The Dogma of the Assumption of Mary

On 1 November 1950 Pius XII issued at Rome the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 48). Its forty-fourth paragraph is the definition. By the authority of Jesus Christ, of the apostles Peter and Paul and by his own authority, the pope pronounces, declares and defines it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was assumed “body and soul” into heavenly glory (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 44). Whoever wilfully denies or doubts this, the next paragraph says, has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic faith (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 45).

The constitution explains how the pope came to it. On 1 May 1946 he had asked all the bishops whether the bodily Assumption could be defined as a dogma of faith and whether they, with their clergy and people, desired it. The answer to both questions was almost unanimously yes, and the pope took this agreement of bishops and faithful as in itself a certain sign that the doctrine is revealed (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 11–12). He joined it to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, defined by Pius IX (see Ineffabilis Deus): because Mary was free of sin from her conception, she was not left to the corruption of the grave (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 4–5).

The document appeals to the old liturgical books of the feast and to the preaching of John of Damascus (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 17, 21). It says that these proofs rest finally on Scripture, which shows the mother most closely joined to her Son, the new Eve who shares the new Adam’s victory over sin and death (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 38–40).

The Orthodox keep a feast of the Dormition, the falling asleep of the Mother of God. The handbook of the Orthodox Church in America says that it is celebrated on 15 August and commemorates her death, resurrection and glorification; that there are no biblical or historical sources for the feast; and that the Tradition of the Church is that she died as all people die and, having truly died, was raised up by her Son (Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, vol. II, The Church Year, Dormition of the Theotokos). No Orthodox statement on the definition of 1950 is cited here.

Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians agreed in 1981 on much that the dogma is meant to affirm, and recorded that it remains a difficulty for those Anglicans who do not find the definition sufficiently supported by Scripture (ARCIC, Authority in the Church II (1981), 30). A paper written for the Church of England’s General Synod in 2011 puts the objection of many Anglicans and other Christians in two points: the definitions lack a proper basis in the New Testament and the early Church, and the pope has no authority to define the faith of the whole Church. It notes that the constitution rests on the papal infallibility defined in 1870 (Church of England, GS 1818 (2011), section 2, The Marian Dogmas), on which see the First Vatican Council.