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• History
  • Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin
  • Church Fathers
  • Medieval formulation
  • Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus
• Feast, patronages and disputes
• Prayers and hymns
• Artistic representation
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Immaculate Conception

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the doctrine that Mary was conceived free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation) and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated in	Catholic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Major shrine	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Feast	December 8 (Roman Rite) December 9 (Byzantine Rite) August 13 (Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes	Crescent moonhalo of twelve starsblue robeputtiserpent underfootAssumption into heaven
Patronage	See Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

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The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.^[1] It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.^[2] Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854,^[3] by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[4] While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary’s freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.^[5]

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.^[7] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8]

Protestants rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as un-scriptural,^[9] though some Anglicans accept it as a pious devotion.^[10] Opinions on the Immaculate Conception in Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching;^[11] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.^[12] It is not accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy due to differences in the understanding of original sin, although they do affirm Mary’s purity and preservation from sin.^[1] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a “Roman novelty”.^[13]

History[edit]

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin[edit]

Main article: Original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Gospel of James, and the author created his story by drawing on Greek tales of the childhood of heroes and on the Old Testament story of Hannah (hence the name Anna/Anne), the mother of the biblical Samuel.^[14] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.^[15] Within the Gospel of James, the conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, which fits well with the Gospel of James’ persistent emphasis on Mary’s sacred purity, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.^[16] The author of the Gospel of James may have based this account of Mary’s conception on that of John the Baptist as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.^[17] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that “Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived.”^[18]

Church Fathers[edit]

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve, drawing comparison to “Eve, while yet immaculate and incorrupt — that is to say, not subject to original sin.”^[19] So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.^[19]

Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene‘s opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the “conceptio carnis” was taken up by some Western authors. The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.^[19]

Medieval formulation[edit]

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony’s Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,^[20] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.^[21] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,^[22] and the opponents of the feast of Mary’s conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary’s conception was to celebrate a sinful event.^[23] (The feast of Mary’s conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole church in 1693; the word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).^[22]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the Middle Ages, with Franciscan ‘Scotists‘ in its favour and Dominican ‘Thomists‘ against it.^[24] [25] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, “it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done.”^[26] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who “developed the idea of preservative redemption as being a more perfect one: to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.”^[27] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,^[28] declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception a “pious opinion” consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.^[29]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus[edit]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.^[30] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,^[6] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne’s father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.^[31]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.^[32] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,^[33] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.^[34]

In 1849 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Ubi primum soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception “could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition”, ^[35] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[36][4]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.^[37]

Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote Mémoire sur l’Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:

For the belief to be defined as a dogma of faith […] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of Revelation, expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.^[38]

Our Lady of Lourdes‘s 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous‘ description.^[39] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception”.

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah’s Ark), Jacob’s Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.^[40] From this wealth of support the pope’s advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: “The most glorious Virgin … was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,'”^[41] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.^[42] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase “full of grace” by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: “she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction.”^[43]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.^[44] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young Bernadette Soubirous said that Mary appeared to her at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed the apparition as authentic.^[45] There are other (approved) Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.^[46]

Feast, patronages and disputes[edit]

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, SicilyMain article: Patronages of the Immaculate ConceptionMain article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8] The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary’s immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.^[47] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.^[47] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. ^[48] Beginning around 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,^[23] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.^[49] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word “immaculate”.^[50] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.^[50] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase “immaculate conception” reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning “O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin”.^[51]

Prayers and hymns[edit]

The Roman Rite liturgical books, including the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours, included offices venerating Mary’s immaculate conception on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te” (“You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.” It continues: “Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.”)^[52] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,^[53] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,^[54] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,^[55] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,^[56] Ola Gjeilo,^[57] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,^[58] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].^[59]

Other prayers honouring Mary’s immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.^[60] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.^[61]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.^[62] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.^[63]

Artistic representation[edit]

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian artGiotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.^[7] During the Medieval period it was depicted as “Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate“, meaning Mary’s conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;^[64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.^[65]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his “El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.^[66] Pacheco’s iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.^[67] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun” from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.^[68]

Other denominations[edit]

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine’s specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.^[69][70] In 1894, when Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos, in 1895, replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.^[13] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that “the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous.”^[71]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).^[12][72]

Old Catholics[edit]

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.^[73][74]

Protestantism[edit]

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as un-scriptural,^[9] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on the Latin translation of Luke 1:28 (the “full of grace” passage) that the original Greek did not support.^[75] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.^[43]

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue‘s statement The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary , issued in 1990 after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated “by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary”;^[76] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Catholicism portal

• Act for the Immaculate Conception of Mary
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Church of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Congregation of the Immaculate Conception
• Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
• Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
• Miraculous medal
• Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
• Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
• Perpetual virginity of Mary
• Roman Catholic Marian art

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
10. ^ “Immaculate Conception”. An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Retrieved May 3, 2022 – via Episcopal Church.
11. ^ Shenouda III; Malaty, Tadros. “Lecture I: St. Mary’s Perpetual Virginity & Immaculate Conception” (PDF). Diocese of the Southern United States. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b “What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?”. Diocese of U.S.A. and Canada, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. January 19, 2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
14. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
15. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
16. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
17. ^ The Immaculate Conception: The Conception of St Anne ‘When She Conceived the Holy Mother of God’ According to the Ruthenian Tradition. Byzantine Leaflet Series. Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
18. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holweck, Frederick. “Immaculate Conception.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2022
20. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
21. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
24. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
25. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
26. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
27. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
28. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
29. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
30. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
31. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
32. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
33. ^ Mack 2003.
34. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
35. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
36. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
37. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
38. ^ “How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception”, Zenit, December 9, 2004
39. ^ “Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum”. www.dorotheum.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
40. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
41. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
42. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b German 2001, p. 596.
44. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
45. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
46. ^ Dabrowski, P.M. (2013). “Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877-1880”. The Polish Review. 58 (3): 35–64. doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
48. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
49. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
51. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
52. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
53. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
54. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
55. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
56. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
57. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
58. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
59. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
60. ^ “Prayers of Consecration”. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
61. ^ “Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception”.
62. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
63. ^ “Immaculate Conception Prayers”.
64. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
65. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
66. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
67. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
68. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
69. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
70. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
71. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
72. ^ “THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan”.
73. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
74. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
75. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
76. ^ Stafford, J. Francis; Dulles, Avery; Eno, Robert B.; et al. (February 23, 1990). “Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary” (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
77. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

