Assumption of Mary

The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. The word "assumption" derives from the Latin word assumptio which means "taking up." Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus deus (The most bountiful God) as follows:

We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by God that the immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever virgin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.

The declaration was built upon the 1854 dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which declared that Mary was conceived free from original sin, and both have their foundation in the concept of Mary as Mother of God. 

The equivalent belief (but not held a dogma) in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Dormition of the Mother of God or the "Falling Asleep of the Mother of God." 

In the dogmatic declaration of Pope Pius XII, the phrase "having completed the course of her earthly life," leaves open the question of whether the Virgin Mary died before her assumption or not. Mary's assumption is said to have been a divine gift to her as Mother of God. Ludwig Ott's view is that, as Mary completed her life as a shining example to the human race, the perspective of the gift of assumption is offered to the whole human race.

Ott writes in his book Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma that "the fact of her death is almost generally accepted by the Fathers and Theologians, and is expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church," to which he adds a number of citations. He concludes: "for Mary, death, in consequence of her freedom from original sin and from personal sin, was not a consequence of punishment for sin. However, it seems fitting that Mary's body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in comformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death."

The manner in which Mary's earthly life ended has not been infallibly defined by any pope. Many Catholics believe that she did not die at all, but was assumed directly into Heaven. The dogmatic definition in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus deus which, according to Roman Catholic dogma, infallibly proclaims the doctrine of the Assumption, leaves open the question of whether, in connection with the ending of her earthly life, Mary underwent bodily death. The dogma does not attempt to answer or define this question, as indicated by the words "having been completed the course of her earthly life."

Pope Pius XII, in promulgating Munificentissimus deus, stated that "All proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation." The pope did not advance any specific text as proof of the doctrine, but one senior advisor, Father Jugie, expressed the view that Revelation 12:1-2 was the chief scriptural witness to the assumption:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child... [also used as basis for the canonical crowning of Marian images with a stellar halo]

The symbolism of this verse is based on the Old Testament, where the sun, moon, and eleven stars representing the patriarch Jacob, his wife, and the eleven of the twelve tribes of Israel, who bow down before the twelfth star and tribe, Joseph, and verses 2-6 reveal that the woman is an image of a faithful community. The possibility that it might be a reference to Mary's immortality was tentatively proposed by Epiphanius in the 4th century, but while Epiphanius made clear his uncertainty and did not advocate the view, many later scholars did not share his caution and its reading as a representation of Mary became popular with  certain Roman Catholic theologians.

Many of the bishops cited Genesis 3:15 in which God is addressing the serpent in the Garden of Eden, as the primary confirmation of Mary's assumption:

Enmity will I set between you and the woman, between your seed and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, and that the fall of mankind, by the seductive voice of the snake in the Bible, represents the fallen angel, Satan. Similarly, the great dragon in Revelation is a reptesentation of Satan, identified with the serpent from the garden who has enmity with the woman. Though the woman in Revelation reprsents the people of God, faithful Israel, and the Church, Mary is considered the Mother of the Church. Therefore, in Catholic thought there is an association between this heavenly woman and Mary's Assumption.

Among the many other passages noted by the pope were the following:

• Psalm 132:8, greeting the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (Arise, O Lord, into your resting place, you and the ark which you have sanctified!), where the ark is taken as the prophetic "type" of Mary;
• Revelation 11:19, in which St John sees the ark of the covenant in heaven (this verse immediately precedes the vision of the woman clothed with the sun);
• Luke 1:28, in which St Gabriel the Archangel greets Mary with the words, "Hail Mary, full of grace," since Mary's bodily assumption is a natural consequence of being full of grace;
• 1 Corinthians 15:23 and Matthew 27:52-53 concerning the certainty of bodily resurrection for all who have faith in God.

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