Another belated feast day!

A quick glance over this icon might just leave you thinking, "Oh, yet another Byzantine style Madonna and Child." To which I would like to respond:

WRONG!!!!!

Closer inspection of the iconography of the piece (direction of the child's eyes, clothing styles, stars on the child's forehead and shoulders) and the general appearance of the two figures instead indicate that this is, in fact, an icon of Madonna and Mother, aka the Blessed Virgin Mary and her mother, St. Anne.

Which is perfect for yesterday's holy day -- the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That is not, as is commonly believed, the Virgin Birth or the Annunciation, but when Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin.

There are people who get all worked up because this dogma wasn't infallibly declared until something like 1850, but it was a belief of the church for just about as long as it's been around. Take, for example, this quote from the 16th century:

"It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin."

And some other quotes:

"She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin—something exceedingly great. For God’s grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil."

"The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart."

"[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ…She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough."

So, in conclusion... yeah, it's a pretty rock-awesome feast, as they go.

(Oh, and by the way... you know all those quotes? Yep, you guessed it -- Martin Luther himself!)