In his Origin, Charles Darwin led the foundations to debunk the long-held belief that man and animals derive from separate lineages, landing the final blow in The Descent of Man. The discovery in the mid-1980’s that fertilized mammal eggs must have male components to generate healthy offspring had similarly dramatic consequences on other religious beliefs, as discussed in Genetics: immaculate misconception” [1]. In the Catholic calendar, the 8th of December is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The occasion was celebrated with loud fireworks cracking during the second night of the 25th course of the EFIS-EJI Ruggero Ceppellini Advanced School of Immunology, held at Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, 7th-9th December 2014. A faculty of 13 gathered together with 60 attendants from 19 countries to discuss the theme Maternal Immune System in Pregnancy. While the conclusions of the course were not quite as dramatic as Darwin’s and Surani’s, new exciting concepts were discussed that had already emerged at a previous meeting held in Cambridge in 2013 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Peter Medawar’s famous article on the ‘immunological paradox’ of pregnancy [2]. I had the honour of directing both events, together with Ashley Moffett, and learned a great deal.