Aug. 5 Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, Opt. Mem.

We celebrate today the Optional Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of the four most illustrious churches of Rome. While each diocese and parish keeps its own dedication anniversary, the universal Church commemorates the consecration of the four great Roman basilicas, the mother churches, we may call them, of Christendom: St. John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major. By means of these feasts the Church seeks to link all Christians with the Holy See.

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