Hey Deacon! by Deacon Dan Vaughn

During that same trip to the Holy Land in June 2023, I visited the Basilica of the Dormition, where we were told the Blessed Virgin Mary died. There is also a Catholic theory that she didn’t die but was only asleep.   Whether she died or simply fell asleep prior to being assumed into Heaven is an open question. In the Latin Catholic Church tradition says Mary did die; in the Eastern Catholic Churches tradition has said she fell asleep and did not die. Either way, we have no solid historical evidence to prove a position.
 
In 1950 Pope Pius XII solemnly defined the dogma of the Assumption.   He said, “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” That seems to leave open the question of whether Mary died first. Some theologians feel that since death is a consequence of sin, Mary would not have had to die. But others say that, since Jesus himself chose to die, wouldn’t it be fitting for his mother to have shared the same fate?
 
The first full stories of Mary’s end-of-life narrative appear not in the canonical Bible but in apocryphal texts from the 4^th to 6th centuries, often called Transitus Mariae --"Passing of Mary".   These include Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Latin versions, each with variations.  The common storyline is that Mary is told by an angel that her time has come, the apostles are gathered to her bedside (often miraculously transported), she "falls asleep," Christ receives her soul, and her body is placed in a tomb which is later found empty. Some versions are explicit about her death before assumption; others are vague. In other words, we really have no factual evidence.
 
Why “Dormition” Instead of “Death”?
 
In the ancient Christian world, “sleep” (koimēsis in Greek) was a common euphemism for the death of the righteous. For example, Jesus says of Jairus’s daughter, “She is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39); Paul writes of those who “have fallen asleep in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:14). The term softened the idea of death and emphasized hope in resurrection. For Mary, “sleep” also underscored that she died without corruption, in peace, and was taken to heaven.
 
It was around the 6th century that the Dormition feast was widely celebrated in Jerusalem and spread to the Byzantine Empire. And by the 8^th century, St. John of Damascus preached on the Dormition. It was his theological explanation that became the standard within the Church: ‘Mary died like her Son, but her body did not see decay; soon after, she was bodily assumed.’
 
Over time Western devotion shifted away from the Dormition toward the Assumption - emphasizing the glorification of Mary’s body and soul in heaven. When Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption in 1950 (Munificentissimus Deus), he purposely left open the question of whether Mary died first.
 
Official Catholic teaching doesn’t define it, but the vast majority of saints, theologians, and liturgy writers assumed she did die and was assumed into heaven. No matter what actually transpired so long ago, we know that Our Blessed Mother was taken into heaven body and soul after passing from this life.
 
“By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity.”  CCC 987

Author Bio:
 Deacon Dan Vaughn