The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major

The dedication commemorates Saint Mary Major, rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III after the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century. The traditional title Our Lady of the Snows belongs to its devotional history.

Vatican City State: Saint Mary Major (historical reference)

The Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the holy Fathers, also calls the Blessed Virgin: 1. the eastern gate, through which the high priest Jesus Christ enters and goes out into the world; he entered it the first time through her, and he will come there the second time; 2. the sanctuary of the Divinity, the repose of the Most Holy Trinity, the throne of God, the city of God, the altar of God, the temple of God, the world of God.

Saint Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §262 (excerpt)

Let us not then find it irksome to visit our Queen every day in some Church, or Chapel, or in our own house — where it would be well to this end to make in the most solitary place a little Oratory with her Image, which should be kept adorned with cloths, flowers, candles, or lamps; and before it let the Litanies, the Rosary, etc., also be said.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part II, Homage V, On Visiting the Images of Mary (excerpt)