Archaeology of the Dormition of Mary: Assumption

Archaeology of Mary’s Dormition and the Dogma of Assumption

Regarding the locations of Mary’s Dormition, they are identified with the current Church of the Tomb of the Virgin, which is nothing more than the crypt of the destroyed Crusader monastery church of Saint Mary of Josaphat. This crypt features a beautiful external portal and a wide staircase of six meters, consisting of over forty steps, covered by a vaulted ceiling. To the right and left of the staircase, two chapels open up, containing the tombs of the Queens of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and are now revered as the tombs of Saint Joseph, Saint Joachim, and Saint Anne. The Virgin’s tomb itself is a block of stone, isolated from the rocky bench, with a height between one meter fifty and one meter eighty. It has two openings for pilgrims to pass through. The rock on which the Virgin was laid is protected by a crystal, as it was eroded over the centuries and by the devotion of the faithful who, out of devotion, removed pieces of it. The hole in the ceiling of the cave serves as ventilation for the smoke of candles and lamps, but also has a symbolic meaning as an opening to heaven, where the Virgin was assumed.Ancient documents agree in describing the Virgin’s tomb as new and located near Gethsemane. However, they diverge in identifying the departure point of the funeral procession. For the documents of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, of Jewish-Christian origin, the Virgin would have fallen asleep in her home, near Jerusalem, in the area of the Valley of Josaphat called Magdalia. Johannic texts from the 4th and 5th centuries place the Marian Transitus in the home of John’s relatives on the Mount of Olives, where the Mother of God was staying. Finally, Byzantine documents from the 5th century and later locate Mary’s death on Mount Zion. The hypothesis that the Virgin lived and fell asleep on Mount Zion was recently defended by Bargil Pixner.The South Tyrol archaeologist noted that, beneath the current Basilica of the Dormition, built in 1898, foundations of St. Mary of Sion of the Teutons were discovered, along with the mosaic of the atrium of the Byzantine Hagia Sion basilica, a burial site predating 70 AD, corresponding to Mary’s House in the Cadician documents, and in 1983, a road, also predating 70 AD, carved into the rock running north-south, twenty meters west of the Dormition, along which stood very simple stone houses, among which one on the eastern side had a Jewish ritual bath with a half-column erected in the center. Given the presence of Christians on Mount Sion, Pixner believes the house in question to be that of the Virgin, as the Calcedonian sources, undoubtedly authentic, rooted in Jewish tradition, relate that the Mother of God took a purifying bath after the revelation of her transit.The restoration works of the traditional tomb of the Virgin, carried out in 1972, allowed for an inspection of the environment, which proved consistent with the description of the oldest texts and therefore authentic, dating from the first century. The tomb is a stone cave and a grave carved into the rock, as described by eyewitnesses cited in the sources. The rocky bench was located beneath the arcosolium. The tomb belongs to a funeral complex whose remains are found at a higher level, beyond the north wall of the current Byzantine church: it is a chamber from the first century, the kokhim, forty centimeters above the current church level, which was preceded by a vast atrium to the west, open to the Cedron, with access stairs on the sides, whose remains are visible both north and south. The literary description and archaeological findings are consistent with other funeral complexes in that valley and from the same period, such as the tomb of the family of Ben Hazir, called Zacharias or Saint James, and the monumental tomb of the Kings, also known as that of Helena of Adiabene.The Marian complex remained intact until Theodosius isolated the tomb of the Theotokos, freeing it from the other tombs and placing it at the center of the Byzantine church in the form of a cross. The building, freed from the Ebionites, was managed by the Johannites, who purified the texts about the Dormition relating to the Leucian cycle and modified the commemorative funeral rites, carrying out part of them on the Mount of Olives, precisely in the area of the mountain called Galilee. Here, in 1889, a mosaic floor of a funeral chapel was found, identified with the sanctuary dedicated to the Angel who appeared to Mary to announce to her the imminent Dormition and to hand over to her the palm to be carried before her coffin. This chapel is from the 5th century. In the same place, a distinctive Eastern-style church was also found, also founded in the 5th century and lasting until the Middle Ages, probably the home of John’s relatives, where the Mother of Christ would have fallen asleep.Christians held services at this site before descending to Gethsemane to celebrate the Dormition. There were therefore three places of worship: the Sepulchral Basilica, the Church of the Dormition, and the Sanctuary of the Angel. In 453, the Basilica and its dependencies passed to the Calcedonians by the will of Archbishop Juvenal, who established locally the feast of the Assumption, later extended to the whole Church by Emperor Maurice (582-602), who built a second basilica of great beauty in a circular form on top of the Theodosian rock-cut church, unfortunately destroyed by the Persians in the fateful year of 614. Only the sepulchral crypt survived, over which the Benedictines, between 1112 and 1130, built the aforementioned cruciform church with the attached monastery of Saint Mary of Josaphat. The monks gave a new entrance to the ancient crypt. However, the cruciform church was destroyed by Saladin after 1187, leaving only the crypt in honor of the “Blessed Mother of the prophet Jesus.”In summary, to my mind, the most likely place where the Virgin lived after the Resurrection of Jesus was, without doubt, Magdala, as the earliest sources attest to this location. Archaeological evidence has never been sought, but it is not indispensable. This does not rule out the possibility that the Virgin also lived in other places in Jerusalem, hosted by various friends, especially since the existence of a Christian neighborhood near the Essenes in the city does not mean that Christians could not be distributed in other locations, perhaps due to social origins and the choice, or lack thereof, to adhere to the form of monastic life practiced in the early times.The presence of a ritual bath in a house in Zion does not necessarily make it the Virgin’s, but it cannot be excluded that Mary had a dwelling, essential for the baptized who chose to live in community, not far from the Cenacle, and that she could thus perform the prescribed ablutions. The location of John’s relatives’ house on the Mount of Olives seems more solid. There, the Mother of God could spend some periods of her final life and also have the visions described in the apocryphal texts before her Dormition. However, the Transitus occurred in Magdala. From there, the funeral procession set out for the tomb, whose location, as we have seen, is beyond doubt. It can be deduced that the Virgin moved between several friends’ houses, which is normal for a widow without her only Son, but surrounded by a solid family clan and a close circle of friends, united by a faith born among them.I do not consider well-founded the opinion that places the Dormition of the Virgin in Ephesus. Although it cannot be excluded that, in an early stage of her apostolate in Asia Minor, John took the Virgin Mary with him, perhaps to protect her from the dangers of the first persecution in 42, ordered by Herod Agrippa, and that therefore the house dedicated to her in the Greek metropolis (Meryem Ana), dated to the 1st century, might have housed her, despite the silence of the ancient Fathers on this point and the explicit denial of the presence of the Mother of God in Ephesus made by Epiphanius, it is absolutely undeniable that the Dormition took place in Jerusalem, presumably during the period of the Jerusalem Council (48) and, at most, around 50. These dates allow the presence of all the Apostles at the Marian Transitus to be contextualized, as attested by the Assumption documents.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Mariana Theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.

To delve deeper into the Catholic doctrine on the Assumption of Mary, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.