The Dormition of Mary

The Dormition of Mary
Question from Bohdan Szejner, Rome, Italy on 5/9/2008:

The more I study theology, the less I seem to know despite being a theologian. Today, I was stunned by a simple, uneducated lady who just returned from Jerusalem, and reported that she had visited the tumb of Mary. At first, I told her that it's not possible since Mary does not, and cannot have a tumb: Mary was assumed to heaven body and soul! Secondly, I told her, my impressin was that Mary stayed with John on Patmos, till she died. Yet on reflection, the literature I later consulted, namely, Percorsi mariologici nell'antica letteratura cristiana, does speak of various traditins pointing to a "tomb in Jerusalem"! One account though states that "only John, Peter, and Paul know the site of the tomb outside of Jerusalem." This is confusing! If Michael Archangel "took the body to heaven," why the tomb? And how could John have been in Jerusalem, given his exile to Patmos? Please shed some light on this.
Answer by Fr. John Echert on 5/12/2008:

Theological opinion is divided on the question of whether Mary passed through death and then was Assumed into Heaven or whether she was simply Assumed without death. Western ancient tradition tends to the view that she did not die whereas Eastern tradition favors the sleep of death (hence the word "Dormitian" associated with Mary at Jerusalem, which is an eastern church). At any rate, IF Mary passed through death it was not because she deserved to die as punishment for sin, since she was without any stain of sin, but it would have been for the reason of more fully sharing in the work of redemption of her Son, who did not deserve to die but willingly accepted death on the Cross for others. Furthermore, just as the Body of our Lord did not corrupt in the Tomb, so it would follow that if Mary did pass through death her body did not know decay.

As to ancient traditions of her locations, she is associated with a number of places, to include Ephesus and Jerusalem. Given that she probably lived on Earth decades after the Ascension, she could have lived in several locations, often with St. John but not necessarily inseperable at all times.

God bless,

Father Echert