The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on 8 September.
A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century (prior to the Great Schism of 1054).
It looked to the West in the eighth century.
In the eighth 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 then to Normandy during their period of dominance over southern Italy.
From there it spread into England, France, Germany, and eventually Rome.
It is celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on 8 September.
A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century (prior to the Great Schism of 1054).
It looked to the West in the eighth century.
In the eighth 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 then to Normandy during their period of dominance over southern Italy.
From there it spread into England, France, Germany, and eventually Rome.
Prior
to Pope Pius IX's definition of the Immaculate Conception as Church
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.
The first move towards describing Mary's conception as "immaculate" came in the eleventh century.
In
the fifteenth century Pope Sixtus IV, while promoting the festival,
explicitly tolerated those who promoted it as the Immaculate Conception
and those who challenged such a description, a position later endorsed
by the Council of Trent.
The proper title for the feast of the
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Medieval Sarum Missal,
perhaps the most famous in England, merely addresses 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.
In
1854,Pius IX made the 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 saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain
of original sin."
Cultural impact
It is a public holiday in Austria, Nicaragua, Chile, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Peru, and Paraguay.
In
some countries, though December 8 is not a public holiday, their
respective Bishops' Conference however declared this day as a Holy Day
of Obligation, as it is in the United States, the Philippines and
Ireland.
December 8th is also celebrated as mother's day in Panama in honor of this holiday and is therefore a national holiday.
Anglican Communion
In the Anglican Communion, the "Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" may be observed as a Lesser Festival on 8 December.
Many
Anglo-Catholic parishes observe the feast using the traditional Roman
Catholic title, the "Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary."
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
original sin as their understanding of this doctrine differs from the
Roman Catholic articulation.
The Orthodox do affirm that Mary is "all-holy" and never committed a personal sin during her lifetime.
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.