page_title: Catholic Mariology
section_title: Immaculate Conception of Mary
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic Mariology / Dogmatic teachings / Immaculate Conception of Mary
caption_attribution_description: &#160;&#160;This media shows the cultural heritage monument with the number 17122 in South Tyrol. From the S. Antony church of de:St. Ulrich in Gröden - Ortisei Val Gardena Italy. painter Josef Moroder-Lusenberg 1876. A painting after Murillo's Maria Immaculata around 1660-1665 in the Prado in Madrid
context_page_description: Catholic Mariology refers to Mariology – the systematic study of the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, and of her place in the Economy of Salvation – within Catholic theology. Mary is seen as having a singular dignity above the saints. The Catholic Church teaches that she was conceived without original sin, therefore receiving a higher level of veneration than all other saints. Catholic Mariology thus studies not only her life but also the veneration of her in daily life, prayer, hymns, art, music, and architecture in modern and ancient Christianity throughout the ages.
  The four dogmas of Mother of God, Immaculate Conception, perpetual virginity, and Assumption form the basis of Mariology. However, a number of other Catholic doctrines about the Virgin Mary have been developed by reference to sacred scripture, theological reasoning and Church tradition. The development of Mariology is ongoing and since the beginnings it has continued to be shaped by theological analyses, writings of saints, and papal statements, e.g. while two Marian dogmas are ancient, the other two were defined in the 19th and 20th centuries; and papal teachings on Mary have continued to appear in recent times.
context_section_description: This dogma states that Mary was conceived without original sin. This means that from the first moment of her existence she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace, and that she was instead filled with divine grace.
  The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is distinct from and should not be confused with the perpetual virginity of Mary or the virgin birth of Jesus; for this dogma refers to the conception of Mary by her mother, Saint Anne, and not the conception of Jesus.
  The feast of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated on December 8, was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV, but the dogmatic definition was came from Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus, on December 8, 1854.
  The dogma states that Mary possessed sanctifying grace from the first instant of her existence and by a special and unique gift of God was free from the lack of grace caused by the original sin from the beginning of human history.
  In Fulgens corona (item 10) Pope Pius XII reaffirmed the concept by stating:
  "Who will dare to doubt that she, who was purer than the angels and at all times pure, was at any moment, even for the briefest instant, not free from every stain of sin?"
  Ineffabilis Deus (as well as Pope Pius XII's Munificentissimus Deus on the Assumption) also teaches the predestination of Mary, in that she was preserved from sin due to the role reserved for her in the economy of salvation. This predetermination of Mary's role in salvation was referred to in Lumen gentium (item 61) which stated that she was "Predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God." The definition in Ineffabilis Deus confirms the uniqueness of the Immaculate Conception as a gift from God to Mary, that Jesus might receive his body from one unstained by sin.
caption: Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony's Church, Urtijëi, Italy.
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