St. Mary Major, on Rome’s Esquiline Hill, is the city’s most important church honoring Mary, the Mother of Jesus. When you enter this church, built in the 5th century as Rome’s decline began, you are in a “school of prayer” and Mary is your guide.

As she heard, believed and prayed, Mary found God in her people’s history and in her own life, in the person of her Son. She helps others find God as life unfolds.

The church’s ancient art depicts events of the Old and New Testament that takes us from the beginning of time to its glorious completion. On the journey all of us make, this church invites us, with Mary, to hear and believe and pray.

“Pilgrim Churches of Rome,” a dvd about this and other great Roman churches, can be purchased at crossplace.com