The Place of
the Theotokos in the Church:
The Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God)
occupies next to Christ the most important place
in Orthodox Christianity. This is most obvious
in the Orthodox liturgical tradition. Entering
into any Orthodox church you first encounter the
Theotokos. Her sacred icon is the first to meet
and venerate in the Narthex. She appears in her
primary identity as the Mother of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, the Savior of
the world, whom she holds in her hands. As you
move further into the church, you encounter her
again both in the main Nave and in the Sanctuary
at the most prominent places. You are thereby
reminded that you cannot church yourself and
approach God in Christ without the Blessed
Virgin Mother of God. She is the primary
witness, the new Eve, the Mother of the second
and last Adam, your Savior and Savior of the
world. She is the Queen of the Church, of the
Kingdom of God, of Angels and human beings and
of the entire creation, whom the King of all
chose as the unique vehicle of his coming into
the world to save it and restore in it his
eternal Kingdom of freedom, truth and love.
The Feast of
the Dormition (Koimesis):
The Feast of the
Dormition (Falling asleep) of the All-holy
Theotokos, celebrated on the 15th of
August every year is the greatest among several
others which commemorate her Blessed person and
life. As such, this Feast marks the completion
of her earthly life as her full participation in
the salvation and eternal life which the Lord
God established for us human beings through
Christ. But one may ask. Is this not a
contradiction in terms? Does not falling asleep
imply death? The answer is Yes and No. Yes,
because she truly died. No, because she did not
remain in death. The Icon of the Feast of the
Falling-asleep of the Theotokos depicts her body
resting breathless in a bed while her soul,
wrapped in swaddling clothes like a new-born
baby, is upheld in the arms of the Risen and
glorified Christ who stands behind the bed. This
icon is the reversal of the usual icon of the
Theotokos which depicts the Virgin holding
Christ in her arms. Christ holding the Virgin’s
soul in his arms indicates her entry into the
Kingdom of Heaven which the Incarnate Christ
opened up for us through his saving life and
work. It indicates in the most concrete way St.
Athanasius’ well known dictum: “God became human
that we (humans) may be made divine.” Christ the
Savior taking the soul of his Mother to Heaven
marks the first resurrection, which Christians
experience when they die, thanks to our Lord’s
redemptive work. The full resurrection of our
humanity, i.e. the resurrection of the body,
will take place at the second coming of Christ
which will be accompanied by the general
resurrection and the last judgment of all human
beings.
What happened to
the body of the Theotokos? The Feast of the
Dormition of the Blessed Virgin does not end
with her first resurrection, which is the entry
of her soul into heaven. There is another
mystery also connected with it which refers to
her holy body. What happened to the body of the
Theotokos? Why there is no tradition in the
Christian Church both in East and West that
mentions any bodily relics of the all-holy
Mother of God, but there are traditions only
about her girdle (zone) and garments (estheta
and maphorion)? Apparently, according
to ancient traditions, her body too was
miraculously translated into heaven after its
burial in Gethsemane, and was united with her
soul. Indeed her tomb was found empty shortly
after the burial. This tradition of the
translation of the body of the Theotokos from
the tomb to heaven (metathesis or
metastasis in Greek, transitus in
Latin) is very strong in the Orthodox Church as
liturgical practice and many and important
patristic texts bear witness, although sources
do differ on details.
An admirable
collection of texts referring to early
ecclesiastical sources of this tradition is the
book, Early Patristic Homilies On the
Dormition of Mary published by St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press (1997). It contains
English translations of texts referring to the
Falling Asleep in the Lord of the Blessed Virgin
Theotokos by John of Thessalonica, Theoteknos of
Livias, Modestus of Jerusalem, Andrew of Crete,
Germanus of Constantinople, John the Monk of the
Old Lavra, John Damascene and Theodore the
Studite. The translator, one of the great
patristic scholars in this country, Professor
Brian E. Daily, S.J., has provided a good
discussion of these texts by way of
introduction. To these texts one could go on and
add several others from the later Byzantine
fathers and ecclesiastical authors of the second
millennium, such as Leo the Emperor, John of
Euchaita, Isidore of Thessalonica, Philotheos of
Constantinople, Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica,
Nicholas Cabasilas, Damaskenos Stoudites, etc.