Bibliography[edit]

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• Collinge, William J. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Catholicism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810879799.
• Coyle, Kathleen (1996). Mary in the Christian Tradition: From a Contemporary Perspective. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 9780852443804.
• Elliott, J.K. (1993). The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780191520327.
• Espín, Orlando O. (2007). “Immaculate Conception”. In Espín, Orlando O.; Nickoloff, James B. (eds.). An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies. Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814658567.
• Fastiggi, Robert (2019). “Mariology in the Counter-Reformation”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Foley, Donal Anthony (2002). Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 9780852443132.
• German, T.J. (2001). “Immaculate Conception”. In Elwell, Walter A. (ed.). Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Academic. ISBN 9780801020759.
• Göle, Nilüfer (2016). Islam and Public Controversy in Europe. Routledge. ISBN 9781317112549.
• Granziera, Patrizia (2019). “Mary and Inculturation in Mexico and India”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Hall, James (2018). Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Routledge. ISBN 9780429962509.
• Hernández, Rosilie (2019). Immaculate Conceptions: The Power of the Religious Imagination in Early Modern Spain. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781487504779.
• Herringer, Carol Engelhardt (2019). “Mary as Cultural Symbol in the Nineteenth Century”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2012). A New History of Christianity. Abingdon Press. ISBN 9781426719141.
• Hammond, Carolyn (2003). “Mary”. In Houlden, James Leslie (ed.). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576078563.
• Jenner, Katherine Lee Rawlings (1910). Our Lady in Art. A.C. McClurg & Company. OCLC 903296042.
• Kappes, Christiaan (2014). “Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary”. Academy of the Immaculate. New Bedford, MA.
• Katz, Melissa R.; Orsi, Robert A. (2001). Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts. Oxford University Press.
• Kritzeck, James Aloysius (2015). Peter the Venerable and Islam. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400875771.
• Lohse, Bernhard (1966). A Short History of Christian Doctrine. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451404234.
• Mack, John (2003). The museum of the mind: art and memory in world cultures. British Museum.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (1994). All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed: Biblical Mariology. Academy of the Immaculate. ISBN 9781601140005.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (2008). “The Mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Old Testament”. In Miravalle, Mark I. (ed.). Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons. Seat of Wisdom Books. ISBN 9781579183554.
• Maunder, Chris (2019). “Introduction”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Meyendorff, Jean (1981). The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 9788178354569.
• McGuckin, John Anthony (2010). The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444393835.
• Moffitt, John F. (2001), “Modern Extraterrestrial Portraiture”, in Caron, Richard; Godwin, Joscelyn; Hanegraaff, Wouter J.; Vieillard-Baron, Jean-Louis (eds.), Esotérisme, gnoses & imaginaire symbolique: mélanges offerts à Antoine Faivre, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9789042909557
• Mullett, Michael A. (1999). The Catholic Reformation. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415189149.
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• Norman, Edward R. (2007). The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520252516.
• Obach, Robert (2008). The Catholic Church on Marital Intercourse: From St. Paul to Pope John Paul II. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739130896.
• O’Collins, Gerald (1983), “Dogma”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664227487
• Pies, Ronald W. (2000). The Ethics of the Sages: An Interfaith Commentary on Pirkei Avot. Jason Aronson. ISBN 9780765761033.
• Reynolds, Brian (2012). Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Volume 1. New City Press. ISBN 9781565484498.
• Schaff, Philip (1931). Creeds of Christendom: Volume I (6th ed.). CCEL. ISBN 9781610250375.
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• Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2016). Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300219531.
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• Solberg, Emma Maggie (2018). Virgin Whore. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501730344.
• Stortz, Martha Ellen (2001). “Where or When Was Your Servant Innocent?”. In Bunge, Marcia J. (ed.). The Child in Christian Thought. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802846938.
• Tinsley, E.J. (2005), “Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Presbyterian Publishing House, ISBN 9780664227487
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• History
  • Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin
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• Feast, patronages and disputes
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• Artistic representation
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Immaculate Conception

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the doctrine that Mary was conceived free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation) and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated in	Catholic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Major shrine	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Feast	December 8 (Roman Rite) December 9 (Byzantine Rite) August 13 (Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes	Crescent moonhalo of twelve starsblue robeputtiserpent underfootAssumption into heaven
Patronage	See Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

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The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.^[1] It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.^[2] Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854,^[3] by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[4] While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary’s freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.^[5]

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.^[7] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8]

Protestants rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as un-scriptural,^[9] though some Anglicans accept it as a pious devotion.^[10] Opinions on the Immaculate Conception in Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching;^[11] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.^[12] It is not accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy due to differences in the understanding of original sin, although they do affirm Mary’s purity and preservation from sin.^[1] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a “Roman novelty”.^[13]

History[edit]

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin[edit]

Main article: Original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Gospel of James, and the author created his story by drawing on Greek tales of the childhood of heroes and on the Old Testament story of Hannah (hence the name Anna/Anne), the mother of the biblical Samuel.^[14] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.^[15] Within the Gospel of James, the conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, which fits well with the Gospel of James’ persistent emphasis on Mary’s sacred purity, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.^[16] The author of the Gospel of James may have based this account of Mary’s conception on that of John the Baptist as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.^[17] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that “Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived.”^[18]

