Dormition of the Virgin Mary
Date of celebration: 15/08
As is well known, above the Cross our Lord Jesus Christ gave an order and John the Evangelist took the Holy Mother to his house, where he lived with his brother James and his mother Salome, a relative of the Virgin. When the moment came to end her earthly life, an angel of the Lord (tradition says it was the Archangel Gabriel) made it known to her three days before.
The joy of the Mother of God was great, because she would meet her only begotten Son and God of all people. So he went and prayed on the Mount of Olives, where the Lord Jesus also used to pray. Then she returned to John’s house, where she announced her impending doom.
Tradition states that on the third day after the appearance of the angel, shortly before the Virgin fell asleep, the Apostles were not all in Jerusalem, but in distant places where they preached the Gospel. Then, a sudden mist grabbed them and brought them all in front of the bed, where the Virgin was lying and waiting for her sleep. Along with the Apostles came the Areopagite Dionysios, Saint Ierotheos the teacher of Dionysios, the Apostle Timotheus, and the other theosophical Hierarchs.
When she fell asleep, with psalms and hymns they placed her in the tomb of Gethsemane. Because, according to divine economy, one of the Apostles (Thomas as tradition says) was not present at the funeral of Theotokos, he asked for the tomb to be opened so that he too could worship the Body of the Virgin.
So, after three days, they opened the tomb and were surprised to find that the Virgin Mary was physically resurrected and taken to heaven. And of course, all humanity, with gratitude for its embassies to Christ the Savior, exclaims: “Rejoice, O Mother of life.”
