"Mary was conceived without sin. Behold! what for years, has been repeated thousands and thousands of times, not in this great city or diocese only, but in every part of France, among strangers and in the most distant countries. Behold! the cry of hope which suffering danger, public or private necessities, have wrung from mouths accustomed to bless God, and celebrate the praises of His Holy Mother. Behold! what has been written, engraved, religiously deposed, wherever there were spiritual or temporal favors to be asked, graces of protection, of healing or conversion; at the entrance of cities, at the doors of dwellings, on the breast of the sick, on the couch of the dying. Behold! what in these later times especially, has taken such deep root in all Christian hearts, what has received an extraordinary impulse, what has been propagated in so remarkable a manner, what seems to justify moreover, (the fact can no longer be disguised) the numberless graces obtained through the invocation of Mary conceived without sin. "Mary was conceived without sin. Behold! what the chaste generation has taken the pious custom of placing on its heart with the sign of the cross as an impenetrable buckler against the inflamed darts of Satan, and under which its innocence and virtue are shielded. Behold! what inspires it, fortifies it, renders it invincible in combats with the demon of darkness; what makes it victorious over all the seductions of the world and the attacks of hell; what attracts, what leads it to follow Mary in the path of angelic perfection, and makes it taste that celestial word which is not given to all to understand; finally, behold! what everywhere and in all conditions, fills with holy emulation, souls truly pious; what encourages them to walk with constancy in the ways of justice; what communicates to them a just horror of sin and the highest esteem for sanctifying grace, of which the Immaculate Virgin is for them the faithful mirror and venerable sanctuary. "And behold, also, our very dear brethren, what has urged, and determined us to regard as a consolation, a duty of our episcopate to second your piety in this regard, at the same time, that we satisfy our devotion to this Immaculate Virgin, to whom we are indebted for many signal benefits. We thought it not a rash zeal, to supplicate our Holy Father, the Pope, to deign confide to us the means of increasing devotion to Mary Immaculate in her Conception, to render it easier and thus more popular. The Feast of the Blessed Virgin's Conception, being now in France only one of devotion, we have feared that even if the memory of it were not gradually effaced, it might become insensibly neglected, and the fruits of sanctification and salvation diminished.