Church Fathers[edit]

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve, drawing comparison to “Eve, while yet immaculate and incorrupt — that is to say, not subject to original sin.”^[19] So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.^[19]

Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene‘s opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the “conceptio carnis” was taken up by some Western authors. The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.^[19]

Medieval formulation[edit]

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony’s Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,^[20] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.^[21] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,^[22] and the opponents of the feast of Mary’s conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary’s conception was to celebrate a sinful event.^[23] (The feast of Mary’s conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole church in 1693; the word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).^[22]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the Middle Ages, with Franciscan ‘Scotists‘ in its favour and Dominican ‘Thomists‘ against it.^[24] [25] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, “it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done.”^[26] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who “developed the idea of preservative redemption as being a more perfect one: to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.”^[27] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,^[28] declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception a “pious opinion” consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.^[29]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus[edit]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.^[30] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,^[6] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne’s father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.^[31]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.^[32] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,^[33] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.^[34]

In 1849 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Ubi primum soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception “could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition”, ^[35] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[36][4]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.^[37]

Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote Mémoire sur l’Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:

For the belief to be defined as a dogma of faith […] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of Revelation, expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.^[38]

Our Lady of Lourdes‘s 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous‘ description.^[39] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception”.

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah’s Ark), Jacob’s Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.^[40] From this wealth of support the pope’s advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: “The most glorious Virgin … was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,'”^[41] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.^[42] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase “full of grace” by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: “she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction.”^[43]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.^[44] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young Bernadette Soubirous said that Mary appeared to her at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed the apparition as authentic.^[45] There are other (approved) Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.^[46]

Feast, patronages and disputes[edit]

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, SicilyMain article: Patronages of the Immaculate ConceptionMain article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8] The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary’s immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.^[47] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.^[47] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. ^[48] Beginning around 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,^[23] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.^[49] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word “immaculate”.^[50] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.^[50] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase “immaculate conception” reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning “O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin”.^[51]

Prayers and hymns[edit]

The Roman Rite liturgical books, including the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours, included offices venerating Mary’s immaculate conception on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te” (“You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.” It continues: “Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.”)^[52] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,^[53] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,^[54] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,^[55] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,^[56] Ola Gjeilo,^[57] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,^[58] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].^[59]

Other prayers honouring Mary’s immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.^[60] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.^[61]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.^[62] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.^[63]

Artistic representation[edit]

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian artGiotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.^[7] During the Medieval period it was depicted as “Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate“, meaning Mary’s conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;^[64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.^[65]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his “El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.^[66] Pacheco’s iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.^[67] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun” from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.^[68]

Other denominations[edit]

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine’s specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.^[69][70] In 1894, when Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos, in 1895, replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.^[13] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that “the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous.”^[71]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).^[12][72]

Old Catholics[edit]

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.^[73][74]

Protestantism[edit]

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as un-scriptural,^[9] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on the Latin translation of Luke 1:28 (the “full of grace” passage) that the original Greek did not support.^[75] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.^[43]

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue‘s statement The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary , issued in 1990 after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated “by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary”;^[76] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Catholicism portal

• Act for the Immaculate Conception of Mary
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Church of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Congregation of the Immaculate Conception
• Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
• Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
• Miraculous medal
• Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
• Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
• Perpetual virginity of Mary
• Roman Catholic Marian art

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
10. ^ “Immaculate Conception”. An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Retrieved May 3, 2022 – via Episcopal Church.
11. ^ Shenouda III; Malaty, Tadros. “Lecture I: St. Mary’s Perpetual Virginity & Immaculate Conception” (PDF). Diocese of the Southern United States. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b “What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?”. Diocese of U.S.A. and Canada, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. January 19, 2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
14. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
15. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
16. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
17. ^ The Immaculate Conception: The Conception of St Anne ‘When She Conceived the Holy Mother of God’ According to the Ruthenian Tradition. Byzantine Leaflet Series. Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
18. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holweck, Frederick. “Immaculate Conception.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2022
20. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
21. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
24. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
25. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
26. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
27. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
28. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
29. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
30. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
31. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
32. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
33. ^ Mack 2003.
34. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
35. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
36. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
37. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
38. ^ “How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception”, Zenit, December 9, 2004
39. ^ “Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum”. www.dorotheum.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
40. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
41. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
42. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b German 2001, p. 596.
44. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
45. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
46. ^ Dabrowski, P.M. (2013). “Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877-1880”. The Polish Review. 58 (3): 35–64. doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
48. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
49. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
51. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
52. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
53. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
54. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
55. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
56. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
57. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
58. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
59. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
60. ^ “Prayers of Consecration”. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
61. ^ “Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception”.
62. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
63. ^ “Immaculate Conception Prayers”.
64. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
65. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
66. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
67. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
68. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
69. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
70. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
71. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
72. ^ “THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan”.
73. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
74. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
75. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
76. ^ Stafford, J. Francis; Dulles, Avery; Eno, Robert B.; et al. (February 23, 1990). “Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary” (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
77. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

Bibliography[edit]

