Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Contents Event and legend about it Being the result of life, death for different people should be as different as their lives and they themselves are different from one another. Hence the most natural assumption is that for such an extraordinary person as the Blessed Virgin, with such an exceptional fate, death could not but be one of a kind. According to the conviction of the Church, not only the Orthodox, but also the Catholic, the death of the Mother of God was such as no one else had except Her. She was not exempt from the law of death, like Her Son; but She, like the Son, triumphed over death, although she did not triumph as gloriously, obviously and independently, as He did. Her resurrection took place in secret and for a long time was not even a common subject of faith in the Church. Another glory to the sun and another glory to the moon. In general, the entire life of the Most Holy Theotokos passes in some kind of mystery for Christians. It can be said that so little is known about any of the holy lives. As we approach death, this life seems to be increasingly hidden from the eyes of those around us. Until the 4th century. Not a single Christian writer has any indication of the fate of the Mother of God upon the ascension of Her Son to heaven. This is not surprising if we take into account the poverty of Christian writing at that time and the lack of reasons to talk about this subject. When such reasons were given by the heresy of Nestorius, it turned out that the Christian world was not at all aware of the life and death of the Mother of God, but that in the rich treasury of tradition, which always, and especially then, constituted the main nerve of church life, there is enough data about this. According to this tradition (in the form in which it was finally received), the Mother of God, after the resurrection of the Savior, lived in Jerusalem until the persecution launched by Herod against the Church (Acts 12:1-3); then moved with ap. John the Theologian in Ephesus; from here She visited the rights. Lazarus on the island of Cyprus and Mount Athos, which she blessed. Shortly before Her death, She returned to live in Jerusalem. Here She often visited places with which the most important events in the life of Her Divine Son and especially His last days on earth were connected: Bethlehem, Golgotha, the tomb of Christ, Gethsemane, Olivet. There She prayed earnestly, and the trees of the Mount of Olives simultaneously with Her bowed their tops to the ground and straightened up. Here the Jews attempted to kill Her, for which they even placed a guard at the tomb of Christ; but she was blinded when the Mother of God visited the tomb. She was in a constant desire to quickly go to Her Son. During Her prayer on the Olivet for three days about death, Her death was announced by the Archangel Gabriel, who presented her with a heavenly luminous branch - a symbol of victory over death and incorruption (cf. Christ’s entry into Jerusalem). This branch was bequeathed by the Holy Virgin to the apostle. John to be carried before Her tomb. About the day of Her imminent death. John informed the ap. James, brother of the Lord, then bishop of the Jerusalem Church, and the latter notified Jerusalem and surrounding Christians about this in advance. The Mother of God recounted the words of the archangel to those gathered for Her burial, showed them the branch of paradise and made her dying orders. She bequeathed her meager property, consisting of two tunics, to two poor widows who diligently served Her; She bequeathed to bury herself in Gethsemane between the graves of her righteous parents and betrothed. During the dying orders of the Holy Virgin, a noise was heard that was reminiscent of the sound of thunder, and a whirlwind burst into the house: it was at the command of God that the angels captured and carried on the clouds the apostles who had dispersed to the ends of the universe. The apostles themselves, seeing each other, expressed amazement at the unusual gathering. Not only 12 apostles were gathered, but 70 as well. The ap appeared later than the others. Paul. On August 15, the Holy Virgin reclined on a bed strewn with flowers, awaiting the coming of Her Son. Suddenly an unspeakable light shone, darkening the lamps; the roof of the upper room opened and Christ Himself entered with tens of angels, with the holy forefathers and prophets. She turned to the Son with the words: “My soul magnifies...”, “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready” (Ps. 56:8) and asked Him to bless those who honor Her memory. The Mother of God also asked to protect Her from the dark satanic force, i.e. from air ordeals. Then the Mother of God painlessly surrendered her soul into the hands of the Lord, and immediately angelic singing was heard, in which