Transitus Mariae, the dormition and the Assumption of Mary in the apocryphal tradition
Transitus Mariae, the apocryphal texts of the dormition
The Transitus Mariae (“Passing of Mary”) is the generic name of a set of apocryphal texts of the fourth to the sixth century that narrate the last moments of Mary’s earthly life, her death (dormition) and her transfer to heaven. These texts, although not canonical, are documents for understanding the faith of the Church in the first centuries concerning the final destiny of the Mother of God. The most important are the Liber Requiei Mariae (fourth century, preserved in Ethiopic) and the Greek versions attributed to John the Evangelist and to Melito of Sardis (fourth-fifth centuries).
The dormition, death, Resurrection or Assumption?
The texts of the Transitus recount that Mary, sensing her “passing,” summoned the apostles, miraculously gathered in Jerusalem. Jesus came down from heaven surrounded by angels to receive the soul of His Mother. The theological debate over whether Mary really died or only “fell asleep” (koimêsis) and was directly assumed divides the Eastern tradition (which celebrates the Koimêsis, the dormition) from the Western current (which inclines toward a real death followed by immediate resurrection). Pius XII, in defining the dogma of the Assumption (Munificentissimus Deus, 1950), deliberately left this question open: the dogma defines that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, but does not specify whether or not she died.
From the Transitus to the dogma, the path from faith to the Magisterium
The process that led from the apocryphal literature of the Transitus to the dogma of 1950 is a paradigmatic example of the development of dogma described by John Henry Newman. The faith of the Church in the glorification of Mary, attested by the apocrypha, celebrated in the Eastern and Western liturgies, contemplated by the saints and articulated by the theologians, matured over fifteen centuries until it found its definitive dogmatic formulation. The Transitus Mariae is not the source of the dogma, but the most ancient witness of the fides qua that the dogma came to make explicit and to guarantee.
Deepen your studies: explore Assumption of Mary, Mariology, Marian Theology, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.
Postgraduate Program in Mariology
Would you like to deepen your formation in Mariology? Discover the Postgraduate Program in Mariology of Locus Mariologicus – an academic formation that unites theological rigor, spiritual life, and the living tradition of the Church.
Would you like to study Mariology seriously?
This article is born of the works in the library of Locus Mariologicus. The Postgraduate Program in Mariology brings you to the same source, with academic guidance: Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium, from the first dogma to contemporary questions.
Responses