The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the solemnity celebrating the truth that Mary, from the very first instant of her conception, was preserved free from all stain of original sin by a singular grace of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race. Fittingly prepared to become the Mother of God, she was full of grace from the beginning of her existence and never for a moment lay under the power of sin.

Long believed and celebrated by the Christian people, this privilege was solemnly defined as a dogma of the Catholic faith by Pope Pius IX in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus on 8 December 1854; four years later, at Lourdes, the Virgin confirmed the teaching by naming herself to St. Bernadette, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Kept on 8 December, nine months before the feast of Mary's Nativity, the solemnity is honored as a holy day of obligation and as the patronal feast of the United States.