#dormition

[wgm-beautiful-world]

The Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God stands on Vasilyevsky Island in ST. PETERSBURG

[coeur-d-or]

The Vision of Alypius by Vasily Raev (1848).

Depicted is Alypius of the Caves, 11th century iconographer who painted with the help of God and His angels, one of whom is shown here to be making the Dormition of the Mother of God icon (identical to the Assumption of Mary in Catholicism) as the monastic bears witness; a man so pious that upon his death, his hand was found making the Sign of the Cross in rigor mortis.

The assumption motif is very powerful. I love the description of Enoch who is said to have "walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him". One step still on Earth, the next one in Heaven. God so loves His faithful He would not even suffer their bodies to forever mingle with the world. So it was with our Virgin Mother, whose assumption we celebrate today.

[jh-newman-opn]

did the blessed Virgin Mary see the apostles martyred

A question that occurred to me during my daily rosary, and which I am now going to attempt to answer.

According to Hippolytus of Thebes, our blessed mother was assumed around the year 41AD. The 18thC mystic Catherine Emmerich says she was aged around 64 at the time of the Dormition (source: a vision), which would put the date between 45-49AD. Based on these two extremely accurate and definitely not questionable dates, I will now show how many of her children Our Lady had to watch die (while on earth). Edited upon being reminded from "she did not see this" to "she saw this from heaven", because. well. she did.

Jesus: 33AD. Obviously.

Judas: 33AD. She did not see this bc she was a bit busy with our boy JC but she was around and in the area.

James (the Greater) son of Zebedee: killed by Herod Agrippa in 44AD. Our Lady apparently bilocated to see him on his mission (ur mum could never) so maybe she did that for his death as well.

Andrew: Crucified on an X-shaped cross in Achaia (Greece) in the year 60-61AD. She saw this from heaven.

James (the Lesser) son of Alphaeus: stoned to death in the AD60s. She saw this from heaven.

Philip: Crucified upside down in Hierapolis in 62AD. She saw this from heaven.

Matthew: martyred in Ethiopia in 65AD. She saw this from heaven.

Matthias (replaced Judas): martyred in 65AD, either hacked to death or crucified. She saw this from heaven.

Peter: crucified upside down during the Neronian persecutions of 67-68AD. She saw this from heaven.

Paul: beheaded in Rome on the same day (BFF goals). She saw this from heaven.

Bartholomew/Nathaniel: skinned alive in Armenia in 72AD. She saw this from heaven.

(Doubting) Thomas: was in Persia and India (VERY funny story about this in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas) but was teleported back to Jerusalem three days after Our Lady's Dormition, and was there to see that her body had been assumed. He was later stabbed to death in India in 74AD. She saw this from heaven.

John: Probably died of natural causes at the end of the 1st century. He's winning. St Robert Bellarmine thinks his body was assumed into heaven so they even reunited on the same day (side note: John's conviction that he is Jesus's specialest little apostle is consistent with the favourite child syndrome he clearly also has from Our Lady, and this cannot have helped. Who is the greatest disciple? Doesn't matter, mummy loves John most). She saw this from heaven and then immediately they had a touching reunion :))))))

Simon the Zealot/Jude and Jude/Thaddeus: unknown but probably martyred together. We assume she saw this from heaven, because the alternative would make me sad.

[rossodimarte]

The Soul of the Virgin, detail from Dormition of the Virgin, unidentified bohemian artist, ca 1350

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today, August 15, Catholics and many other Christians celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This significant feast day recalls the spiritual and physical departure of the mother of Jesus Christ from the earth, when both her soul and her body were taken into the presence of God.

Venerable Pope Pius XII confirmed this belief about the Virgin Mary as the perennial teaching of the Church when he defined it formally as a dogma of Catholic faith in 1950, invoking papal infallibility to proclaim “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

His Apostolic Constitution “Munificentissimus Deus” (Most Bountiful God), which defined the dogma, contained the Pontiff's accounts of many longstanding traditions by which the Church has celebrated the Assumption throughout its history.

The constitution also cited testimonies from the early Church fathers on the subject and described the history of theological reflection on many Biblical passages, which are seen as indicating that Mary was assumed into heaven following her death.

Although the bodily assumption of Mary is not explicitly recorded in Scripture, Catholic tradition identifies her with the “woman clothed with the sun” who is described in the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation.

The passage calls that woman's appearance “a great sign that appeared in heaven, indicating that she is the mother of the Jewish Messiah, has the moon under her feet, and on her head, a crown of twelve stars.”

Accordingly, Catholic iconography of the Western tradition often depicts the Virgin Mary's assumption into heaven in this manner.

Eastern Christians have also traditionally held Mary's assumption into heaven as an essential component of their faith.

Pius XII cited several early Byzantine liturgical texts, as well as the eighth-century Arab Christian theologian St. John of Damascus, in his own authoritative definition of her assumption.

“It was fitting,” St. John of Damascus wrote in a sermon on the assumption, “that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death and that she, who had carried the creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles.”

In Eastern Christian tradition, the same feast is celebrated on the same calendar date, although typically known as the Dormition ("falling asleep") of Mary.

Eastern Catholic celebration of the Dormition is preceded by a two-week period of fasting, which is similar to Lent.

Pius XII, in “Munificentissimus Deus,” mentioned this same fasting period as belonging to the traditional patrimony of Western Christians as well.

The feast of the Assumption is always a Holy Day of Obligation for both Roman and Eastern-rite Catholics on which they are obliged to attend Mass or Divine Liturgy.

[divinum-pacis]

August 25, 2022: Christian women hold candles during a procession to bring an icon of the Virgin Mary to the tomb where it is believed she is buried, along the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem. Every year before the Feast of the Assumption, the icon is brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the tomb of the Virgin Mary to honor her Assumption. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

[sodidjoballdays]

Meister der Gewandstudien (German, 15th century) Dormition of the Mother of God (1480-1490)

[thesynaxarium]

In giving birth you preserved your virginity, in falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death + #mostholytheotokossaveus #theotokos #fifteendaysofaugust #panagia #motherofgod #dormition #assumption #orthodox (at Gethsemane) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSj01VkDrOq/?utm_medium=tumblr