The Assumption of Our Lady

Notes

Abbreviations

CCC = Catechism of the Catholic Church. Dublin: Veritas, 1994
CCL = Corpus Christianorum series latina. Tournai: Brepols, 1954–
CSEL = Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Wien: 1866–
DS = H. Denzinger. Enchiridion Symbolorum, Definitionum et Declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Bilingual edition edited by P. Hünermann. Bologna: EDB, 1995
EM = Enchiridion Marianum Biblicum Patristicum (ed. D. Casagrande). Rome: «Cor Unum», 1974
EV = Enchiridion Vaticanum. Documenti ufficiali della Chiesa. Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane
IG = Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II. Vatican City: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1978–
IP = Insegnamenti di Paolo VI. Vatican City: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1963-1978
Mansi = J.D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio. Graz: 1960-1962
ND = J Neuner and J. Dupuis, The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church. Sixth edition. New York: Alba House, 1996
OR = L'Osservatore Romano, daily Italian edition
ORE = L'Osservatore Romano, weekly English edition
PG = J.P. Migne. Patrologiae cursus completus, series graeca. 161 vols. Paris: 1857-1866
PL = J.P. Migne. Patrologiae cursus completus, series latina. 221 vols. Paris: 1844-1864
SC = Sources Chrétiennes. Paris: Cerf, 1942–
TN = N.P. Tanner (ed.), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. 2 vols. London: Sheed and Ward, 1990

(1) The expression used in Greek is metatithemi, which carries the sense of being transposed or carried over.

(2) See C.E. Olson, Will Catholics Be Left Behind? (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003), which is a thorough critique of the popular Fundamentalist notion of the "Rapture"—the belief that Christians will be removed from earth prior to a time of tribulation and the Second Coming.

(3) This tradition can be seen for example in the Venerable Bede, Liber de locis sacris 2, 5 in CSEL 39, 309f.

(4) St. John Damascene, Homily 2 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, 4 in PG 96, 730. St. Gregory of Tours; St. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem; St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople; St. Andrew, bishop of Crete; and the Venerable Bede indicate this same tradition, common to East and West.

(5) St. John Damascene, Homily 2 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, 14 in PG 96, 739.

(6) See E.P. Le Camus, Notre voyage aux pays bibliques, (Paris: 1894), I, p. 253.

(7) See Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, III, 31; V, 24, in PG 20, 280; 493.

(8) Cf. D. Arnaldi, Super transitu Beatae Mariae Virginis Deiparae expertis omni labe culpae originalis dubia proposita (Genuae: Montaldi, 1879), I, c. I.

(9) According to the meditations of Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich (+1824), compiled and published in 1852, the Blessed Virgin died and was buried a few miles south of Ephesus. In Panaghia Kapoli, on a hill about nine or ten miles distant from Ephesus, the remains of a house were discovered, in which Mary is supposed to have lived, according to the indications given by Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich in her life of the Blessed Virgin.

(10) St. Epiphanius, Adversus Octaginta Haereses Book 3, Tome 2, Heresy 78, 11 and 24 in PG 42, 715-716 and 738.

(11) See G.M. Roschini, "Did Our Lady Die?" in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 80 (1953), pp. 75-76.

(12) Timothy of Jerusalem, Homily on Simeon in PG 86, 246-247.

(13) St. Isidore of Seville, De ortu et obitu Patrum, 67 in PL 83, 150.

(14) Tusaredo, Epistola ad Ascaricum, II in PL 99, 1239-1240.

(15) Theodore Abou-Kurra, Opuscula, op. 37 in PG 97, 1594.

(16) St. Augustine, Enarratio in Psalmo 34, 3 in PL 41, 501: "Maria ex Adam mortua propter peccatum, Adam mortuus propter peccatum, et caro Domini ex Maria mortua est propter delenda peccata."

(17) St. Jacob of Sarug, Discourse on the burial of the Holy Mother of God, 87-99 in EM 1493-1494. See also C. Vona, Lateranum 19 (1953), p. 188.

(18) St. Modestus of Jerusalem, Encomium in dormitionem Deiparae semperque Virginis Mariae, nn. 7 and 14 in PG 86 bis, 3293; 3311.

(19) St. John Damascene, Homily 2 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, 2 in PG 96, 726. See also Idem, Homily 1 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, 10 in PG 96, 714, where St. John Damascene asks: "Why is it that she who in giving birth surpassed all the limits of nature should now bend to its laws, and her immaculate body be subjected to death?" And he answers: "To be clothed in immortality, it is of course necessary that the mortal part be shed, since even the master of nature did not refuse the experience of death. Indeed, he died according to the flesh and by dying destroyed death; on corruption he bestowed incorruption and made death the source of resurrection."

(20) St. Andrew of Crete, Oratio 12 in dormitione SS. Deiparae in PG 97, 1051-1054.

(21) St. John Damascene, Homily 2 on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, 12 in PG 96, 738.

