This article was written on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. Thinking about this important day on our Liturgical Calendar, I recalled what some friends told me soon after I returned home to Catholicism. They wanted to let me know that the Catholic Church invented the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the 19th Century, seemingly out of thin air “since there are no records of the Church believing this dogma before that time.” Not surprisingly, these same friends “informed me” that the Catholic Church was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early 4th Century. While the matter of Constantine is out of scope for this article, I will provide the basic response to that assertion: No, Constantine did not start the Church. He simply declared tolerance for all religions in 313 AD with the Edict of Milan – and therefore, Christianity was finally deemed legal throughout the Roman Empire.
But what about the Immaculate Conception? To provide a definition of the dogma, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary being given a special and unique grace by God, being preserved from original sin from the very moment of her own conception… and she went on to live a sinless life. It is indeed true that Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception an official dogma of the Catholic Church on December 8, 1854 through the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. But what exactly does that mean? Did he create a new doctrine or did he simply declare a long held, ancient belief about Mary as being infallible dogma of the Church?
A quick review of the matter will reveal that Catholics believed in the Immaculate Conception from the beginning of the Church age. It most certainly was not “pulled out of thin air” in the 19th Century. I will provide a brief timeline to illustrate this point.
c. 189 AD: St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, and a student of Polycarp (who himself heard directly from the Apostle John) writes in his book Against Heresies how Mary is the New Eve. To summarize this theology for anyone not familiar with the teaching, Mary being the New Eve contrasts Eve’s disobedience to Mary’s obedience. Eve said no to God by choosing her own will, leading to the Fall. By comparison, Mary said yes (“Be it done unto me according to your word” – Luke 1:38), cooperating freely with God’s plan and bringing about the way for redemption (which is Jesus Himself). As early as the 100s, just a few decades after the time of the Apostles, Irenaeus and other early Church fathers said, “Eve’s knot of disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience.” Just as Eve is the mother of all the naturally living, Mary is the spiritual mother of all those reborn in Christ (recall Jesus said, “Behold your mother” – John 19:27). As the new Eve, Mary also came to be understood by the early Church as the Ark of the New Covenant.
The original Ark of the Covenant contained the Word of God in stone (the tablets of the Law), Aaron’s priestly rod, and manna from heaven. The New Ark of the New Covenant contained the fulfillment of these inside of her: The Word made flesh (Jesus), the true High Priest (Jesus), and the Bread of Life come down from heaven (Jesus). This theology shows how Jesus is just what He claimed to be: the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, and the Bread of Life. The writers of the New Testament Gospels drew parallels to this understanding. When David brought the original Ark to Jerusalem, he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” Elizabeth greeted Mary with the same awe-filled reply when she said, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” The original Ark remained the the hill country of Judah for three months. Mary remained with Elizabeth for three months. David leapt before the Ark. John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb before Mary. The original Ark was constructed of the purest materials and consecrated for a sacred task. Mary, likewise, had to be made a pure vessel into which God would enter.
Please note: Mary’s holiness did not originate from herself… but from the One she carried in her womb. Catholics do believe that, like all people, Mary had to be “saved.” But we believe she was saved from sin from the very moment of conception in order to be the pure vessel into whom God would enter the world (as a human, in the Person of Jesus the Christ). There is much more I could write on the topics of Mary as the New Eve and as the New Ark of the New Covenant – and many early Church fathers wrote on this subject. Indeed, it’s a foundation to a better understanding of the Immaculate Conception. I may write additional articles in the future on the subjects of Mary as the New Ark and Mary as the New Eve. But for this brief summary, let’s advance ahead in the early church to see how this theology took form. These are just a few examples to showcase the early Church’s view of Mary as Immaculate:
c. 361 AD: St Ephraim the Syrian: “You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in You nor any stains upon your Mother.” (Nisibene Hymns 27:8). Blemishes and Stains refers to impurity and sin. The early Church understood and taught that Mary was free of the stain of original sin… and that she remained sinless.
387 AD: St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan – the same Ambrose who helped lead St. Augustine into the Catholic Church – wrote: “Come, then, and search out your sheep, not through your servants or hired men, but do it yourself. Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin” (Commentary on Psalm 118:22-30)
415 AD: St. Augustine – “Having excepted the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom, on account of the honor of the Lord, I wish to have absolutely no question when treating of sins—for how do we know what abundance of grace for the total overcoming of sin was conferred upon her, who merited to conceive and bear him in whom there was no sin?—so, I say, with the exception of the Virgin, if we could have gathered together all those holy men and women, when they were living here, and had asked them whether they were without sin, what do we suppose would have been their answer?” (Nature and Grace 36:42)
This understanding continued through the centuries. St. Severus, Bishop of Antioch in the 6th Century wrote that Mary was “immaculate” and “pure from all taint.”
In today’s internet era, people find articles about debates within the Church throughout the Middle Ages on Mary’s Immaculate Conception. But what many modern readers fail to understand is that these mostly refer to debates regarding “when” God graced Mary by cleansing her from original sin. In other words, was it after her soul became united to her body in the womb or was it from the very first instant of conception. These are the kinds of philosophical debates that were held. The fact that Mary was specially graced and free from sin, however, was a shared belief among all participants in these debates.
Even protestant reformers, like Luther and Zwingli, strongly believed in and taught the sinlessness of Mary. The widespread idea of Mary not being free from original sin and living with sin in her life is a very new paradigm, only coming about in the last few centuries of modern protestantism.
When the Catholic Church formally declared the Immaculate Conception as official dogma on December 8, 1854, she was most certainly not “inventing theology.” Rather, the Church formalized the long-held ancient belief about the sinlessness of the Virgin Mary – and that Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin at the very moment of conception, through the Christ’s merits.
As I wrote this article, I reviewed the narrative of the Annunciation in Luke’s Gospel. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and greets her with the words, “Hail, full of grace” (Luke 1:28). The Greek word here is “kecharitōmĕnē.” Grammatically, this is the perfect passive participle of “charitŏō,” meaning that the action has been and continues to be. A literal translation may read “Hail, you who have been graced and are continuing to be graced.” Here we have the angel Gabriel acknowledging Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Gabriels refers to Mary by the title “Full of Grace” meaning that she has been graced (in her conception, being free from the stain of original sin) and continues to be graced (as demonstrated by her ongoing sinlessness). At this time in her life, Mary was astonished by this greeting. Luke 1:29 records Mary as “considering in her mind what sort of greeting this may be.” Now, having lived her life and having been assumed bodily into heaven, she knows fully – and she embraces the title. For, in 1858, during the apparitions in Lourdes, when asked for her name, she replied to St. Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Have a blessed day today, December 8, 2025, on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, as we reflect upon this very ancient truth of the Catholic faith.