What Is Immaculate Conception in the Bible?
Feast
That the Virgin Mary was kept free from original sin from the first moment of her life, by the grace of God. This was through the merits of her Son Jesus.
It can mean
- It is a dogma: Pope Pius IX proclaimed it in 1854. It is called “the Immaculate Conception.”
- Careful: it does not speak of the birth of Jesus. It speaks of the beginning of Mary’s life, in her mother’s womb.
- In the Bible: the angel Gabriel greeted her as “full of grace.”
- The new Eve: many Fathers of the Church see Mary in the woman announced in Genesis 3:15.
Today
Its feast is December 8, during Advent. It is a solemnity and, in many countries, a holy day of obligation.
Where it appears in the Bible
Luke 1:28; Genesis 3:15
What the Bible says
Luke 1:28
And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catechism 411 and 490-492; Pius IX, bull Ineffabilis Deus (1854); Catechism 2177