the words of the Annunciation greeting were often repeated: “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). The apostles followed with their eyes the soul of the Mother of God carried away by the Lord. The sick received healing from Her fragrant body. The solemn transfer of Her body with candles and censers by the hands of the apostles from Jerusalem to Gethsemane began with the singing of psalms (in particular Ps. 113 with the refrain “Alleluia”) and prayers. A cloudy circle in the form of a crown appeared above the bed, illuminated with radiance. This crown floated behind the procession to the very place of burial, while the ceaseless singing of angels was heard. The Jews who did not believe in Christ followed the procession, marveling at it. Having learned about this, the bishops and scribes became furious and sent servants and soldiers to disperse the procession, kill the disciples of Christ and burn the body of the Mother of God. When the pursuers began to overtake the procession, a cloudy crown descended to the ground and surrounded the procession like a wall. The pursuers heard singing, but saw nothing behind the cloud. In addition, the soaring angels struck them with blindness: some smashed their heads against the city walls, others looked for guides. The Jewish priest Athonius met (according to others - Jephonios, according to others - Zephaniah), who touched the bed in order to overturn it, was miraculously punished by cutting off his hands, which hung on the bed, but after repentance he received healing. Those who were blind also received healing after repentance. Having laid the body of the Mother of God in the coffin, the apostles stayed at the coffin for three days and sang psalms day and night. And all this time the singing of heavenly powers was heard in the air. Then for the late ap. Thomas's tomb was opened: the body of the Mother of God was not there. But on the same day, after the evening meal, the apostles heard angelic singing and saw the Mother of God standing in the air, shining and surrounded by angels. They involuntarily, instead of “Lord Jesus Christ, help us,” exclaimed: “Most Holy Theotokos, help us!” After this, the apostles again returned on the clouds to the places from which they had been taken. The story of the death of the Mother of God, of course, cannot lay claim to the same degree of authenticity as the gospel narratives, being, as we will see later, much later than them and not belonging to divinely inspired writers. But in general, this legend depicts the death of the Mother of God worthy of its subject and does not contain anything contrary to the spirit of Christianity (of which so-called pious traditions are sometimes guilty). There is a lot of miraculous element in the legend, but, according to the view of theology, this was required by the very dignity of the Mother of God: “Your glory is divine, your miracles shine like God.” And a miracle in itself cannot undermine the reliability of any legend (otherwise many pages of the Bible would have to be disputed). It is only necessary that the miracle be in the nature of biblical miracles. And from such a point of view, one can hardly reproach the legend of the Assumption. The gathering of the apostles to the bed of the dying Mother of God seems to be analogous to the supernatural movement that the prophet Ezekiel sometimes experienced (Ezekiel 3:14, 15), and Philip also experienced after the baptism of a eunuch (Acts. 8:39–40, Wed. Dan. 14:34–36). The punishment of the daring Jew does not contradict Christian love, since, according to legend, the victim was immediately healed. The legend is an expression of the Orthodox view of the face of the Most Holy Theotokos, in particular the image of Her death, and a warning against possible misconceptions in this regard. The Roman Catholic Church is inclined to completely deny the bodily death of the Mother of God, based on its view of Her as completely removed from the taint of ancestral sin. After the proclamation of the dogma of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin, zealous Catholics began to express a desire to raise the dogma and doctrine of the bodily ascension of the Mother of God into heaven. The Freiburg Catholic Congress in 1902 asked the pope about this. And even earlier, Abbot Minh, in an open letter, asked Pope Pius IX to clear the service on the Feast of the Assumption from everything that indicates the death of the Blessed Virgin 1 . The story of the Assumption is important because it states the physical death of the Mother of God, contrary to the latest opinion and the dogmatic tendency underlying it. “Even though the incomprehensible Fruit sowed, from which the heavens were, the burial is accepted by the will, as if dead, how will the inexperienced One who gave birth reject the burial?” - teaches one song of