What caused Mary to die?

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So I know that the virgin Mary was assumed into heaven, but the church is pretty clear that she did in fact die first, and I think that she was in her tomb for three days like her son before actually going to heaven.

My question is how did Mary actually die? I was under the impression that being free from original sin would mean her body didnt deteriorate, which would mean she wouldnt have a reason to die from old age, and I doubt God would allow His most perfect creation/His mother to die by catching the flu or falling down the stairs or something.

Do we have any teachings or traditions on the cause of death for Mary?
 
nfinke said:
but the church is pretty clear that she did in fact die first, and I think that she was in her tomb for three days like her son before actually going to heaven.
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Actually, the Church is not clear on this at all.
The Church does not take an official position on whether Mary died before her Assumption, or whether she was assumed into Heaven at the end of her life without having to undergo bodily death. The Catechism simply states that Mary was taken body and soul into Heaven “when the course of her earthly life was finished.”
966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”
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Catholics are therefore free to believe either
  • that Mary died before being assumed into Heaven body and soul - and if one chooses to believe that, then the exact number of days she spent in her tomb is also an open issue for people to believe what they want, as long as they don’t believe she stayed dead for longer than a few days;
  • or that she was assumed without needing to suffer bodily death.
Assuming that we choose to believe that she actually did undergo bodily death, we have no idea what exactly she died of, and there is no official teaching on it, especially since there’s no official teaching that she even died in the first place. Mary would have been considered an elderly lady by the lifespan standards of her day, and could have died of all kinds of natural causes.
 
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I happened to be looking for a “wallpaper” image of the Assumption for my desktop screen yesterday. I saw several paintings and icons by the old masters than depicted Mary lying (presumably) on her bed of death being attended by angels??.. Is this what Orthodox refer to as Dormition?

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The Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio

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heh. Not sure. I finally went with one of the more traditional images of Mary rising…
 
I was listening to an essay yesterday by St John Henry Newman called “The Fitness of the Glories if Mary” http://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse18.html
But he gave one explanation thus:
She died, then, as we hold, because even our Lord and Saviour died; she died, as she suffered, because she was in this world, because she was in a state of things in which suffering and death are the rule. She lived under their external sway; and, as she obeyed Caesar by coming for enrolment to Bethlehem, so did she, when God willed it, yield to the tyranny of death, and was dissolved into soul and body, as well as others. But though she died as well as others, she died not as others die; for, through the merits of her Son, by whom she was what she was, by the grace of Christ which in her had anticipated sin, which had filled her with light, which had purified her flesh from all defilement, she was also saved from disease and malady, and all that weakens and decays the bodily frame. Original sin had not been found in her, by the wear of her senses, and the waste of her frame, and the decrepitude of years, propagating death. She died, but her death was a mere fact, not an effect; and, when it was over, it ceased to be. She died that she might live, she died as a matter of form or (as I may call it) an observance, in order to fulfil, what is called, the debt of nature,—not primarily for herself or because of sin, but to submit herself to her condition, to glorify God, to do what her Son did; not however as her Son and Saviour, with any suffering for any special end; not with a martyr’s death, for her martyrdom had been in living; not as an atonement, for man could not make it, and One had made it, and made it for all; but in order to finish her course, and to receive her crown.
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It goes on for a while, but I see that line “she died…to submit herself to her condition, to Glorify God, to do what her Son did.”
 
nfinke said:
So I know that the virgin Mary was assumed into heaven, but the church is pretty clear that she did in fact die first, and I think that she was in her tomb for three days like her son before actually going to heaven.

My question is how did Mary actually die? I was under the impression that being free from original sin would mean her body didnt deteriorate, which would mean she wouldnt have a reason to die from old age, and I doubt God would allow His most perfect creation/His mother to die by catching the flu or falling down the stairs or something.

