The Assumption of Our Lady as a dogma of faith was formally defined by Pope Pius XII with the Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus on 1 November 1950. The essential passage was:
We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.
In the Constitution the Pope appealed principally to the faith of the Church rather than any particular biblical text as the basis of the definition – some say that there are no firm scriptural texts which support the dogma, others that the reference to ‘the woman’ in Revelations 12:1, does support the Blessed Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven. The Pope relies on the universal agreement of the Church’s ordinary teaching authority and the general acceptance of the doctrine by the faithful. He looks back to the early references in the liturgy; the Emperor Maurice (582-602) decreed that the feast of the Assumption be celebrated throughout the Empire.
The first Vatican Council asserts, “all those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written Word of God or in Tradition, and which are proposed by the Church, either in solemn judgement or in its ordinary and universal teaching office, as divinely revealed truths which must be believed.” Various testimonies, indications and signs of this common belief of the Church are evident from remote times down through the course of the centuries. The earliest clear discussion regarding the death of Mary is in Epiphanius (d. 403). The Constitution neatly avoids mention of Mary’s preferring to say, having completed the course of her earthly life.
Mary of Jesus of Ágreda 1602–65, a Franciscan Abbess, records the following which is relevant to the death of Mary. It is what she claims to have received in a private revelation from the Blessed Virgin. But note, the Catholic Church does not consider private revelations when defining dogma. I share it with you as I find it an attractive proposition.
Desmond Miller
Instructions which the Great Queen of Heaven, Most Holy Mary, Gave To Mary of Agreda
Found in the volume of The Coronation
My daughter, besides what thou hast understood and written of My glorious Transition, I wish to inform thee of another privilege, which was conceded to Me by my Divine Son in that hour. Thou hast already recorded, that the Lord offered Me the choice of entering into the Beatific Vision either with or without passing through the portals of death. If I had preferred not to die, the Most High would have conceded this favour, because sin had no part in Me, and hence also not its punishment, which is death. Thus it would also have been with my Divine Son, and with a greater right, if He had not taken upon Himself the satisfaction of the Divine Justice for men through His Passion and Death. Hence I chose death freely in order to imitate and follow Him, as also I did during His grievous Passion. Since I had seen my Son and True God die, I would not have satisfied the love I owe Him if I had refused death, and I would have left a great gap in my conformity to and my imitation of my Lord the God-Man, whereas He wished Me to bear a great likeness to Him in His most Sacred Humanity. As I would thereafter never be able to make up for such a defect, my Soul would not enjoy the plenitude of the delight of having died as did my Lord and God.
Hence my choosing to die was so pleasing to Him, and my prudent love therein obliged Him to such an extent, that in return He immediately conceded to Me a singular favour for the benefit of the children of the Church and conformable to my wishes. It was this, that all those devoted to Me, who should call upon Me at the hour of death, constituting Me as their Advocate in memory of my happy Transition and of my desiring to imitate Him in death, shall be under my special protection and in that hour, shall have Me as a defence against the demons, as a help and protection, and shall be presented by Me before the tribunal of His Mercy and there experience my intercession.
In consequence the Lord gave Me a new power and commission as He promised to confer great helps of His grace for a good death and for a purer life on all those who in veneration of this mystery of my precious death, should invoke my aid. Hence I desire thee, my beloved daughter, from this day on to keep in thy inmost heart a devout and loving memory of this mystery, and to bless, praise, and magnify the Omnipotent, because He wrought such sacred miracles for Me and for the mortals. By this solicitude thou wilt oblige the Lord and Me to come to thy aid in that last hour.
Image © Lawrence OP