The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In Conceptione Immaculata Beatae Mariae Virginis
On this feast the Church celebrates that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first instant of her conception, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, by a singular grace and privilege of God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception, kept on the eighth of December, honours the truth that the Mother of God was, from the very first moment of her existence, untouched by original sin. She who was to bear the Word made flesh was prepared by God as a dwelling worthy of her Son, full of grace from the beginning. It is among the great solemnities of Advent, a First Class feast and, in many places, a holy day of obligation.
A dogma of the faith
This privilege of Our Lady was held and celebrated by the faithful for many centuries before it was solemnly defined. On the eighth of December 1854, Pope Pius IX, in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus, proclaimed as a dogma to be believed by all Catholics that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race, was preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
The doctrine takes nothing from the universal need of redemption; rather it magnifies it. Mary too was redeemed by her Son, but in a more excellent way, being preserved from sin rather than delivered from it. Four years after the definition, at Lourdes in 1858, the Blessed Virgin made herself known to Saint Bernadette with the words, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” confirming the faith of the Church.
Her witness today
The Immaculate Conception turns the eyes of the faithful, in the midst of Advent, toward the pure and humble Maiden through whom the Saviour came into the world. In honouring the sinlessness of Mary, the Church praises the power of the grace of Christ, which can keep a soul wholly His from the first instant of life. She is venerated under this title as the patroness of the United States and of many other lands, and the faithful invoke her as the all-pure Mother who leads her children to her Son.
The Collect
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy Son: we beseech thee, that, as by the foreseen death of the same thy Son thou didst preserve her from all stain, so thou wouldst grant unto us also, through her intercession, to come unto thee with clean hearts.
Deus, qui per immaculátam Vírginis Conceptiónem dignum Fílio tuo habitáculum præparásti: quæsumus; ut, qui ex morte ejúsdem Fílii tui prævísa, eam ab omni labe præservásti, nos quoque mundos ejus intercessióne ad te perveníre concédas.
Patronage
Under this title the Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured as patroness of the United States of America and of many nations and dioceses throughout the world.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this solemnity is observed on 8 December, as in the traditional calendar.
Common Questions
When is the feast of the Immaculate Conception?
It is kept on 8 December in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a First Class feast and, in many places including the United States, a holy day of obligation.
What does the Immaculate Conception mean?
It means that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved free from original sin from the very first instant of her conception, by a special grace of God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ. It refers to Mary’s own conception, not to the conception of Jesus.
When was it defined as a dogma?
Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of the faith on 8 December 1854, in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus. At Lourdes in 1858 Our Lady confirmed it, telling Saint Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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