The Church in keeping a solemn festival for the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the dawning of redemption over the world when, after a long period of waiting, there was born she who was to be the Mother of Our Savior. In memory of all that this birth implied the Church rejoices and asks God for an increase of the graces of peace bestowed on man by the mystery of the Incarnation. This feast, which is older in the East than in the West, appears to have been introduced into the Roman liturgy at the end of the seventh century by Pope Sergius I. The date of September 8, fixed by Sergius, served in the nineteenth century to fix that of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.