These texts point to a common tradition,
although one observes differences in the details
as scholars argue (see the latest discussion of
Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of
the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption,
Oxford University Press, 2002). They all agree,
however, that the tomb of St. Mary in
Gethsemane, where the body of the Blessed Virgin
Mary was buried by the holy Apostles, was found
empty when they opened it three days later. Here
is how this ‘tradition’ is presented by
Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem to Empress
Pulcheria of Constantinople at the time of
Chalcedon (AD 451) who asked for the relic of
the Theotokos to be transferred from Jerusalem
to Constantinople (From Sermon II on the
Dormition of St. John Damascene, ch. 18
based on an earlier document called Euthymian
History).
The Ancient
Tradition (from the St. Euthymius History):
“There is
nothing in the holy, inspired Scripture about
the death of Mary, the holy Theotokos; but we
know from an ancient and truest tradition that
at the time of her glorious falling asleep, all
the holy Apostles, who were traveling the world
preaching salvation to the nations, were in an
instant lifted up and brought to Jerusalem. As
they stood before her, they saw an angelic
apparition, and a divine chanting was heard from
the higher Powers. And so, in a state of divine
and heavenly glory she placed her soul into
God’s hands in an ineffable way. Her body, which
had received God, was carried with angelic and
apostolic hymns, was prepared and laid to rest
in a coffin in Gethsemane. It was there and for
three days that the angelic choruses and hymns
continued unceasingly. After three days,
however, the angelic hymnody ceased. The
Apostles were there, and since one of them
–Thomas– who had been absent from the burial,
came after the third day and asked to reverence
that body which had received God, they opened
the coffin. They could not find anywhere her
much-praised body, and since all they could find
were her burial swaddling-clothes and the
ineffable fragrance that came out of them and
filled their bowels, they closed the coffin
again. Amazed by the miracle of this mystery,
they could only think this: that the One who
willed to be incarnated and become human from
her in his person, and to be born in the flesh
he who is God the Word and Lord of Glory, and
who preserved her virginity incorruptible after
the birth, he was also the One that was
well-pleased to honor her immaculate and
spotless body, after her departure from this
world, [by endowing it] with incorruptibility
and with a transposition (metathesis) [to
heaven] before the common, and universal
resurrection.”
Orthodox and
Roman Catholic Doctrine:
This is not the
place to present in detail all the variable
patristic accounts of the falling asleep of the
Theotokos and assess their conclusions. In spite
of differences, it is clear that they all point
to the glorification of the Blessed Theotokos at
her death, which marks her entry into Heaven and
taking a place closer to Christ than any other
heavenly or human being. The mystery of her
bodily transposition which is warranted by the
empty tomb is a matter of faith and piety and is
based on the mystery of the Incarnation. Based
on this logic that pertains to the mystery of
Christ and the unique place of the Blessed
Virgin Theotokos in it, it is also logical to
assume that she too has experienced the
resurrection of the body as a unique
anticipation of the general resurrection of all
humanity in the end of time. In spite of this,
the Orthodox Church has not accepted the Roman
Catholic dogma of the bodily assumption of the
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, which was
promulgated by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950
through his Bull Munificentissimus Deus.
The reasons for this rejection have been both
theological and historical. The Roman Catholic
Dogma of the Assumption is based on the earlier
Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception (that
the Virgin was born immaculate, free from
original sin), which was promulgated by Pope
Pius IX on 8 December 1854 through his Bull
Ineffabilis Deus. In effect this meant that
being sinless she could not and did not die but
was assumed into heaven both in body and soul.
For the Orthodox these Roman Catholic Marian
Dogmas are rather rationalizations of piety and
are not clearly warranted in the Holy Tradition
of the Church. Orthodox piety and faith
preserves the mystery of the blessed Theotokos
along with the mystery of Christ the Incarnate
God and Lord of Glory.
The festal
hymn of the Dormition proclaims this most
clearly:
In giving birth You kept Your virginity.
In falling asleep You did not abandon the
world, o Mother of God.
You passed over into life, for You are
the Mother of Life,
and by Your intercessions You deliver our
souls from death.
