Mary & the Immaculate Conception

The Virgin Mary by Giuseppe Obici

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December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a public holiday in Italy. 

A stone's throw from the Spanish Steps, stands the Colonna dell' Immacolata. The Column of the Immaculate Conception was inaugurated on December 8th 1857 to mark the publication, exactly three years earlier, of the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus, in which Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-78), ending centuries of heated debate, declared that the Virgin Mary was free of the stain (macula) of original sin from the moment of her conception. 

The monument was designed by the architect Luigi Poletti (1792-1869), and the bronze statue of Mary, which stands atop an ancient Roman column, is the work of Giuseppe Obici (1807-78). The Virgin Mary, with her crown of twelve stars, crushes a serpent (symbol of original sin) under her foot. At the base of the globe on which she stands are symbols of the four evangelists. 

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