The San Francisco call., 1898-12-08
CATHOLICS OBSERVE
 A SACRED FEAST
CONCEPTIoNTO BE
 SOLEMNLY COMMEMORATIVE.
Services in All the Catholic Churches Throughout the City-History
 of the Devotion.

The annual feast of the Immaculate Conception will be solemnly commemorat- ed to-day in the Catholic churches throughout the city. Masses will be cele- brated as on Sundays and the day will be one of strict obligation. At St. Marys Cathedral the first mass will be said at 6 o'clock in the morning and the last at 10:30 o'clock, which will be solemn high in form. In the evening benedfction and the rosary will constitute the religious service and conclude the solemnities of the day.
 At St. Ignatius Church, in addition to the regular service by the congregation, special exercises in honor of the feast will be held by, the members of the Gentle, mems Sodality and other organizations of the church in their respective assembly halls In the basement of the church build- ing on Hayes street.
 The annual celebration of this divine prerogative granted the Virgin has be- come general throughout the entire world where the principles of Christianity exist esting and instructive. It is taught in the church that in order to bring forth the Redeemer the Virgin must have had a prerogative superior to humanity. It is contended that the Sovere~n Judge must have suspended the general effect of his severe law in favor of her who came into contribute to the accomplishment of the most secret, most incomprehensible of the works of God--the incarnation of the Messiah. Notwithstanding the silence of the gospel it has been generally believed that the Virgin, with a view to her divine maternity, was held back, as it were, on the brink of the abyss which the fatal disobedience of our first parents opened under our feet, and that her conception was as immaculate as her life.
 This belief, which the Greeks borrowed from Palestine, and adopted with enthusi- asm, led to the institution of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was celebrated at Constantinople as early as the sixth century. William the Conqueror established the feast in Normandy as early as 1074 From Normandy it's observ- ance passed over to the English. The first ton, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1222 places 1t in the number of holi- days of obligation.
 In France in the year 12SS Bishop of Paris, Renoul de Hombiere, left a consd- erable sum to found the office of this Feast the same time in the territory of Lyons. A manuscript of martyrology of the thir- teenth century, found in the library of the Dominicans of Dijon, marks the feast of the conception on the Sth of December which shows conclusively that in the time of St. Dominic it was almost universally celebrated in the church.
 Devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin was popular in Western Eu- rope from the middle ages, but 1t is main tained that Spain has shown the greatest zeal and ardor in the propagation of this doctrine. The Spanish nation professes to have celebrated 1t in the early part of the seventh century. In 1894 Don John I of Aragon instituted it. He claims. however that his predecessors had celebrated the feast long before him.
 In England and France the Feast of