This question has been asked before, so my apologies for repeating the answer previously given. The
dogma of the Assumption – that Mary was taken up body and soul
into heaven, after the completion of her earthly life (termed her
dormition – or falling asleep in the Lord) – was proclaimed
on November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII in Munificentessimus Deus; There
was extensive acceptance and support for the doctrines among
theologians and saints for centuries prior to their formal proclamation
by a pope. The doctrines were subject to intense study over a period of
centuries, requiring a long process before formal acceptance was
granted. We known very little about the exact date of the
dormition and Assumption. It is possible, based on various writings,
that the dormition occurred not too many years after Jesus’ death
and Resurrection and took place either in Jerusalem or Ephesus. The
earliest surviving reliable references to the Assumption are the
sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus of
Jerusalem and others. In the West, meanwhile, St. Gregory of Tours is
generally credited with mentioning it first. St. John Damascene added
that St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon
(451), informed Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria (who wished to
possess the mortal remains of the Mother of God) that Mary died in the
presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened was found
empty; the Apostles thus concluded that the body was taken up to
heaven. The doctrine was subsequently supported by a host of
theologians, including Sts. Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and St.
Bonaventure. The doctrine was also promoted by such eminent later
theologians as St. Bernardine of Siena, St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis
de Sales, and St. Robert Bellarmine. Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758)
declared it a probable opinion. The Feast of the Assumption was
observed in Palestine during at least the 5th century, according to the
life of St. Theodosius (d. 529). When it was celebrated in the Eastern
Empire is a matter of some question, as it was divided between August
15 and January 18. Byzantine Emperor Maurice (d. 602) attempted to
settle the date and chose August 15, according to the Liber
Pontificalis, at least as far as the Eastern Empire was concerned. In
Rome, the oldest and only feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary was January
1, the octave of the birth of Our Lord. Thus before the seventh century
no other feast was recognized, although there is some question
concerning the feast found in the so-called Gelasian Sacramentary for
August 15. That feast, however, did not mention the corporeal
assumption of Mary. The Byzantine feasts for Mary, including the
Assumption, were introduced in the pontificate of Pope Sergius I around
700, from where they found acceptance in other territories, including
those in the West that actually kept the other Eastern date of January
18. By the end of the 8th century, the feast was universally recognized
in the West on August 15. The octave was added in 847 by Pope Leo IV,
and in 863, Pope Nicholas I made it equal to Christmas and Easter. Father
Frederick Jelly, O.P. approached the question of the dormition this
way, in The Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine (by Our Sunday Visitor):
“Although the dogma of the Assumption did not settle a number of
questions regarding Mary’s departure from this life, the
testimony of Tradition does seem to favor the theological opinions that
she died and was most likely buried near the Garden of Gethsemane in
Jerusalem, and that, in the likeness of her Son’s Resurrection,
her body did not decompose after her death and burial but instead Mary
was gloriously assumed intact.” |
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