In the Catholic Church, several locations around the world invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. Catholic diocesan authorities with the expressed and written approval of the Pope in countries including Brazil, Korea, the Philippines, Spain, and the United States designate the Blessed Virgin Mary as their principal patroness.

As part of the patronage, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is often observed both religiously and culturally within these countries. Numerous national parades, processions and cultural festivities are associated with this patronage ranging from public holidays to holy day of obligation. Several Popes have conferred this title of patronage, sometimes initiated by bishops.

The list below enumerates the various countries by which the pope through a bull has formally granted the Immaculate Conception as the patroness of the people and its land or kingdom.

The list of pontifical declaration does not include Ireland, Monaco, Nicaragua and Portugal.

Brazil

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patroness of Brazil under the localized title Our Lady of Aparecida (Our Lady of Immaculate Conception (who) Appeared).

On 8 December 1904 Pope Pius X granted a canonical coronation to the Brazilian image. The decree mentions the 1904 solid gold crown given to the image (assumingly from Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil). The devotion was researched and approved by Cardinal Camillo Laurenti, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The papal bull was signed and witnessed by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli.Acta Apostolica Sedis - 1931 - Page 7 - Beata Virgo Maria Immaculata Sub Titulo Apparecida - Principalis Patrona Brasiliae Constituitur. - %20-%20ocr.pdf

Pope Pius XI declared Mary under this title patroness of Brazil through a bull of 16 July 1930, signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli.Acta Apostolica Sedis – 1931 – Page 7 – Beata Virgo Maria Immaculata Sub Titulo Apparecida – Principalis Patrona Brasiliae Constituitur The decree indicated that Pope Leo XIII granted the approval on the devotion of the image under the title Nossa Senhora de Conceicao Aparecida (stylized as Fossa Behihora de Gonceigao Apparecida).

Pope John XXIII granted a Pontifical decree of coronation Quidquid ad Pietatam on 17 August 1961 for a namesake image in Conselheiro Lafaiete for Archbishop Caruana, crowned in 1963.

Pope Paul VI granted the image her first golden rose on 12 August 1967. Pope John Paul II consecrated a new shrine of the Immaculate Conception and on the same date raised it to the rank of minor basilica on 4 July 1980.

Korea

Amidst Christian suspicion and persecution at the time, Pope Gregory XVI invested ecclesiastical interest in strengthening the first bishopric in Korea. In 1831, he established the first and only Apostolic Vicariate in Korea which survived no foreign Catholic priests since the anti-Catholic persecutions that went on earlier that year.True Doctrine in the Hermit Kingdom: A Brief Survey of the Catholic Church in Korea - Brother Zechariah Foreman, Order of Preachers, published May 4, 2004 According to Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk, in 1841, Pope Gregory XVI solemnly dedicated the Korean Catholic Church to the Virgin Mary under the title "Immaculate Virgin".

On 6 May 1984, Pope John Paul II reiterated this patronage by entrusting the Republic of Korea to the Virgin Mary, given at the Myeong-dong Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Seoul, Korea. In the Apostolic Letter, John Paul II noted that Bishop Imbert Bum first consecrated Korea to the Immaculate Conception in 1837, followed by Bishop Jean Joseph Ferréol in 1846 along with Saint Joseph as its co-patron in the village of Surich’igol, nearby the city of Gongju. According to the papal brief, a similar re-dedication of patronage to the Immaculate Conception was invoked on by the French Bishop Gustave Charles Mutel on 29 May 1898, when the cathedral was ceremoniously opened to the Korean public.

Philippines

On 6 February 1578, Pope Gregory XIII through his bull Illius Fulti Præsidio, erected the Diocese of Manila and decreed that its cathedral should be under the invocation of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Pope Clement VIII granted the same invocation to the cathedrals of Nueva Segovia and Cáceres by decree of 13 August 1595.

Pope Pius X granted the petition to continue using the privilege of blue vestments for the Feast of Immaculate Conception included in a list of indults granted to the Philippines, dated 11 February 1910, executed by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val.

Pope Pius XII through the Apostolic Letter Impositi Nobis of 12 September 1942, declared the Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception as principal patroness of the Philippines with Saints Pudentiana and Rose of Lima as secondary patronesses, mentioning that the 1907 Provincial Council of Manila invoked Maria Immaculata as patroness of the whole Filipino people and that historical documents indicated Saint Pudentiana as patroness of the Philippines from the 16th century and Saint Rose of Lima from the 17th.Insularum Philippinarum Beatissima Virgo Maria Titulo Immaculata Conceptio Primaria Universalisque Patrona et Sanctae Virgines Pudentiana ac Rosa Limana Patronae Secundarias Declarantur - Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1942) Pages 336-337 Pius XII, through Quidquid ad Dilatandum, reiterated this declaration of patronage on 16 July 1958 through the Chancellor of Apostolic Briefs, Gildo Brugnola who signed and executed the decree. The bull only affected those patronesses of the Philippines that were ordinally ranked. Since 1571, Pudentiana was principal patroness of the Philippines; and since 1670, Rose of Lima was principal patroness of the Indies, thereby also becoming a de jure principal patroness of the Philippines. The two patronesses were demoted to secondary status in deference to the Blessed Virgin as the Immaculate Conception.

