Immaculate Conception

Francesco Podesti's Immaculate Conception Dogma (detail)

We celebrate today the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Though this event happened two thousand years ago it was only in 1854 that Pope Pius IX, after consulting with all the bishops of the world, pronounced and proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This was a rare event and it took another 96 years to have another Dogma proclaimed, this time the Assumption of Mary in 1950. Then another event happened that affirmed the Immaculate Conception of Mary, only 4 years later, when in 1858, the apparition at Lourdes took place, Mary revealing herself to Bernadette Soubirous as the Immaculate Conception. The Encyclical Ineffabilis Deus that proclaimed the Dogma proclaims 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 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.” 

The massive Podesti painting in the Vatican Museum (click to enlarge)

When I visited Rome in May of 2012, I took close to 3,000 photos all around Rome, especially in churches, paintings and other sacred art I discovered around the Eternal City. But none surprised me more than a majestic painting inside the Vatican Museums, close to the Raphael’s famous “School of Athens” and the “Disputation on the Eucharist.” It was a room entirely dedicated to the Blessed Mother, and in particular to the Immaculate Conception, whose feast we celebrate today. Dominating this room was a huge painting commemorating the event of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX. The painting is divided into two section. The top part shows the Blessed Mother surrounded by Jesus and God the Father, as well as St Peter and St. Paul and a series of other saints, all in heaven. The bottom part shows the Pope, flanked by several Cardinals, Bishops and other prelates as he is officially declaring the dogma at the Vatican. The work was done by Francesco Podesti, who was present during the actual ceremony, and was later commissioned by the Vatican to reproduce this historic event. It took 11 years to paint this masterpiece, and if you are ever in Rome, please make sure to visit the Vatican Museums - you need one full day to really appreciate everything there is to see, including this masterpiece by Podesti. It was so massive that I could not fit the entire painting in one photo, but most of it is here to admire.