An important church holiday is celebrated on August 28 – the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Easter of the Mother of God. It is dedicated to the death of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, and the ascension of her soul to heaven. According to legend, the apostles, who by that time had preached the teachings of Jesus Christ in different countries, came to Jerusalem on this day to miraculously bid farewell to the Mother of God. In Catholicism, the holiday is celebrated two weeks earlier – on August 15. The date of the celebration never changes, unlike Easter. Before the Death of the Most Holy Theotokos comes a strict two-week fast, the severity of which is comparable to the Great Lent.
Legend of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
It is not in vain that the day of the death of the Virgin Mary is called the Assumption. In modern Russian, this word is translated as “death” – but death is light, bright. This means that for the mother of Jesus Christ, separation from earthly life becomes a transition to eternal life in heaven.
The life of the Mother of God after the ascension of her son is known from fabricated tales – “Saint John”, as well as the sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, Patriarch Herman of Constantinople and St. John of Damascus.
It is believed that shortly before the end of his earthly path, Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to one of the apostles, John the Theologian. Pointing to his beloved disciple, he said to the Mother of God, “Zheno, here is your son.” Then, turning to him, he added: “Here’s your mother.” The Gospel of John says, “And from that moment on, this disciple took him to himself.”
Legend has it that the Virgin Mary, while living in Jerusalem, would often come to pray at the Holy Sepulcher on the Mount of Olives, the place where Jesus Christ was crucified. At one of these moments, Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and announced that in three days his earthly life would end.
Waiting for her moment to be reunited with her son, the Virgin Mary told the news to her loved ones – and three days later the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to bid her farewell and bid her farewell to heavenly life. According to legend, extraterrestrial light filled the upper chamber during the departure of the Virgin Mary. (room). Getting up from her bed, the Blessed Virgin Mary bowed before her son and God, and gave her soul as if she had fallen asleep. This moment is depicted on the icons as follows: Jesus Christ receives the soul of his mother in the form of a baby.
“When Mary came to the end of her earthly career, by divine inspiration, all the apostles from all lands gathered at her home in Jerusalem. That’s when Jesus appeared with his angels, took his spirit from Him and gave it to the archangel Michael. The apostles carried the soulless body to the tomb the next morning. And as they stood there, the Lord suddenly reappeared, took the body in a cloud and brought it to heaven; there the spirit reunited with him.” Gregory, Bishop of Tours, recounted the Apocrypha of Pseudo-Meliton at Sardis.
Then came the moment of the funeral of the Mother of God – the apostles carried her bed on their shoulders to the Garden of Gethsemane, where the parents of the Virgin Mary, St. Joachim and Anna, as well as the righteous Joseph the Betrothed, rested. . The body was placed in a coffin in a cave, closing the entrance with a large stone. Only the Apostle Thomas, who did not have time to say goodbye to the Blessed Virgin Mary, did not attend the funeral. On the third day after the funeral, he appeared to bid farewell to the place where the Virgin Mary’s body rested, but there were only funeral sheets. (Bed sheets). According to legend, the body and spirit of the Virgin Mary rose.
The Christian Church has been celebrating the feast of the Death of the Theotokos since the 6th century – shortly before that, the theological debates about the dogma of the Theotokos were ended. This took place at the third (431) and fourth (451) Ecumenical Councils.
According to one version, the holiday itself began to be celebrated by order of the emperor Mauritius, who was the last Byzantine emperor of the Justinian dynasty. According to the testimony of the medieval Byzantine church historian Nicephorus Kallistos Xanthopulus in his book “History of the Church,” the emperor issued an edict setting the date for the celebration of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary (August 15) as a token of gratitude. For the victory in the war with the Persians.
Church Ceremonies of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
In the Orthodox Church, before the Death of the Theotokos, one day precedes the feast, followed by eight days after the feast. The service itself is a detailed description of Dormition events. Holiday Stichera (church hymns) by the Patriarchs Anatoly and Herman, St. John of Damascus and Theophan the Written.
Created in the 7th century by St. Cosmas of Maium and John of Damascus, the church canon is made in the form of a dialogue: it contains the words of the Mother of God addressing her son with a request to take him. the words of the Savior, who descended as soon as possible into heaven with the angels to take the Most Pure Spirit of the Mother of God into the flesh and bring it to the Father, and the funeral songs of the apostles gathered to honor him. Purest Body with a precious burial.
The tropary of the holiday also includes the Christian call to the Mother of God as an intercessor. “After giving birth to a son, you kept your virginity, and after death, Mother of God, you did not leave the world, because you came to life as the Mother of Life, and with your prayers you save our souls from death Orthodox prayer.
What to pray for in Dormition
Dormition is the day when a strict two-week fast is completed, when believers can again eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. On this day, it is customary to treat yourself and invite guests, as well as show compassion and share food with those in need.
For women, this is a special day – in the Dormition it is customary to pray for help girls get married or find a husband. The period after the assumption is not considered a wedding in vain – you need to get married right now, because the main concerns on the field are behind you, it’s time to think about the future.
It is believed that the Virgin Mary will take care of the couples formed after the assumption.
Despite the fact that physical labor was prohibited on the day of the Assumption, on this holiday it was customary to pickle cucumbers.
And a number of folk signs are associated with the holiday. For example, warm sunny weather is a harbinger of a rainy Indian summer, a storm is a harbinger of an early rainy autumn, an abundance of flies – to early cold weather, fallen bread – to health problems, a large number of spider webs – to a cold winter, a strong smell of flowers – to bad weather, to the gloomy weather in the morning – be the evening rain.
How to read the icons of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary?
Often in the center of the composition is the Virgin Mary lying on her deathbed. Sometimes the Mother of God has purple shoes – this color is considered imperial -. In this way they emphasize the royal honor of the mother of Jesus Christ, and this is typical of the Eastern Orthodox Church. His head is surrounded by a halo.
Around the bed are the apostles: Peter – with a censer in his hand, John – grieving, crouching on the bed. Right there is Dionysius the Areopagite and the Lord’s brother James, who, according to legend, was in the house of the Virgin Mary on the day she took her son’s soul to heaven.
Above them all rises the majestic figure of Jesus, who is depicted larger than the rest. In her arms is the spirit of the mother in the form of a baby, a symbol of the ascent to eternal life and victory over death.
The icon “Assumption of the Mother of God”, one of the most famous in Russia, is now in the collection of the Vologda Museum-Reserve. It was painted by the icon painter Dionysius around 1500 for the local layer of the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Pavlo-Obnorsky Monastery and refers to the “cloudy” version of the iconography in which the apostles flock to the deathbed of the Virgin Mary. over the clouds. Such Assumption icons became widespread in Russia from the second half of the 15th century – probably, the temple icon of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, created for its consecration in 1479, served as a model for them.