St. Damascus for Feast 2. Although the legend allows for the revival of the body of the Mother of God, it is such as took place in other cases of the resurrection of the dead, and this puts a sharp line between the resurrection of the Savior and His Mother 3. According to the teachings of St. John of Damascus, the death of the Mother of God, although, like birth, was painless (which is possible for an ordinary person), it is called only θάνατος ζωτικός (life-giving), ζωηφόρος (life-giving), in contrast to the death of Christ, which he calls θάνατος ζωοποιός (life-giving) 4. And in the Roman Church the Dormition of the Mother of God is called assumptio (taking, i.e. into heaven), ascensio (ascension). Without attributing to the Mother of God the honor that is due in death only to the God-Man, the legend of Her death at the same time gives all due to Her high dignity. “If Enoch from the antediluvian world,” says the most authoritative Russian hagiologist, “and the prophet Elijah from the world under the law were caught up to heaven with flesh, is the most pure flesh of the Most Honest of the Cherubim and the Most Glorious of the Seraphim given over to corruption? The hosts of martyrs and ascetics are glorified by the incorruption of fragrant relics, pouring out currents of healing; the bodies of many of them, which were unknown, after a long stay in the earth, are revealed to the faithful by visions and miracles, and the most pure body of the Mother of God, even if incorruptible, is hidden somewhere in the earth, in obscurity! There is no part of the relics of the Mother of God in any corner of the world: this is because the belief in Her ascension into heaven with pure flesh is very ancient” 5. It is not so easy for the legend of the Dormition of the Mother of God to withstand historical criticism. It does not appear among church writers from the first centuries and not immediately in all details. In the Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea in the 4th century. under the year 48 it says: “The Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, will fly to the Son into heaven, as some write that this was revealed to them” 6. When in the 4th-5th centuries the idea of ​​the martyrdom of the Mother of God began to creep into the minds of some writers (this idea could have been inspired by the famous prediction of Simeon the God-Receiver to the Blessed Virgin: “A weapon will pierce your very soul,” more precisely: a sword, ῤ ομφαία) 7, other writers, on the basis of ancient legends, disputed this idea. “Neither the letter (of Scripture) nor history teaches us that Mary departed from this life as a result of suffering from bodily ulcers,” says St. Ambrose of Milan in his interpretation of Luke. 2:61. St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, against the anti-Dicomarian heretics who denied the virginity of the Mother of God, says that nothing can be found in Scripture “about the death of Mary, about whether She died or did not die, whether She was buried or not buried; also, when John directed his path to Asia, it is not said anywhere whether he took the Holy Virgin with him. Scripture is simply silent about this... I do not say that She remained immortal, but I do not claim that She died” (against heresies, 78, 11). Against the Collyridian heretics, who recognized the Holy Virgin as a goddess, Epiphanius says that “Her death is possible, but She can be revered as divine, like other deceased saints” (78, 23). For bl. Augustine’s death of the Mother of God is an undoubted fact: “Mary of Adam died for sin (the firstborn), Adam died for sin (his own), but Christ died for the destruction of sins” (Demon 2 on Ps. 79:23). Scientific criticism dates the works attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite to approximately this time (IV-VI centuries); in one of them, “On the Names of God” (chapter 3) about the death of the Mother of God, Dionysius in a letter to Timothy recalls how he and the apostles and bishop. (Athenian) Hierotheos and “most of St. our brethren came to contemplate this life-giving and God-receiving body, there was the brother of the Lord James and the supreme head of theologians Peter; and it was desired that all the elders of the saints (i.e., the 12 apostles), each according to his own strength, praise the infinite goodness and divine mercies. As far as I remember, I heard some excerpts of those praises from you. However, we leave these matters secret, as inaccessible to everyone and as known to you.” It is most natural to wait for more detailed and accurate information about an event at the place where it occurred, i.e. in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Church. So it turns out. According to news from St. John of Damascus (8th century), referring to some Euthymius, when the pious Empress Pulcheria, the wife of the Emperor