The Most Holy Virgin

Joachim was old and Ann e wa Anne Mother of the Virgin Mary. s sterile; thus, there was no appearance that they should have children, having had none for twenty years since they were united by the bonds of marriage. But they went to the temple, offered a sacrifice, addressed their prayers and vows to heaven, accompanied them with sighs and tears, and liberally distributed their goods to the ministers of the altar and to the poor, so that, by giving to God what was in their power, they might also receive from His hand the treasure of His blessings. Their desires were finally granted, and Anne, notwithstanding her age and her sterility, conceived this admirable daughter, for whom all the centuries had sighed. "Thus," says Saint John Dam ascene, "a sterile w saint Jean Damascène Church Father cited for his commentary on the birth of Mary. oman and wife of an old man became a mother, so that this miracle might prepare men for an incomparably greater prodigy, which was the singular union of maternity with virginity, which was to take place a few years later in her who was the fruit of this first miracle."

It is this august conception of Mary that is today the subject of the Church's joy and veneration. She rejoices to see the rising of this dawn, which comes to announce to her the approach of the sun of justice. She rejoices to see the formation of this ark, which must save her from the general deluge of sin. She rejoices to see the birth of this rainbow, which assures her that the wrath of God will soon be appeased. But what fills her particularly with joy is that the conception of Mary has nothing of the shame and infamy of that of other men. In the latter, the matter is impure; the form, which is the rational soul, is defiled by the filth of sin, and the spirit, which is the noblest portion of this soul, is buried in darkness and deprived of all knowledge. But in that of Mary, we find quite contrary advantages. The matter is perfectly purified, the soul is exempt from sins and enriched with the most beautiful ornaments of grace; the spirit is filled with a very high knowledge of divine and human truths.

The Holy Scriptures teach us that the will of all men being enclosed in that of the first, who was their head in the moral order as well as in the natural order, they have all sinned in him and through him, and they all come into the world with the stain and infamy of this sin. It is from this that Saint Paul concludes the necessity of a redeemer, and that the Councils and the Father saint Paul Apostle cited regarding original sin and the priesthood. s infer with such force against the Pelagians, that no one can be saved except by the mercy of God and by the m edicinal Pélagiens Heretical group denying the necessity of grace. grace of Jesus Christ. But we have certain proofs drawn from the same Holy Scriptures, from the writings of the holy Fathers, from the wise conduct and decrees of the Church, from the consent of the faithful, and from what reason and common sense dictate to us, that Mary, alone among all women and alone among all persons who are born of Adam by way of a common generation, must be excepted from this generality.

It seems that God wished to teach us this from the beginning of the world, through His curse against the serpent who had deceived the first woman and led her to eat the forbidden fruit. Inimicitiae, He says to him, ponam inter te et mulierem, semen tuum et semen illius; ipsa conteret caput tuum: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; but she shall prevail over you and crush your head." Saint Irenaeus, Saint Cyprian, Saint Epiphanius, and other Fathers say that by this woman, God means the Blessed Virgin, and some of them note that this is why He does not say: "I put from now on"; but: "I will put." He therefore wishes to signify to us that between Mary and the devil, represented by the serpent, just as between Jesus Christ and all the powers of hell, there will be a perpetual and irreconcilable war, and that in this war she will always be victorious and will crush the head of her enemy. Now, this would not be so if, at the moment of her conception, she had been stained by original sin. Far from being at war with the devil and victorious over him, she would have been his friend or rather his slave; she would have bowed under his power and his dominion. There would have been a divorce between her and Jesus Christ, and she would have found herself in a state

where God could have had no friendship nor any inclination for her. It is therefore necessary to recognize that she was preserved from this general misery that has flooded the entire human race, and that she never contracted original sin.

The Bridegroom of the Canticles declares this singular privilege of Mary quite clearly when He says to her in chapter IV: "You are all beautiful, my beloved, and there is no spot in you." For if she is all beautiful, she is therefore not only so in her birth, in her life, in her death, in her resurrection, and in the state of glory that she possesses in heaven; she is also, or she was, at the moment of her creation, and she was never without being beautiful. And if there is no spot in her, one must therefore exclude not only mortal sin and venial sin, but also original sin, which, according to Saint Augustine and the other Fathers, is a horrible deformity, which renders a soul execrabl saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. e in the eyes of God.

