"The Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God"

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The Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God (Dormition of the Most Holy Lady of our Mother of God and the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God Mary) is a holiday of the Orthodox and Catholic churches dedicated to the memory of the death (dormition) of the Mother of God. In Orthodoxy it is one of the Twelve. According to church tradition, on this day the apostles, preaching in various countries, miraculously gathered in Jerusalem to say goodbye and perform the burial of the Virgin Mary.

The Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Polish Orthodox Churches, as well as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Old Believers and some others celebrate the Assumption (in the XX-XXI centuries, August 15 according to the Julian calendar corresponds to August 28 according to the Gregorian calendar). The Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption on August 15 according to the Gregorian calendar; the Constantinople, Hellas and a number of other local Orthodox churches – on August 15 according to the New Julian calendar, coinciding with the Gregorian until the XXIX century.

New Testament history
The canonical texts do not tell about the time and circumstances of the death and burial of the Virgin. According to the New Testament, the crucified Christ adopted to the Virgin Mary the closest disciple – the Apostle John, who from that moment “took her to himself” () in his care. She was with all the apostles in prayer, and on the day of Pentecost, like them, received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Apocrypha

Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus, a Jew, a native of Phoenicia, who converted to Christianity in adulthood and lived as a monk for more than 20 years in Palestine from 335–340 to 362, in the second half of the IV century in the Panarion (374/5–376/7 years), in the chapter Against Anti-Dikomariamites wrote:

About the events of the Assumption and burial of the Virgin is known from the late apocrypha: “The Tale of the Assumption of the Virgin” by Pseudo-John the Theologian (late V, or early VI century), the Syrian apocrypha “The Exodus of Mary the Virgin” by Pseudo-Meliton of Sardis (late V, or early VI century), “Letter of Pseudo-Dionisius Areopagite to Titus”, “The Word of John, Archbishop of Solun” (VI-I), “The Tale of the Exodus” (VI-I), “The Exodus of the Ps of Euph in the Exodus” (VI-I), “The Exodus of the Exodus in the Exodus” (VI-I), “The Exodus” (VI-I) ), “The Exodus of the Exodus of the Exodus of the Exodus” (VI-I ), “The Exodus of One of these apocryphas is placed in the History of the Church by Nikephoros Xanthopoulos. These apocryphas differ from each other in content. There are at least 70 different apocryphas written in a variety of languages (Greek, Syrian, Coptic, Latin, Irish, Armenian, Arabic, Ethiopian, Georgian, Slavic).

History of the holiday

In contrast to the celebration of martyrs in the Christian church, the feasts in honor of the Virgin Mary of later origin. For their appearance, a later theological deepening into the dogma of incarnation was necessary to protect against the encroachment of heretics on the dignity of the Mother of God, which occurred only in the fifth century (the Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451). Only after this is the Christian