The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-08-18
THE. ASSUMPTION OFOUR LADY

IN OF OUR LADY
cumstances of time and place, etc.,
simply confines itself to the fact that
Mary after death was assumed body
and soul into heaven.
i Historical Evidence.
| We now pass on to the historical
| evidences we possess in favor of the
antiquity of the doctrine. The first
piece of solid testimony is the fact
that by the seventh century the feast
was celebrated in the liturgy nearly
all over the Church, both East and
West. An almost universal observance
LOT this kind presupposes a consider
able antiquity in the belief on which
it rests. 1t is fair to say, however,
that the meaning of the feast at this
early date is not clearly manifested
in the liturgies themselves. When
| Pope Sergius (6S7-70D ordered a
solemn procession on that day he
/ spoke of il as the Dormitio Sanctae
Del Genitricis-a word which of itself
does not necessarily mean more than
death" Besides "Dormitio,' the
feast is also called "pausatio' and
'transitus (Sleep, rest, passage),
and it was only gradually the name
assumption" prevailed. The first OF
| the Fathers to state our belief in ex-
press terms is Juvenal, Bishop OF Jer-
usalem, in A. D. 451; the second is
Gregory of Tours who died in 594. A
like explicit testimony occurs in both
the Gothic and Gallo missals of the
seventh century. The feast was al
ready well established at Rome be-
fore Pope Sergius ordered his process
/ sion; for we find it explicitly alluded
to by Gregory the Great before the
year 604 From this date EDWARDS
| there is abundance of testimony to
| the general belief on the subject,
j which was the same then as now.
typographical Evidence.
From the liturgical evidence we
next turn to that of sacred topog-
| graphy. Modestus, Bishop of Jeru-
salem in the. early 7th century is the
first to place the death OF Mary on
Mount SionEon the same spot where
the Eucharist was instituted, and the
descent of the Holy Ghost occurred.
/ The building was from the earliest
times called the Church OF the ApOs-
ties" 1t is now known as the "Coen-
aculum" by the Christians, but as the
tomb of David by the Mahomedans.
Other traditions place the death of
Mary in house at the foot of the
Mount of Olives close to Gethsemenai,
which was supposed to have been the
property ofl.the B. Virgins family.
But all these OSCILLATIONS are too re-
cent to be reliable In short, Lesetre
concludes, we cannot assert anything
precise regarding either the place
where Mary passed her last years, nor
the age she attained, nor the circum-
stances of her death, or the place
where it occurred.
/ 1t is JuvenaI, Bishop of Jerusalem
who in A. D. 451 first signalzes the
presence of the tomb of Our Lady at
. Jerusalem. When. the Emperor Mar
clan and the Empress Pulcheria wish
ed to consecrate church to Our Lady
near Constantinople, they asked the
Bishop of Jerusalem to open the tomE
of Mary and send them the precious
relics which it contained. Juvenal in
, reply recounts the ancient tradition
that Our Lady's body had been trans
lated to heaven; but that to satisfy
the royal devotion he had opened the
tomb, and sent to them portions OF
certain garments which he had found
within it. The story seems to be all
thentic; but Pope Leo accuses Juve
nal of having forged the relics in or
der to please the Emperor, and to
achieve certain ambitious ends of his
, Cwn. The Pope in fact wrote letter
Irebuking him for his misconduct, and
while enumerating all the tombs Of
the saints known to him in Jerusalem
makes no mention among them of the
; tomb of Our Lady. Nevertheless this
does not altogether. discredit the loca
: tradition, which has been presistentl1
maintained, and can be traced bacl
as far as about the year 400.
II Grounds for Belief.
The question now remaining to b.
, considered is, on what do we grount
j, our belief in the Assumption? A.
!, there exists no definition we canno
!, appeal specifically to the infallibilit.
, of the Pope or of general council
, Our belief, therefore rests on tn,
: broader though less definite grnunf