On Our Lady's birthday the Church celebrates the first dawning of redemption with the birth of our Saviour's mother, Mary. The date of September 8 helped determine the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (nine months earlier). The Blessed Virgin was given the highest mission ever commended to any creature. Today's Feast is one of the only three birthdays honoured in the liturgical year (the others being that of St. John the Baptist and that of Jesus Christ Himself).