Theotokos: The Immaculate Conception - in Tradition

The understanding of Mary’s Immaculate Conception in Sacred Tradition encompasses three distinct stages.  The first period dates to roughly 1100 A.D.  During the initial stage the Eastern Church evidences a much clearer conception of the doctrine than the Western Church.  However, both the Eastern and Western Church held two central ideas in common: 1) Mary’s transcendent purity, and 2) the striking contrast between Mary and Eve, so similar to that existing between Christ and Adam.

Both Western and Eastern Fathers extol Mary as “all-holy”, “a virginal paradise preserved from the curse of God,” “a virgin without the slightest taint of sin,” “a miracle of grace, holier and purer than the angels”. 

The Fathers also clearly saw Mary as the second Eve.  As Christ was the counterpart to Adam so Mary is the antithesis of Eve.  As Eve, in conjunction with Adam, embodies the principle of sin, so Mary, in conjunction with Christ, represents the well-spring of sanctity and righteousness.  If Mary as the second Eve participates in the sanctity of her Divine Son she cannot possibly have been tainted by original sin else the Scriptural parallel would be meaningless.  In fact, the Fathers put Mary on a par with Eve while she was yet in the state of original justice (before the fall), i.e., conceived her equally as holy in origin with the mother of all the living.

Some quotes from the Fathers:

Justin Martyr

[Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might be also the very course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied, "Be it done unto me according to your word" (Luke 1:38) (Dialogue with Trypho 100 [A.D. 155]).

Irenaeus

Consequently, then, Mary the Virgin is found to be obedient, saying, "Behold, 0 Lord, your handmaid; be it done to me according to your word." Eve . . . who was then still a virgin although she had Adam for a husband — for in paradise they were both naked but were not ashamed; for, having been created only a short time, they had no understanding of the procreation of children . . . having become disobedient [sin], was made the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race; so also Mary, betrothed to a man but nevertheless still a virgin, being obedient [no sin], was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. . . . Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith (Against Heresies 3:22:24 [A.D. 189]).

Tertullian (early 3^rd Century)

For unto Eve, as yet a virgin, had crept the word which was the framer of death.  Equally into a virgin was to be introduced the Word of God, which was the builder-up of life; that, what by that gender had gone into perdition might by the same gender be brought back to salvation.  Eve had believed the serpent, Mary believed Gabriel; what Eve sinned by faith, Mary atoned by faith.”

Origen

This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one (Homily 1 [A.D. 244]).

Hippolytus

He [Jesus] was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle [Mary] was exempt from defilement and corruption (Orat. In Illud, Dominus pascit me, in Gallandi, Bibl. Patrum, II, 496 ante [A.D. 235]).

Dionysius the Great of Alexandria

Christ did not live in a servile tent, but in His holy ark … and He preserved His mother as one who was blessed from head to foot, undefiled, even as He alone knew the manner of her conception and birth [ca. A.D. 250]

Ephraim the Syrian

You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is neither blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these? (Nisibene Hymns 27:8 [A. D. 361]).

Those two innocent, those two simple women, Mary and Eve, had been indeed created equal, but afterwards on became the cause of our death, the other of our life

Ambrose of Milan

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 [A.D. 387]).

Gregory Nazianzen

He was conceived by the virgin, who had been first purified by the Spirit in soul and body; for, as it was fitting that childbearing should receive its share of honor, so it was necessary that virginity should receive even greater honor (Sermon 38 [d. A.D. 390]).

Augustine

We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honor to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin (Nature and Grace 36:42 [A.D. 415]).

Theodotus of Ancrya

A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns (Homily 6:11[ante A.D. 446]).

Instead of the virgin Eve, who was for us the instrument of death, God, for the purpose of giving life, chose a virgin most pleasing to Himself and full of grace, who, included in woman’s gender, was free from woman’s sin, a virgin innocent, without taint, holy in soul and body, as a lily budding in the midst of thorns, unlearned in the evils of Eve … a daughter of Adam, but unlike him.