• Armentrout, Don S. (2000). An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Church Publishing. ISBN 9780898697018.
• Barrely, Christine (2014). The Little Book of Mary. Chronicle Books. ISBN 9781452135663.
• Boring, Eugene (2012). An Introduction to the New Testament: History, Literature, Theology. Westminster John Knox. ISBN 9788178354569.
• Boss, Sarah Jane (2000). Empress and Handmaid: On Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary. A&C Black. ISBN 9780304707812.
• Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837851.
• Brown, Raymond Edward (1978). Mary in the New Testament. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809121687.
• Buchanan, Colin (2015). Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442250161.
• Cameron, Euan (1996), “Cultural and Sociopolitical Context of the Reformation”, in Sæbø, Magne; Brekelmans, Christianus; Haran, Menahem; Fishbane, Michael A.; Ska, Jean Louis; Machinist, Peter (eds.), Hebrew Bible, Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN 9783525539828
• Carrigan, Henry L. (2000). “Virgin Birth”. In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9789053565032.
• Collinge, William J. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Catholicism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810879799.
• Coyle, Kathleen (1996). Mary in the Christian Tradition: From a Contemporary Perspective. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 9780852443804.
• Elliott, J.K. (1993). The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780191520327.
• Espín, Orlando O. (2007). “Immaculate Conception”. In Espín, Orlando O.; Nickoloff, James B. (eds.). An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies. Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814658567.
• Fastiggi, Robert (2019). “Mariology in the Counter-Reformation”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Foley, Donal Anthony (2002). Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World. Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 9780852443132.
• German, T.J. (2001). “Immaculate Conception”. In Elwell, Walter A. (ed.). Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Academic. ISBN 9780801020759.
• Göle, Nilüfer (2016). Islam and Public Controversy in Europe. Routledge. ISBN 9781317112549.
• Granziera, Patrizia (2019). “Mary and Inculturation in Mexico and India”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Hall, James (2018). Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Routledge. ISBN 9780429962509.
• Hernández, Rosilie (2019). Immaculate Conceptions: The Power of the Religious Imagination in Early Modern Spain. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781487504779.
• Herringer, Carol Engelhardt (2019). “Mary as Cultural Symbol in the Nineteenth Century”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2012). A New History of Christianity. Abingdon Press. ISBN 9781426719141.
• Hammond, Carolyn (2003). “Mary”. In Houlden, James Leslie (ed.). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576078563.
• Jenner, Katherine Lee Rawlings (1910). Our Lady in Art. A.C. McClurg & Company. OCLC 903296042.
• Kappes, Christiaan (2014). “Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary”. Academy of the Immaculate. New Bedford, MA.
• Katz, Melissa R.; Orsi, Robert A. (2001). Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts. Oxford University Press.
• Kritzeck, James Aloysius (2015). Peter the Venerable and Islam. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400875771.
• Lohse, Bernhard (1966). A Short History of Christian Doctrine. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451404234.
• Mack, John (2003). The museum of the mind: art and memory in world cultures. British Museum.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (1994). All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed: Biblical Mariology. Academy of the Immaculate. ISBN 9781601140005.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (2008). “The Mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Old Testament”. In Miravalle, Mark I. (ed.). Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons. Seat of Wisdom Books. ISBN 9781579183554.
• Maunder, Chris (2019). “Introduction”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Meyendorff, Jean (1981). The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 9788178354569.
• McGuckin, John Anthony (2010). The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444393835.
• Moffitt, John F. (2001), “Modern Extraterrestrial Portraiture”, in Caron, Richard; Godwin, Joscelyn; Hanegraaff, Wouter J.; Vieillard-Baron, Jean-Louis (eds.), Esotérisme, gnoses & imaginaire symbolique: mélanges offerts à Antoine Faivre, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9789042909557
• Mullett, Michael A. (1999). The Catholic Reformation. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415189149.
• Nixon, Virginia (2004). Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe. Penn State Press. ISBN 0271024666.
• Norman, Edward R. (2007). The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520252516.
• Obach, Robert (2008). The Catholic Church on Marital Intercourse: From St. Paul to Pope John Paul II. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739130896.
• O’Collins, Gerald (1983), “Dogma”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664227487
• Pies, Ronald W. (2000). The Ethics of the Sages: An Interfaith Commentary on Pirkei Avot. Jason Aronson. ISBN 9780765761033.
• Reynolds, Brian (2012). Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Volume 1. New City Press. ISBN 9781565484498.
• Schaff, Philip (1931). Creeds of Christendom: Volume I (6th ed.). CCEL. ISBN 9781610250375.
• Sheed, Frank J. (1958). Theology for Beginners. A&C Black. ISBN 9780722074251.
• Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2016). Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300219531.
• Smit, Peter-Ben (2019). Old Catholic Theology: An Introduction. Brill. ISBN 9789004412149.
• Solberg, Emma Maggie (2018). Virgin Whore. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501730344.
• Stortz, Martha Ellen (2001). “Where or When Was Your Servant Innocent?”. In Bunge, Marcia J. (ed.). The Child in Christian Thought. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802846938.
• Tinsley, E.J. (2005), “Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Presbyterian Publishing House, ISBN 9780664227487
• Toews, John (2013). The Story of Original Sin. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781620323694.
• Twomey, Lesley K. (2008). The Serpent and the Rose: The Immaculate Conception and Hispanic Poetry in the Late Medieval Period. Brill. ISBN 9789047433200.
• Ware, Bishop Kallistos (1995). The Orthodox Way. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 9780913836583.
• Wiley, Tatha (2002). Original Sin: Origins, Developments, Contemporary Meanings. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809141289.
• Williams, Paul (2019). “The Virgin Mary in the Eucharist”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Wright, David F. (1992). “Mary”. In McKim, Donald K.; Wright, David F. (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664218829.

