Very Important Facts About the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and Her Assumption into Heaven
It is said that it was the faithful people who brought the Fast of the Mother of God into the Church’s calendar, because until the eleventh century it was not among the fasts required by canon law, and it is not found in any of the canons on fasting.
This fast was known as the Fast of the Virgins, and it was seen as a support for purity and celibacy; that is why those who kept it most were ascetics and monks.
Then the people came to practise it at every level, making it an occasion for renewing their spiritual life and a time for repentance.
In this fast the Virgin Mary is the living model of purity and celibacy, but she is also the trusted intercessor through whom we receive strength and grace from God to live this life.
The Virgin Mary holds a high and special place in the liturgy and life of the faithful in the Orthodox Church, and she has five feasts:
her Nativity (8 September), her Entry into the Temple (21 November), the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple (2 February), the Annunciation (25 March) and her Dormition (15 August).
We should note here that even the feasts connected with the Virgin Mary are originally connected with the Lord Jesus and are called “feasts of the Lord” because they are linked to him. This is because the theology of the Orthodox Church is bound up with the Lord Jesus and revolves around him, for he is its centre.
The Dormition of the Mother of God
Holy Scripture says nothing about the Dormition of the Mother of God, but in their homilies the Fathers cite many Bible verses that point to the Virgin’s falling asleep and her being taken up bodily:
– David’s words: “Arise, O Lord, and go to thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy might” (Psalm 131:8 in the Septuagint; Psalm 132:8). The Fathers interpret this verse to mean that Christ brought into heaven the body from which he was born in time.
– They also rely on David’s words: “At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir” (Psalm 44:10 in the Septuagint; Psalm 45:9). In this verse we see the Virgin Mary adorned in royal robes, standing at the Lord’s right hand, that is, in heaven.
A verse from the Revelation of John is also cited: “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1).
The verses we have mentioned are only biblical symbols that touch on the Dormition of the Mother of God and her being taken up bodily into heaven. The foundation of the account of the Virgin’s Dormition comes to us from Tradition.
The Dormition of the Virgin and Her Being Taken Up Bodily into Heaven
The source from which the Fathers drew the account of the Virgin’s Dormition and bodily Assumption into heaven is an apocryphal writing (the accounts known as the “Transitus Mariae”) that circulated from the early centuries, including in Gnostic circles. It tells of her falling asleep and her bodily ascent into heaven as we know them today. This writing is one of the apocryphal books about the life of the Virgin Mary from which the Church took certain elements.
In the early centuries the Church handed on the account of the Virgin’s Dormition with great caution, somewhere between acceptance and rejection, until the sixth century.
But because of the rise of the Nestorian heresy, the Church embraced from inherited tradition everything that concerned the glorification and honour of the Virgin. Many Fathers confirmed this account in their writings and homilies, most notably Saint Modestus of Jerusalem and Andrew of Crete,
as well as Saint Gregory, bishop of Tours, Saint Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, and Saint John of Damascus.
At the end of the sixth century, Saint Gregory the Great mentioned the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary in his sacramentary.
Fixing the Date of the Feast of the Dormition
The Church’s tradition of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption into heaven after her falling asleep is said to go back to the days of the apostles; otherwise the whole Church would not celebrate it.
The first to fix this feast on 15 August and to order that it be celebrated throughout the East with great solemnity was the Emperor Maurice, around the year 600. Pope Gregory the Great also ordered that the feast be celebrated. In the West, before that time, it had been celebrated on 18 January.
The feast was then introduced into the calendar of the Church of Rome. In the seventh century Pope Sergius added a procession to enhance the splendour of the feast. Then in the ninth century Pope Leo IV gave it an octave. In the East the feast was given a leave-taking, an all-night monastic vigil and a fourteen-day fast (from 1 to 14 August).
The Emperor Andronikos dedicated the whole month of August to the glory and honour of the Mother of God in 1297. That is why the Church calls this month of August the month of the Virgin Mary, the all-holy Mother of God.
August therefore has a Marian character: the first fourteen days are a preparation for the feast, and the days that follow, up to the leave-taking, are a continuation of this great feast.
Parish fasting rule:
From 1 August:
abstinence from meat and animal products;
fish is allowed on the Feast of the Transfiguration.
Fr. Boutros al-Zein
