Editing Immaculate Conception (section)

===Popular devotion and ''Ineffabilis Deus''===
According to [[Patrizia Granziera]], the creation of the dogma was slow and elaborate and it was more the fruit of popular devotion than scholarly.{{sfn|Granziera|2019|p=469}} The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,{{sfn|Twomey|2008|p=ix}} and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne's father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although [[Bridget of Sweden]] ({{Circa|1303}}–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.{{sfn|Solberg|2018|pp=108–109}}

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.{{sfn|Hernández|2019|p=6}} In France in 1830 [[Catherine Labouré]] (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw.{{sfn|Mack|2003}} [[Miraculous Medal|The medal]] said "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee", which was a confirmation from Mary herself that she was conceived without sin. Labouré's vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.{{sfn|Foley|2002|p=29}}

In 1849 Pope [[Pius IX]] issued the encyclical ''[[Ubi primum (Pius IX, 1849)|Ubi primum]]'' soliciting the bishops of the church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, although the Archbishop of Paris, [[Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour]], warned that the Immaculate Conception "could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition".{{sfn|Schaff|1931|p=unpaginated}} In 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull ''[[Ineffabilis Deus]]''.{{sfn|Foley|2002|p=153}}{{sfn|Collinge|2012|p=209}}

<blockquote>We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.{{sfn|Sheed|1958|pp=134–138}}</blockquote>
 
[[Prosper Guéranger|Dom Prosper Guéranger]], Abbot of [[Solesmes Abbey]], who had been one of the main promoters of the dogmatic statement, wrote ''Mémoire sur l'Immaculée Conception'', explaining what he saw as its basis:
 <blockquote>For the belief to be defined as a [[Dogma in the Catholic Church|dogma of faith]] [...] it is necessary that the Immaculate Conception form part of [[Revelation]], expressed in Scripture or Tradition, or be implied in beliefs previously defined. Needed, afterward, is that it be proposed to the faith of the faithful through the teaching of the ordinary magisterium. Finally, it is necessary that it be attested by the liturgy, and the [[Church Fathers|Fathers]] and [[Doctors of the Church]].<ref>[https://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1593 "How Abbot of Solesmes Explained the Immaculate Conception", ''Zenit'', December 9, 2004]</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Virgilio Tojetti 1877 Our Lady of Lourdes.jpg|thumb|[[Our Lady of Lourdes]]'s [[Lourdes apparitions|9th apparition]], 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after [[Bernadette Soubirous]]' description.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-04-08 |title=Virgilio Tojetti – Adoration of the Virgin Mary in the Grotto at Massabielle near Lourdes – Dorotheum |url=https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/3900127/,%20https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/3900127/ |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=www.dorotheum.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".]]
Guéranger maintained that these conditions were met and that the definition was therefore possible. ''[[Ineffabilis Deus]]'' found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation ([[Noah's Ark]]), [[Jacob's Ladder]], the [[Burning Bush]] at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the [[Song of Songs]], and many more passages.{{sfn|Manelli|2008|p=35}} From this wealth of support the pope's advisors singled out [[Protoevangelium|Genesis 3:15]]: "The most glorious Virgin ... was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: 'I will put enmity between you and the woman,{{' "}}{{sfn|Manelli|1994|pp=6–7}} a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the [[Revelation of John]], crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.{{sfn|Twomey|2008|pp=73–74}} [[Luke 1#Verse 28|Luke 1:28]], and specifically the phrase "full of grace" by which [[Gabriel]] greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: "she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction".{{sfn|German|2001|p=596}}

''Ineffabilis Deus'' was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.{{sfn|Hillerbrand|2012|p=250}} Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, the young [[Bernadette Soubirous]] said that [[Our Lady of Lourdes|Mary appeared to her]] at [[Lourdes]] in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception; the Catholic Church later endorsed [[Lourdes apparitions|the apparition]] as authentic.{{sfn|Hammond|2003|p=602}} There are other (approved) [[Marian apparitions]] in which Mary identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, for example Our Lady of Gietrzwald in 1877, Poland.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dabrowski |first=P.M. |date=2013 |title=Multiple visions, multiple viewpoints: apparitions in a Polish-German borderland, 1877–1880 |journal=The Polish Review |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=35–64 |doi=10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035|jstor=10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/polishreview.58.3.0035}}</ref>