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Immaculate Conception

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the doctrine that Mary was conceived free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation) and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated in	Catholic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Major shrine	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Feast	December 8 (Roman Rite) December 9 (Byzantine Rite) August 13 (Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes	Crescent moonhalo of twelve starsblue robeputtiserpent underfootAssumption into heaven
Patronage	See Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

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The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.^[1] It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.^[2] Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854,^[3] by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[4] While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary’s freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.^[5]

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.^[7] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8]

Protestants rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as un-scriptural,^[9] though some Anglicans accept it as a pious devotion.^[10] Opinions on the Immaculate Conception in Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching;^[11] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.^[12] It is not accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy due to differences in the understanding of original sin, although they do affirm Mary’s purity and preservation from sin.^[1] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a “Roman novelty”.^[13]

History[edit]

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin[edit]

Main article: Original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Gospel of James, and the author created his story by drawing on Greek tales of the childhood of heroes and on the Old Testament story of Hannah (hence the name Anna/Anne), the mother of the biblical Samuel.^[14] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.^[15] Within the Gospel of James, the conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, which fits well with the Gospel of James’ persistent emphasis on Mary’s sacred purity, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.^[16] The author of the Gospel of James may have based this account of Mary’s conception on that of John the Baptist as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.^[17] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that “Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived.”^[18]

Church Fathers[edit]

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve, drawing comparison to “Eve, while yet immaculate and incorrupt — that is to say, not subject to original sin.”^[19] So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.^[19]

Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene‘s opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the “conceptio carnis” was taken up by some Western authors. The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.^[19]

Medieval formulation[edit]

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony’s Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,^[20] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.^[21] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,^[22] and the opponents of the feast of Mary’s conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary’s conception was to celebrate a sinful event.^[23] (The feast of Mary’s conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole church in 1693; the word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).^[22]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the Middle Ages, with Franciscan ‘Scotists‘ in its favour and Dominican ‘Thomists‘ against it.^[24] [25] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, “it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done.”^[26] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who “developed the idea of preservative redemption as being a more perfect one: to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.”^[27] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,^[28] declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception a “pious opinion” consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.^[29]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus[edit]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.^[30] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,^[6] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne’s father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.^[31]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.^[32] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,^[33] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.^[34]

In 1849 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Ubi primum soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception “could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition”, ^[35] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[36][4]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.^[37]

Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote Mémoire sur l’Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:

For the belief to be defined as a dogma of faith […] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of Revelation, expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.^[38]

Our Lady of Lourdes‘s 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous‘ description.^[39] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception”.

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah’s Ark), Jacob’s Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.^[40] From this wealth of support the pope’s advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: “The most glorious Virgin … was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,'”^[41] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.^[42] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase “full of grace” by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: “she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction.”^[43]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.^[44] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young Bernadette Soubirous said that Mary appeared to her at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed the apparition as authentic.^[45] There are other (approved) Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.^[46]

Feast, patronages and disputes[edit]

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, SicilyMain article: Patronages of the Immaculate ConceptionMain article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8] The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary’s immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.^[47] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.^[47] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. ^[48] Beginning around 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,^[23] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.^[49] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word “immaculate”.^[50] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.^[50] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase “immaculate conception” reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning “O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin”.^[51]

Prayers and hymns[edit]

The Roman Rite liturgical books, including the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours, included offices venerating Mary’s immaculate conception on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te” (“You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.” It continues: “Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.”)^[52] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,^[53] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,^[54] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,^[55] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,^[56] Ola Gjeilo,^[57] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,^[58] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].^[59]

Other prayers honouring Mary’s immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.^[60] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.^[61]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.^[62] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.^[63]

Artistic representation[edit]

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian artGiotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.^[7] During the Medieval period it was depicted as “Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate“, meaning Mary’s conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;^[64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.^[65]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his “El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.^[66] Pacheco’s iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.^[67] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun” from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.^[68]

Other denominations[edit]

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine’s specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.^[69][70] In 1894, when Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos, in 1895, replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.^[13] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that “the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous.”^[71]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).^[12][72]

Old Catholics[edit]

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.^[73][74]

Protestantism[edit]

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as un-scriptural,^[9] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on the Latin translation of Luke 1:28 (the “full of grace” passage) that the original Greek did not support.^[75] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.^[43]

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue‘s statement The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary , issued in 1990 after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated “by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary”;^[76] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Catholicism portal

• Act for the Immaculate Conception of Mary
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Church of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Congregation of the Immaculate Conception
• Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
• Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
• Miraculous medal
• Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
• Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
• Perpetual virginity of Mary
• Roman Catholic Marian art

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
10. ^ “Immaculate Conception”. An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Retrieved May 3, 2022 – via Episcopal Church.
11. ^ Shenouda III; Malaty, Tadros. “Lecture I: St. Mary’s Perpetual Virginity & Immaculate Conception” (PDF). Diocese of the Southern United States. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b “What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?”. Diocese of U.S.A. and Canada, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. January 19, 2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
14. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
15. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
16. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
17. ^ The Immaculate Conception: The Conception of St Anne ‘When She Conceived the Holy Mother of God’ According to the Ruthenian Tradition. Byzantine Leaflet Series. Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
18. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holweck, Frederick. “Immaculate Conception.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2022
20. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
21. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
24. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
25. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
26. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
27. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
28. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
29. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
30. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
31. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
32. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
33. ^ Mack 2003.
34. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
35. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
36. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
37. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
38. ^ “How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception”, Zenit, December 9, 2004
39. ^ “Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum”. www.dorotheum.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
40. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
41. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
42. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b German 2001, p. 596.
44. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
45. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
46. ^ Dabrowski, P.M. (2013). “Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877-1880”. The Polish Review. 58 (3): 35–64. doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
48. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
49. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
51. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
52. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
53. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
54. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
55. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
56. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
57. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
58. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
59. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
60. ^ “Prayers of Consecration”. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
61. ^ “Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception”.
62. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
63. ^ “Immaculate Conception Prayers”.
64. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
65. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
66. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
67. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
68. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
69. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
70. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
71. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
72. ^ “THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan”.
73. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
74. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
75. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
76. ^ Stafford, J. Francis; Dulles, Avery; Eno, Robert B.; et al. (February 23, 1990). “Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary” (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
77. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

Bibliography[edit]

