I realized that neither I nor David Van Meter responded to the
question about the relative antiquity of the feasts of the Nativity of Mary
and the
Immaculate Conception. I have no detailed reference sources at hand and
I am sure others can add to this in more detail and with greater
authority, but my guess would be that Sept. 8 is older. It was
celebrated in both east and west on Sept. 8 at least as early as Andrew
of Crete (d. 740); I suspect much earlier--a standard dictionary of the
saints says "before the 7th century." Given the prominent role of
veneration of the Blessed Virgin in both East and West from the earliest
centuries (Newman uses it as a key part of his argument for the
development of doctrine: to show how liturgical and popular practice
often precedes formal dogmatic definition, which was the case with the
title Mary, Mother of God / Theotokos at the Council of Ephesus in the
early 5thc.), "before the 7thc" probably indicates paucity of sources
rather than the non-existence of the feast prior to the 7thc.
The Immaculate Conception as a doctrine, under that title, is more
closely associated with Western, Latin theology, since the Greek Fathers
tend to have a different view of original sin than the West. (The
differences are often exaggerated, but they are real.) I do not have
information about the earliest liturgical celebration of the Immaculate
Conception, but would think it would have developed in the West, later than
liturgical celebration of the nativity. Of course, once one
celebrates the Blessed Virgin's birth on Sept. 8, the date of her
conception would follow from that; whether anyone saw fit to celebrate the
date of her conception from the early centuries, I don't know.
Perhaps someone can offer a more precise account to replace my speculations.
Dennis Martin
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