Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception (Latin immaculate conceptio ) is a dogma of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin. For God Mary had saved from the first moment of her life of sin, because they should be the mother of God.
This teaching is to be distinguished from that of the virgin birth. It does not refer to the conception of Jesus, but to his mother Mary, who conceived naturally by her parents Anna and Joachim, was conceived and born, but it was free from original sin ( " without blemish "). Immaculata (Latin for the Immaculate ) is one of Marie Title of the Catholic Church for Mary, the mother of Jesus.
A private religious holiday of the Immaculate Conception, which commemorates the election of Mary in the womb, can be detected since the 9th century. Today it is called the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the feast of Mary's birth probably older. In years in which the Solemnity is displaced from this because of the higher liturgical rank of the second Sunday of Advent, it is nachgefeiert forward or backward.
Papal Bull
The East celebrated the feast in some places from the 10th to the 12th century as the day of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by Anna, in the west it led Anselm of Canterbury in 1100 for his diocese. Pope Sixtus IV in 1477 led a the solemnity in Rome. 1708 was the feast of Immaculate Conception as by Clement XI. prescribed for the whole Catholic Church. Pope Pius IX. finally announced on 8 December 1854 in his Bull (also Pontifical Bull ) Ineffabilis Deus (, The incomprehensible God '), the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary:
" To declare the glory of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for ornament and glory of the Virgin Mother of God, in order to increase the Catholic faith and to the growth of the Christian religion, in the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of our own, and proclaim determine We full authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and in our own: the doctrine that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Redeemer of the human race, was preserved pure from any failure of original sin is revealed by God and therefore fixed by all the faithful and steadfast to believe. If therefore anyone, which God forbid arrogates to think differently when it was determined by Us, he shall clearly know that he is condemned by their own judgment, that he suffered shipwreck of his faith and fell away from the unity of the Church further, that he incurs the penalties laid down in law readily, if he dares to admit externally manifested his views orally or in writing or otherwise. "
An extension of this statement of faith is that Maria - in contrast to all other people - at the end of their lives no purification in purgatory in need more, since the purification of Mary held by the exemption from original sin already at the moment of her conception and during her life no sins committed. This was in 1950 mitausgesagt in the dogma of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.
Additional importance won the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the Roman Catholic Church through the apparitions of Lourdes. Here supposed to have had a white-robed woman ( mother of God) in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous multiple phenomena. The methodology described by Bernadette " nice white lady " was revealed to her as " the Immaculate Conception".
Historical controversy within the Catholic Church
The Immaculata conceptio was the subject of theological controversy in the late Middle Ages, which grew out of the doctrine of original sin because of the unsettled doctrinal situation. A problem was preparing the question of how Mary could participate in the work of redemption, as they still like all the other people living under the conditions of the original sin. To rule out this consequence, you can either a divine cleansing ( sanctification ) Mary, Mary sanctificatio, accept of original sin, as was represented by the Dominicans in the 19th century, or one must assume that Mary received " without sin " has been, as was taught by the Franciscans.
Early on after the founding of the Franciscan Order, 1263, the General Chapter of the Order of Pisa under the direction of St. Bonaventure had taken the feast of the Immaculate Conception than own celebrations of the Order. Particularly intense dispute in the 15th century was fought, were involved here, inter alia, the University of Paris, the Council of Basel and the Kings of Aragon. The theological solution to the problem was worked out by John Duns Scotus, doctor subtilis. According to his theory, Mary was freed from the conception of original sin, but by the merits of Jesus - only in advance. He accredits his doctrine with the saying of Pseudo- Anselm: " Decuit, potuit, ergo fecit " (, It was fitting, he could [God ], so he made [ it ] '). The valid teaching that is derived from it, only defined the bull Ineffabilis Deus of Pius IX was beatified in 2000. But already the Council of Trent (1554-1563) takes in his statements about the original sin the Blessed Virgin Mary expressly.
Prominent opponents of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Middle Ages were Bernard of Clairvaux, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure and the Franciscan Popes John XXII. and Benedict XII. ; most popes behaved in this matter neutral, which was still complaining in the late Middle Ages by the Immakulisten up with Sixtus IV, a Franciscan came to the papal throne which, although in the debate over the Libellus de veritate Conceptionis Beatae Virginis Gloriosae of 1476/1477 the position of the Dominicans rejected, at the same time, however, a clear statement in favor of the Franciscan position in the constitution Cum praeexcelsa avoided.
Immaculate Conception as the Solemnity of the Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church celebrates on December 8, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary (8 September ), the solemnity, the Conception of Mary. The full name of the festival is: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The German festival calendar also speaks of Mary's election. The festival grew out of the original hard Immaculate Conception, which is also celebrated by the Anglican Church. The Orthodox Churches celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 9, but have due to their non -Augustinian understanding of original sin no specific teachings about it.
Immaculate Conception as national holiday
In Austria, Liechtenstein and the strongly Catholic cantons of Switzerland (see holidays in Switzerland) as well as in Argentina, Spain, Chile, Nicaragua, Portugal, Italy and Malta 's Immaculate Conception is a public holiday.
In Austria, December 8th is celebrated since the 17th century. 1646 proclaimed Emperor Ferdinand III. during the Thirty Years War, the Austrian Consecration to the Immaculate. Because of the pre-Christmas shopping season, in the fall of this holiday, the closing of the transactions was controversial. Since 1995 it is possible by a change in the law on shop closing times, shop on this day in many shops and department stores.
After Partikularnorm for Germany the Immaculata is not all due conceptio holiday. In Bavaria, this day was up to and including 1969, a state- protected religious holiday pursuant to § 2 para 1, No. 2 and 3 of the Law on the protection of Sundays and holidays ( FTG ) of 15 December, 1949 ( GVBl 1950 p 41) without having been recognized as a public holiday in accordance with § 1 FTG.
Reception outside of the Roman Catholic Church
Martin Luther known at least in the early years of the Reformation, to attach the Immaculate Conception doctrine. In his Resolutiones disputationum de Indulgentiarum virtute 1518 he declared his agreement with the late medieval conciliar decisions on this question. In a sermon he explained to his listeners even in 1520 that Mary had come in any moment of her life with original sin in touch. As the mother of Christ that God had honored with the highest holiness and purity.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception can not be derived from the writings that have been included in the canon, therefore, it is, unlike the biblical texts based on the doctrine of the virgin birth, not generally believed by the evangelical Christians.
Even in the Old Catholic Church of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception comes to no liability because this corresponds to the view of the Old Catholic Church neither the biblical witness nor the honorary titles, which have awarded the ecumenical councils of the early centuries Mary.
Iconography and representation in art
The typical artistic representation form of Mary Immaculate showing Mary, standing without a child. It is derived from the Madonna in the ears dress, who was worshiped from 1387 to Milan. Your top form she developed in the Spanish Baroque, from where it spread throughout Europe. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and the Marian apparitions of the 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably the Mary of Lourdes after 1858, bringing a wealth historicist - romanticizing to modernist figures show.
Your Holy attributes are:
- A snake that she tramples, the Biblical symbol of sin ( Gen 3:15 EU), (Rev 12 EU)
- The globe, which Mary appears as the winner over the entire worldly sin - the snake winds often around the globe
- The circle of stars around the head and the crescent moon under her feet (Rev 12 EU) as an apocalyptic sign.