Munificentissimus Deus
The apostolic constitution in which Pope Pius XII defined as a divinely revealed dogma that the Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. It sets out the grounds on which the definition rests.
The constitution has forty-eight numbered paragraphs. It recalls the petitions sent to Rome, the pope’s question to all the bishops in 1946 and their almost unanimous answer. It then reviews the witness of the liturgy, of Fathers such as John of Damascus and of later theologians, and says that all of this rests finally on Scripture, which shows Mary as most closely joined to her Son. The definition follows in paragraph 44, and paragraph 45 declares that anyone who wilfully denies or doubts it has fallen away from the Catholic faith.
It is the Catholic Church’s own statement of the dogma and of its reasons. See the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
Cited in
- 1 November 1950, firm date