The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the Theotokos ("Mother of God", literally translated as God-bearer), and her being taken up into heaven. The Feast of the Dormition is observed on August 15, which for the churches using the Julian calendar corresponds to August 28 on the Gregorian calendar. The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Dormition not on a fixed date, but on the Sunday nearest 15 August. In Western Churches the corresponding feast is known as the Assumption of Mary, with the exception of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which has traditionally celebrated the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15.
Christian canonical scriptures do not record the death or Dormition of Mary. Hippolytus of Thebes, a 7th- or 8th-century author, writes in his partially preserved chronology of the New Testament that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus, dying in AD 41..
The use of the term dormition expresses the belief that the Virgin died without suffering, in a state of spiritual peace. This belief does not rest on any scriptural basis, but is affirmed by Orthodox sacred tradition. Some apocryphal writings testify to this opinion, though neither the Orthodox Church nor other Christians accord them scriptural authority. The Orthodox understanding of the Dormition is compatible with Roman Catholic teaching, and was the dominant belief within the Western Church until late in the Middle Ages, when the slightly different belief in the bodily Assumption of Mary into heaven began to gain ground. Pope Pius XII declared the latter a dogma of the Catholic Church in 1950.
Dormition fast
The Feast of the Dormition is preceded by a two-week fast, referred to as the Dormition Fast. From August 1 to August 14 (inclusive) Orthodox and Eastern Catholics fast from red meat, poultry, meat products, dairy products (eggs and milk products), fish, oil, and wine. In churches that follow the old or Julian Calendar, the fast is from August 14 to August 28. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, whose calendar is generally consistent with the Julian Calendar, the dates of the fast are from August 7 to August 22.
The Dormition Fast is a stricter fast than either the Nativity Fast (Advent) or the Apostles' Fast, with only wine and oil (but no fish) allowed on weekends. As with the other Fasts of the Church year, there is a Great Feast that falls during the Fast; in this case, the Transfiguration (August 6), on which fish, wine and oil are allowed.
In some places, the services on weekdays during the Dormition Fast are similar to the services during Great Lent (with some variations).
Many churches and monasteries in the Russian tradition perform the Lenten services on at least the first day of the Dormition Fast. In the Greek tradition, during the Fast either the Great Paraklesis (Supplicatory Canon) or the Small Paraklesis is celebrated every evening except Saturday evening and the Eves of the Transfiguration and the Dormition.Outside the Dormition Fast it is always the Small Supplicatory Canon (Paraklesis) which is chanted. During the Dormition Fast, however, the Typikon prescribes that the Small and Great Supplicatory Canons be chanted on alternate evenings: If August 1st falls on a Monday through Friday, the cycle begins with the Small Supplicatory Canon; if August 1st falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the cycle begins with the Great Supplicatory Canon.
The first day of the Dormition Fast is a feast day called the Procession of the Cross (August 1), on which day it is customary to have an outdoor procession and perform the Lesser Blessing of Water. In Eastern Orthodoxy it is also the day of the Holy Seven Maccabees, Martyrs Abimus, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus, and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar. Therefore, the day is sometimes referred to as "Makovei". Finally it is also considered the First of the three "Feasts of the Saviour" in August, the Feast to the All-Merciful Saviour and the Most Holy Mother of God.
Term
In Orthodoxy and Catholicism, in the language of the scripture, death is often called a sleeping or falling asleep (Greek κοίμησις; whence κοιμητήριον > coemetērium > cemetery, a place of sleeping; Latin: dormire, to sleep). A prominent example of this is the name of this feast; another is the Dormition of Saint Anna, Mother of the Virgin Mary.
