Immaculate Conception

On December 8 the Church keeps the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — the dogma that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, by the foreseen merits of her Son. The dogma was solemnly defined by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. Four years later, in 1858, the Virgin appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes and, when Bernadette asked her name, answered: Qué soy era immaculada councepciou — "I am the Immaculate Conception," in the Gascon dialect of the Pyrenees. The apparition confirmed the dogma in the language of the poorest girl in the village.

The Immaculate Conception is the patronal feast of the United States — declared by the U.S. bishops in 1846, confirmed by Pius IX in 1847 — and of Spain, Portugal, and numerous dioceses and religious orders. The feast itself was kept in the East from the 7th century and in the West from the 11th; the theological dispute over whether Mary was conceived without original sin ran for centuries — defended by Duns Scotus and the Franciscans, questioned by the Dominicans — until Pius IX's 1854 definition settled it for the Catholic Church.

The great Marian shrines hold the feast as their theological foundation. Lourdes, where the Virgin confirmed the dogma in 1858, is the principal pilgrimage site of the Immaculate Conception — the basilica above the grotto bears the inscription Par l'Immaculée Conception; the torchlight procession on the evening of December 8 draws pilgrims from across France. In Rome, the Column of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna, erected in 1857, is the site of the papal visit on December 8 each year, when the Pope lays a wreath at its base. Fatima is devoted to the Immaculate Heart, the heart that was conceived immaculate. From Czestochowa to Kevelaer, from Siluva to Mariazell, every Marian shrine keeps December 8 as its own theological birthday.