The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The Catholic Church teaches infallibly that the Blessed Virgin Mary was sinless and pure, right from the very moment of her conception.

Pope Pius IX said in 1854,

“The most Blessed Virgin Mary, 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.”

Mary was not sinless because of an absence of free will, rather, her will and intellect were so closely united that she only ever desired to please God, and thus never chose to sin.


Feast Day: December 8