This dogma is the belief that Mary herself was conceived without original sin by her mother Anne and father Joaquin. It was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854.
In the pseudepigrapha book Gospel of James Mary’s conception occurs miraculously without sexual intercourse. This idea may have contributed to the idea of a sinless conception.
The Roman Catholic Council of Trent held between 1545 and 1563 in Italy affirmed Mary’s freedom from personal sin, but not original sin. This council of the Catholic Church embodied the Counter-Reformation condemning Protestantism and defining Catholic belief.
During the 19th century a great movement of popular devotion to Mary grew up after the visions of Catherine Labouré in France in 1830 became known. The confection of the Miraculous Medal helped to spread devotion to Mary. This was the background to the Papal bull Ineffabilis Deus on the Immaculate Conception.
Four years after the Papal bull was issued, a child Bernadette Soubirous saw an apparition of Mary at Lourdes in southern France. The lady of the apparition announced that she was the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Lourdes Marian apparition was approved as authentic by the Vatican. It was deemed to confirm the dogma as a young uneducated girl aged 14 could not know what the immaculate conception was. Bernadette later became a nun, died aged 35 and was made a saint. When her body was exhumed, it was found to be incorrupt.
The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is the 8th December for Catholics. For Eastern Orthodox churches it is the 9th December and commemorates the ‘Feast of the Conception by Saint Anne of the Most Holy Theotokos’. Orthodox Christians believe that Mary was filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit from her conception, and did not commit a personal sin during her lifetime. The celebration of Mary’s conception dates from the 5th century in Syria.
Eastern Orthodoxy does not accept the Immaculate Conception or have the same understanding of original sin. Orthodox theology does not accept hereditary guilt that is original sin; they only accept the consequences of the Fall which is mortality and death.
The Eastern Orthodox Constantinopolitan Synod of 1895 dubbed the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as “Roman novelties” and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.
Thomas Aquinas and Summa Theologica Volume 7 (pages 295 – 316)
The Immaculate Conception was debated among Medieval Catholic theologians long before it was pronounced as a dogma. In the Middle Ages Franciscans favoured the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception while Dominicans opposed it. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) – Dominican – objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would not need redemption, and this would make Christ superfluous. Duns Scotus (1264-1308) – Franciscan – answered that it was a ‘preservative redemption’. Others believed that God had made Mary sinless as a fitting vessel to bear the Saviour.
St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas believed that Mary was conceived in the normal way, and this leads to the contraction of original sin. Then the question becomes whether Mary was sanctified by grace at the moment of her conception in the womb of St. Anne or whether she was sanctified at the moment of Jesus’ conception in her womb? (or whether she was sanctified at all?)
Reflecting on the Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity Aquinas states that the Blessed Virgin was holy from birth; therefore, she was sanctified in the womb. Augustine points out that Scripture does not say this, but nor does it relate that her body was assumed into heaven (which both St. Augustine and Aquinas firmly believed). When the angel addresses Mary “Hail full of grace” (Luke 1:28) it is because she had already received greater privileges of grace than any other person.
Explanation on pages 296 – 298: The Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb from original sin as to the personal stain, but she was not freed from the guilt of original sin to which the whole of nature is subject. For this reason she could not enter Paradise other than by the sacrifice of Christ.
The purity of the Blessed Virgin holds the highest place after Christ. Christ did not contract original sin in any way whatever, but was holy in His very conception (Luke 1:35).
On pages 301 – 303 and 316 Aquinas ascribes perfect virtue to Mary. He believed that any inordinate acts were fettered in Mary.
“God so prepares and endows those, whom He chooses for some particular office, that they are rendered capable of fulfilling it …….. Now the Blessed Virgin was chosen by God to be His Mother. Therefore there can be no doubt that God, by His grace, made her worthy of that office, according to the words spoken to her by the angel ……… But she would not have been worthy to be the Mother of God, if she had ever sinned.” (302-303)
“We must therefore confess simply that the Blessed Virgin committed no actual sin, neither mortal nor venial: so that what is written (Canticle 4:7) is fulfilled: ‘Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee.’” (303)
The virginal womb was the shrine of the Holy Spirit wherein He formed the flesh of Christ. It was unbecoming that it should be desecrated by intercourse with man. Mary did not have anything carnal with Joseph and did not have other children. (316)
Therefore, Thomas Aquinas who followed the thoughts of St. Augustine closely believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived in the normal way, but sanctified before being born due to the role she had been chosen to play. He believed that she was pure and without sin in any personal way, and thus filled with grace throughout her life. This early sanctification made her a fitting vessel to bear Jesus Christ the Saviour who was both God and man. Her continual state of virtue and chastity was the reason for her Assumption into heaven after she died.
Merry and True 