All the figures of the Old Testament, which sacred interpreters have perpetually applied to the Blessed Virgin, also lead us to the same truth. This vessel of Noah that sailed happily upon the waters of the flood, without receiving any damage while all the rest of the world was submerged; this Ark of the Covenant, formed of incorruptible wood, gilded inside and out, and which contained only the Tables of the Law, the manna, and the rod of Moses; this fleece of Gideon, which remained dry while all the surrounding earth was soaked, and which was covered with dew in the general dryness of the field where it was spread; this cloud of the prophet Elijah, which rose from the depths of the sea without carrying away any bitterness, were sensible prophecies that Mary, being born of a corrupt race, would contract nothing of its corruption, and that being in the midst of sinners she would have no part in their sin.

Such was the sentiment of the most ancient Fathers of the Church. They always called the Blessed Virgin "most pure, most irreproachable, and most immaculate," without any of them ever including her in the general law of sin. Some salute her as "more beautiful than the cherubim, purer than the seraphim, more innocent and holier than all the heavenly spirits."

It is true that when this truth, which was as if hidden in the bosom of the Church and contained within the general propositions used by the holy Fathers, began to develop, there were several disputes among the doctors regarding it; but, after some time of discussion, everyone declared themselves in its favor. Several times the Holy See, seeing that the faithful honored the Immaculate Conception of Mary, encouraged this devotion, authorized a special feast, forbade the teaching of the contrary doctrine, and made the office of the Immaculate Conception with an octave mandatory for the entire Catholic world. Finally, on December 8, 1854, one of the most fortunate and glorious days for humanity on earth, we saw that for which the preceding centuries had sighed with such ardor: the Vicar of Jesus Christ, Pius IX, the successor of Saint Peter, declared from the height of the apostolic chair Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. that the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a doctrine of faith and that no one can deny it without separating themselves from the unity of the Church.

Moreover, several excellent reasons would suffice, even without the formal decision of the Church, to persuade us of this doctrine. Mary is the Mother of God, and she has as her son Jesus Christ, the Holy of Holies. This truth, which was so solemnly defined at th e Council of Eph concile d'Éphèse Ecumenical council that validated the position of Maximian. esus against the blasphemie s of Nest Nestorius Condemned patriarch to whom Maximian succeeded. orius, is received and revered by all the faithful. Saint Peter Damian, following the Fathers and Doctors, calls this dignity of Mother of God "an immense dignity," and asserts that only the Workman Himself could surpass this great work. God, wishing to bestow such an incomprehensible favor upon Mary, wishing to raise her to such an admirable dignity, wishing to place her above the thrones, the cherubim, the seraphim, and every possible creature, wishing finally to make her such that there was not and could not be anyone more worthy below Him, could He permit that at her Conception she be the slave of the demon, the heir of hell, and a cursed and execrable creature, worthy of His horror and His curses? Would He not have thereby given Satan a great reason to boast of having been, at least for a moment, the master and sovereign of such a precious creature, and of having had her under his power and dominion? And would He not, at the same time, have done an injury to the glory of His omnipotence by doing only halfway such a rare and excellent work?

Furthermore, Mary, to be a worthy Mother of the divine Word, had to participate, in a most eminent manner, in the perfections and holiness of the eternal Father, since she was to be His Vicar on earth and give a human life to Him to whom He gives a divine life in eternity. Now, the holiness of God is a perpetual and immutable holiness; He is Holy, He has always been Holy, and it is in the splendors of the Saints that He begot His Word; therefore Mary, to be a worthy Mother of God, must always have been holy, and never infected by the corruption of any sin, nor consequently by original sin.

It was also necessary for this that she be similar to Him whom she was to bring into the world, since there must be a resemblance between the Son and the mother, and when it is not found, it is a defect of generation. Now, original sin is nothing other, according to Saint Denis, than a state of dissimilarity from God, habitus dissimilitudinis Dei; and not only of dissimilarity, but also of opposition, contrariety, and incompatibility; for Jesus Christ necessarily hates the one who is stained with this crime, and, hating him, He necessarily condemns him and rejects him from before His eyes. Judge then if Mary, destined to be His mother, could ever have contracted this sin and been stained by it.