Proclus of Constantinople

As He formed her without any stain of her own, so He proceeded from her contracting no stain (Homily 1[ante A.D. 446]).

Jacob of Sarug

[T]he very fact that God has elected her proves that none was ever holier than Mary, if any stain had disfigured her soul, if any other virgin had been purer and holier, God would have selected her and rejected Mary[ante A.D. 521].

Romanos the Melodist

Then the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had conceived the immaculate one. So everyone took part in the rejoicing. Joachim gave a banquet, and great was the merriment in the garden. He invited the priests and Levites to prayer; then he called Mary into the center of the crowd, that she might be magnified (On the Birth of Mary 1 [d. ca A.D. 560]).

John of Damascus ( early 8^th century)

Hail, thou the only blessed one among women, who has repaired the fall of our first mother Eve … Hail, thou who art truly full of grace, because thou art holier than the angels and more excellent than the archangels … Hail, thou full of grace, because thou art more beautiful than the Cherubin and more exalted than the Seraphim … Hail, full of grace, thou who art higher than heaven and purer than the sun which we behold.

The belief in the Immaculate Conception was also shown in the development of festival days and special liturgies early in the history of the Church.  This was known at first as the Conception of St. Anne and originated in the monasteries of Palestine at least as early as the seventh century.  The feast of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated about the year 840 in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily.  In England, the festival was observed before the Norman conquest.  The Irish probably celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception as early as 900.  The feast made its way from Italy to Gaul in the twelfth century and the feast grew more popular and finally became established in Rome where it was first observed in the fourteenth century.

In the twelfth century, a famous theological controversy arose over the dogma in the West.  However, this controversy was confined to the circle of the learned and never seemed to affect the masses of the people.

The dogma was further clarified and developed from the twelfth century through the teaching of Church councils and papal proclamations.  The Council of Basel in 1439 declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to be the official teaching of the Church though not binding.  In 1568, Pope Pius V made the feast of the Immaculate Conception a holy day of obligation for the entire Church.  Pope Alexander VII in the Constitution “Solicitudo” on December 8, 1661 subjected the writings of all those who opposed the dogma to the Roman Index.  Finally on December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX in the Constitution “Ineffabilis Deus” pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

The Immaculate Conception represents an extraordinary privilege which Mary received not for her own sake but for the sake of her Son, Christ.  Just as the glory of a child reflects honor on the parents, so the shame of a parent is reflected upon the child.  Any sinful taint in Mary would have reflected unfavorably on her Divine Son.  Also the granting of such an awesome privilege redounds to the glory of Christ in His capacity of Redeemer.  Far from taking away from Christ, the Immaculate Conception enhances and displays His dignity and power.

To say that Mary was exempt from original sin is not to deny that she was redeemed by Jesus Christ.  Rather it asserts that she was redeemed by Him in a most perfect manner greatly redounding to the glory of the Redeemer.

Mary was chosen by God from all eternity to be the Mother of Christ – the living temple of the Logos, the Holy of Holies of the New Testament.  It is irrational to think that Mary should have been even temporarily tainted by original sin.  Mary, by virtue of the dignity of her divine motherhood, was raised to a unique rank unattainable by any other creature.  As such, logic demands that she should be absolutely pure and stainless.  As the Mother of God, Mary surpasses Eve and all the angles of Heaven in dignity.  Now Eve and the angels were created in a state of original holiness, thus it would be unreasonable to suppose that Mary, whose dignity is so far superior to theirs, was created in the state of original sin.  There is an incongruity in the supposition that the flesh, from which the flesh of the Son of God was to be formed, should ever have belonged to one who was the slave of that arch-enemy, whose power He came on earth to destroy.   It was becoming that the Mother of the Redeemer should have been free from the power of sin and from the first moment of her existence.  God could give her this privilege; therefore He gave it to her.