mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics

HER IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 41
c) The dogma expressly says that our Lady
owed her freedom from original sin entirely to
the redemptive merits of her Divine Son. Like
all other human beings, she had need of a re-
deemer, though the manner of her redemption
differed from that of the common run. She was
preserved from original sin by a special and alto-
gether unique privilege.
As this privilege is based entirely on her dignity as
Mother of God, it would be rash to assume that it was
granted also to other Saints, e. g., John the Baptist or
St. Joseph. Inasmuch as Mary never even for one mo-
ment contracted the slightest taint of original sin, theo-
logians commonly speak of her redemption as redemptio
anticipata or praeredemptio (sometimes also praemundor-
tio). This Preredemption, according to Catholic teach-
ing, formally consisted in the infusion of sanctifying grace
into her soul immediately after its creation. In other
words, the sanctification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, like
that of our First Parents in Paradise, 3 was simultaneous
with her creation.
d) All these momenta are embodied in the
definition enunciated by Pius IX in his famous
Bull "Ineffabilis Dens, 3 ' of December 8th, 1854:
'We define that the doctrine which declares that
the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant
of her conception, by a singular grace and priv-
ilege granted to her by Almighty God, through
3 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Author of Nature and the Supernat-
ural, p. 199, St. Louis 1912.