page_title: Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
section_title: Spain
hierarchical_section_title: Patronages of the Immaculate Conception / Spain
caption_attribution_description: Español: Esta obra es una de las varias Inmaculadas pintadas por Bartolomé Esteban Murillo que se conservan en el Museo del Prado, situado en la ciudad de Madrid, (España). La Virgen María, madre de Jesucristo, aparece de medio cuerpo y con una luna creciente de plata a sus pies, mientras que a los lados de la Virgen hay seis serafines. Los colores de la túnica y del manto, junto con el pelo suelto y las manos entrecruzadas sobre su pecho ponen de manifiesto que se trata de una representación de la madre del Salvador, y la luna creciente confirma que se trata de la Inmaculada Concepción.
context_page_description: In the Catholic Church, several locations around the world invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. Catholic diocesan authorities with the expressed and written approval of the Pope in countries including Brazil, Korea, the Philippines, Spain, and the United States of America designate the Blessed Virgin Mary as their principal patroness.
  As part of the patronage, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is often observed both religiously and culturally within these countries. Numerous national parades, processions and cultural festivities are associated with this patronage ranging from public holidays to holy day of obligation. Several Popes have conferred this title of patronage, sometimes initiated by bishops.
  The list below enumerates the various countries by which the Pope, through a papal bull has formally granted the Immaculate Conception as the patroness of the people and its land or kingdom.
  The list of Pontifical declaration does not include Ireland, Nicaragua and Portugal.
context_section_description: By Papal decree, the Immaculate Conception alone is the universal and national patroness of Spain, by virtue of a papal mandate issued by Pope Clement XIII on 8 November  1760, while Saint James the Greater remains, the same pope declared, the primary patron of the Spanish people. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is also one of the nine national and public holidays and a holy day of obligation.
  The patronage settles the dispute between a heated religious debate during the mid 1600s, when followers of the mythical figure Saint James Matamoros wished to impose him as the national patron saint versus the followers of Saint Teresa of Avila.
  On 11 September  1759,  the elected members of the Spanish Cortes petitioned King Charles III of Spain to request from the pope the "universal patronage of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in all the Kingdoms of Spain and the Indies".
  With the papal bull Quantum ornamenti of 8 November 1760, Pope Clement granted the request of King Charles III, declaring the Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the whole of the Kingdom of Spain along with its eastern and western territories, (in the Americas and the Philippines).
  In another document, Pope Clement granted that the Spanish clergy could celebrate the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours on the feast and its octave with the texts used by the Franciscans rather than that in the Tridentine Roman Missal and Roman Breviary as revised by Pope Pius V, which did not attach the adjective "Immaculate" to the phrase "Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary". On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the brief Dance of the Sixteen (Spanish: Los Seises) (the actual number of choirboys dancing has been reduced to twelve) is performed by choirboys dressed in white and blue in the Cathedral of Seville. Since 1864, Mass vestments for the feast in Spain may be blue at the expressed permission with decree from the Sacred Congregation of Rites which thus became extended to the former territories of the Spanish crown and kingdom. Many other Spanish cultural customs and religious processions are associated with the feast.
caption:  Spain — In 1760, Pope Clement XIII settled the heated dispute in Spain, supported by royal decree, installing the Immaculate Conception as the Kingdom's patroness. "La Inmaculada Purisima Concepcion de Maria" by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Prado, Spain.
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