**DORMITION (ASSUMPTION) OF MARY.** – An apocryphal work, widely circulated in antiquity, concerning the death and assumption of the Virgin. After narrating the life of Mary spent in seclusion and prayer, the little book describes the miraculous gathering of the Apostles and Evangelists (those who had died are raised again) from all parts of the world. To John, who is said to have come from Ephesus and is presented as the fictitious author of the book, is assigned the principal role in the prayers and decisions (cf. Jn 19:27).
Each one recounts to the Virgin the reason and manner of his coming: the Jews having compelled the Roman military authorities to act against the Virgin and the Apostles. God protects them by transporting them to Jerusalem. On Sunday, Jesus appears to His Mother, saying to her: «Behold, from this moment your precious body shall be taken up into paradise, and your holy soul into the heavens, into the treasuries of my Father in transcendent splendor, where is the peace and the joy of the holy Angels.» The dormition is thus described: «Then the face of the Mother of the Lord shone more brightly than light, and rising to her feet she blessed with her own hand each one of the Apostles, and all gave thanks to God: and the Lord, stretching forth His immaculate hands, received her holy and pure soul.» After three days, her body is taken up into paradise from the tomb. The Apostles return miraculously to their own cities.
The little work is a fine glorification of Mary, though it is by no means permissible to regard it as the foundation and basis of Mariological theology and devotion, for which there exist much older and more reliable documents; yet it bears explicit witness to the mystery of the Assumption. Versions of it exist in Latin, Syriac, Coptic (in the ‘a’idic and hobairic dialects), Arabic, Ethiopic, and Armenian. The rather profound differences between some of these translations suggest that there were different original Greek texts as well (4th–5th centuries), of which up to four recensions are noted.
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