Portal:Saints/Selected article/August 2007

The Assumption of Mary is a doctrine and the traditions of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and other Christian groups. They believe that the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."^[1] This means that Mary was transported into Heaven with her body and soul united. The feast day recognizing Mary's passage into Heaven is celebrated as The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Roman Catholics. This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950 in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

History

Although the assumption was only recently defined as dogma, and in spite of a statement by Epiphanius of Salamis in AD 377 that no one knew of the eventual fate of Mary, stories of the assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 5th century.

The earliest narrative is the so-called Liber Requiei Mariae (The Book of Mary's Repose), a narrative which survives intact only in an Ethiopic translation.^[2] Probably composed by the 4th century, this early Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century. Also quite early are the very different traditions of the "Six Books" Dormition narratives . The earliest versions of this apocryphon are preserved by several Syriac manuscripts of the 5th and 6th centuries, although the text itself probably belongs to the 4th century.^[3] This mystery is celebrated on August 15.

References

^ Pope Pius XII: "Munificentissimus Deus - Defining the Dogma of the Assumption", par. 44. Vatican, November 1, 1950
^ Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006). A complete translation of this earliest text appears at pp. 290-350
^ William Wright, "The Departure of my Lady Mary from this World," The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, 6 (1865): 417-48 and 7 (1865): 108-60. See also Agnes Smith Lewis, ed., Apocrypha Syriaca, Studia Sinaitica, XI (London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1902).

[1] Pope Pius XII: "Munificentissimus Deus - Defining the Dogma of the Assumption", par. 44. Vatican, November 1, 1950

[2] Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006). A complete translation of this earliest text appears at pp. 290-350

[3] William Wright, "The Departure of my Lady Mary from this World," The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, 6 (1865): 417-48 and 7 (1865): 108-60. See also Agnes Smith Lewis, ed., Apocrypha Syriaca, Studia Sinaitica, XI (London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1902).

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