1. For she is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her. For she is the brightness of Eternal Light, and the unspotted mirror of God's Majesty, and the image of His Goodness.
-Wisdom VIII, 25, 26.
2. We deem indeed only fitting that all the faithful in Christ should give thanks and praise to Almighty God for the marvelous Conception of the Immaculate Virgin, should celebrate and take part in the Masses and other Offices appointed for that purpose, and also strive to gain indulgences and the remission of their sins . . .
-Pope Sixtus IV (O.M.C.) (+1484): Constitution Cum prae excelsa, 28 February 1476.
3. This devotion and homage toward the Mother of God was again increased and propagated . . . so that the universities having adopted this pious belief that she was conceived without sin, already nearly all Catholics have embraced it.
-Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667): Constitution Solicitude omnium ecclesiarum, published 1661.
4. In honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, to give glory and due honor to the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of Christian religion, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by Our own, We pronounce and define that the doctrine which states that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, in the first instant of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin, has revealed by God and is therefore to be firmly and unswervingly believed by all the faithful. Wherefore if any should presume - which God avert - to think otherwise in their hearts than We have defined, let them know and understand that they stand condemned by their own judgment, that they have made shipwreck of the faith, have fallen away from the unity of the Church, and that in consequence they automatically fall under the canonical penalties if they venture to make known by word or writing or in any other outward way what they think in their hears.
-Pope Pius IX (1846-1878): Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December, 1854 (Acta Pii IX, i , 616).
5. If anyone says that man once justified can during his whole life avoid all sins, even venial ones, as the Church holds that the Blessed Virgin did by special privilege of God, let him be anathema.
-Council of Trent, Session VI, can. xx ii.
6. The Immaculate Conception of the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whom on this day Pope Pius IX solemnly defined to have been by a singular privilege of God preserved free from all stain of original sin.
-Roman Martyrology, 8 December.
7. God, by a singular Providence, caused the Most Holy Virgin to be as perfectly pure from the very first moment of her existence, as it was fitting that she should be, who was to be the worthy Mother of God.
-Greek Menology, 25 March.
8. Our most holy, immaculate, and most glorious Lady, Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary.
-Protoevangelium of Saint James (c. A.D. 170).
9. All blameless, more to be honored than the Cherubim, incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim.
-Liturgy of Saint James the Apostle.
10. Mary was altogether sinless.
-Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.
11. It was meet that the God of all purity should spring from the greatest purity, from the most pure bosom.
-Saint Irenaeus (+ c. 202), cited by Fr. Kane in School of Mary, ch. ii, p. 14.
12. She was not contaminated by the venomous breath of the serpent.
-Origen (+ c. 253): In Div., hom. i.
13. The only daughter of life, the tabernacle most holy, not made by hands of man, preserved incorrupt, and blessed from the head to the feet.
-Saint Dionysius of Alexandria (+ 265), quoted by Chandlery.
14. The new Eve, and the Mother of Life.
-Saint Athanasius, Doctor of the Church (+ 373): In Annunt.
15. Of a truth O Lord, Thou and Thy Mother are they alone who are in every way wholly fair; for in Thee, O Lord, there is no spot, in Thy Mother no stain.
-Saint Ephraem of Edessa, Deacon, Doctor of the Church (+ c. 373): Carmina Nisibena, XXVII, 8 (ed. Brickell, pp. 122-3).
16. She was as innocent as Eve before her fall, a Virgin most estranged from every stain of sin, more holy than the Seraphim, the sealed fountain of the Holy Ghost, the pure seed of God, ever in body and in mind intact and immaculate.
-Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Carmina Nisibena.
17. Most holy Lady, Mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, alone exceeding all perfection of purity . . . alone made in thy entirety the home of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and hence exceeding beyond all compare even the angelic virtues in purity and sanctity of soul and body . . . my Lady most holy, all pure, all immaculate, all stainless, all undefiled, all incorrupt, all inviolate . . . spotless robe of Him Who clothes Himself with light as with a garment . . . flower unfading, purple woven by God, alone most immaculate.
- Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Precationes ad Deiparam, in Opp. Graec. Lat., III, 524-537.
18. She was immaculate, and remote from all stain of sin.
- Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Orat. ad Deiparam.
19. Hers was a purity without shadow.
-Saint Gregory of Nyssa (+ c. 395).
20. Receive me not from Sarah, but from Mary; that it may be an uncorrupted Virgin, a Virgin free by grace from every stain of sin.
-Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church (+ 397): in Ps. CXVIII, s. 22.
21. She was a Virgin not in body only, but in mind also; the purity of her thoughts had been deflowered by no evil suggestion . . . So pure was Blessed Mary that she was chosen to be the Mother of the Lord; God made her whom He had chosen, and chose of her of whom He would be made.
-Saint Ambrose, Bp. of Milan, supra.
22. He Who formed the first virgin (Eve) without deformity, also made the second Virgin (Mary) without spot or stain.
-Saint Amphilochius of Iconic (+ c. 400): In S. Deip. et Sim.
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