aw, by reason
of which no one is regenerated by the sacraments, save those who are
previously born. But God did not so limit His power to the law of the
sacraments, but that He can bestow His grace, by special privilege,
on some before they are born from the womb.

Reply Obj. 3: The Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb from
original sin, as to the personal stain; but she was not freed from
the guilt to which the whole nature is subject, so as to enter into
Paradise otherwise than through the Sacrifice of Christ; the same
also is to be said of the Holy Fathers who lived before Christ.

Reply Obj. 4: Original sin is transmitted through the origin,
inasmuch as through the origin the human nature is transmitted, and
original sin, properly speaking, affects the nature. And this takes
place when the offspring conceived is animated. Wherefore nothing
hinders the offspring conceived from being sanctified after
animation: for after this it remains in the mother's womb not for the
purpose of receiving human nature, but for a certain perfecting of
that which it has already received.
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SECOND ARTICLE [III, Q. 27, Art. 2]

Whether the Blessed Virgin Was Sanctified Before Animation?

Objection 1: It would seem that the Blessed Virgin was sanctified
before animation. Because, as we have stated (A. 1), more grace was
bestowed on the Virgin Mother of God than on any saint. Now it seems
to have been granted to some, to be sanctified before animation. For
it is written (Jer. 1:5): "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy
mother, I knew thee": and the soul is not infused before the
formation of the body. Likewise Ambrose says of John the Baptist
(Comment. in Luc. i, 15): "As yet the spirit of life was not in him
and already he possessed the Spirit of grace." Much more therefore
could the Blessed Virgin be sanctified before animation.

Obj. 2: Further, as Anselm says (De Concep. Virg. xviii), "it was
fitting that this Virgin should shine with such a purity that under
God none greater can be imagined": wherefore it is written (Canticles
4:7): "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in
thee." But the purity of the Blessed Virgin would have been greater,
if she had never been stained by the contagion of original sin.
Therefore it was granted to her to be sanctified before her flesh was
animated.

Obj. 3: Further, as it has been stated above, no feast is celebrated
except of some saint. But