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Feast of the Immaculate Conception

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Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
Mary's holy and immaculate conception, by Francisco Rizi, Museo del Prado, 17th-century, Oil on canvas.
Also calledSolemnity of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception Day
Observed byRoman Catholic Church
SignificanceThe most pure and sinless conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary without Original Sin
CelebrationsFestive pageantry, grand fireworks, cultural dancing,
religious and military processions, food and costumes
ObservancesMass and other liturgical celebrations
DateDecember 8
Next time8 December 2024 (2024-12-08)
Frequencyannual
Related toNativity of Mary
Assumption of Mary

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, also called Immaculate Conception Day, celebrates the sinless lifespan and Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, celebrated on December 8, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, celebrated on September 8. It is one of the most important Marian feasts in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated worldwide.

By Pontifical decree, it is the patronal feast day of Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Korea, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Philippines, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay. By royal decree, it is designated as the day honoring the patroness of Portugal. It is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church and some select Protestant Christian denominations.

Since 1953, the Pope visits the Column of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna to offer expiatory prayers commemorating the solemn event.

The feast was first solemnized as a Holy Day of Obligation[1] on 6 December 1708 under the Papal Bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus[2][3] by Pope Clement XI[4] and is often celebrated with Catholic Mass, parades, fireworks, processions, food, and cultural festivities in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is generally considered a Family Day, especially in many pious Catholic countries.

History

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Immaculate Conception by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (c. 1675)
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A notable image of the Immaculate Conception venerated within Saint Peter's Basilica, and was canonically crowned by Pope Pius IX (1854) and Pius X (1904).

The Eastern Christian Church first celebrated a "Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy and All Pure Mother of God" on December 9, perhaps as early as the 5th century in Syria. The original title of the feast focused more specifically on Saint Anne, being termed "Sylepsis tes hagias kai theoprometoros Annas" ("conception of Saint Anne, the Ancestress of God").[5] By the 7th century, the feast was already widely known in the East. However, when the Eastern Church called Mary "Achrantos" ('spotless, immaculate') — this was not defined doctrine.

The majority of Orthodox Christians do not accept the Scholastic definition of Mary's preservation from original sin before her birth as subsequently defined in the Western Church after the Great Schism of 1054.[6] After the feast was translated to the Western Church in the 8th century, it began to be celebrated on December 8. It spread from the Byzantine area of Southern Italy to Normandy during the period of Norman dominance over southern Italy. From there it spread to England, France, Germany, and eventually Rome.[7]

In 1568, Pope Pius V revised the Roman Breviary, and though the Franciscans were allowed to retain the Office and Mass written by Bernardine dei Busti, this office was suppressed for the rest of the Church, and the office of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was substituted instead, the word "Conception" being substituted for "Nativity".[8]

According to the Papal Bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus, dated 6 December 1708, Pope Clement XI mandated the feast as a Holy Day of Obligation which is to be celebrated in future years by the faithful.[9] Furthermore, the pontiff requested that the papal bull be notarized in the Holy See to be further copied and reproduced for dissemination.

Prior to Pope Pius IX's definition of the Immaculate Conception as a Roman Catholic dogma in 1854, most missals referred to it as the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The festal texts of this period focused more on the action of her conception than on the theological question of her preservation from original sin. A missal published in England in 1806 indicates the same Collect for the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was used for this feast as well.[10]

The first move towards describing Mary's conception as "immaculate" came in the 11th century. In the 15th century, Pope Sixtus IV, while promoting the festival, explicitly tolerated both the views of those who promoted it as the Immaculate Conception and those who challenged such a description, a position later endorsed by the Council of Trent.[5]

The proper for the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Medieval Sarum Missal merely addresses the fact of her conception. The collect for the feast reads:

O God, mercifully hear the supplication of thy servants who are assembled together on the Conception of the Virgin Mother of God, may at her intercession be delivered by Thee from dangers which beset us.[11]

Catholic Church

In 1854, Pius IX issued the Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin."[12] This marked no actual change in doctrine, but rather marked the first instance of formal definition of a dogma.

According to the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 5, when the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which always occurs within Advent, falls on a Sunday, it is transferred to the following Monday.[13] (In some countries, including the United States, the obligation to attend Mass does not transfer.)[14] The 1960 Code of Rubrics, still observed by some in accordance with Summorum Pontificum, gives the feast of the Immaculate Conception preference even over an Advent Sunday.[15]

Anglican Communion

In the Church of England, the "Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" may be observed as a Lesser Festival on 8 December. However, they do not attach the Catholic belief that Mary was special, perfect or sinless.

The situation in other constituent churches of the Anglican Communion is similar, i.e., as a lesser commemoration.[16] Many Anglo-Catholic parishes observe the feast using the traditional Roman Catholic title, the "Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary".

