I often hear criticism of Mary, everything from "You Catholics worship her" (we don't) to you to you worship her statue (Do you have a creche? Is there a statue of Mary in it? Do you worship it? Enough said.) to the Immaculate Conception was made up in 1854. It was made official dogma in that year, but the feast day was celebrated as early as 1476, with a feast in the honor of Conception of the Most Holy and All Pure Mother of God celebrated in Syria in the 5th century.
Just because things aren't written down for a while doesn't make them untrue. Otherwise, the Bible would be untrue. As early as 350 AD, the belief in the Immaculate Conception existed. And as we know from personal experience, the first one to write it down wasn't the first one to think of it.
"You, and your Mother are alone in this. You are wholly beautiful in every respect. There is in you, Lord, no stain, nor any spot in your Mother." - St. Ephraem, 350 AD
My favorite explanation lies in Matthew 9:17, also found in Mark 2:21-22and Luke 5:33-39
17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
Jesus was a lot more valuable than wine, so why would God allow Him to enter a body stained with original sin?
Any way you look at it, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, like everything we believe about Mary, originates with an points to Jesus, not Mary. If she wasn't carrying the Savior, God wouldn't have created her without sin.
Think of her as the very first person to be saved by Jesus.
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