The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-01-17
The Tomb of the Blessed Virgin.

The Tomb Of the Blessed Virgin.
On quitting Jerusalem by St. Stephen q
gate on the east side of the city, one de
sends through ravine into the depths Of
the valley of Josaphat, having to the right
and left the Mussulman cemetery. After
passing the bed of the torrent Cedrop,
which is always dry, yon perceive to your
left the facade of the Church of the AS
sumption, which is built at the foot of the
Mount of Olives and at some little distance
from the grotto where our Lord sweat
blood on the eve of his passion. Forty
eight steps which the feet of thousands
have nearly worn away, conduct to vast
and Clark chamber, cut out of the solid
rock. The tomb of the Holy Virgin is
hewn out of the living rock and like that of
her divine Son, is covered with white mar
bic, SO that pilgrims may not commit any
acts of vandalism by carrying off fragments
thereof. One may repeat of this tomb what
Chateaubriand said about the Holy Sep
ulcbre, that sit will have nothing to weld
upon Judgment day." for tradition says
that the body of Mary was assumed into
Heaven three sdays after her death. st.
Helena built here a noble church in honor
of our Lady, but the builders, following the
bad example of the architects of the Holy
Sepulchre, isolated the tomb from the rock,
leaving only just the block on which was
the tomb itself, intact. The walls of the
church have all been all cut ont of the
solid mountain, and it is large, but damp
and dark. This church contains the tomb
Of Melisinda, wife of Baldwin II. and
In of Baldwin ~. :, Kings Of Jerusalem.
This princess conducted the affairs of
the kingdom for thirty years as regent.
Her tomb 10 to the right ON entering the
sacred edifce, and it Ia reported that the
vaults below contain also the tombs of st.
Joachim, st. Anne and St. Joseph. But
THE 10 probably an error founded on the
ell-knawn fact that the Jews usually
chose one burial place for all the mem
bers of their family. Arculph, who visited
the tomb in the seventh century, mentions
q church above ground, probably built by |
st. Helena. 1t was round like the London |
81 Temple" In the year HOO, Godfrey de |
Bouillon established here convent of |
Naples signed q treaty with the Sultan
the church passed into the charge
Of the Franciscaus. En- the seventeenth cen
fury the Greek schismatics obtained DOG
session of it; but in 1866, Count La Haye,
French Ambassador to the Sublime Porte
guardians of the sanctuary. In 1757, the
Count de Vergennes obtained from Turkey
] irman whereby the rights of the Francis
ans were clearly defined, and since that
,eriod, as at the Holy Sepulchre, the
Areeks and Latina have shared this
acred spot between them. Some au-
hors seem to think that the Holy Virgin
Lied at Ephesus, but this opinion 10 only
ounded on a chance phrase inserted in q
ynodial letter addressed by the Fathers
T the Council, A. D. AL, to the clergy and
eople of the city Of Ephesus which con-
ains this uu6nished phrase 1.-THE heresy
the HISTORIANS was condemned in the
OWN where John the Meologian, and Mary
10 Mother Of GOd'-But the Fathers of c
ne Council did not say that Mary died {
ere, but seem only to have wished to call
ttention to the great respect paid to her 1
Ephesus as is easily proved by Father g
usselli, a monk of the Holy Land in his !
Ork tOn the dogmatic definition of the =
of Mary Most Holy" Tradi- =
on assures us that she died at Jerusalem
the Cenaculum on Mont Zion and not at
phesus. DionyBius the Areopsgite, al
of the Virgin thus expresses
mself in the. book of "Divine name" g
Book 1, Chap. III in speaking to limo 2
y on the subject of the death of Mary. s.
You remember that when we were assem-
ed near our pontifTs 1.-THE disciples in
ID filled with the Holy Ghost, Ts
ID with many Of our holy brethren Il
. reverenced that holy body which
mes, the brother cousin Of the Lord A
d Peter tho great ornament and principal L:
lumn of the theology were with us. After
this holy body all the pom tn
70 praised the goodness Of the Lord and N
,rotides more than all the rest" Saint Of
elton of Sardis, who wrote towards the
ar 40, says in his book De trGnsitH Vir- so
ais that the Mother of God died in Jeru- =
lem. Polycratus, Bishop of Ephesus,
10 lived in the third century, afirms also
at the Blessed Virgin died at jerusalem
d Juvenal, bishop of the city, in reply
letter addressed him by the EN-
ess Pnlcheria on the subject of the tomb
swered that Princess Thus: We have an
eient and very trna tradition that MRrYl