(22) St. Gregory of Tours, De gloria beatorum martyrum, 4 in PL 71, 708.

(23) See St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q.14, a.3.

(24) St. Bonaventure, Commentarius in III Librum Sententiarum Petri Lombardi, distinction 3, question 2, in S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia (Collegio San Bonaventura: Quaracchi, 1888), vol. III, p.66.

(25) See Bl. John Duns Scotus, Fragmenta, in K. Balić (ed.) Theologiae Marianae elementa (Sibenik: Kacik, 1933), p. 172.

(26) St. Alphonsus Liguori, "Discourse VII. Of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" in The Glories of Mary (Rockford, Illinois: Tan, 1977), p. 371.

(27) B. Beverini, De corporali morte Deiparae (Roma: Academia Mariana, 1950). This work was republished in 1950, under the editorship of K. Balić.

(28) D. Arnaldi, Super transitu Beatae Mariae Virginis Deiparae expertis omni labe culpae originalis dubia proposita (Genoa: Montaldum, 1879).

(29) G.M. Roschini, "Il problema della morte di Maria SS. dopo la Costituzione Dogmatica Munificentissimus Deus" in Marianum 13 (1951), pp. 148-163; T. Gallus, La Vergine Immortale (Roma: 1949).

(30) J.F. Bonnefoy, "Définibilité de l’Assomption" in Congrès Marial du Puy-en-Velay (Paris: 1950), p. 241; cf. Idem, "La Bulle Dogmatique Munificentissimus Deus (November 1, 1950)" in Ephemerides Mariologicae 1 (1951), pp. 104-114.

(31) J.H. Newman, Sermon for the Assumption, 1849 in Idem, Discourses to Mixed Congregations (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906), p. 373.

(32) Pope John Paul II, Discourse at General Audience (June 25, 1997), 3.

(33) Ibid., 2 and 3.

(34) See Second Council of Orange, canon 2 in DS 372.

(35) St. Ambrose, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, Book 2, chapter 2, 61 in PL 15, 1574: "Nec littera, nec historia docet ex hac vita Mariam corporalis necis passione migrasse; non enim anima, sed corpus materiali gladio transverberatur."

(36) This line was taken by St. Peter Damian, De celebrandis vigiliis, 1 in PL 145, 801.

(37) This was the line taken by Pope John Paul II in his Discourse at General Audience (June 25, 1997), 4.

(38) St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, book 7, chapter 13.

(39) St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, book 7, chapter 14. He added (13. 24) that "love at the Cross gave her the supreme sorrows of death. So it was right that finally death should give her the sovereign pleasure of love."

(40) See St. Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim in PL 23, 943.

(41) See R.J. Clifford and R.E. Murphy, "Genesis" in R.E. Brown, J.A. Fitzmeyer, R.E. Murphy, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 2000), p. 12.

(42) For other interpretations of Genesis 3:15 and justification for "ipsa" (She) as the most accurate and appropriate translations, cf. S.M. Manelli, All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed: Biblical Mariology (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2005), T.M. Sennott, The Woman of Genesis (Cambridge, MA: The Ravengate Press, 1984) – Ed. Note.

(43) Cf. Wis 2:25; Mt 3:7; 23:33; Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:8-12.

(44) See F.H.W. Gesenius and E. Kautzsch, Hebräische Grammatik (Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1909), p. 402.

(45) Cf. A. Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1916), p. 216. See also St. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 100 in PG 6, 712; St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, III, 23 in PG 7, 964; St. Epiphanius, Haereses, III, 2, 18 in PG 42, 729.

(46) See Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 9: "For Sacred Scripture is the Word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while Sacred Tradition takes the Word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this Word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence." See also Council of Trent, session IV, Decree on Scriptural Canons in DS 1501.

(47) For the rationalist position see, for example, E. Renan, L’Eglise Chrétienne, in Histoire des origines du Christianisme, Vol. 6 (Paris: 1879) p. 513; C. Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphae (Leipzig: 1866), p. 34.

(48) See St. Bernardine of Siena, In Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 11.

(49) See R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Mother of the Saviour and Our Interior Life (Dublin: Golden Eagle Books, 1948), pp. 164-165.

(50) Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, 20.

(51) See Mabillon, Notes on the Gallican Liturgy in PL 72, 180.

(52) Nicephorus Callistus, Historia Ecclesiastica, 18, 18, in PG 147, 292.

(53) Cf. C. Lee, "The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary," in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 54 (1939), p. 177.

(54) St. Hippolytus, Sermonum Fragmentum quoted by Theodoret, Dialogue I in EM 118. See also Ps 132:8: "Go up, Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength."

(55) Theoteknos, bishop of Livias, Encomium in Assumptionem Beatae Mariae Virginis in A. Wenger, L’Assomption de la Très Sainte Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle (Paris: Institut Français d’Etudes Byzantines, 1955), pp. 272-291.

(56) Theoteknos, Encomium, 9, 10, 15, 36.

