The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Immaculate Conception is the Church's teaching that Mary, from the first moment she was conceived in her mother's womb, was preserved free from original sin. This was a singular gift of God, given in view of the saving work of her Son. Mary was redeemed by Christ like every human being, but in a unique way: she was kept from sin rather than freed from it afterward.

The feast is often confused with the Virgin Birth. It is not about the conception of Jesus, which the Church celebrates on March 25, but about Mary's own conception, nine months before her birthday on September 8. Christians reflected on Mary's holiness for centuries, and the feast was widely kept long before Blessed Pius IX solemnly defined the doctrine on December 8, 1854. Four years later at Lourdes, Mary told St. Bernadette, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Mary under this title is the patroness of the United States. American bishops chose her in 1846, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., honors her. December 8 is a solemnity and a holy day of obligation in the United States.