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] Theiconography ofOur Lady 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]
Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-centuryapocryphalGospel of James. The author of the gospel borrowed from Greek tales of the childhood of heroes. For Jesus' grandmother the author drew on the more benign biblical story of Hannah—hence Anna—who conceived Samuel in her old age, thus reprising the miraculous birth of Jesus with a merely remarkable one for his mother.[14] Anne and her husband,Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.[15] According toStephen J. Shoemaker, 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 ofJohn the Baptist as recounted in theGospel of Luke.[17] TheEastern Orthodox Church holds that "Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived".[18]
Ambrose asserted Mary's incorruptibility, attributing her virginity tograce and immunity from sin.Severus, Bishop of Antioch, concurred affirming Mary's purity and immaculateness.[21]John Damascene extended the supernatural influence ofGod to Mary's parents, suggesting they were purified by theHoly Spirit during her generation. According to Damascene, even the material of Mary's origin was deemed pure and holy. This perspective, which emphasized an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of theconceptio carnis, found resonance among some Western authors. Notably, the Greek Fathers did not explicitly discuss the Immaculate Conception.[19]
Altar of the Immaculata byJoseph Lusenberg, 1876, representing Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, at Saint Antony's Church,Urtijëi, Italy
By the 4th century the idea that Mary was free from sin was generally more widespread,[22] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.[23] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,[24] 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.[25] 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.[24]
In 1439, theCouncil of Basel, in schism withPope Eugene IV who resided at theCouncil of Florence,[29] declared the Immaculate Conception a "pious opinion" consistent with faith and Scripture; theCouncil 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 also affirmed that she remained during all her life free from all stain of sin, even the venial one.;[30] by 1571 the revisedRoman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.[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.[34] In France in 1830Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw.[35]The medal said "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee", which was a confirmation from Mary herself that she was conceived without sin. Labouré's vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.[36]
In 1849 PopePius IX issued the encyclicalUbi 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".[37] In 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bullIneffabilis Deus.[38][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.[39]
Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot ofSolesmes Abbey, who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wroteMémoire sur l'Immaculée Conception, explaining what he saw as its basis:
For the belief to be defined as adogma of faith [...] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part ofRevelation, 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 theFathers andDoctors of the Church.[40]
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, theBurning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from theSong of Songs, and many more passages.[42] From this wealth of support the pope's advisors singled outGenesis 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,'"[43] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in theRevelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.[44]Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase "full of grace" by whichGabriel 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".[45]
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.[46] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the youngBernadette Soubirous said thatMary appeared to her atLourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsedthe apparition as authentic.[47] There are other (approved)Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.[48]
The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.[8] TheRoman Missal and theRoman RiteLiturgy of the Hours include references to Mary's immaculate conception in thefeast 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.[49] It was suppressed there after theNorman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.[49] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from theThomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians.[50]
Beginning around 1140Bernard of Clairvaux, aCistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,[25] but in 1477Pope Sixtus IV, a FranciscanScotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of church festivals and observances) via the bullCum praexcelsa.[51] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominentThomist,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".[52]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.[52] Following the promulgation ofIneffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase "immaculate conception" reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast.Pius IX solemnly promulgated amass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by apapal chamberlain at the behest ofSixtus IV, beginning "O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin".[53]
Other prayers honouring Mary's immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. TheImmaculata prayer, composed byMaximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.[62] Anovena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of theImmaculate Conception Novena.[63]
Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.[64] The hymnImmaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated withLourdes.[65]
TheLoreto Litanies included the official LatinMarian title ofRegina sine labe originali concepta (Queen conceived without original sin), which had been granted byPope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) from 1839 onwards to some dioceses, thus several years before the proclamation of the dogma.[66]
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;[67] 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.[68]
The definitiveiconography for the depiction of "Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception" seems to have been finally established by the painter and theoristFrancisco 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.[69] Pacheco's iconography influenced otherSpanish artists or artists active in Spain such asEl Greco,Bartolomé Murillo,Diego Velázquez, andFrancisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.[70] The popularity of this particular representation ofThe 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 ahalo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to "a woman clothed with the sun" fromRevelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, andputti. In some paintings the putti are holdinglilies androses, flowers often associated with Mary.[71]
TheEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo andEritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopic phrase used to express that the Blessed Virgin Mary is free from original sin is "መርገመ ስጋ መርገመ ነፍስ የሌለባት". The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).[13][72]The proposition of Ethiopian Orthodox reads: "Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, who conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ in virginity is free from the original sin derived from the descendants of Adam, clean from any sins of the flesh and soul; embedded in the conscience of God before the time of her birth, free and protected from human desires and frailties, and the choicest from among the chosen. Such is the Virgin Mary - Pure and Holy of Holies. (Song 4.7)".[73] This is synodal statement.
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 Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception,[74][75] although Eastern Orthodoxy affirms Mary's purity and preservation fromsin.
In 1894, when PopeLeo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclicalPraeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical PatriarchAnthimos, 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.[76] Eastern Orthodox BishopKallistos Ware comments that "theLatin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous".[77]
In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed theOld Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.[78][79]
Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation ofIneffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as unscriptural,[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.[80] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.[45]
TheCatholic–Lutheran dialogue's statementThe 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 theAssumption of Mary";[81] the final report of theAnglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, althoughAnglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.[82]
^Giuseppe Besutti; Stefano De Fiores; Salvatore Meo (1985)."Litanie" in the Nuovo Dizionario di Mariologia. I dizionari (n°. 17). Cinisello Balsamo (Milano): San Paolo Edizioni. p. 764.ISBN9788821513961.
Herringer, Carol Engelhardt (2019). "Mary as Cultural Symbol in the Nineteenth Century". In Maunder, Chris (ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Mary. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198792550.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