(57) Ibid., 25.

(58) Ibid., 17. See also, as a New Testament example of how people shared in Christ’s Resurrection, Mt 27:52-53, which describes how, after Christ’s death, the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead, and these, after his Resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people. Mary’s privilege must clearly be greater than this.

(59) Ibid., 8-9.

(60) Ibid., 12.

(61) St. Modestus of Jerusalem, Encomium in dormitionem Sanctissimae Dominae nostrae Deiparae semperque Virginis Mariae, 14 in PG 86-II, 3306.

(62) St. Germanus of Constantinople, In Sanctae Dei Genitricis dormitionem sermo I in PG 98, 346.

(63) St. Andrew of Crete, Oratio 2 in Beatae Mariae Virginis Dormitionem, in PG 97, 1081.

(64) St. John Damascene, Encomium in dormitionem Dei Genitricis semperque Virginis Mariae, homily 2, n. 14 in PG 96, 741.

(65) St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones Dominicales et in Solemnitatibus, In Assumptione S. Mariae Virginis Sermo.

(66) St. Albert the Great, Mariale, q. 132.

(67) St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 27, a. 1; q. 83, a. 5; Expositio Salutationis Angelicae; In Symbolum Apostolorum Expositio, a.5; In IV Sententiarum, d. 12, q. 1, a. 3; d. 43, q. 1, a. 3.

(68) See St. Bonaventure, De Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo V.

(69) St. Bonaventure, De Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo I.

(70) See citation from M. Luther, Sermon of August 15, 1522, in R. Bäumer and L. Scheffczyk, (eds.), Marienlexikon, vol. 3 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag: 1991), p. 200.

(71) See citation from M. Butzer in R. Bäumer and L. Scheffczyk, (eds.), Marienlexikon, vol. 3 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag: 1991), p. 200.

(72) See citation from H. Bullinger in R. Bäumer and L. Scheffczyk, (eds.), Marienlexikon, vol. 3 (St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag: 1991), p. 200.

(73) St. Robert Bellarmine, De Assumption B. Mariae Virginis in Conciones Habitae Lovanii (Coloniae Agrippinae: apud Ioannem Crithium, 1615), n. 40.

(74) Oeuvres de St. Francois De Sales, sermon for the Feast of the Assumption.

(75) See St. Alphonsus Liguori, "Discourse I. On Mary’s Immaculate Conception" in The Glories of Mary, p. 266.

(76) See Rev 12:14 and also P. Haffner, The Mystery of Mary (Leominster: Gracewing; Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2004), p. 66, where it was stated that the figure of the woman in the book of Revelation "is symbolic, but in a polyvalent sense, referring to both Mariological and ecclesiological realities."

(77) J.H. Newman, Discourses addressed to Mixed Congregations (London: 1886), pp. 360-376.

(78) J.H. Newman, Meditations and Devotions of the late Cardinal Newman (Longman, Green and Co., 1893), pp. 89-91.

(79) Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, 41.

(80) Ibid., 44.

(81) Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 68.

(82) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, letter on certain questions regarding eschatology Recentiores episcoporum Synodi (May 17, 1979), 6.

(83) See G. Gozzelino, Vocazione e destino dell’uomo in Cristo (Leumann: Elle Di Ci, 1985), pp. 151-152.

(84) I. Gebara and M.C. Bingemer, Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor, vol. 7 of Liberation and Theology (Tunbridge Wells: Burns and Oates, 1989), pp. 120-121.

(85) See R. Spiazzi, "Nell’Assunzione di Maria la primizia della reintegrazione universale" in Sacra Dottrina 39 (1994), pp. 99-101.

(86) See Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 41. See also Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 36, 55, 59.

(87) See E.J. Smith, "The Scriptural Basis for Mary’s Queenship" in Marian Studies 4 (1953), pp. 109-115.

(88) See L. Cerfaux, "Le Titre Kyrios et la dignite royale de Jesus" in Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 11 (1922), pp. 40-71; 12 (1923), pp. 125-153.

(89) Origen, Fragmenta Originis ex Macarii Chrysocephali Orationibus in Lucam in EM 149: "Oportebat me ad te venire: to enim super omnes mulieres benedicta: tu Mater Domini mei: tu mea Domina."

(90) See P. Haffner, The Mystery of Mary, pp. 32-33.

(91) St. Gregory Nazianzen, Poemata Dogmatica, 18, 58 in PG 37, 485.

(92) St. Ephraem, Oratio ad Santissimam Dei Matrem in EM 346. He also refers to Mary as the universal Queen. See Idem, Sermo de sanctissimae Dei Genetricis Virginis Mariae laudibus in EM 350. The expression is "Regina omnium."

(93) St. John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa, 4, 14 in PG 94, 1157.

(94) Eadmer, De excellentia Virginis Mariae, c. 11 in PL 159, 508.

(95) See Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam, 36.

(96) Ibid., p.38.

(97) Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 62.