Marcian, who built several churches in Constantinople in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos, came up with the idea of ​​​​placing the very body of the Mother of God in one of them, then for advice on how to arrange this and where to find the most pure body, the queen turned to the then Patriarch of Jerusalem Juvenal. The Patriarch answered her that her desire was impossible, since the body of the Mother of God, according to tradition preserved in the Jerusalem Church, was not in the tomb already on the third day after Her death. Instead of the body, the patriarch sent the pious queen the funeral shrouds of the Mother of God, which the queen placed in one of the Churches she built - Blachernae (word for the Dormition). Gregory of Tours († 596) presented the 8th legend in this form: “When Mary was at the end of Her earthly career, all the apostles from all countries gathered at Her house in Jerusalem by divine inspiration. That's when Jesus appeared with His angels, took the soul from Her and handed it over to the Archangel Michael. The apostles transferred the soulless body to the tomb the next morning. And while they stood there, the Lord suddenly appeared again, took the body in a cloud and brought it to paradise, where the soul united with it again.” Modest, Patriarch of Jerusalem († 632), in whose name there is the oldest holiday word for the Dormition, complains that there is no definite information about the Dormition of the Mother of God. Since the 7th century, it has become known that the name of St. John the Theologian, sometimes with the name of Meliton, bishop - sometimes of Sardis, sometimes of Laodicea (II century), "The Tale of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God." The word is the “Sacramentary” of Pope Gelasius (492–496) edited in the 7th century. considers apocryphal. It contains a lengthy tradition, but it was known in various versions, sometimes contradicting the narrative of the book of Acts 9. St. Andrew of Crete († c. 713), in his homily on the Dormition, apparently has in mind a legend approximately as edited by Gregory of Tours, when he compares the Dormition of the Mother of God to the dream of Adam during the creation of Eve - when he says that the Mother of God fulfilled the law of nature, although not in the same way as we do, and when she compares Her departure from this world with the “translation” of Enoch and Elijah. The 8th century hymn writers – Cosmas of Mayum and John of Damascus – know the legend in a more extensive version. In general, for a long time there have been several legends or traditions about the event, unequal in volume and varying in detail. Thus, in the Armenian legend of Moses of Khoren († 493) there is no mention of the cloudy journey of the apostles, of the cloud overshadowing the coffin and the singing of angels during burial; according to the mentioned “Tale of the Ap. John", the tomb opens for the apostle. Bartholomew; The apostles Andrew, Philip, Luke, Simon and Thaddeus, who had died at the time of the Dormition of the Mother of God, were awakened by the Holy Spirit from their graves (“Apocryphal Tales of the Mother of God,” Orthodox Review, 1873, IV, 594). In the “Synaxar” of the Great Church of Constantinople in the 9th-10th centuries. around 15 Aug. The following legend about the Dormition is included: “You should know that the recorded miracles at the Dormition of St. The Mother of God, distorted by heretics over time, was revised by the fathers, and subsequently John, the most holy Archbishop of Thessalonites, having examined them, throwing out what was harmful, leaving what was correct and beneficial for the soul, described the most accurate Dormition. (His) story concludes as follows. When our Lady Theotokos was about to depart from this carnal life, three days before, a great angel came to Her and gave Her a sign of a reward (βραβει ̑ ον - actually, a prize at the games). It was a date branch so that the apostles would hold it, singing (at burial) that many miracles would happen through Her. And Mary went up the mountain; Seeing Her, the plants bowed their tops and bowed to Her. When She entered Her house, the place shook, and She prayed to God, saying: “Lord, You promised Me to come for My soul.” Then She invites Her relatives and neighbors, orders them to light the lamps and stay with Her until the third day, on which days She encouraged and taught them. After this, John comes and talks with Her, crying; entering with him into Her storeroom (ταμει ̑ ον), She, while the virgins were singing from outside, showed him (prepared for) Her burial and ordered the two widows to give two of Their tunics, showing him that sign of reward; without the apostles the theologian did not want to take it. With a thunderclap, the apostles were brought down to the door and, greeting each other, prayed; and