[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f2k7lwxh2zan19":3,"$fy6oulildcg5h":12},{"slug":4,"title":5,"subtitle":6,"excerpt":7,"coverUrl":8,"publishedAt":9,"contentHtml":10,"substackUrl":11},"taken-on-faith","Taken on faith","For the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August: what the Bible says about Mary's death and what tradition built.","Mary’s final appearances in ScriptureMary is at Jesus’s crucifixion along with others. Jesus entrusts his mother to John (John 19:25-27).When the disciples went to Jerusalem after Jesus’s ascension, M","https:\u002F\u002Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\u002Fpublic\u002Fimages\u002F672e811b-d982-401a-a277-7841027d6654_500x757.jpeg","2026-08-11T20:03:19.000Z","\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Mary’s final appearances in Scripture\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Col>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Mary is at Jesus’s crucifixion along with others. Jesus entrusts his mother to John (John 19:25-27).\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>When the disciples went to Jerusalem after Jesus’s ascension, Mary was in the upper room with them and the other women and Jesus’s brothers (Acts 1:13-14).\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Fol>\u003Cp>That is the last we hear of Mary, mother of Jesus. Scripture doesn’t say when or how she died, about her burial, or an assumption.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>What tradition says happens\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The silence in the Bible doesn’t prevent tradition from filling in the gaps in Mary’s story. Blickling Homily XIII tells the story of Mary leading up to and including her death.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>This starts before Mary’s death. An angel arrives and speaks to her:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“Arise, Mary, and receive this palm-twig which I have now brought thee; for assuredly, ere three days [have elapsed] thou shalt be taken from thy body, and all the Lord’s apostles shall be sent to bury thee.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>Mary asked the angel for his name. He refuses to give it.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“Wherefore seekest thou my name, for it is great and wonderful?” Next, the apostles, who at this point are scattered around the known world, spreading the Word, are gathered together via a cloud to Mary’s side.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>Then, Mary dies, surrounded by the disciples. Christ receives her soul. Then, he speaks to her corpse on the bier:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“I will never leave thee, my pearl; I will never leave thee, my jewel: for thou art verily the temple of God.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>Then, later, at her tomb, Christ appears and orders the stone rolled away. He speaks:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“Arise, thou, my nearest and my dove... arise now from thy grave.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>Mary comes out, embracing Jesus’s feet. She is then “lifted by the angel Michael on clouds before the Lord’s sight”. Then, the Homily includes Mary’s song of praise:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“...because she thus spake when she sang ‘Magnificat:’ ‘My Lord, magnify my soul: and cause my spirit to rejoice in thy salvation; for thou art true God. Wherefore do thou now behold the meekness of thy maiden; and my Lord,’ said Saint Mary, ‘cause all people to say that I am the most blessed virgin. For thou didst unto me great things, thou art mighty and thy name is holy. And thy mercy is among all people that fear thee. He hath done mighty things with his arms, and he hath scattered those who were proud in their heart, and would not trust in him. And he hath put down the mighty from their seat; and that was Satan with his devils, when he was in heaven’s kingdom...’”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Where the story comes from\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>Not from nowhere\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>Mary had a title given to her from at least the early 4th century: \u003Cem>Theotokos\u003C\u002Fem>, which is Greek for \u003Cem>God-bearer\u003C\u002Fem>. This term was used by both Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius by then in their theological writings.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>The hinge: Council of Ephesus, 431\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>In 431, Nestorius, Patriarch (like an archbishop) of Constantinople, objected to Mary’s title at the Council of Ephesus. This council was not about Mary at all, but about the nature of Christ. Nestorius objected to \u003Cem>Theotokos\u003C\u002Fem> in favor of \u003Cem>Christotokos\u003C\u002Fem>, or \u003Cem>Christ-bearer\u003C\u002Fem>. This wasn’t a new argument, but Nestorius was an outlier trying to overturn a century of precedent.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The Nestorian controversy is about whether Christ is one person with two natures (divine and human, united) versus two separate persons loosely joined. The Council found that Christ was fully man and fully divine and that denying Mary this title made Christ appear not to be God. Therefore, \u003Cem>Theotokos\u003C\u002Fem> for Mary was upheld to protect the claim of who Jesus was. This defended the traditional title; it didn’t invent something new. This defense, however, gave Mary’s status momentum.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>The spread\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>Emperor Maurice (582-602) of the Byzantine Empire fixed the date of the Dormition for 15 August for the whole of his empire. Dormition, meaning “falling asleep” was about Mary’s death.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>By about the mid-seventh century, this feast reached Rome. It was still called Dormition at this point.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Pope Sergius I (687-701) elevated the feast along with the three other feasts of Mary (Candlemas, Annunciation, and Nativity of the Virgin) to “principal status”. The feast becoming a principal feast meant that processions were added. This was a bigger deal than it sounds... It’s called “stational liturgy”, where, on major feast days, a specific church in the city was designated as the “station” for that day. The Pope himself would process through the city to that church, where he would celebrate the Mass. Think of it this way. Now it’s not just another feast day on the calendar: its the Pope in public, moving through the city of Rome, and turning the feast into a real city-wide event.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>Bede and the naming shift\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>Bede, in Britain in the early 8th century, attested to the four Marian feasts kept with processions to a church that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. He (and everyone) still called the feast by its Greek name, Dormition, at first. Soon, the West renamed the feast to Assumption. It became popular in England gradually, becoming established by the 11th century.