This is a tradition that is repeated every year in the Eternal City; however, this time it will be different.
It will be the first time that Pope Leo XIV goes to Minganelli Square, the heart of Piazza di Spagna in Rome, to lay flowers and pray at the feet of the statue of the Immaculate Conception on the day of her solemnity.
It is one of the most special days of Advent: at 7:00 in the morning, the Roman fire brigade climbs to the top of the 12-meter-high statue to place a wreath of flowers.
This ceremony is repeated every December in honor of the 220 firefighters who began the custom on December 8, 1875.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a petition movement began to push for a definition of the Immaculate Conception, given the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin. Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed it a Dogma of Faith.
However, the devotion to the Immaculate Conception originates long before that date: four centuries earlier, in 1466, thirteen towns in the region of Zamora made history by subscribing to the first vow of the Immaculate, that is, the definition of the Immaculate Conception.
Pope Leo XIV is expected to arrive in the square around four in the afternoon, where he will be received by the Cardinal Vicar for the Diocese of Rome and the mayor of the capital.
AT
Trans. CRT