Oriental Orthodoxy

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13). The 96th chapter of the Kebra Nagast states: "He cleansed Eve's body and sanctified it and made for it a dwelling in her for Adam's salvation. Mary was born without blemish, for He made Her pure, without pollution".[17]

Eastern Orthodoxy

Main article: Conception of the Virgin Mary

While the Eastern Orthodox Churches have never accepted the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, they do celebrate December 9 as the Feast of the Conception by St. Anne of the Most Holy Theotokos. While the Orthodox believe that the Virgin Mary was, from her conception, filled with every grace of the Holy Spirit, in view of her calling as the Mother of God, they do not teach that she was conceived without original sin as their understanding and terminology of the doctrine of original sin differs from the Roman Catholic articulation.[18] The Orthodox do, however, affirm that Mary is "all-holy" and never committed a personal sin during her lifetime.[19]

The Orthodox feast is not a perfect nine months before the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos (September 8) as it is in the West, but a day later. This feast is not ranked among the Great Feasts of the church year, but is a lesser-ranking feast (Polyeleos).

Designation as Public holiday

The celebration of La Griteria in Leon, Nicaragua
A modern statue of the Immaculate Conception atop a public square in the main street of Košice, Slovakia

The solemnity is a public holiday in the following sovereign countries and territories:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Clementis XI, Papam - CXX - Mandatur ut Festum Conceptionis beatae Mariae Virginis Immaculatae de praecepto ubique observetur - Commissi Nobis Divinitus sacrosancti apostolatus officii exigit ratio, ut gloriossimae Virginis Dei genitricis Mariae cuius Conceptio gaudium annuciavit universo mundo, venerationem et cultum, plurium Romanorum Pontificum praedecessorum nostrorum more, ampliare studentes in terris, illius, quae super choros angelorum exaltata pro populo Christiano sedula exoratrix apud eum, quem genuit, assidue intercedit in caelis, potentissimam opem in toltantisque, quibus premimur, Christianae reipublicae et Catholicae Ecclesiae necessitatibus, quantum nobis ex alto conceditur, promereri iugiter satagamus. Datum Romae, apud Sanctum Petrum, sub annulo Piscatoris, die 6 Decembris 1708 Pontificatus Nostri Anno IX. - http://www.icar.beniculturali.it/biblio/pdf/bolTau/tomo_21/02_T21_189_368.pdf Archived 2013-12-14 at the Wayback Machine (PP. 338)
  2. ^ Lacoste, Jean-Yves (29 September 2004). Encyclopedia of Christian Theology. ISBN 9780203319017.
  3. ^ "Introduction". Archived from the original on 2012-02-18.
  4. ^ Gentle, Judith Marie; Fastiggi, Robert L. (September 30, 2009). De Maria Numquam Satis: The Significance of the Catholic Doctrines on the Blessed Virgin Mary for All People. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761848479 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Immaculate Conception". www.newadvent.org.
  6. ^ Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos). The Orthodox Church (London: Penguin Books, 1963), pp. 263-264.
  7. ^ Francis X. Weiser. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1958), p. 292.
  8. ^ "Habig O.F.M., Marion A. "Land of Mary Immaculate", The American Ecclesiastical Review, June 1954".
  9. ^ Commissi Nobis Divinitus - VI Decembris 1708 - Clementis XI, Papam - Sincera itaque nostra erga eamdem augustissimam caeli reginam, patronam, advocatam, nostram, devotione incitati festum conceptionis ipsius beatae mariae virginis immaculatae ubique terrarum in posterum ab omnibus et singulis utriusque sexus christifidelibus sicut alia festa de praecepto observationis festorum comprehendi auctoritate apostolica, tenore praesentium decernimus praecipimus et mandamus. ...Volumus autem ut earumdem praesentium literrarum transumptis, seu exemplis etiam impressis, manu alicuius notarii publici subscriptis, et sigillo personae in ecclesiastica dignitate constitutae munitis, eadem prorsus fides adhibeatur ipsis praesentibus si forent exhibitae vel ostensae.
  10. ^ The Roman Missal in English Tr. John England (Philadelphia: Eugene Chummiskey, 1843), p. 529.
  11. ^ The Sarum Missal in English Tr. A. Harford Pearson (London: The Church Printing Co., 1834), p. 332.
  12. ^ Ineffabilis Deus the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius IX on the Immaculate Conception (December 8, 1854), in the Acta Pii IX, pars 1, Vol. 1, p. 615.
  13. ^ Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar
  14. ^ Edward McNamara, "Feast of the Immaculate Conception", ZENIT, 17 December 2013.
  15. ^ Code of Rubrics, 15
  16. ^ "The Calendar [page ix]". Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-11-03.
  17. ^ "THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan".
  18. ^ Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Penguin Books, 1963, ISBN 0-14-020592-6), pp. 263-4.
  19. ^ "The Sinlessness of the Theotokos". Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Archived from the original on 2020-07-12. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  20. ^ Donati, Silvia. "Celebrate Christmas Like an Italian", Italy Magazine
  21. ^ "Executive Order 60/2000" (in Portuguese) – via Imprensa Oficial.
  22. ^ "Republic Act No. 10966" – via Official Gazette.
  23. ^ "Earth Calendar". www.earthcalendar.net.
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