Feast of the Immaculate Conception

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated in some Christian churches on 8 December. Originally called the Conception of Mary; under the name of Immaculate Conception, the observance in the West celebrates the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1 History
2 Doctrinal Development
3 Cultural Impacts
4 Anglican Communion
5 Eastern Orthodoxy
6 Notes
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century (prior to the Great Schism of 1054). It spread to the West in the eighth century. In the eleventh century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception, in the West. In the eighteenth century it became a feast of the Roman Catholic Church. It is the only one of Mary's feasts that came to the Western Church not by way of Rome, but instead spread from the Byzantine area to Naples, and thence to Normandy during their period of dominance over southern Italy. From there it spread into England, France, Germany, and eventually Rome.^[1]

Prior to Pope Pius IX's definition of the Immaculate Conception as Church dogma, most missals referred to it as the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The festal texts of this period focused more upon the action of her conception rather than 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.^[2]

The propers for the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medieval Sarum Missal, perhaps the most famous in England, merely address the action 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.^[3]

In 1854, Pius IX gave the infallible statement 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 savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin." ^[4]

[edit] Doctrinal Development

While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless — either at her conception or throughout her life. This is one of the Church teachings that arose more from the piety of the faithful than from the insights of brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas could not see theological justification for this teaching.^{[citation needed]}

Two Franciscans, William of Ware and John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology. They point out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus's redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleansed from original sin after birth; in Mary, Jesus's work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cultural Impacts

It is a public holiday in Austria, Nicaragua, Chile, Spain, Portugal, Italy,Macau, Malta, Peru, and Paraguay. It is also a public holiday in the Philippines and is a Holy Day of Obligation, as it is in the United States and Ireland.

In Ireland, it may well be the busiest day of the year in the cities. As the day is so near Christmas, the cities are already extremely busy. This, coupled with the fact that all civil service workers are off work (which in turn means the schools are closed), makes 8 December the most popular day for parents to bring their children to the cities in order to do their Christmas shopping. It can be so busy that Bus Éireann often has to run its services at five times its normal capacity.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Anglican Communion

In the Anglican Communion, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be observed as a Lesser Festival on 8 December, and many Anglo-Catholic parishes do so.

[edit] Eastern Orthodoxy

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 sin.^[5]

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).

[edit] Notes

^ Francis X. Weiser. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1958), p. 292.
^ The Roman Missal in English Tr. John England (Philidelphia: Eugene Chummiskey, 1843), p. 529.
^ The Sarum Missal in English Tr. A. Harford Pearson (London: The Church Printing Co., 1834), p. 332.
^ 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.
^ Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Penguin Books, 1963, ISBN 0-14-020592-6), pp. 263-4.