Assumption of Mary
The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as the assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven. It is celebrated on 15 August.
It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was raised to eternal life without bodily death.
The equivalent belief in the Eastern Christianity is the Dormition of the Mother of God or the "Falling Asleep of the Mother of God". In the Lutheran Churches, 15 August is celebrated as the Feast of St. Mary. A number of Anglican denominations observe 15 August under various titles, including the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin or the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The word 'assumption' derives from the Latin word assūmptiō, meaning 'taking up'.
History
Some scholars argue that the Dormition and Assumption traditions can be traced early in church history in the apocryphal books, with Stephen J. Shoemaker noting about the dating:According to Shoemaker, the first known narrative to address the end of Mary's life and her assumption is the apocryphal third- and possibly second-century Liber Requiei Mariae. Yet numerous features indicate that the Liber Requiei Mariae, or the Obsequies of the Virgin, as the text is called in Syriac, has manuscripts which date according to Shoemaker to the "fifth or sixth centuries" where the "original Greek underlying these early translations almost certainly belongs to the fourth century."
Another early source that speaks of the assumption are the Six Books Dormition Apocryphon. It dates almost certainly to the middle of the fourth century, if not perhaps even earlier. Most significantly, the Six Books Dormition Apocryphon provides compelling evidence for an early cult of the Virgin nearly a century before the events of the Council of Ephesus. Shokemaker, expressing his own opinion on the subject, states: "the diversity of their accounts already by the end of the fifth century ensures the apocryphon’s composition by the early fifth century at the very latest, and a number of features locate the Six Books much more probably in the fourth century" with the "Six Books apocryphon present a rather different sensibility about the veneration of Mary from the Liber Requiei".
The Greek Discourse on the Dormition or The Book of John Concerning the Falling Asleep of Mary, is another anonymous narrative, and may even precede the Book of Mary's Repose. This Greek document, is dated by Tischendorf as no later than the 4th century. but is dated by Shoemaker as later.
The New Testament is silent regarding the end of her life. In the late 4th century Epiphanius of Salamis wrote he could find no authorized tradition about how her life ended. Nevertheless, although Epiphanius could not decide on the basis of biblical or church tradition whether Mary had died or remained immortal, his indecisive reflections suggest that some difference of opinion on the matter had already arisen in his time, and he identified three beliefs concerning her end: that she had a normal and peaceful death; that she died as a martyr; or that she did not die. Even more, in another text Epiphanius stated that Mary was like Elijah because she never died but was assumed, like him.
Other works that mention the assumption of Mary are the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the apocryphal book De Transitus Beatae Mariae Virginis, falsely ascribed to Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to Denis the Areopagite.
Teaching of the assumption of Mary became widespread across the Christian world, having been celebrated as early as the 5th century and having been established in the East by Emperor Maurice around AD 600. In a homily, John Damascene, citing the third book of the Euthymiac History, records the following:
There is a large number of accounts of the assumption of the Virgin Mary, published in various languages. The standard Greek text is the one attributed to St John the Theologian. The standard Latin is that attributed
to Melito of Sardis. Shoemaker mentions that "the ancient narratives are neither clear nor unanimous in either supporting or contradicting the dogma" of the assumption.
According to the Passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary, attributed to Joseph of Arimathea, which is a later version of the Virgin Mary's Dormition, probably from sometime after the early seventh century, one of the apostles, often identified as Thomas the Apostle, was not present at the death of Mary but his late arrival precipitates a reopening of Mary's tomb, which is found to be empty except for her grave clothes. Subsequently, Mary drops her girdle down to the apostle from heaven as testament to the event. This incident is depicted in many later paintings of the assumption.
The feast of the Dormition, arrived in the West in the early 7th century, its name changing to Assumption in some 9th century liturgical calendars. The feast was decreed for Constantinople on 15 August by the emperor Maurice in 600; about fifty years later it was introduced in Rome and is mentioned in a papal decree of Sergius, who fixed a procession for the feast. Pope Leo IV gave the feast a vigil and an octave to solemnise it above all others, Pope Nicholas I placed it on a par with Christmas and Easter, and Pope Benedict XIV declared it "a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous".
