December 8, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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On December 8, the Church celebrates one of the most important feasts of Our Lady, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the day when we remember and celebrate that God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus from the very first moment of her being; the moment of her conception.

History of Immaculate Conception

It is a day that celebrates the belief that Mary, mother of Jesus, was preserved from original sin all of her life.

For Roman Catholics, it is observed as a day of obligation with required church attendance.

The Immaculate Conception is a day whose meaning is often confused. By the sounds of it, one would think we would celebrate the day Jesus was conceived*. On the contrary, it is the day that the Blessed Mother Mary was conceived.

Mary's mother was St. Anne and her father was Joachim. While they are not mentioned in the bible, their names appear in some very early Christian texts. Anne and Joachim had been a childless couple until an angel appeared telling Anne that she would give birth to a child that the world would honour. Anne became a saint as she offered her child to god's service.

This day has been celebrated since at least the eighth century, but the idea that the word immaculate means that Mary was born without original sin divided many theological scholars over the centuries. It wasn't until 1854 that the argument was decided when Pope Pious IX proclaimed this belief to be an essential dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.

*If you think about it, December 8th is unlikely to be the date that Jesus was "conceived". It is the Feast of the Annunciation that celebrates the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to announce to her that she would become the mother of Jesus. The date of the Feast of the Annunciation is March 25th - nine months before Christmas Day. Once the date of Christmas was finally accepted, then the March 25th was a no-brainer to be the date of the annunciation.

Special Non-Working Holiday

In accordance to Presidential Proclamation No. 845, December 8 or Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is a special non-working Holiday in the Philippines.

On 29 December 2017 President Duterte signed Republic Act 10966, declaring 8 December of every year a special non-working holiday in the entire country "to commemorate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the principal patroness of the Philippines."

The Philippines has the third largest Catholic population in the world.

Happy Birthday, Mama Mary as we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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On September 8th, we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her birth brought us the dawn of hope, and salvation to the world. She was born without sin. She was full of grace, and definitely the favored one, and so very blessed among women. So she should be the sacred vessel and worthy Mother of the Son of God.

September 8: Our Lady's Birthday 

The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated each year on the eighth of September. Usually it is the custom of the church to celebrate the feast day of a saint on the date of their death as this is truly their "die natalis", the day remembered as their birth into everlasting happiness. Mary, however, entered this world sinless through the privilege of the Immaculate Conception and is the firstborn of the redeemed. 

Her nativity is a cause for great joy as it is considered the" dawn of our salvation" as Pope Paul VI wrote in the document, Marialis Cultus in 1972. 

There is no reference in the Sacred Scriptures to the birth of Mary. That which is known about Mary's nativity is found in the Apocrypha, principally the Protoevangelium of James which has been dated by historians prior to 200 AD. This book gives us a detailed account of the birth of Mary which begins in the fifth chapter and even gives a detailed conversation between Mary's mother, St. Anne and the midwife. 

The earliest document commemorating this feast comes from the sixth century. 

It is generally believed that this feast originated in Jerusalem since there is evidence, in the fifth century, of a church dedicated to St. Anne, located north of the Temple in the neighborhood of the Pool of Bethesda. Sofronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, affirmed in the year 603 that this was the location of Mary's birth. After the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary increased significantly. This, combined with the influence of the Apocrypha, may have been a factor in the increase of popular devotion of the people toward Mary 

It is generally believed that the date of September 8 was chosen to celebrate the Nativity of Mary since the civil year began in Constantinople on September 1. Scholars believe that this date was chosen since it was symbolic that the "beginning" of the work of salvation should be commemorated near to the beginning of the new year. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was later fixed at December 8, nine months prior. 

This feast day was introduced in Rome from the Eastern Church in the seventh century . The Syro-Sicilian Pope St. Sergius I, who reigned from 687-701, prescribed a litany and procession be part of the liturgical celebration of this feast day. Paschasius Radbertus (d.860) wrote that this feast of Mary's Nativity was being preached throughout the universal church and it became a holy day of obligation for the west by the year 1007. 

The primary theme portrayed in the liturgical celebration of this feast day is that the world had been in the darkness of sin and with the arrival of Mary begins a glimmer of light. That light which appears at Mary's holy birth preannounces the arrival of Christ, the Light of the World. Her birth is the beginning of a better world: "Origo mundi melioris." The antiphon for the Canticle of Zechariah at Morning Prayer expressed these sentiments in the following way: "Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, proclaims joy to the whole world, for from you arose the glorious Sun of Justice, Christ our God; He freed us from the age-old curse and filled us with holiness; he destroyed death and gave us eternal life." 

The second reading of the Office of Readings is taken from one of the four sermons written by St. Andrew of Crete ( 660-740 ) on Mary's Nativity. He too used the image of light: "...This radiant and manifest coming of God to men needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us...Darkness yields before the coming of light."

A secondary theme of joy also appears throughout the liturgical celebration. The entrance antiphon at Mass states: "Let us celebrate with joyful hearts the birth of the Virgin Mary, of whom was born the Sun of Justice, Christ our Lord." It is with these two themes of both the approach of light and joy that the faithful senses the great happiness and festive nature on this beautiful feast of Mary's birthday. 

• The above article appeared in the Fairfield County Catholic January 1996.