The Transitus Mariae
The Account of St. John the Theologian
of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God
AS THE ALL-HOLY glorious Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, as was her wont, was going to the holy tomb of our Lord to burn incense, and bending her holy knees, she was importunate that Christ our God who had been born of her should return to her. And the Jews, seeing her lingering by the divine sepulchre, came to the chief priests, saying: Mary goes every day to the tomb. And the chief priests, having summoned the guards set by them not to allow any one to pray at the holy sepulchre, inquired about her, whether in truth it were so. And the guards answered and said that they had seen no such thing, God having not allowed them to see her when there. And on one of the days, it being the preparation, the holy Mary, as was her wont, came to the sepulchre; and while she was praying, it came to pass that the heavens were opened, and the archangel Gabriel came down to her and said: Hail, thou that didst bring forth Christ our God! Thy prayer having come through to the heavens to Him who was born of thee, has been accepted; and from this time, according to thy request, thou having left the world, shall go to the heavenly places to thy Son, into the true and everlasting life.
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Christian History, Fall 2004
Timeline
Mary in the Imagination of the Church
Mary in the Bible
Gabriel announces her election as mother of the Messiah (Luke 1: 26-38)
she visits Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56)
she travels to Bethlehem and gives birth to Jesus (Luke 2:1-20)
she presents Jesus at the Temple to Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-39)
she discovers Jesus discoursing in the Temple with the elders (Luke 2:40-52)
she asks Jesus to help the wine stewards at the Cana wedding (John 2:1-11)
she visits Jesus with his brothers (Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21)
at the foot of the cross, she hears her son’s last words to her (John 19:26-27)
she experiences Pentecost with the apostles (Acts 1:14)
Apocryphal Books
early 4th c.: Earliest manuscript of the Protevangelium of James. Tells the events preceding Mary’s birth through the Massacre of the Innocents.
5th century: Earliest accounts of the Death of Mary or
Transitus Mariae. Appeared in Latin as the Pseudo-Melito and the Pseudo-Joseph of Arimathea.
7th or 8th c.: The Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew appears, with the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary following in the 9th century. These amplify the Protevangelium with miracles and teachings. Pseudo-Matthew was the principal source for medieval French and English mystery plays.
high medieval period: Whole cycles of “the Life of Our Lady” develop, condemned at Trent (1545-1563).
Theology
2nd century: In his Against Heresies, Irenaeus depicts Mary as a “second Eve,” a foundational statement for the later development of Christian theology especially on Mary as a representative or symbol of the church.
431: Against Nestorius, who called Mary only “Christotokos”—mother of Christ—the Council of Ephesus affirms that Mary is “Theotokos”—mother of God. This supports and extends the devotional cult of Mary in the church.
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