Finally, she had to be such that it would not be an opprobrium and a confusion for Him to acknowledge her as His mother. Now, if she had ever been a criminal, it would undoubtedly be an opprobrium and a subject of shame and confusion for His sovereign and infinite majesty to acknowledge and confess her as His mother. There is no doubt that an honest man would blush at the faults and disorders of those who brought him into the world. Thus, Mary, being chosen from all eternity to be the worthy mother of the Son of God and a mother who would be, not His confusion, but His honor and His glory, it must undoubtedly be admitted that she was preserved from sin and that she was conceived in innocence and in the privilege of a most eminent holiness.

We will be even more certain of this truth if we reflect on the assistance that her Son, who did not yet exist according to His humanity, but who subsisted according to His divinity and already looked upon her as His mother, was to render her at the moment of her conception. For it is certain that at this most important moment He could preserve her from sin by giving her in advance the grace of a perfect sanctification. Now, if He could, how can we imagine that He did not do it and did not wish to do it? Does He not also command us to honor our fathers and mothers and to assist them in their needs as promptly as we possibly can? What! Would He have failed in a law that He prescribed to other children?

Furthermore, Mary was to be a cooperator with her Son in the redemption of men. We attribute this privilege to her only after all the Fathers of the Church. Pope Innocent III, in his sermon on the Assumption, says in a word: *Quidquid damnavit Eva, salvavit Maria*; "Mary saved all that Eve had lost." It is not that she redeemed us by her satisfactions and her merits, but she provided the flesh and blood that served for our redemption; she was the first altar where the Savior immolated Himself, and she sacrificed Him for us at the same time that He sacrificed Himself. The consequence of this principle is that Mary was not a sinner; for how could she have worked for the deliverance and reconciliation of sinners if she herself had been for an instant among the unfortunate number of sinners? For this, it was necessary that she participate in the priesthood of her Son and that, as Saint Epiphanius says, she be the Priest and the Host of our redemption. Does not S aint Paul saint Paul Apostle cited regarding original sin and the priesthood. also say that our Priest must be holy, innocent, pure, and without stain; she had to be singularly and sovereignly pleasing in the eyes of God, and how could she have had this prerogative if she had formerly been a criminal, and if, by her ancient crime, she were, like other men, the murderess of Him to whom she had given life? It was necessary that there be nothing to erase and to forgive in her, and would there have been nothing to forgive her if the death of her Son had been offered, not to preserve her from sin, but to reconcile her after she had contracted the stain? She was therefore never guilty, and it is by this perfect innocence that she justly deserved to be associated with the office and the glory of our redemption.

Finally, Mary is like the general of the armies of God: in this capacity, she also must never have had any sin. The Holy Spirit, in the Song of Songs, represents her not only as an intrepid warrior but also as an entire army drawn up in battle and terrible to its enemies; Solomon, as a tower defended by a thousand shields and as a nuptial bed surrounded by the sixty mighty men of Israel. All the Fathers finally apply to her these words from chapter III of Genesis: *Ipsa conteret caput tuum*; "It is she who will crush your head." Does this allow us to believe that she was ever defeated by Satan, that she bowed under his yoke, and that she was his captive? What is the head of the serpent, if not original sin? Is it not by this sin that all men were wounded, and that the poison of other sins insinuated itself into the world? If, therefore, Mary crushed the head of the serpent, must we not admit that she overcame original sin and that she was never its slave?

As the exemption from sin is inseparable from sanctifying grace, this grace was in Mary greater than any that has ever been given to other creatures, not only in their first origin, but also in the consummation of their perfection; it was even greater than that of all the angels and all men together; because, according to Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, and Saint Thomas, her g saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. race had to be prop ortioned to saint Thomas Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. the dignity for which she was destined. Now, the dignity of Mother of God alone is worth more than all that we can conceive of as great and magnificent in angels and men: the Fathers call it "infinite, unspeakable, incomparable, incomprehensible"; therefore, her grace surpassed all that was infused into the angels and men, and all that they arrived at by their merits and good works.

