The Assumption of the B.V. Mary (August 15th)

Of the various Saints and Feast Days being commemorated this week:

Aug 11th – Saint Clare, Virgin and Religious 

Aug 12th – Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious

Aug 13th – Saints Pontian, Pope, and Hippolytus, Priest, Martyrs

Aug 14th – Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

Aug 15th – THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Aug 16th – Saint Stephen of Hungary

Aug 17th – TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)

I’ve decided to write about the Assumption of the B.V. Mary.

The “Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heavenly glory” defined as dogma in the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XII in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (Nov 1, 1950) remains as one of only two times that a Pope spoken Ex Cathedra, that is, invoked papal infalibility, since that doctrine itself was formally defined at the First Vatican Council in the document Pastor Aeternus (1870).  (The only other time that  papal infalibility was invoked was by Pope Pius IX defining the other Marian dogma on the Immaculate Conception of the B.V. Mary).  

That said, the Tradition of the Assumption of the B.V. Mary in the Church is truly an ancient one. 

Preaching about the Council of Chalcedon (451), St. John Damescene (675-749) noted that in response to then Emperor Marcian, who wanted be given custody of the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a holy relic, the bishop of Jerusalem St. Juvental, told him that “Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.”

This tradition is attested to by various admittedly apocryphal books, many dating to the 4th century, some perhaps earlier to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.  

What is clear is that while there is a Church of the Sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jerusalem, there is no tradition at all of there being bodily relics of her.  The closest is that of the Cincture of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a belt that she would have worn, this relic kept to this day at the Greek Orthodox Monastery at Mouth Athos).  This contrasts with bodily relics of many of the Apostles as well as those of John the Baptist.

The Blessed Virgin Mary thus joins other biblical figures, notably those of Enoch (Gen 5:21-24), Moses (Deut 34:4-6) and prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2:11-12) as having received the grace of having been taken up in bodily form into heaven.

Following Pope Pius XII’s 1950 declaration on the Assumption of the Mary, the noted psychologist Carl Jung noted that the doctrine “completed” the Trinity, noting that Mary brought to heavenly glory several elements that had been missing in the Most Holy Trinity: 

1. The Trinity was Divine, Mary human; 

2. The Trinity was Spiritual, Mary in her body, material; 

3. Trinity was composed of three Persons, all male, Mary was female.  

Indeed, Jesus became human because Mary was human.   In Mary’s Assumption into heaven, humanity was able to touch / reach the Divine.

Finally, I belong to a religious Order, the Friar Servants of Mary.  On the wall above the Choir of my Order’s founding monastery at Monte Senario (dedicated, of course, to the Assumption of the B.V. Mary) is a large 19th century painting depicting Mary as a common 19th century quite Italian looking peasant woman being lifted-up by angels into heaven.  From the time that I’ve seen the painting, I have loved it, in good part because it portrayed true human woman, not obese but certainly not dainty, anorexic or frail, being carried up by angels into heaven.  If we’re talking about assuming the truly human into the divine, I’d like to imagine it this way!

St. Mary of the Assumption, pray for us!

Caption: Our Lady of the Assumption  Giuseppe Bezzuoli (1849), Monte Senario, Italy.