PDF - Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God

The Most Reverend William Ullathorne
Archbishop of Birmingham

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was solemnly defined by Pope Bl. Pius IX on December 8, 1854.  It was during that same year that Archbishop Ullathorne wrote this comprehensive study of the dogma, as Bishop Edward Ilsley of Birmingham explains in an introduction to the revised edition of the book, first prepared for publication fifty years later:
    In the published “Letters of Archbishop Ullathorne” it is recorded (pp. 57 seqq.) that his admirable book on the Immaculate Conception was written in the year 1854, in the intervals of leisure which the author was able to find during the course of the canonical visitation of his diocese. It was first published in the early part of 1855 . . . .
So great was the demand for it that it was reprinted several times from stereotyped plates. In its revised form I hope that the intention and desire of its eminent author may be fulfilled in further promoting the devotion of our people to the Immaculate Mother of God.
† Edward Ilsley,
Bishop of Birmingham
Oscott, August 5, 1904

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