowledged that things might be different in the event of a "serious physical impediment." If this were to happen, he specified that he would not bear the title of "pontiff emeritus," but would move to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, in Rome, to resume his ministry hearing confessions and to "bring communion to the sick."