Moreover, this grace had all the interior advantages of original justice, which were to subject the spirit to God, the flesh to the spirit, and the movements of nature to reason, and to give a perfect power never to sin, neither mortally nor venially. For what causes grace to lack these advantages in us is that we lost them through the sin of our origin. Since, therefore, the Blessed Virgin had no part in this stain, it must be admitted that her grace had all the strength and vigor of original justice. From all that we have just said, it is manifest that the soul of the Blessed Virgin, in her Conception, was not defiled by the filth of sin, but that it was, on the contrary, embellished with the most precious ornaments of grace.

We add that the matter from which her body was formed was perfectly purified. We are obliged to admit with shame that the sin of our first father has so corrupted and infected the substance that serves for our generation that it is in us a seed of disorder and crime. It ignites concupiscence, it animates the passions, it excites the rebellions of the flesh against the spirit, and it nourishes this intestine and perpetual war which is between the body and the soul, between the higher part and the lower part. But this corruption did not take place in the Blessed Virgin; the matter that grace rather than nature prepared for her formation was entirely freed from this contagion, and it was given to her in a state so pure that it was incapable of any disordered movement. Three reasons persuade us of this truth: the first, that this matter was to compose the body of a Virgin purer than the thrones, the cherubim, and the seraphim; and so pure, according to the manner of speaking of Saint Anselm and the Angelic Doctor, that one cannot conceive below God a purity greater and more perfect: the second, is that this matter was also to serve for the composition of the body of Jesus Christ; for the fles h of Jesus was fo Docteur angélique Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. rmed from that of Mary, and one can even say that there was a time when it was but the same flesh as that of Mary: the third, that subsequently this matter was to serve for Jesus Christ for the redemption of the human race, and to be offered to the eternal Father as a spotless Host for our reconciliation and our salvation.

It remains, to show the perfection of her Conception, to show that her spirit at that moment was not enveloped in darkness, but that it enjoyed the most noble lights of nature and grace to know divine and human truths. This is what Saint Jerome teaches us when he says that she was never in darkness, but always in the light: *Non fuit in tenebris, sed semper in luce*. This is also what the Church teaches us when it applies to her all that is said of Wisdom in the *Proverbs* and in *Ecclesiasti cus*; for it saint Jérôme Father of the Church and biographical source for Amand. is impossible for Wisdom to be in darkness and ignorance. If, therefore, Mary deserved the glorious name of Wisdom, we must be persuaded that she was never for a single moment without enjoying the light of reason and a most perfect intelligence. At the moment she was sanctified, that is to say at the very moment of her Conception, she was endowed with the use of reason; she enjoyed the most sublime lights to know God and to know herself, and to perform acts proportioned to the greatness of the grace and the eminence of the charity that were given to her.

Some theologians add that, as one cannot deny her the great privilege that Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas say was granted to Moses and Saint Paul, of seeing for some moments in this life the pure light of the divine essence, one can believe that the instant of her Conception was one of those precious instants when such an admirable fervor was conferred upon her. This is not the place to treat such important subjects in depth. We will content ourselves with saying with Denis the Carthusian, that, as Mary was very similar to her Son in holiness, so she was very similar to him in knowledge and wisdom; and with the Abbot Rupert, that her Spouse brought her into his cellars in such a way that he hid nothing from her of the high truths of the Holy Scriptures.

What then was the glory, the eminence, and the perfection of her Conception? And do we not have reason to exclaim today with holy gladness: "Your Conception, O Virgin, Mother of God, has filled the whole world and all creatures with joy"? We find in it none of the defects and miseries of our own; your soul is without stain, your body is without defilement, your spirit is without darkness. Everything in it is holy, everything is pure, everything is luminous, everything is worthy of a Mother of God, everything is worthy of Him who is to be born of you, everything is worthy of Him who is to repair the world through the body and blood He will receive from you. Should we be surprised after this that a feast has been established to honor every year a mystery so great and so worthy of respect and praise?

It is not possible to specify the time when it began in t he Churches of t Églises d'Orient Region of origin of the saint. he Eas t and th Occident Region where the feast spread starting from the 11th century. e West. It was celebrated among the Greeks, at least in some particular churches, as early as the 6th century. In the West, there is no mention of it before the 11th century.

The most holy Virgin, honored especially in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception, is the patroness of tapestry makers, cloth shearers, and coopers. This patronage seems strange to us, and we are unable to explain its origin in any way.