The Immaculate Conception Novena

The Immaculate Conception novena is the nine-day prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception — conceived without the stain of original sin from the first instant of her existence — asking her powerful intercession before her great feast on 8 December. It is prayed above all in the nine days leading up to that solemnity, though it may be said at any time a soul needs Our Lady's help. Below we give the whole devotion in full: the opening prayer said each day, all nine days' distinct prayers, and how and when to pray it.

What the Immaculate Conception novena is

To honour the Immaculate Conception is to honour the truth that Mary, alone among the children of Adam, was preserved free from original sin from the first moment her soul was created — "in the first instant of her conception," as Pope Pius IX defined in 1854, "by a unique grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." This is not a modern novelty grafted onto the calendar: the feast was kept in England and the East long before the Norman Conquest, and the belief was universal in the Church for centuries before it was solemnly defined. The novena simply gathers that ancient devotion into nine days of asking. If you are new to the practice, our guide to what is a novena explains why nine days, and the Immaculate Conception sets out the doctrine itself.

The novena leans on a plain confidence: the Mother whom God preserved spotless for His own Son does not turn away those who come to her. As the last day of the prayer puts it, borrowing Wordsworth's line, she is "our tainted nature's solitary boast."

The full Immaculate Conception novena

The traditional form has three parts each day: first the opening Prayer to the Immaculate Conception, then the distinct prayer appointed for that day of the novena (into which you name your own intention), and, on the ninth day, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pray it once daily for nine days.

The opening prayer (said every day)

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve her from all stain of sin, so too You would permit us, purified through her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Day 1

O most Holy Virgin, who was pleasing to the Lord and became His mother, immaculate in body and spirit, in faith and in love, look kindly on me as I implore your powerful intercession. O most Holy Mother, who by your blessed Immaculate Conception, from the first moment of your conception did crush the head of the enemy, receive our prayers as we implore you to present at the throne of God the favor we now request...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 2

O Mary, ever blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Queen of angels and of saints, we salute you with the most profound veneration and filial devotion as we contemplate your holy Immaculate Conception. We thank you for your maternal protection and for the many blessings that we have received through your wondrous mercy and most powerful intercession. In all our necessities we have recourse to you with unbounded confidence. O Mother of Mercy, we beseech you now to hear our prayer and to obtain for us of your Divine Son the favor that we so earnestly request in this novena...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 3

O Blessed Virgin Mary, glory of the Christian people, joy of the universal Church and Mother of Our Lord, speak for us to the Heart of Jesus, who is your Son and our brother. O Mary, who by your holy Immaculate Conception did enter the world free from stain, in your mercy obtain for us from Jesus the special favor which we now so earnestly seek...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 4

O Mary, Mother of God, endowed in your glorious Immaculate Conception with the fullness of grace; unique among women in that you are both mother and virgin; Mother of Christ and Virgin of Christ, we ask you to look down with a tender heart from your throne and listen to our prayers as we earnestly ask that you obtain for us the favor for which we now plead...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 5

O Lord, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary did prepare a fitting dwelling for your Son, we beseech you that as by the foreseen death of your Son you did preserve her from all stain of sin, grant that through her intercession we may be favored with the granting of the grace that we seek for at this time...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 6

Glorious and immortal Queen of Heaven, we profess our firm belief in your Immaculate Conception preordained for you in the merits of your Divine Son. We rejoice with you in your Immaculate Conception. To the one ever-reigning God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three in Person, one in nature — we offer thanks for your blessed Immaculate Conception. O Mother of the Word made Flesh, listen to our petition as we ask this special grace during this novena...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 7

O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, and my mother, from the sublime heights of your dignity turn your merciful eyes upon me while I, full of confidence in your bounty and keeping in mind your Immaculate Conception, and fully conscious of your power, beg of you to come to our aid and ask your Divine Son to grant the favor we earnestly seek in this novena, if it be beneficial for our immortal souls and the souls for whom we pray...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 8

O most gracious Virgin Mary, beloved Mother of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, intercede with Him for us that we be granted the favor which we petition for so earnestly in this novena...