Do we have any teachings or traditions on the cause of death for Mary?
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The common teaching of the Church is that the Blessed Virgin Mary suffered a temporal death, and is affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church. However, the dogma of faith of her assumption into heaven does not include a belief in her temporal death. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Ludwig Ott) states on page 208:
For Mary, death, in consequence of her freedom from original sin and from personal sin, was not a consequence of punishment of sin (cf. D 1073). However, it seems fitting that Mary’s body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in conformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death.
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Denzinger 1073 (Errors of Michael du Bay – Saint Pope Pius V condemned the following)
73. No one except Christ is free from original sin; hence, the Blessed Virgin died because of sin contracted from Adam, and all of her afflictions in this life as well as those of other just persons were the punishments for actual sin, or for original sin.
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Vico gave the correct answer regarding this.
The CA apologist gives the correct information regarding the teaching, but he wrote it in a misleading way:
Yes, it is the common teaching in the ordinary Magisterium of the Church and in its liturgical worship that Our Lady underwent bodily death. This is the unanimous teaching of all the Fathers of the Church in the context of their teaching on her Assumption. The fact that the Venerable Pius XII did not define that Our Lady died when he defined her bodily Assumption has been taken by many to mean that she did not die; but in the very bull of definition itself he brings forth the teaching of the Fathers that she died, was resurrected, and then assumed into heaven.

St. Thomas Aquinas held that Our Lady died as did everyone else. Bl. Duns Scotus did not deny that she died, but in his theology his followers found a rationale for holding that she did not. This is a theological opinion that is licit to hold but that is not the opinion expressed in the ordinary teaching of the popes and the Fathers and Doctors.
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If it’s licit to hold the opinion that Mary didn’t die, then the Church does NOT definitively teach that she did die. When the Church actually adopts a teaching, it doesn’t say, “Here’s our teaching, but it’s licit for you to believe something else.”

The beginning “Yes, she died” is therefore the author’s own conclusion.
It should also be noted that what is dogma here is that she was assumed into heaven, body and soul. Whether she died or not is NOT part of the dogma, and the CA blurb “Find out what the Catholic Church teaches about this central dogma of the Faith” is misleading.

As explained in this article on Catholic Culture, there was a dispute at the time when the dogma of the Assumption was being defined over whether Mary died before being assumed. The Church concluded that we don’t know for sure if she died first, and thus did not include that part in the infallible dogma that all Catholics must believe. See paragraph 2 of the below.

 
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For those who believe she died first, we don’t know what Mary died of. That is the short answer. A natural death would be most likely, IMO.
 
She had a perfect human nature because She had no original sin. Therefore, she was not subject to illness, concupiscence, ignorance, weakness of the will and death like the rest of us.
 
Jesus was not subject to death either but He willingly died in order to save us. IOW, He didn’t have to die but He willed to do so for our salvation.
 
Once again, Jesus had no original sin. Jesus died.

One argument theologians use in support of Mary’s death is that Mary would not have wanted to skip bodily death when her beloved Son, who was God, had had to experience it. She was too humble for that.

Of course, the counter argument is she already shared fully in Jesus’ passion and so experienced all the horrors of his death without needing to experience bodily death herself.

In the end however, if God willed that Mary were to die, even for a split second, and perhaps even for reasons we don’t fully understand, then she died.

You are free to believe that Mary did not die. It is also fine for a Catholic to believe that she died in spite of her sinlessness.
 
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She died of love and longing for her Son. I believe St. Alphonsus Liguori talks about this in The Glories of Mary, in the second half under the Assumption chapter.
 
Bruce_Killian said:
Mary died defending Jesus’ soon to be resurrected body. Satan killed her and she was almost immediately resurrected.
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I’ve never heard such an outlandish and strange assertion.

Mary was Assumed many years after the Resurrection. This is just silly.
 
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Actually, upon reading your document, there are some glaring errors if not heretical assertions. I strongly suggest having a theologian proof your work.
 
Cruciferi said:
Actually, upon reading your document, there are some glaring errors if not heretical assertions. I strongly suggest having a theologian proof your work.
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My email is in the document. Tell me what my errors are. I am a well educated Catholic. I have tried to have a theological review. Grace and peace, Bruce
 
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