On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus, proclaimed to the world the following:

“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

What is curious is that in this papal document no where is it mentioned that the Virgin Mary actually died.

It only mentions that her assumption into Heaven occurred “when she had completed the course of her earthly life.” This deliberate vagueness reflects the belief prevalent among many Roman Catholics that the Virgin Mary did not die at all. Rather, it was believed that the Mother of God was corporeally assumed directly into Heaven while still alive.

This widespread belief among western Christians is contrary to the position of the Orthodox Church which acknowledges that the Virgin Mary physically died. Consider a hymn sung on the Feast of the Falling Asleep of the Theotokos;

All human generations bless you, O Mother of God. The laws of nature were bypassed in you, for your birth-giving left you a virgin and your death became the herald of your life. O you who remained virginal after having given birth, and alive after having died, O Mother of God, deign always to save your inheritance. Hirmos (1^st Tone)

This belief is beautifully expressed through iconography. The icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos depicts the Virgin Mary laying on her deathbed. Her eyes are closed in death as the holy apostles, mourning and grieving, surround the brier. The figure of the resurrected Christ stands in the background, holding the soul of the Virgin who is clothed in white.

Though the Orthodox Church believes that the Theotokos died, it does maintain that the body of the virgin which was reverently placed in a tomb, remained incorrupt after dead. Her body, as the receptacle of Our Lord, was so filled with holiness that flowed from the Holy Spirit that it did not experience physical decay. Patriarch Germanos of Constantinople wrote,

“Just like one of us, she had a body; therefore, she could not escape encountering death, the common destiny of all men…(But) it was impossible for her, the God containing vessel, to be dissolved by death and corruption into dust.” 

While the body of the Theotokos rested in the tomb, Sacred and Holy Tradition records her body was assumed into Heaven and reunited with her soul. There before the throne of Her Son Jesus Christ the Holy Mother of God intercedes on our behalf. Her Assumption was an event which demonstrated the tremendous power of the Incarnation as well as the future promise that one day at the Last Judgment all of us will have our bodies and souls reunited.

The Virgin Mary was one of us. She experienced the joys of life and tasted death. Yet she has been raised from death to life and now prays on our behalf. Therefore on her feastday of August 15^th, all Orthodox Christians joyfully celebrate this beautiful miracle and sing the troparion,

“You were a Mother and yet remained a Virgin; you went up to heaven, and yet did not forsake the world, O Mother of God. You have passed to life, being the Mother of Life. Through your intercession, save our souls from death.”