Immaculate Conception

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Immaculate Conception of Mary
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Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
Alexandrian Rite)
Attributes
PatronageSee Patronages of the Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the

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 Our 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]

Many

Oriental Orthodoxy are divided: Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, opposed the teaching,[11] as did Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I of the Syriac Orthodox Church;[12] the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo accept it.[13] 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 (1827–1913) characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a "Roman novelty".[14]

History

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin

Anne, the mother of Mary, first appears in the 2nd-century apocryphal 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.[15] Anne and her husband, Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that "Mary is conceived by her parents as we are all conceived".[19]

Church Fathers

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, 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. The encyclopedia adds that Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall.[20][21]

John Damascene extended the supernatural influence of God to Mary's parents, suggesting they were purified by the Holy 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 the conceptio carnis, found resonance among some Western authors. Notably, the Greek Fathers did not explicitly discuss the Immaculate Conception.[20]

Medieval formulation

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph 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,[23] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.[24] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,[25] 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.[26] 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.[25]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between

Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,[31] declared the 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 also affirmed that she remained during all her life free from all stain of sin, even the venial one.[32]; by 1571 the revised Roman Breviary set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.[33]

Popular devotion and Ineffabilis Deus

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.[34] 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.[35]

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.[36] In France in 1830 Catherine 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.[37] The medal said "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee", which was a confirmation of Mary herself that she was conceived without sin, confirming the Immaculate Conception. Her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.[38]

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", [39] and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.[40][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.[41]

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

Doctors of the Church.[42]

Our Lady of Lourdes's 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous' description.[43] Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".

Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible.

Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.[46] 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".[47]

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.

Marian apparitions in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.[50]

Feast, patronages and disputes

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, Sicily

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.

papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning "O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin".[55]

Prayers and hymns

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".)[56] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,[57] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,[58] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,[59] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,[60] Ola Gjeilo,[61] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,[62] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].[63]

Other prayers honouring Mary's immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The

Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.[64] 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.[65]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.[66] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.[67]

Artistic representation

Giotto, 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;[68] 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.[69]

The definitive

putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.[72]

Other denominations

Eastern Orthodoxy

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.[14] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that "the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous".[75]

Oriental Orthodoxy

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches 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).[13][76]

Old Catholics

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.[77][78]

Protestantism

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis 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.[79] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace, like all believers.[47]

The

Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.[81]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Tinsley 2005, p. 286.
  2. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
  3. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
  4. ^ a b Collinge 2012, p. 209.
  5. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
  6. ^ a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
  7. ^ a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
  8. ^ a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
  9. ^ 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. ^ Ignatius Zakka I; Ghattas, Sandy. "The Holy Virgin Mary in the Syrian Orthodox Church". Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, Archdiocese for the Eastern United States. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
  15. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
  16. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
  17. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 57.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Hopko, Thomas. The Winter Pascha Chapter 9, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
  20. ^ a b Public Domain 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
  21. OCLC 177062079
    . You and your mother are the only ones who are immune from all stain; for there is no spot in Thee, O Lord, not any taint in your mother.
  22. ^ Mark Miravalle (December 8, 2021). "What is the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception?".
  23. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
  24. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
  25. ^ a b Collinge 2012, p. 209-210.
  26. ^ a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
  27. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
  28. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
  29. ^ Coyle 1996, pp. 36–37.
  30. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 38.
  31. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
  32. . (at n°. 2)
  33. ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 4–5, 117.
  34. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
  35. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
  36. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
  37. ^ Mack 2003.
  38. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
  39. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
  40. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
  41. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
  42. ^ "How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception", Zenit, December 9, 2004
  43. ^ "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.
  44. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
  45. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
  46. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
  47. ^ a b German 2001, p. 596.
  48. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
  49. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
  50. .
  51. ^ a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
  52. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
  53. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
  54. ^ a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
  55. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
  56. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
  57. ^ 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.
  58. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  59. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  60. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  61. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  62. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  63. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  64. ^ "Prayers of Consecration". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  65. ^ "Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception".
  66. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
  67. ^ "Immaculate Conception Prayers".
  68. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
  69. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
  70. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
  71. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
  72. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
  73. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
  74. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
  75. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
  76. ^ "THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan".
  77. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
  78. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
  79. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
  80. USCCB
    . Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  81. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

Bibliography

External links