Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-08-06
Assumption of the Virgin
The Proposed New Dogma of the
Church Of III omc.
[From the independently

From the independently
IL is reported from Rome that the
forth coming ecumenical council is
to decree rs one of its dogmas the cor
poreal assumption of the blessed vir-
gin. Some English journals cast dis
credit on the report, though we see
no reason for disputing its authenti-
city. The worship Of Mary yearly
increases throughout that great
church which does homage to her as
the mother of God aud queen of
Heaven. We are quite prepared to
find devout Romanists seeking now
to lavish upon her some new idola.
try.
The biography of Mary is one of
the most charming fictions among
the legend of the saints. AS the story
runs, Joachim, a rich Jew, married
Anna, beautiful Jewess. The mar
ried pair dwelt near Mount Carmel.
Their lives were ornamented with
every beauty of welded love, except
one. There was no offspring. Among
the Jews, to be without children was
to be without honor. On one occa-
sion, Joachim, i'm carrying his offer
ings to the temple, was repulsed by
the high priest, who declined to ac-
cept such tribute from one whom
God had long disfavored by denying
him issue of his bone and flesh. The
childless husband turned away In
sorrow, sought his garden, and with
prayer and tears called upon the
Lord to purge away his servants
shame in Israel. At the same hour,
the pious Anna, sitting under lau-
rel tree, observed goldfinch feeding
her young. The motherly bird
awoke in the childless wife n pitlful
sense of her barrenness, and inspired
her to utter n like prayer with her
husbands. The Lord heard both en-
treaties, and sent two swift angels to
the garden-one to Joachim, the 9TH
er to Anna-with mutually corrobor-
ating promise to the married pair
that a daughter should be born to
them, and that she should grow to
be the most illustrious of her sex.
Each of the future parents then rose
to seek the other and communicate
the wonderous intelligence, when be-
hold at the garden gate they unex-
pectedly met; the husband fervently
kissed his wife; and, according to
one of the legends, at that moment
the babe Mary was suddenly laid in
her mothers arms-born as the SUI
pernatural fruition of Joachim's kiss;
a gentler babe than its stern proto-
type--Minerva's armed emergence
from Jupiter's brain.
So much for the fable of Mary's
birth, An equal fiction hangs like
an aureole around her death. Good
Catholics believe that, after surviv-
ing her husband Joseph for many
years, she was ct last (some say at
sixty others at seventy-five) fore
warned OF the hour of her transla-
tion; that, in view OF the solemn
event, she prayed to her long ascend
ed son to give her a convoy Of angels;
that q palm branch was brought by
one of them and lodged in her hands;
that she desired to bequeath her
blessing OH the apostles who were
then scattered over the fece of the
earth, and suddenly John, who was
at Ephesus. and. Peter, who was at
Antioch, and Gil the rest of the glori-
Gus army, from whatsoever city they
tarrled In, were transported through
the air at midnight, and set down i'm
the bodily presence around her bed !;
and that, to crown the scene, the
Lord himself appeared among them
In splendor, received his mothers ex-
pirlng soul, and bore it to heaven.
This Is the first or spiritual assump-
tion of the Virgin.
Her lifeless body, which remained
behind, was tenderly caressed by
pious women, who, as they were