(State your intention here.)

O Mother of the Word Incarnate, we feel animated with confidence that your prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. O glorious Mother of God, in memory of your joyous Immaculate Conception, hear our prayers and obtain for us our petitions. O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Day 9

O Mother of the King of the Universe, most perfect member of the human race, "our tainted nature's solitary boast," we turn to you as mother, advocate, and mediatrix. O Holy Mary, assist us in our present necessity. By your Immaculate Conception, O Mary conceived without sin, we humbly beseech you from the bottom of our heart to intercede for us with your Divine Son and ask that we be granted the favor for which we now plead...

(State your intention here.)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from Him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

On the ninth day, close with the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Variants of the novena

The short version — the Miraculous Medal ejaculation

The whole devotion can be carried in a single line, the ejaculation revealed to St Catherine Labouré and struck on the Miraculous Medal: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Some pray this simple invocation nine times a day for nine days when a longer form is not possible, or add it to each day above. It is the Immaculate Conception novena reduced to its heart.

The traditional novena and the feast collect

Those attached to the 1962 books will recognise the opening prayer above as the Collect of the feast, sung at Mass on 8 December — the same words prayed in the old rite for centuries. The nine daily prayers reproduced here are the widely used traditional English form. There is nothing to modernise: the devotion belongs whole to the Church's traditional treasury.

For a specific intention

Every day of the novena leaves room to state your intention — a healing, a conversion, work, a marriage, the soul of one who has died. Name the one grace you seek and keep it steady through all nine days. Our Lady is invoked here as advocate and mediatrix; bring her the particular need, and leave the manner of the answer to God.

For our country

Our Lady was declared Patroness of the United States under the title of the Immaculate Conception by the bishops at the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1846 — eight years before the dogma was even defined. To pray this novena for one's country is therefore a native American devotion, and a fitting one before the national patronal feast on 8 December, a holy day of obligation. See our note on the holy days of obligation.

A printable PDF

The complete text above is the whole novena; you may copy it to keep beside you for the nine days, and it needs no separate booklet. For a version that carries itself — the opening prayer, all nine days, and the Litany, with day-by-day reminders and audio — the Iter Fidei app holds the devotion so it can be prayed from a phone without a printed sheet.

How to pray the Immaculate Conception novena

The feast falls on 8 December. To finish the novena on the eve, so that the ninth day closes into the solemnity, begin on 29 November and pray through 7 December. Many instead begin on 30 November and pray through the feast itself on the 8th — either is right; choose the count that ends where you want it to. Whenever you begin, keep the same structure each day: the opening prayer, the day's proper prayer with your intention named, and, on the last day, the Litany.

Pray at a fixed hour, name your intention plainly, and, where you can, join the novena to Mass, Holy Communion, or a decade of the Rosary — the Rosary is itself Mary's own prayer and the natural companion of this devotion. Above all, ask in submission: the prayer's own refrain begs the favour "if it be the Divine Will." A novena does not compel God; it commends a need to the Mother of God and waits in trust.

The story of the Immaculate Conception

The feast we keep on 8 December celebrates not an event in Mary's later life but the very first instant of her existence. The belief is ancient. A feast of Our Lady's conception was kept in the Christian East by the seventh century, and in the West — first in England, at the great abbeys of Winchester, Canterbury and Exeter — just before the Norman Conquest. Alban Butler, writing before the definition, calls it "the most generally received belief" that "in her very conception she was immaculate," and notes that many popes had forbidden anyone to write against it.