Origin and adoption of the tradition
1st–5th century The first Christian century may be silent, but anonymous traditions concerning the Dormition began circulating as early as the third century and perhaps 'even earlier' such as the Book of Mary's Repose. According to some, before the 4th-5th century the Dormition was not celebrated among the Christians as a holy day.Прот. Владимир Сорокин. Догмат Римско-Католической Церкви о взятии Божией Матери в небесную славу с православной точки зрения. // Богословские труды. Вып. 10. Московская Патриархия, 1973. С. 71, 74
Recent scholarship has shown that The Dormition/Assumption of Mary (attributed to John the Theologian or 'Pseudo-John'), another anonymous narrative, may even precede the Book of Mary's Repose.Patrick Truglia, "Original Sin in The Byzantine Dormition Narratives" Revista Teologica, Issue 4 (2021): 9 (Footnote 30). This Greek document, edited by Tischendorf and published in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, is dated by Tischendorf as no later than the 4th century."Apocrypha of the New Testament", 'Introductory Notice to the Apocrypha of the New Testament, Vol 8, The Ante-Nicene Fathers. The Greek sources for the early period are only late copies and the first transmissions and earliest witnesses can be only found and accessed through the fragmentary translations into Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Syriac.Christa Müller-Kessler, "Three Early Witnesses of the 'Dormition of Mary' in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from the Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Collection) and the New Finds in St Catherine's Monastery," Apocrypha 29 (2018), pp. 69–95.Christa Müller-Kessler, "An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in Codex Climaci Rescriptus (CCR IV)," Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 16 (2019), pp. 81–98.Stephen J. Shoemaker, "New Syriac Dormition Fragments from Palimpsests in the Schøyen Collection and the British Library," Le Muséon 124 (2011), pp. 258–278.Sebastian P. Brock and Grigory Kessel, "The 'Departure of Mary' in Two Palimpsests at the Monastery of St. Catherine (Sinai Syr. 30 & Sinai Arabic 514)," Christian Orient: Journal of Studies in the Christian Cultures of Asia and Africa 8 (2017), pp. 115–152.Christa Müller-Kessler, "Obsequies of My Lady Mary (I): Unpublished Early Syriac Palimpsest Fragments from the British Library (BL, Add 17.137, no. 2)," Hugoye 23 (2020), pp. 31–59. Shoemaker identifies liturgical elements in "Pseudo-John", and the Six Books Apocryphon (dated to the early fourth century), which implies that the Dormition was a holy day in some circles by the 4th century. Additionally, the earliest known appearance of the Dormition in art is found on a sarcophagus in the crypt of a church in Zaragoza in Spain dated c. 330.
The written historical and archaeological record aside, a fairly representative example of mainstream Orthodox teaching is that Church Tradition preserved a more ubiquitous oral tradition. According to Sophia Fotopoulou, "We have no historical data to indicate how long the Mother of God remained on earth after the ascension of Christ into heaven, nor when, where, or how she died, for the Gospels say nothing of this. The foundation for the feast of the Dormition is to be found in a sacred tradition of the Church dating from apostolic times, apocryphal writings, the constant faith of the People of God, and the unanimous opinion of the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church of the first thousand years of Christianity." "The Dormition of the Theotokos" .
Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/20–403), a Jew by birth, born in Phoenicia, converted to Christianity in adulthood and lived as a monk for over 20 years in Palestine from 335–340 to 362, writes in "Panarion" in "Contra antidicomarianitas" about the end of the Virgin Mary the following:
If any think [I] am mistaken, moreover, let them search through the scriptures any neither find Mary's death, nor whether or not she died, nor whether or not she was buried—even though John surely travelled throughout Asia. And yet, nowhere does he say that he took the holy Virgin with him. Scripture simply kept silence because of the overwhelming wonder, not to throw men's minds into consternation. For I dare not say—though I have my suspicions, I keep silent. Perhaps, just as her death is not to be found, so I may have found some traces of the holy and blessed Virgin. ...The holy virgin may have died and been buried—her falling asleep was with honour, her death in purity, her crown in virginity. Or she may have been put to death—as the scripture says, 'And a sword shall pierce through her soul'—her fame is among the martyrs and her holy body, by which light rose on the world, [rests] amid blessings. Or she may have remained alive, for God is not incapable of doing whatever he wills. No one knows her end.
In the next chapter, Epiphanius compares Mary with three different people, who died in three different ways: Elijah, who was assumed into Heaven; John, who died a normal death; and Thecla, who was a martyr. This further shows that he was open to various options for her end, and did not know which of the options she actually experienced.
And if I should say anything more in her praise, [she is] like Elijah, who was virgin from his mother's womb, he always remained so perpetually, and was assumed and has not seen death. She is like John who leaned on the Lord's breast, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." She is like St. Thecla; and Mary is still more honored than she, because of the providence vouchsafed her.
Ambrose, however, who was a contemporary of Epiphanius, dismissed the view that Mary was martyred when exegeting Saint Simeon's prophecy in (Luke 2.35), seemingly critiquing those who took the prophecy literally, and reducing the number of options to either natural death or assumption:
Neither the letter of Scripture nor history teaches that Mary passed from this life by suffering execution, for it is not the soul but the body [some speculate] which is pierced through and through by the material sword.
Late 5th until 7th century More Dormition traditions began surfacing in manuscripts during the late 5th century. Stephen Shoemaker characterised them as the "Palm of the Tree of Life" narratives, the "Bethlehem" narratives, and the "Coptic" narratives—aside from a handful of atypical narratives.Stephen J. Shoemaker, 2003. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption (Oxford University Press)
The events of the Dormition of the Virgin and her burial are dealt with in several known apocrypha such as the "Liber de transitu Virginis Mariae" by Pseudo-Melito of Sardis (5th century), a passing reference in Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and narratives by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, and Pseudo-Evodius. Around this time, the first Dormition narratives among mainstream authors appear, namely Jacob of Serug and Theodosius of Alexandria. These late—5th and 6th century Dormition narratives come from differing communions, so not all of their content was accepted, but only the basic idea that the Virgin Mary blissfully rested and her soul was received in heaven by her Son Jesus Christ at Dormition.