This past Friday, December 8th, 2023, was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Catholic liturgical calendar. While this may seem like a minor thing to note, it is very important for Catholicism in the United States, as it is our very own national feast – similar to St. George’s Day in England, St. Mark in the Veneto, St. James in Spain, or Our Lady of Guadalupe in Hispanoamerica. Thus, while America was not historically a Catholic country, the Feast still carries with it significant meaning for American Catholics, with it being a Holy Day of Obligation.
Before we discuss the Feast, it is important to discuss what is the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception is the Catholic doctrine that Mary, as the Theotokos and the ark of the new covenant, was both conceived without original sin and was also free from personal sin. While it was not defined as a dogma until 1854, the history of the doctrine goes back much further– indeed to the conception and life of Mary herself1. The first patristic source for it is Irenaeus (most famous for his Against Heresies, which was written in 180AD), who wrote about Mary as the “New Eve,” whose life of constant obedience to God (and thus sinless life) stands in contrast to Eve. This doctrine was further elaborated by Ephraim the Syrian, who wrote that Mary was as innocent as Eve was before the Fall. During the Middle Ages, the Scotists were generally in favor of the doctrine, while many Thomists were against it, though the Scotists would end up winning the argument2. The Council of Trent further exempted Mary from its definition of Original Sin and ultimately the Feast would be added to the liturgical calendar by St. Pius V (who also added Our Lady of the Rosary, which we discussed in an earlier article). However, the doctrine would not be dogmatized the pontificate of Bl. Pius IX in 1854. Outside of Catholicism, some High-Church Anglicans accept it (and most Protestants consider it a pious opinion), as do Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox, and while the Eastern Orthodox are in agreement about Mary’s freedom from personal sin, they do not agree about original sin.
Beyond patristics and church tradition, there is also scriptural evidence for the Immaculate Conception. First of all, in Luke 1:28 when the angel Gabriel greets Mary (“Hail Mary, full of grace”), the phrase used for “full of grace” is (in the original Greek) chaire kecharitomene, the tense of which indicates that Mary is in a permanent state of grace and therefore an absence of sin. Furthermore, in Genesis (3:15), directly after the Fall, the serpent is told by God “and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and her seed,” with the seed of the woman being Christ and the woman being Mary. As God is putting enmity and separation between Mary and the serpent, similar in form to that between the serpent and Christ, it can be surmised that Mary is also in a perpetual union with grace and thus sinless.
Regardless of one’s theological opinions on the matter (and as a paper we writers from many theological perspectives, including Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish writers), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is special to American Catholics because Mary, through her title as “Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception,” has been the patroness of the United States since 1792, when John Carroll, the first American Bishop (and a brother of Charles Carroll, the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence) placed the United States under her protection. The United States has also shown a special devotion to the Immaculate Conception, with the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC being the largest Catholic church in North America and being the spiritual center of American Catholicism. Therefore, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is not only a purely religious holiday but also one that celebrates our unique traditions and history as Americans, and as a country that is founded on the principle of freedom of religion.