Pope John XXIII issued a pontifical decree of coronation for the Marian image titled "The Virgin of Immaculate Conception of Namacpacan" that was granted to Bishop Juan Callanta y Sison on 7 September 1959, signed by the Canon Secretary Giulio Barbella and notarized by Secretary of the Apostolic Dataria, Marco Martini. The rite of coronation was executed by the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Salvatore Siino.

Pope John Paul II honored the venerated image of Immaculate Conception in Malabon a canonical coronation which was crowned later on 7 December 1986.

Pope Benedict XVI granted a canonical coronation for the following images: In Pasig, crowned on 7 December 2008 in Malolos Cathedral, crowned on 10 March 2012.

Pope Francis granted a canonical coronation for the following images: In the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Santa Maria, Bulacan, crowned on 1 February 2020. In the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Batangas City, crowned on 8 December 2022.

Among various fiestas and rituals honouring the Immaculate Conception's patronage is the annual Grand Marian Procession in Manila, where various statues of the Virgin Mary depicting her different titles and apparitions are borne in procession. The images are removed from their respective shrines and brought around the Spanish colonial capital district of Intramuros towards Manila Cathedral, which is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. The event is administered both by the Cofradía de la Inmaculada Concepción and the Intramuros Administration, in cooperation with the City Government of Manila and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. To date, six venerated Marian images with the patronal title in the Philippines have been granted a decree of Canonical Coronation by a pope.

The Philippines celebrated the 1954 Marian year by releasing a commemorative stamp featuring an image of the Immaculate Conception, and re-printed again in 1958. On 29 March 2017, the Philippine government through the House of Representatives approved House Bill No. 5241 declaring 8 December as a non-working official holiday, and was officially signed into law on 23 December 2017 as Republic Act No. 10966 by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary as its national patroness.

Spain

By pontifical decree, the Immaculate Conception alone is the universal and national patroness of Spain, by virtue of a papal mandate issued by Pope Clement XIII on 8 November 1760, while James the Greater remains, the same pope declared, the primary patron"quin primarius Sancti Iacobi Apostoli dignoscatur patronus" (Civiltà Cattolica 1851, p. 129) of the Spanish people. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is also one of the nine national and public holidays and a holy day of obligation.

The patronage settles the dispute between a heated religious debate during the mid-1600s, when followers of the mythical figure James Matamoros wished to impose him as the national patron saint versus the followers of Teresa of Avila.

On 11 September 1759, the elected members of the Royal Spanish Court petitioned King Charles III of Spain to request from the pope the "…universal patronage of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in all the Kingdoms of Spain and the Indies".

With the papal bull Quantum Ornamenti of 8 November 1760, Pope Clement granted the request of King Charles III, declaring the Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the whole of the Kingdom of Spain along with its eastern and western territories,"in universo Hispaniensi Regno, eiusque Orientalibus, Occidentalibusque Indiis" (Civiltà Cattolica 1851, p. 129) (in the Americas and the Philippines)."Vix Carolus III sceptrum suscepit, ad Reginae Coelorum pedes confestim illud libentissime locavit, utque omnes Hispaniae incolae tanto firmarentur patrocinio, tantoque munirentur praesidio, Sanctissimam Virginem in Conceptionis Immaculatae ineffabili mysterio totius regni elegit Patronam; huic adimplendo scopo, anno 1760 celebratis Comitiis, et ad Summum Pontificem Clementem XIII evectis precibus, die 8 Novembris ipsiusmet anni Bullam: Quantum ornamenti, impetravit, in qua Virginem sub glorioso Conceptionis mysterio in universo Hispaniensi Regno, eiusque Orientalibus, Occidentalibusque Indiis Patronam venerari decrevit quin primarius Sancti Iacobi Apostoli dignoscatur Patronus, praecipiensque etiam Summus Pontifex ecclesiasticos cunctos tam saeculares, quam Regulares hoc festum cum ritu primae classis diligenter servare, ac plenariam Indulgentiam impertiens omnibus, et singulis, qui conditiones Litteris Apostolicis praescriptas explerent." Pareri sulla definizione dogmatica dell'Immacolato Concepimento della Beata Virgine Maria (Civiltà Cattolica 1851), pp. 128-129 The emblem of the Order of Charles III is an image of the Immaculate Conception."The miracle that made the Immaculate Virgin patroness of Spain and its infantry", CNA, December 8, 2023