Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major: Sermon of St. Germanus

Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major:  Sermon of St. Germanus

City of God, how high the claim is made for thee, and divinely in the Spirit has David sung to us of thee: openly, as I think, and without hesitation, calling that city of the great King which truly was chosen and stands before all others, not by the pre-eminence of its buildings or lofty hills, but which stands out by the greatness of its divine virtues and its uprising purity: I mean Mary, the most chaste and immaculate Mother Of God, where the King of kings and Lord Of lords pitched his tent, or rather, where the whole plenitude of Deity is embodied and dwells. This is that glorious city, this is the spiritual Sion. And this, I think it is, that David by divine presage foretold.

But even if someone should call her dwelling place the glorious city he would not be going beyond the bounds of truth or propriety. For if she is counted to be the living city of Christ the King, it is only right that her most holy temple, whose dedication we celebrate today, should be, and should be called, the glorious city. Not a city, that is, which enrolls its people under the power of an earthly and a mortal king; but under a heavenly one who leads his followers to everlasting life, and gives them his own kingdom.

But when you hear this word Dedication do not think of new buildings and recent constructions, but rather of a renewal in the spirit whereby our inner man lays aside the old garment all rent and torn with sin, and putting on the new one Of piety orders his life in a new kind of existence. Then does the Virgin undefiled take joy in us, if renewed in virtue and pious and devout behavior we take a chaste joy in the chaste feast of her the most chaste, and as though approaching her quite close we thus enter her august temple and arrange in order, and change for the better all things: in thought, word and deed. But let mercy come before all else, that mercy by which God is served, so that renewed in body and in soul, we may in a new way celebrate this feast-day of the Dedication of the most pure Mother of God.

Sermon for the dedication of the Church of our Lady.