"MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS." - Opening words of the apostolic constitution by which Pius XII defined (Nov. 1, 1950) the dogma of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 754-71).

The distinguished document, endowed with a particularly organic structure, proceeds by a regressive path, ascending from the current faith of the universal Church to the sources of Revelation. The Assumptionist movement, which arose immediately after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (the two truths are intimately connected), took on such proportions as to induce the Supreme Pontiff to establish a commission for the theological deepening of the doctrine and to seek the opinion of the Catholic episcopate on the current faith of the whole Church (clergy and people). The response of the episcopate, morally unanimous, holding the bodily Assumption of the Virgin to be a divinely revealed truth, is a sure argument that this doctrine is contained in the deposit handed down by Christ to the Church « sancte custodiendum et fideliter exponendum » (Second Vatican Council, sess. IV, cap. 4: Denz-U, 1836). This faith has had various and progressive manifestations in the centuries-long life of the Church: a) temples, images, exercises of piety

(the fourth glorious mystery of the Rosary); b) liturgical solemnities in the East and in the West; c) testimonies of the Fathers (St. John Damascene, St. Germanus of Constantinople, the Encomium in dormitionem Deiparae); d) the doctrine of the theologians (Bl. Amadeus of Lausanne, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Peter Canisius, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus, Suárez). The ultimate foundation of this faith, today universal, which was slowly made explicit and clarified by the Fathers and the theologians, is Sacred Scripture, in which is foreshadowed the total victory of Christ and of Mary over sin and over its moral and physical consequences (cf. Gen. 3:15; Rom. 4:12; 5:14; 6:8; 1 Cor. 15:21-26, 54-57). Therefore the Pontiff holds that the moment has come to define what is so widely documented and so deeply rooted in the Christian conscience, all the more so since this solemn act will bring great benefits to the Church and to the world (greater devotion to Mary, the return of those who err to unity, a greater esteem for human life, victory over the widespread materialistic errors, a new argument for faith in the resurrection of the flesh). The bull concludes with the solemn definition.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: I. Filograssi, Constitutio apostolica M. D. de Assumptione B. M. V., in Gregorianum, 31 (1950), pp. 483-525; A. Bea, La S. Scrittura «ultimo fondamento» del dogma dell'Assunzione, in Civ. Catt., 1950, IV, p. 547 agg.; B. Capelle, Théologie de l'Assumption d'après la bulle M. D., in Nouvelle revue théologique, 82 (1950), pp. 1009-27; anon., Qualche reazione al dogma dell'Assunzione, in Unitas, 2 (1950), pp. 377-99 (l'atteggiamento dei dissidenti e dei protestanti dopo la promulgazione della bolla); A. Michel, La mort de la vie Vierge et la bulle M. D., in L'ami du clergé, 61 (1951), pp. 118-19; C. Balle, De constitutione apostolica M. D., in Antonianum, 26 (1951), pp. 3-39; E. Stakemeier, M. D. Eine Einführung in die Bulle Pius XII., in Theol. u. Glaube, 41 (1951), pp. 97-127; M. Peinador, De argumento scripturistico de Assumptione, in Ephem. Mariolog., 1 (1951), pp. 27-45; B. Garcia Rodriguez, La razón teológica en la bula M. D., ibid., pp. 45-88; I.-F. Bonnefoy, La bulle dogmatique M. D., ibid., pp. 89-130.

Antonio Piolanti

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