Ubi primum
Pope Pius IX2 February 1849
The encyclical, dated from Gaeta on 2 February 1849, in which Pius IX asked the Catholic bishops what their people felt and what they themselves thought about defining the Immaculate Conception.
The letter recalls the petitions that had reached Gregory XVI and Pius IX asking for a definition, says that the pope has set cardinals and theologians to examine the question, and asks each bishop to order public prayers and to report on the devotion of his clergy and people and on his own judgment. It is dated from Gaeta in the third year of the pontificate.
Ineffabilis Deus refers back to it as the consultation that preceded the definition. See the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Cited in
- 8 December 1854, firm date