it was revealed to them that in view of the Dormition of the Mother of the Lord they were gathered. Entering Her, they blessed Her, and She glorified them, and sang praises to the Lord born of Her; She showed them Her burial. Peter, turning to those present, taught the virgins and those present. In the morning, at sunrise, Mary left the house and, raising her hands, prayed. Having entered, She reclined on the bed (σκίμπους - bed with legs, traveling), having fulfilled Her house-building. Peter sat at the head, and John at the feet; the apostles surrounded the bed. At about three o'clock there was thunder and a fragrant smell, so that everyone fell asleep, except for some of the apostles. And so the Lord appeared with Michael the Archangel and greeted the apostles. The Most Holy One, seeing Him, glorified Him that He had fulfilled His promise, and thus betrayed Her blessed soul, with a smile and delight on her face. Having taken Her holy soul, the Lord handed Her over to Michael’s arms, clothing her as if in a shell (ἐν δέρρισιν; δέρρις - untreated skin), the glory of which is impossible to express; and Her honest soul was seen as white as light, του ̑ ἄρρενος καὶ τη ̑ ς θηλείας . Burying Her, the apostles covered the bed with the sign of victory and sang before Her, carrying the bed. One of the priests, who stretched out his hands to throw Her honorable remains out of the bed, lost his hands at the elbows, and he saw them on the bed; After his repentance, Peter prayerfully put his severed hands to his shoulders and they grew back, and he was healed. Having given him a branch from a sign of victory, they sent him to Jerusalem to lay it on the blind priests, and those who believed were healed. The apostles, having buried the body, guarded it for three days; Until the third day the voice of angels was heard singing. One of the apostles was late for the burial of the life-giving body; when they opened the coffin for him so that he could look at the holy body and bow to it, he was not found there. For he was reposed by Christ, who was born from Her without seed according to the flesh, as He alone knows” 10 . In a more extensive, but also more refined version, there is a legend about the event of the Synaxarion of the current Greek Menaion and the Prologue (see below). Nicephorus Callistus (XIV century) in his History (II, 21–23) and the Cheti-Minea have a legend in an extensive edition. Bulgakov A.I. The assumption of the adoption of another dogma into the Catholic dogmatics. Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy, 1903, X, 155. Canon 2, hymn 4, troparion 2. Unfair A.I. Bulgakov (in the above-mentioned article) saw in some Orthodox hymns for the Assumption a belief in the non-involvement of the Mother of God in bodily death. The passages he cites as proof of this (the last stichera on the Lord I cried out, the 1st on the litia, the chorus: “The angels of the Dormition of the Most Pure One saw clearly how the Virgin ascends from earth to heaven” and 9 irmos of the canon: “The statutes of nature are overcome”) speak of the resurrection of the Mother of God, and not of Her complete removal from death. Sergius, Archbishop. Complete Monthly Book of the East, Vladimir, 1901, p. 325. On the reliability of the legend, see the controversy: Prot. S. Ostroumova “More on opinions in the field of theology,” “Christian's Rest” 1915, 1, 844–862; archbishop Nikon “Church traditions and Metropolitan Philaret about the Dormition of the Mother of God”, Church Gazette, 1916, No. 25. The year of the death of the Mother of God is indicated differently by other sources. Hippolytus of Rome - 43 AD; Epiphanius of Cyprus dates it to the year 25 after the Ascension of the Savior (i.e. 58 AD); the word on the Assumption, attributed to Melito of Sardia - by the year 22 after the Ascension, i.e. 55 AD; Nikephoros Callistus - 44 AD. (Sergius, Archbishop, Complete Monthly Book of the East, Vladimir 1901. Note under August 15, etc.). They unreasonably wanted to see such a thought in Origen in his homilies for this place among the Ev. Luke. Under the sword that pierced the soul of the Most Holy. Mary, Origen understands the doubts that overwhelmed Her at the cross. The explanation of Simeon's prediction in the sense of the martyrdom of the Mother of God from church writers is found only in the word attributed to Timothy, presbyter of Jerusalem, 5th century. (Florentinii Martyrol. Hieron. 266. - Sergius, Archbishop, op. cit., ibid.). In op. De Gloria martyrum, I, 4. Published by Tischendorf. Sheeben. Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatic, 313, S. 573. Bulgakov A.I. The assumption of the adoption of another dogma into the Catholic dogmatics. Proceedings Kievsk. spirit. acad. 1903, X,156. Dmitrievsky A., prof. Description of liturgical manuscripts. Kiev, 1895. You might be interested in: