"Salus Populis Romani" : popularly known as 'Our Lady of the Snows'...

(Vatican Radio) The Pauline Chapel,visited by Pope Francis on the first morning of his pontificate is not the one in the Apostolic Palace. But another by the same name that lies within the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The Pope went there to pray by the icon of the Madonna known as the "Salus Populi Romani", at this popular Marian shrine in the heart of Rome.

So called because it's connected to a legend: that of a miraculous snow fall during a sweltering Roman summer. An episode the Roman faithful still mark today with prayerful celebrations and a symbolic cascade of flower petals from above symbolizing snow that fell on the 5th August of the year 358 .

Veronica Scarisbrick once visited there with the late Monsignor Charles Burton Mouton, who was at the time one of the canons of this Basilica. Join her there...

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