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>A different homily: Ælfric’s caution\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Not everyone was as confident about Mary’s assumption. There was an English Benedictine monk — Ælfric of Eynsham — writing around 990–1010. He was at the same time as the Blickling homily and part of the same broader wave of English monastic writing.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Ælfric argued against the certainty of Mary being taken bodily up to Heaven, although he hopes it’s true. He says that the sources for the story are unreliable and heretical. His whole homily is a translation of a letter from St Jerome (a famous 4th & 5th century scholar), which he says people should follow instead of the popular story.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“Nor do we deny the eternal resurrection of the blessed Mary, though for caution, preserving our belief, it befits us that we rather hope it, than rashly assert what is unknown without any danger.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>He does agree that Mary’s tomb was empty:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“Her sepulchre is visible to all beholders to this present day... and the sepulchre appears open and empty.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>Here’s the rub that neither he nor anyone else could have known: this letter was a forgery. It was written in the 9th century by a monk, not by the real St Jerome.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>An entry from \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cem>\u003Cstrong>The Old English Martyrology\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Here is a quote from Mary’s entry in the Martyrology:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“She shineth in the heavenly host among the crowd of holy women, as the sun shineth on this world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>It also says that her age at death was sixty-four. The language it uses is interesting... it calls her “daughter-in-law of God the Father... mother-in-law of the holy souls... the noble queen of the dwellers in heaven”.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The Martyrology also points to Psalm 45:9, indicating that Mary herself is Queen of Heaven:\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>“she stands on the right side of the great Father and King”\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>The calendar block: vigil, feast, octave\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>While the feast of the Assumption is attributed to Pope Sergius I in the seventh century, it got an upgrade in the 9th century by Pope Leo IV. Leo IV added a vigil (a day of fasting) and made the feast into an octave instead of just a day, due to its importance. Octave, from Latin \u003Cem>octava\u003C\u002Fem> means “eighth”. It’s an eight day feast. This is quite rare in the calendar; other feasts like Easter and Christmas are among the few others that are more than one day.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png\">\u003Cpicture>\u003Csource type=\"image\u002Fwebp\" srcset=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png 424w, https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png 848w, https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png 1272w, https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png 1456w\">\u003C\u002Fsource>\u003Cimg src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsubstackcdn.com\u002Fimage\u002Ffetch\u002F$s_!Y-h2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\u002Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f4ed38f-684f-4412-ab17-20aa3e3ff933_1600x503.png\" alt=\"\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fpicture>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cfigcaption>\u003C\u002Ffigcaption>\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>The harvest collision\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The feast honestly falls at a really bad time for England. Harvest season starts on Lammas (1 Aug) and lasts until Michaelmas (29 September). People are not to work on major feast days. Therefore, fourteen days after harvest begins, farmers are forced to stop their extremely important work, when harvesting at the right time is a matter of good crops or bad crops!\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Bible vs tradition\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Mary, mother of Jesus, was last mentioned in the Bible praying in the upper room with the disciples. Tradition goes further, with her death and ascension into Heaven, miraculously surrounded by the disciples and alongside Christ.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Ftaken-on-faith\u002Fcomments\">\u003Cspan>Leave a comment\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fsubscribe?\">\u003Cspan>Subscribe now\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Ftaken-on-faith?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share\">\u003Cspan>Share\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch4>\u003Cem>\u003Cstrong>\u003Cspan>If you enjoyed this and want to support the research, please leave a tip on \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fko-fi.com\u002Fmegmcguirt\">\u003Cspan>Ko-fi\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan>.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fh4>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Sources\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Ælfric of Eynsham, homily on the Assumption, in Benjamin Thorpe (ed. and trans.), \u003Cem>The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church\u003C\u002Fem> — free at Project Gutenberg\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cem>Blickling Homily XIII\u003C\u002Fem>, in R. Morris (ed. and trans.), \u003Cem>The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century\u003C\u002Fem>, Early English Text Society (1874–1880) — free at archive.org\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cem>The Old English Martyrology\u003C\u002Fem>, entry for 15 August, in George Herzfeld (ed. and trans.), \u003Cem>An Old English Martyrology\u003C\u002Fem>, Early English Text Society (1900) — free at archive.org\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Scripture: John 19:25–27, Acts 1:13–14\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>General historical background on the Council of Ephesus (431), the \u003Cem>Theotokos\u003C\u002Fem>\u002F\u003Cem>Christotokos\u003C\u002Fem> controversy, and the feast’s establishment under Emperor Maurice, Pope Sergius I, and Pope Leo IV — standard patristic and liturgical history, not tied to a single monograph\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>","https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Ftaken-on-faith",{"persons":13,"places":14,"events":15,"institutions":16,"groups":17,"titles":18,"houses":19,"sources":20,"artifacts":21,"librarySections":22},2709,7446,1661,1781,1942,129,107,98,3,6596]