THE SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

On the 8th of December the Catholic Church celebrates a great feast – THE SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.  God, who before all ages chose Mary as the Mother of His Son, according to the merits of Jesus as the Saviour, preserved Her from original sin and endowed her with the fullness of grace. Thanks to this, Mary became a worthy tabernacle for the Incarnated Word. Thanks to God for the exceptional privilege bestowed on Mary, we ask for grace to fight sin. The feast of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated in the East as early as the 8th century. In the 9th century it also came to the West. On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX clearly defined the truth of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma of faith.

For our Apostolic Prefecture this feast is the main one, since two historical stages of the revival of the Catholic community in Azerbaijan – at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 21st centuries – are connected with this truth of our holy faith. As the first Catholic church in the city of Baku, built at the beginning of the 20th century and destroyed already in the 30s of the same century by the Bolshevik authorities, the modern church was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.

We invite all the faithful to take part in the solemn Holy Masses and in this way to express our gratitude to the Most Holy Theotokos for all the graces that we received through Her intercession, and also to ask Her to keep our Church, our city and the whole country under Her protective Veil, so that for the sake of the prayers of Her Immaculate Heart The Lord strengthened our hearts in faith, hope and love, healed our spiritual and bodily wounds, granted peace and prosperity to our country.

We remind you that when visiting the temple on the patronal feast, you can receive an indulgence, subject to all other ordinary conditions for receiving an indulgence.

The Schedule of Holy Masses of the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary 

7 Dec, Vigil, 6 PM in Azeri (Immaculate Conception Church), 7 PM in Russian (st. John Paul II parish) 

8 Dec, Solemnity Day, 7 AM and 11 AM in English, 12:45 PM and 7:00 PM in Russian (Immaculate Conception Church) and 7 PM in Russian (st. John Paul II parish)