For three centuries theologians disputed the exact moment of Mary's sanctification — St Bernard himself hesitated, and the Dominican schools long resisted while the Franciscans became the doctrine's great defenders. The question was resolved not by argument but by the Church's authority. In 1661 Pope Alexander VII declared that the feast honoured Mary's immunity from original sin from the first moment of her soul's creation; in 1708 Clement XI made it a feast of the whole Western Church. Then, on 8 December 1854, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma revealed by God, to be believed by all the faithful. Four years later, at Lourdes, a lady appeared to a peasant girl and gave her name in the local tongue: "I am the Immaculate Conception." That apparition — recounted in our accounts of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette — heaven's own seal on what the Church had just proclaimed.

The Immaculate Conception is the reason Mary can be called "full of grace" by the angel (Luke 1:28), and the fulfilment of the promise in Genesis that the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). It is honoured too in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and taken as a spiritual banner by later apostles of Our Lady such as Maximilian Kolbe, who founded his Militia of the Immaculata under this very title in 1917 (he was canonized in 1982). Mary conceived without sin is the model of the redeemed soul and the surest of advocates — which is why the faithful bring her their needs in this novena.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the Immaculate Conception novena start?

To end on the eve of the feast, begin on 29 November and pray through 7 December, with the feast on the 8th. To pray the novena through the feast day itself, begin on 30 November and pray through 8 December. Both customs exist; the difference is only whether the ninth day falls on the vigil or on the solemnity. Because it is a movable devotion of desire, you may also pray it at any other time of year for a pressing intention.

How do you pray the Immaculate Conception novena?

Each day for nine days, pray the opening Prayer to the Immaculate Conception, then the proper prayer appointed for that day (given in full above), naming your own intention where the prayer pauses for it. On the ninth day, add the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pray at a set time, ideally joined to Mass, Communion, or the Rosary, and always ask "if it be the Divine Will."

What is the Immaculate Conception novena for?

It is prayed to obtain graces through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, honoured as conceived without original sin, and especially to prepare for her feast on 8 December. Souls bring her every kind of need — healing, conversion, work, family, the faithful departed, and the good of the Church and of one's country, of which she is patroness in the United States.

What is the difference between the Immaculate Conception and the virgin birth?

They are entirely distinct. The Immaculate Conception is Mary's own conception in the womb of her mother, St Anne, preserved free from original sin — it concerns Mary. The virgin birth (and the virginal conception of Christ) concerns the conception of Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost, which we celebrate at the Annunciation. A common error takes "Immaculate Conception" to mean the conception of Our Lord; it does not.

Is there a short version of the Immaculate Conception novena?

Yes. The devotion can be reduced to the ejaculation of the Miraculous Medal: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee," prayed nine times a day for nine days. It carries the same intention and the same title, in a form that can be said anywhere.

Why is Mary called "conceived without sin"?

Because, alone among the children of Adam, she was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception, "in view of the merits of Jesus Christ," so that she might be a worthy dwelling for the Son of God. This is what the Church defined in 1854 and what Our Lady herself confirmed at Lourdes in 1858, naming herself "the Immaculate Conception."

Can I pray the Immaculate Conception novena for someone else?

Yes. A novena may be offered for another person entirely — for their healing, their return to the faith, or the repose of their soul. Name them where the daily prayer pauses for your intention, and pray the nine days with them in mind. The seventh day's prayer explicitly asks Our Lady's help for "the souls for whom we pray."

The Iter Fidei app carries the Immaculate Conception novena in full — the opening prayer, all nine days, and the Litany of Our Lady — in Latin and your own language, with day-by-day reminders and audio. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (Genesis 3:15; Luke 1:28); Pope Pius IX, bull Ineffabilis Deus (8 December 1854), defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception; the declarations of Popes Alexander VII (1661) and Clement XI (1708) on the feast; Butler's Lives of the Saints (8 December, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary); the Collect of the feast of the Immaculate Conception; the traditional nine-day Novena to the Immaculate Conception and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as carried in Catholic prayer-books; the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes (1858); the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception as Patroness of the United States, Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore (1846).