Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Snows–W (III)

Truly that was a day of joy, when Mary, in the Name of Jesus, claimed Her right as Sovereign and Heiress of the Roman soil! To the East, at the highest point of the eternal City, She appeared on that blessed morning, literally like the rising dawn; beautiful as the moon shining by night; more powerful than the August sun, surprised to see Her tempering his heat, and doubling the brightness of his light with Her mantle of snow; more terrible than an army; for from that date, daring what neither Apostles nor Martyrs had attempted, and what Jesus Himself would not do without Her, She dispossessed the deities of Olympus of their usurped thrones. As was fitting, the haughty Juno, whose altar disgraced the Esquiline, the false queen of those lying gods, was the first to flee before Mary’s face, leaving the splendid columns of Her polluted sanctuary to the only true Queen of earth and Heaven.