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by His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas
The Virgin's Assumption
The virgin longed to ascend to heaven to join her son Jesus. Her dormition was
in peace. The date of her death and how old she was have always been a
controversial issue among historians. Most probably that was in AD 56 when she
was seventy. Her Assumption in the flesh and soul was not instituted by the
Syrian Church as a doctrine. The Virgin's Assumption is a confessional patristic
tradition based on the Syriac narrative of Apostle Thomas. In this narrative we
read about the gathering of the Apostles in spirit in Jerusalem for the
Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and about the late arrival of Tom, his encounter
with the Virgin up in the sky on the way up to heaven, and his acquisition of
her girdle, which he brought to the Apostles and his request to them to reopen
her grave. When the Apostles did that they did not find her holy body. Thomas
declared to them the truth of her ascension to heaven in her glorified flesh and
that he witnessed her procession and received the girdle from her in testimony
whereof. The Apostles believed him. Syriac tradition reports that Thomas took
the girdle with him to India where he was martyred at the hands of pagan
priests. When Thomas' relics were taken to Edessa in the fourth century the
girdle was brought with them. Finally the girdle reached the Church of the
Virgin in Homs, which has been called the Church of the Virgin's Girdle ever
since. The girdle was discovered in 1852 during the time of Archbishop Mar
Julius Peter (Later Patriarch Mar Ignatius Peter 4th.). The girdle was placed in
the altar. Late Patriarch Ephrem I Barsoum, of blessed memory, rediscovered the
girdle in 1953. The shrine of the girdle in the church in Homs has become a
source of blessing for the faithful.
The Possibility of the Virgin's Ascension to Heaven
According to tradition, the virgin ascended to heaven. The question posed is:
was paradise the abode of her soul just like all the righteous and pious? Or
did she ascend to heaven soul and body? Her ascension to heaven in her glorified
flesh is not something irrelevant to the Spirit of the Holy Book nor to the
tolerant Christian confessional truths. If "Enoch walked with God and he was
not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah, the prophet ascended to heaven in
a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) wouldn't the Virgin Mary, who bore the Lord
nine months in her womb, gave birth to him and suckled him, rather be considered
as worthy to have her body kept without corruption and to have it transformed
into a spiritual one; and to ascend to heaven in soul and flesh to enjoy being
with her beloved son Lord Jesus Christ? St. Jacob of Serugh, the doctor (521+)
said in his Memoire in Syriac on the death of the Virgin Mary, "When the virgin was
on her death bed, Angels, the righteous, prophets and fathers descended on her
from high upon the order of God. The twelve Apostles and Evangelists came…they
buried her in a rocky cave. Glory prevailed in heaven and on earth when the
angels beheld her soul ascending and flying towards abodes of lights". The book
ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagyte, the bishop of Athens (+95) relates that "
upon the dormition of Mary, all the Apostles gathered together so quickly coming
from the Four Corners of Earth, where they were preaching the word. They arrived
in Jerusalem, the Residence City of blessed Mary, and then Jesus came with His
angels. Jesus received her soul and handed it to Michael, the Archangel.
On the next day the Apostles laid the body in a grave and guarded the grave
waiting for the appearance of the Lord. Jesus appeared once more and transferred
her holy body to heaven on a cloud. Up there, her body was united to her soul to
enjoy her everlasting joy."
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