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• Barrely, Christine (2014). The Little Book of Mary. Chronicle Books. ISBN 9781452135663.
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Immaculate Conception

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the doctrine that Mary was conceived free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation) and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated in	Catholic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Major shrine	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Feast	December 8 (Roman Rite) December 9 (Byzantine Rite) August 13 (Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes	Crescent moonhalo of twelve starsblue robeputtiserpent underfootAssumption into heaven
Patronage	See Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

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The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.^[1] It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.^[2] Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854,^[3] by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[4] While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary’s freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.^[5]

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.^[7] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8]

Protestants rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as un-scriptural,^[9] though some Anglicans accept it as a pious devotion.^[10] Opinions on the Immaculate Conception in Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching;^[11] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.^[12] It is not accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy due to differences in the understanding of original sin, although they do affirm Mary’s purity and preservation from sin.^[1] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a “Roman novelty”.^[13]

History[edit]

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin[edit]

Main article: Original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Gospel of James, and the author created his story by drawing on Greek tales of the childhood of heroes and on the Old Testament story of Hannah (hence the name Anna/Anne), the mother of the biblical Samuel.^[14] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.^[15] Within the Gospel of James, the conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, which fits well with the Gospel of James’ persistent emphasis on Mary’s sacred purity, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.^[16] The author of the Gospel of James may have based this account of Mary’s conception on that of John the Baptist as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.^[17] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that “Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived.”^[18]

Church Fathers[edit]

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve, drawing comparison to “Eve, while yet immaculate and incorrupt — that is to say, not subject to original sin.”^[19] So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.^[19]

Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene‘s opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the “conceptio carnis” was taken up by some Western authors. The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.^[19]

Medieval formulation[edit]

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony’s Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,^[20] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.^[21] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,^[22] and the opponents of the feast of Mary’s conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary’s conception was to celebrate a sinful event.^[23] (The feast of Mary’s conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole church in 1693; the word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).^[22]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the Middle Ages, with Franciscan ‘Scotists‘ in its favour and Dominican ‘Thomists‘ against it.^[24] [25] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, “it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done.”^[26] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who “developed the idea of preservative redemption as being a more perfect one: to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.”^[27] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,^[28] declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception a “pious opinion” consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.^[29]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus[edit]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.^[30] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,^[6] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne’s father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.^[31]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.^[32] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,^[33] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.^[34]

In 1849 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Ubi primum soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception “could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition”, ^[35] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[36][4]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.^[37]

Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote Mémoire sur l’Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:

For the belief to be defined as a dogma of faith […] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of Revelation, expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.^[38]

Our Lady of Lourdes‘s 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous‘ description.^[39] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception”.

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah’s Ark), Jacob’s Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.^[40] From this wealth of support the pope’s advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: “The most glorious Virgin … was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,'”^[41] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.^[42] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase “full of grace” by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: “she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction.”^[43]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.^[44] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young Bernadette Soubirous said that Mary appeared to her at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed the apparition as authentic.^[45] There are other (approved) Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.^[46]

Feast, patronages and disputes[edit]

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, SicilyMain article: Patronages of the Immaculate ConceptionMain article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8] The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary’s immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.^[47] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.^[47] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. ^[48] Beginning around 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,^[23] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.^[49] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word “immaculate”.^[50] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.^[50] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase “immaculate conception” reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning “O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin”.^[51]

Prayers and hymns[edit]

The Roman Rite liturgical books, including the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours, included offices venerating Mary’s immaculate conception on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te” (“You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.” It continues: “Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.”)^[52] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,^[53] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,^[54] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,^[55] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,^[56] Ola Gjeilo,^[57] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,^[58] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].^[59]

Other prayers honouring Mary’s immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.^[60] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.^[61]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.^[62] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.^[63]

Artistic representation[edit]

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian artGiotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.^[7] During the Medieval period it was depicted as “Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate“, meaning Mary’s conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;^[64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.^[65]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his “El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.^[66] Pacheco’s iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.^[67] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun” from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.^[68]

Other denominations[edit]

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine’s specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.^[69][70] In 1894, when Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos, in 1895, replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.^[13] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that “the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous.”^[71]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).^[12][72]

Old Catholics[edit]

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.^[73][74]

Protestantism[edit]

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as un-scriptural,^[9] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on the Latin translation of Luke 1:28 (the “full of grace” passage) that the original Greek did not support.^[75] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.^[43]

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue‘s statement The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary , issued in 1990 after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated “by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary”;^[76] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Catholicism portal

• Act for the Immaculate Conception of Mary
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Church of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Congregation of the Immaculate Conception
• Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
• Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
• Miraculous medal
• Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
• Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
• Perpetual virginity of Mary
• Roman Catholic Marian art

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
10. ^ “Immaculate Conception”. An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Retrieved May 3, 2022 – via Episcopal Church.
11. ^ Shenouda III; Malaty, Tadros. “Lecture I: St. Mary’s Perpetual Virginity & Immaculate Conception” (PDF). Diocese of the Southern United States. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b “What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?”. Diocese of U.S.A. and Canada, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. January 19, 2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
14. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
15. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
16. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
17. ^ The Immaculate Conception: The Conception of St Anne ‘When She Conceived the Holy Mother of God’ According to the Ruthenian Tradition. Byzantine Leaflet Series. Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
18. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holweck, Frederick. “Immaculate Conception.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2022
20. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
21. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
24. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
25. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
26. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
27. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
28. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
29. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
30. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
31. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
32. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
33. ^ Mack 2003.
34. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
35. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
36. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
37. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
38. ^ “How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception”, Zenit, December 9, 2004
39. ^ “Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum”. www.dorotheum.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
40. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
41. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
42. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b German 2001, p. 596.
44. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
45. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
46. ^ Dabrowski, P.M. (2013). “Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877-1880”. The Polish Review. 58 (3): 35–64. doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
48. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
49. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
51. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
52. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
53. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
54. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
55. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
56. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
57. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
58. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
59. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
60. ^ “Prayers of Consecration”. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
61. ^ “Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception”.
62. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
63. ^ “Immaculate Conception Prayers”.
64. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
65. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
66. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
67. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
68. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
69. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
70. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
71. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
72. ^ “THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan”.
73. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
74. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
75. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
76. ^ Stafford, J. Francis; Dulles, Avery; Eno, Robert B.; et al. (February 23, 1990). “Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary” (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
77. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

