The Dormitio Virginis And the intake, in the East and in the West, are among the oldest Marian holidays.
Was Pope Pius XII On 1 November 1950, Holy Year, to solemnly proclaim for the Catholic Church as a dogma of faith the assumption of the Virgin Mary to the sky with the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus deuS: “Therefore, after having still raised to God, instances, and having invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, to the glory of Almighty God, who poured his special benevolence in honor of his Son, immortal king of the centuries and winner of sin and death in honor, to the greater glory of his Augusta mother and joy and exultation of the whole Church, for the authority of our Lord. and Paolo and Nostra, We pronounce, declare and define being dogma by God revealed that: the immaculate Mother of God always Virgin Mary, after the course of earthly life, was taken on the celestial glory in body and soul. Therefore, if anyone, that God does not want, dared to deny or doubt what has been defined by us, know that it has failed to the divine and Catholic faith ».
The Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrate the feast of Mary’s Dormition on 15 August.
Rubens, taking the Virgin
What is celebrated in this solemnity?
The Immaculate Virgin which, preserved immune from every original fault, finished the course of his life, was assumed, that is, welcomed, to the heavenly glory in body and soul and by the exalted Lord as the queen of the universe, so that he was more fully conforming to his son, lord of the dominant and winner of sin and death. (Conc. Vat. II, Lumen Gentium59). The Virgin assumed, says the Roman Missal, is the first of the celestial church and a sign of consolation and sure hope for the pilgrim Church.
This is because the intake of Mary It is an anticipation of the resurrection of the meat, which for all other men will only take place at the end of the time, with the universal judgment. It is a solemnity that, corresponding to the Natalis (death) of the other saints, is considered the main feast of the Virgin.
On August 15th he probably recalls the dedication of a large church to Maria in Jerusalem.
What is the difference between “assumption” and “dormitation”?
The main difference between sleep and assumption is that the second does not necessarily imply death, but it does not even exclude it.
What are the sources?
The first reliable writing that tells of the assumption of the Virgin Mary in the sky, as the tradition had until then had handed down orally, bears the signature of the bishop San Gregorio di Tours (538 Ca.- 594), historian and hagiographer Gallo-Romano: “Finally, when the Blessed Virgin, having completed the course of its earthly existence, was about to be called by this world, all the apostles, coming from their different regions, gathered in his home. When they felt that she was about to leave the world, they watched together with her. But here the Lord Jesus came with his angels and, taken his soul, handed it to the Archangel Michael and moved away. At dawn the apostles raised his body on a bed, placed him on a sepulcher and kept him, waiting for the coming of the Lord. And here for the second time the Lord presented himself to them, ordered that the Holy Body was taken and brought to Heaven ».
What is the theological meaning?
The doctor of the Church San Giovanni Damasceno (676 Ca.- 749) He will write: «It was convenient that the one who had preserved his virginity in the birth preserved his body intact from corruption after death. It was convenient that the one who had brought the creator made in the breast lived in the divine home. It was convenient that the bride of God entered the celestial house. It was convenient that the one who had seen his son on the cross, receiving in the body the pain that had been spared in childbirth, contemplated him sitting to the right of the father. It was convenient that the Mother of God possessed what was due to her because of her Son and that she was honored by all creatures such as Mother and slave of God ».
The Mother of God, who had been spared from the corruption of original sin, was spared from the corruption of her immaculate body, the one who had hosted the Word had to enter the kingdom of heaven with her glorious body.
What do the Church’s Fathers say?
San German of Constantinople (635 Ca.-733), considering the summit of patristic Mariology, is in favor of the hiring and for three main reasons: these words put on the mouth of Jesus: “come willingly at the one who has been generated by you. With the duty of son I want to rejoice; I want to repay the home in the maternal breast, the pay of breastfeeding, the compensation of education; I want to be sure to your heart. O Mother, you who had me as a unigenite son, rather choose to live with me ». Another reason is given by the total purity and integrity of Mary. Third: the role of intercession and mediation that the Virgin is called to carry out before the child in favor of men.
We still read in his writing ofHomily i On the dormitation, which in turn draws from St. John Archbishop of thessalonica (between 610 and 649 ca.) and by a text by the latter, which describes in detail the origins of the feast of the hiring, certainly given in the eastern church of the first centuries: “Being human (your body) has turned to adapt to the supreme life of immortality; However, it remained intact and very glorious, with perfect vitality and not subject to sleep (of death), precisely because it was not possible that it was owned by a sepulcher, companion of death, that vase that contained God and that living temple of the holy divinity of the Unigenito ». Then he continues: «You, according to what has been written, you are beautiful and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, all home of God: therefore it is also extraneous to the dissolution powder. In fact, as a son seeks and wants his mother, and the mother loves to live with her son, so it was right that you too, that you possessed a heart full of maternal love for your Son and God, returned to him; And it was also completely convenient that in turn God, who had that feeling of love that he felt for a mother, made you participate in his commonality of life with himself “.
Why is the day of the assumption also said mid -August?
The term Mid -August derives from the Latin phrase Feriae Augusti (Rest of Augustus) indicating a holiday established by the emperor Augustus in the 18 BC which was added to the existing and very ancient falling holidays in the same month, such as the rustic vinalia or consualia, to celebrate the crops and the end of the main agricultural works.
The ancient mid-August, in addition to the obvious purposes of political self-promotion, had the purpose of connecting the main Augustan holidays to provide adequate rest period, also said Augustalinecessary after the great labors made during the previous weeks.