Between 1849 and 1950, numerous petitions for the assumption to be declared as dogma arrived in Rome. On 1 May 1946 the Pope sent to the bishops of the world the encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae, putting this questions to them: "Do you, venerable brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire it?" The bishops gave an almost unanimous affirmative response to both these questions.
Finally, on November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of the Virgin Mary as a dogma of faith with the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as follows:
Pope Pius XII expressed in his apostolic constitution the hope that the belief in the bodily assumption of the virgin Mary into heaven "will make our belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective", while the Catechism of the Catholic Church adds: "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians."
Related traditions
In some versions of the assumption narrative, the assumption is said to have taken place in Ephesus, in the House of the Virgin Mary. This is a much more recent and localised tradition. The earliest traditions say that Mary's life ended in Jerusalem.Scholars of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum "argued that during or shortly after the apostolic age a group of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem preserved an oral tradition about the end of the Virgin's life". Thus, by pointing to oral tradition, they argued for the historicity of the assumption and Dormition narratives. According to Antoine Wenger "the strikingly diverse traditions of Mary's Dormition and Assumption arise from 'a great variety of original types', rather than being the result of a progressive modification of a single, original tradition". Simon Claude Mimouni and his predecessors have argued that belief in the Virgin's Assumption is the final dogmatic development, rather than the point of origin, of these traditions.
In the German-speaking and some Slavic countries, the custom of blessing herbs is associated with the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This ancient custom "came to be associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in part because of the biblical images applied to her such as vine, lavender, cypress and lily, partly from seeing her in terms of a sweet smelling flower because of her virtue", and Isaiah's reference to the shoot springing from the side of Jesse, which brought Jesus Christ as a fruit. The custom is also related to the tradition of the Frauendreißiger, a period lasting to 8 September, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. This rural tradition goes back to the fact that the herbs contain particularly high levels of essential oils at this time of year and are especially healthy.
Scriptural basis
The apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus mentions several Holy Fathers, theologians and Doctors of the Church who held the assumption of Mary, among them are Adrian I, Sergius I, Leo IV, John of Damascus, Amadeus of Lausanne, Modestus of Jerusalem, Anthony of Padua, Albertus Magnus, Thomas of Aquinas, Bonaventure, Bernardino of Siena, Robert Bellarmine, Francis de Sales, Peter Canisius, Francisco Suárez, among others. The apostolic constitution adds: "All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation."Father Jugie, expressed the view that Revelation 12:1–2 was the chief scriptural witness to the assumption:
This passage, Epiphanius proposes, may indicate that Mary did not die as other human beings, but somehow remained immortal, although he makes clear his own uncertainty and refrains from advocating this view. Ultimately Epiphanius concludes: " am not saying that she remained immortal. But neither am I affirming that she died."
Since the time of the early Church Fathers, this image of "the woman clothed with the sun" has had a threefold symbolism: the ancient people of Israel, the Church and Mary.
Many of the bishops cited Genesis 3:15, in which God is addressing the serpent in the Garden of Eden, as the primary confirmation of Mary's assumption:
Many scholars connect Jesus' usage of the word "woman" to call Mary instead of calling her "mother" as a confirmation of Mary being the "woman" described in Genesis 3:15. Mary was often seen as the "New Eve", who crushed the serpent's head at the Annunciation by obeying the angel Gabriel when he said she would bear the Messiah.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, and that the fall of mankind, by the seductive voice of the snake in the Bible, represents the fallen angel, Satan or "the devil". Similarly, the great dragon in Revelation 12 is a representation of Satan, identified with the serpent from the garden who has enmity with the woman. Therefore, in Catholic thought, there is an association between this woman and Mary's Assumption.
Among the many other passages noted by Pope Pius XII were the following:
- Psalm 132, greeting the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, where the ark is taken as the prophetic "type" of Mary;
- Revelation 11:19, in which John sees the Ark of the Covenant in heaven ;
- Luke 1:28, in which the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary with the words, "Hail Mary, full of grace", since Mary's bodily assumption is a natural consequence of being full of grace;
- 1 Corinthians 15 and Matthew 27, concerning the certainty of bodily resurrection for all who have faith in Jesus.