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• Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2012). A New History of Christianity. Abingdon Press. ISBN 9781426719141.
• Hammond, Carolyn (2003). “Mary”. In Houlden, James Leslie (ed.). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576078563.
• Jenner, Katherine Lee Rawlings (1910). Our Lady in Art. A.C. McClurg & Company. OCLC 903296042.
• Kappes, Christiaan (2014). “Immaculate Conception: Why Thomas Aquinas Denied, While Duns Scotus, Gregory Palamas, and Mark Eugenicus Professed Absolute Immaculate Existence of Mary”. Academy of the Immaculate. New Bedford, MA.
• Katz, Melissa R.; Orsi, Robert A. (2001). Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts. Oxford University Press.
• Kritzeck, James Aloysius (2015). Peter the Venerable and Islam. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400875771.
• Lohse, Bernhard (1966). A Short History of Christian Doctrine. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451404234.
• Mack, John (2003). The museum of the mind: art and memory in world cultures. British Museum.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (1994). All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed: Biblical Mariology. Academy of the Immaculate. ISBN 9781601140005.
• Manelli, Fr. Stephano (2008). “The Mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Old Testament”. In Miravalle, Mark I. (ed.). Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons. Seat of Wisdom Books. ISBN 9781579183554.
• Maunder, Chris (2019). “Introduction”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Meyendorff, Jean (1981). The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 9788178354569.
• McGuckin, John Anthony (2010). The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444393835.
• Moffitt, John F. (2001), “Modern Extraterrestrial Portraiture”, in Caron, Richard; Godwin, Joscelyn; Hanegraaff, Wouter J.; Vieillard-Baron, Jean-Louis (eds.), Esotérisme, gnoses & imaginaire symbolique: mélanges offerts à Antoine Faivre, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9789042909557
• Mullett, Michael A. (1999). The Catholic Reformation. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415189149.
• Nixon, Virginia (2004). Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe. Penn State Press. ISBN 0271024666.
• Norman, Edward R. (2007). The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520252516.
• Obach, Robert (2008). The Catholic Church on Marital Intercourse: From St. Paul to Pope John Paul II. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739130896.
• O’Collins, Gerald (1983), “Dogma”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664227487
• Pies, Ronald W. (2000). The Ethics of the Sages: An Interfaith Commentary on Pirkei Avot. Jason Aronson. ISBN 9780765761033.
• Reynolds, Brian (2012). Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods, Volume 1. New City Press. ISBN 9781565484498.
• Schaff, Philip (1931). Creeds of Christendom: Volume I (6th ed.). CCEL. ISBN 9781610250375.
• Sheed, Frank J. (1958). Theology for Beginners. A&C Black. ISBN 9780722074251.
• Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2016). Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300219531.
• Smit, Peter-Ben (2019). Old Catholic Theology: An Introduction. Brill. ISBN 9789004412149.
• Solberg, Emma Maggie (2018). Virgin Whore. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501730344.
• Stortz, Martha Ellen (2001). “Where or When Was Your Servant Innocent?”. In Bunge, Marcia J. (ed.). The Child in Christian Thought. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802846938.
• Tinsley, E.J. (2005), “Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, in Richardson, Alan; Bowden, John (eds.), The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, Presbyterian Publishing House, ISBN 9780664227487
• Toews, John (2013). The Story of Original Sin. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781620323694.
• Twomey, Lesley K. (2008). The Serpent and the Rose: The Immaculate Conception and Hispanic Poetry in the Late Medieval Period. Brill. ISBN 9789047433200.
• Ware, Bishop Kallistos (1995). The Orthodox Way. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. ISBN 9780913836583.
• Wiley, Tatha (2002). Original Sin: Origins, Developments, Contemporary Meanings. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809141289.
• Williams, Paul (2019). “The Virgin Mary in the Eucharist”. In Maunder, Chris (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198792550.
• Wright, David F. (1992). “Mary”. In McKim, Donald K.; Wright, David F. (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664218829.

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• History
  • Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin
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  • Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus
• Feast, patronages and disputes
• Prayers and hymns
• Artistic representation
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Immaculate Conception

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the doctrine that Mary was conceived free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation) and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated in	Catholic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Major shrine	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Feast	December 8 (Roman Rite) December 9 (Byzantine Rite) August 13 (Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes	Crescent moonhalo of twelve starsblue robeputtiserpent underfootAssumption into heaven
Patronage	See Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

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showDevotional practices
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The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.^[1] It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.^[2] Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a dogma until 1854,^[3] by Pope Pius IX in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[4] While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary’s freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.^[5]

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.^[7] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8]

Protestants rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as un-scriptural,^[9] though some Anglicans accept it as a pious devotion.^[10] Opinions on the Immaculate Conception in Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching;^[11] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.^[12] It is not accepted by Eastern Orthodoxy due to differences in the understanding of original sin, although they do affirm Mary’s purity and preservation from sin.^[1] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a “Roman novelty”.^[13]

History[edit]

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin[edit]

Main article: Original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century Gospel of James, and the author created his story by drawing on Greek tales of the childhood of heroes and on the Old Testament story of Hannah (hence the name Anna/Anne), the mother of the biblical Samuel.^[14] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.^[15] Within the Gospel of James, the conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, which fits well with the Gospel of James’ persistent emphasis on Mary’s sacred purity, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.^[16] The author of the Gospel of James may have based this account of Mary’s conception on that of John the Baptist as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.^[17] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that “Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived.”^[18]

