Italian Festival Celebrates That One Time Ancient Rome Saw Snowfall in August in 358 A.D.

Many readers at SnowBrains have heard of Ullr, the Norse God of snow. You might even have heard of Skadi, Goddess of snow. But did you know that according to an Italian legend,  Christianity’s own Virgin Mary can bring snow?

• Related: Ready the Winter Sacrifice — The God of Winter is Not Ullr But Skadi

Each summer, a festival is celebrated all over Italy in the name of the ‘Mary of the Snow’ or in Italian ‘La Madonna Della Neve.’ This celebration dates back to 358 A.D. and celebrates the supposed ‘miracle of the snowfall’ on Aug. 5 in Rome.

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary (La Madonna) appeared to Pope Liberius and a childless yet wealthy patrician couple in a dream. In their dream, Mary instructed them to build a church on a spot in Rome that she would reveal at a later stage to them. When they woke up, they found the area of Esquiline Hill covered in snow. Clearly, this was her way of indicating her desired church spot since it was August and they were in Rome after all, so hardly a natural occurrence. So they took this as a sign from Mary and built her a church: La Basilica Della Madonna Della Neve (the church of Mary of the snow).

Over the years, many more churches were built in the name of ‘The Lady of the Snow.’ Today, a total of 150 such named churches can be found all over Italy. To commemorate the miracle of the snow, every August 5 different festivals are held at these churches. At some, “snow” falls at midnight, usually in the form of white confetti or flower petals, to honor the phenomenon.

The Italian ice cream manufacturer Antica Gelateria del Corso created an ice cream in 2022 especially for this celebration. The ‘Nevicata’, which means snowfall in English, was offered to worshippers at the Basilica in Rome: a lemon-flavored ice cream topped with orange and ginger and a dusting of white meringue on top.

So maybe this year we should pray to the Virgin Mary to make it snow, because, if she can make it snow in Rome in August, she can definitely make it snow in your hometown ski resort.

So on this note, I am off to make the sacrifice of stuffing myself with some lemon gelato. I’ll let you know if it brought me some snow.