(Franciscan Media) A feast called the ‘Conception of Mary’ arose in the Eastern Church during the 7th Century and came to the West in the 8th Century.
In the 11th century it received its present name–the ‘Immaculate Conception’ and during the 18th century it became a feast of the universal Church and is now recognized as a solemnity.
In 1854, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed: “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first 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.”
It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. 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 the brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas, could not see theological justification for this teaching.
Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology–pointing out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleaned from original sin after birth.
In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.
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