Church Fathers[edit]

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve, drawing comparison to “Eve, while yet immaculate and incorrupt — that is to say, not subject to original sin.”^[19] So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.^[19]

Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene‘s opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the “conceptio carnis” was taken up by some Western authors. The Greek Fathers never formally or explicitly discussed the question of the Immaculate Conception.^[19]

Medieval formulation[edit]

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony’s Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,^[20] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.^[21] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,^[22] and the opponents of the feast of Mary’s conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary’s conception was to celebrate a sinful event.^[23] (The feast of Mary’s conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole church in 1693; the word “immaculate” was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).^[22]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the Middle Ages, with Franciscan ‘Scotists‘ in its favour and Dominican ‘Thomists‘ against it.^[24] [25] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God’s omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, “it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done.”^[26] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who “developed the idea of preservative redemption as being a more perfect one: to have been preserved free from original sin was a greater grace than to be set free from sin.”^[27] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,^[28] declared Mary’s Immaculate Conception a “pious opinion” consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.^[29]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus[edit]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.^[30] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,^[6] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne’s father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.^[31]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.^[32] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,^[33] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.^[34]

In 1849 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Ubi primum soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception “could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition”, ^[35] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.^[36][4]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.^[37]

Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote Mémoire sur l’Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:

For the belief to be defined as a dogma of faith […] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of Revelation, expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.^[38]

Our Lady of Lourdes‘s 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous‘ description.^[39] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception”.

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah’s Ark), Jacob’s Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.^[40] From this wealth of support the pope’s advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: “The most glorious Virgin … was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,'”^[41] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.^[42] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase “full of grace” by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: “she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction.”^[43]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.^[44] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young Bernadette Soubirous said that Mary appeared to her at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed the apparition as authentic.^[45] There are other (approved) Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.^[46]

Feast, patronages and disputes[edit]

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, SicilyMain article: Patronages of the Immaculate ConceptionMain article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.^[8] The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary’s immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.^[47] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.^[47] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. ^[48] Beginning around 1140 Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,^[23] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.^[49] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word “immaculate”.^[50] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.^[50] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase “immaculate conception” reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning “O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin”.^[51]

Prayers and hymns[edit]

The Roman Rite liturgical books, including the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours, included offices venerating Mary’s immaculate conception on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: “Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te” (“You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.” It continues: “Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.”)^[52] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,^[53] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,^[54] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,^[55] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,^[56] Ola Gjeilo,^[57] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,^[58] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].^[59]

Other prayers honouring Mary’s immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.^[60] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.^[61]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.^[62] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.^[63]

Artistic representation[edit]

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian artGiotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,^[6] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.^[7] During the Medieval period it was depicted as “Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate“, meaning Mary’s conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;^[64] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.^[65]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of “Our Lady” seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his “El arte de la pintura” of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.^[66] Pacheco’s iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.^[67] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to “a woman clothed with the sun” from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.^[68]

Other denominations[edit]

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy[edit]

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine’s specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.^[69][70] In 1894, when Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos, in 1895, replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.^[13] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that “the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous.”^[71]

Oriental Orthodoxy[edit]

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).^[12][72]

Old Catholics[edit]

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.^[73][74]

Protestantism[edit]

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as un-scriptural,^[9] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on the Latin translation of Luke 1:28 (the “full of grace” passage) that the original Greek did not support.^[75] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.^[43]

The Catholic–Lutheran dialogue‘s statement The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary , issued in 1990 after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated “by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary”;^[76] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Catholicism portal

• Act for the Immaculate Conception of Mary
• Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Church of the Immaculate Conception (disambiguation)
• Congregation of the Immaculate Conception
• Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
• Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception
• Miraculous medal
• Mother of God (Roman Catholic)
• Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
• Perpetual virginity of Mary
• Roman Catholic Marian art

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
10. ^ “Immaculate Conception”. An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Retrieved May 3, 2022 – via Episcopal Church.
11. ^ Shenouda III; Malaty, Tadros. “Lecture I: St. Mary’s Perpetual Virginity & Immaculate Conception” (PDF). Diocese of the Southern United States. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b “What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?”. Diocese of U.S.A. and Canada, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. January 19, 2016.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
14. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
15. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
16. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
17. ^ The Immaculate Conception: The Conception of St Anne ‘When She Conceived the Holy Mother of God’ According to the Ruthenian Tradition. Byzantine Leaflet Series. Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
18. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holweck, Frederick. “Immaculate Conception.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2022
20. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
21. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
24. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
25. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
26. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
27. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
28. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
29. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
30. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
31. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
32. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
33. ^ Mack 2003.
34. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
35. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
36. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
37. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
38. ^ “How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception”, Zenit, December 9, 2004
39. ^ “Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum”. www.dorotheum.com. April 8, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
40. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
41. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
42. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b German 2001, p. 596.
44. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
45. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
46. ^ Dabrowski, P.M. (2013). “Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877-1880”. The Polish Review. 58 (3): 35–64. doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035.
47. ^ Jump up to:^a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
48. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
49. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
50. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
51. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
52. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
53. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
54. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
55. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
56. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
57. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
58. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
59. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
60. ^ “Prayers of Consecration”. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
61. ^ “Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception”.
62. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
63. ^ “Immaculate Conception Prayers”.
64. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
65. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
66. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
67. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
68. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
69. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
70. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
71. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
72. ^ “THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan”.
73. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
74. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
75. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
76. ^ Stafford, J. Francis; Dulles, Avery; Eno, Robert B.; et al. (February 23, 1990). “Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary” (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
77. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

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