The Fast and Abstinence of the Mother of God, 1 to 14 August
1. The Fast of the Mother of God
The Church rejoices at the coming of the Fast of the Mother of God, and the faithful are glad to fast. The Fast of the Virgin is one of the important fasts, much loved by many practising Christians. It is said that it was the faithful people who brought it 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.
So the secret of this fast lies in its patroness: the Virgin is a powerful intercessor for all who turn to her in faith, hope and love. This shows the Church one of its most beautiful spiritual pictures: the people keeping this fast without obligation or direction, which suggests that this fast entered the people’s hearts through the right door, out of love and conviction.
2. The Feasts of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary holds a high and special place in the liturgy and life of the faithful in the 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 Byzantine Church is bound up with the Lord Jesus and revolves around him, for he is its centre.
The Virgin Mary also has other feasts, such as:
the Synaxis of the Mother of God (26 December), right after Christmas; the Placing of the Belt of the Virgin (31 August); the Placing of the Robe of the Virgin (2 July); the Life-giving Spring (the Friday after Easter); and the Great Akathist (Friday of the fifth week of Lent).
3. Honouring the Mother of God
The Gospel of Luke tells us of the Annunciation, and how God, through the angel, called her full of grace and blessed among women, and how the Spirit of God came upon her.
But this in no way makes her an object of worship; she is an object of honour, for worship belongs only to God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to no one else.
Alongside the Annunciation, we find events in the Gospels that highlight the importance of the Virgin Mary:
– the events surrounding the Nativity;
– her visit to Elizabeth, who said: “Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”;
– the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple;
– the wedding at Cana, when she told the Lord that the wine had run out and said to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you”;
– her standing at the foot of the cross.
4. 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.
5. 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.
At the end of the sixth century, Saint Gregory the Great mentioned the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary in his sacramentary.
Also at the end of the sixth century, Saint Gregory, bishop of Tours, wrote a book entitled The Glory of the Martyrs, in which he said: “The Lord had the Virgin’s body taken up and carried on the clouds into heaven.”
We also find famous homilies bearing witness to this feast, preached by Saint Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, and Saint John of Damascus.
Saint John of Thessalonica also spoke about the feast in the first half of the seventh century. The idea of the Virgin’s Assumption into heaven became clear only at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century.
For the first four centuries there is no testimony about the Virgin’s Dormition except for a passage in The Divine Names, attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite.
A sentence is also found in a chronicle attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea: “In the year 48 AD Mary was taken up in person into heaven, according to what was found written by people who testified that this had been revealed to them personally.”
There is also a homily on the same subject attributed to blessed Augustine, though some say it is by Saint Jerome.
The scarcity of information and lack of interest in the details of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption, and the late appearance of the feast in the sixth century and not before, are due to the Church’s fear that excessive honour paid to the Virgin might lead the faithful into a kind of idolatry, like the pagans who worshipped many false “mothers of the gods”. Worship is due to God alone.
The late celebration of the Virgin’s Dormition is also due to the persecutions the Church suffered in the early centuries: it could only practise all its rites and worship after the end of the ten great persecutions.
6. 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.
7. The Theology of the Feast of the Dormition
The word “falling asleep” (Dormition) was used instead of “death” or “passing” for two main reasons:
– First: in Christianity death does not have the last word. In the Nicene Creed, for example, we do not say of Christ that he died, but that he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, was buried, and rose from the dead.
– Second: Christ took her up bodily after she had fallen asleep and lain in the tomb, and no corruption touched her.
It is worth noting that the proclamation of the dogma of the Mother of God (Theotokos) at the Council of Ephesus (in 431) paved the way for understanding her being taken up after her natural falling asleep.
Moreover, the Church of Jerusalem had established a commemoration of the Dormition of our Lady the Mother of God around the year 425, before the Council of Ephesus. It is therefore certain that from that time the Church of Jerusalem saw the Virgin Mary in heavenly glory.
8. Mary and Jesus in Theology
Since the Council of Ephesus the Church has understood that there is an absolute unity between the Mother and the Son, even though the Virgin Mary is on earth and in time, while Christ, who possesses the complete divine nature, is in heaven and in eternity. The Church also believes that the Son of God, who took human nature in the Virgin’s womb, would surely bring his mother, the handmaid of the Incarnation, into his glory.
God became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and took a complete human nature without losing anything of his divinity; the Virgin Mary became the mother of God incarnate, called Son of God and Son of Man, because he possesses both complete natures, divine and human. So Mary received glory and did not undergo the corruption of the grave and of death. And so nothing could separate the Mother from the Son, not even in the body.
9. Mary and the Holy Spirit
The Virgin Mary’s being taken up, body and soul together, after death is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in her. The one who came upon her and made her fit to become the Mother of the Son of God is the same one who completes his work in her, gives life to her mortal body and brings it into glory.
The Holy Spirit is the boundless life-giving power of God. By this power Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead; by this power he himself rose from the dead, and by this power he will raise the dead.
The Virgin Mary surrendered herself completely to the working of the Holy Spirit. That is why, as soon as she fell asleep, she received the resurrection of the body without corruption.
10. Mary and Humanity
The first Christians believed that three days after her death the Virgin Mary received the resurrection of the body, which is the destiny of all believers at the end of time.
The Virgin Mary’s ascent into heaven after her falling asleep is a direct honour paid to all humanity.
The Virgin’s body, which is like our bodies, was made worthy of this honour and glory in advance, as a pledge and proof of the resurrection that all our bodies will pass through.
God became incarnate to save humanity, to unite it to himself and to lift it from the pit of ruin and corruption.
And here is the Virgin, bearing witness to it.
