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Tomb of the Virgin Mary
Tomb of the Virgin Mary
Church of Assumption
Jerusalem
Monday, December 23, 2013
Third Day of my Holy Land Trip, Jerusalem
My Holy Land Trip
Tomb of the Virgin Mary (Church of Assumption)
Another view of the Stairs to lower church, Tomb of the Virgin Mary, below:
Greek-orthodox altars - below:
Mary's tomb:
Mary's tomb:
The Mount of Olives
rises some 100m to the east of the Old City across the Kidron Valley. Green, fertile and nowadays
dotted with more churches and shrines than olive trees. Its summit affords a
magnificent view of the whole of Jerusalem with the sealed Golden
Gate of the Old City and in the other
direction of the Judean Desert, the Jordan Valley and the mountains of Mo'ab.
Another view of the Stairs to lower church, Tomb of the Virgin Mary, below:
The steps take you
way down into the lower church, through the Crusaders-era wide staircase. On
the way down there are 2 chapels on both sides, as seen in the following photo.
Their names are based on a tradition from the 14th C: On the left (west) side
is the chapel of Joseph, Mary's husband; on the right side is a chapel of
Mary's parents - Hanna (Anna) and Joachim.
The New Testament says nothing about the death and burial of Mary, the
Mother of Jesus, but a strong Christian tradition places her tomb in a dimly-lit
church at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
The large crypt containing the empty tomb in the Church of the
Assumption is all that remains of an early 5th-century church, making it
possibly the oldest near-complete religious building in Jerusalem.
The location of the Tomb of Mary is across the Kidron Valley from St
Stephen’s Gate in the Old City walls of Jerusalem, just before Gethsemane.
The Church of the Assumption stands partly below the level of the main
Jerusalem-Jericho road. It is reached by a stairway leading down to an open
courtyard.
Entry is through the façade of a 12th-century Crusader basilica that
has been preserved intact. To the right, a passageway leads to the Grotto of
Gethsemane.
The
eastern side of the church is longer.
This is where Mary's tomb - in the center
of the hall.
It ends with a round apse,
with some Greek-orthodox altars -
one
of them is seen below.
Greek-orthodox altars - below:
The absence of bones and the presence of a deep devotion to Mary from the earliest days of the Church tangentially points to the Assumption of Mary, which only recently in 1950 A.D. received dogmatic definition. 3 In discussing the doctrine of Mary’s assumption into heaven we need to first define the Catholic teaching and then compare it with what we know from Scripture and Tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church concisely defines the dogma as follows:
“The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course
of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of
heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection,
anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.”
A view of the end of the western side with a Copt altar, below:
It’s
worth noting that Mary’s assumption is not the same as Christ’s ascension,
Christ ascended into heaven by his own divine power and will whereas Mary was
taken up into heaven by the power and will of God. Mary’s assumption is a
result of her full participation in Christ’s work of redemption and is an
anticipation of the resurrection of all the faithful at the end of the age.
Sounds plausible, but what support does this teaching find in the Scriptures or
Sacred Tradition?
Another view of the east side, below:
Scriptural Evidence
Looking
to the Scriptures we must note at the outset that they contain no explicit
reference to the assumption of Mary, much less any details concerning her life
after Pentecost. Assuming that the lack of explicit teaching on the Assumption
of Mary in Scripture does not automatically condemn the doctrine, what implicit
evidence might the Scriptures offer in support of this doctrine? The first
and most obvious evidence is that both Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament
were taken body and soul from the earth by God. This does not of itself prove the
assumption of Mary but it does provide positive precedent that God has taken
saints to himself in this manner in the Old Covenant. However it seems that
there are no conditions common and exclusive to these two Old Testament saints
and the Blessed Virgin Mary that would necessitate an assumption. Faith and
holiness were common to the three, but God didn’t assume into heaven any
of the apostles; men of exemplary holiness and faith. Why would God
make an exception for Mary to the corruption and decay normally experienced by
the body after death as a consequence of sin? Since Catholics see an integral
relationship between Christ and Mary we should ask what might be common to both
of them that would necessitate an assumption.
This is the inner west side doorway to Mary's tomb:
It is helpful to
remember that all God’s children will be raised body and soul into heaven at
the return of Christ in glory. Mary received this grace from God at the end of
her earthly life in anticipation of the final resurrection. Catholics see this
as fitting for Mary Immaculate, the Virgin of Virgins, who bore the very Word
incarnate. The Assumption teaches us the beautiful truth that Mary possesses
all that belongs to Christ. She is a type of the Church; a holy virgin without
blemish or stain; a picture of the fullness of redemption. The words of many
Church fathers could be quoted at length but let the words of St. John of
Damascus suffice to conclude this post:
It was fitting that
the she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own
body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who
had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine
tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to
himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had
seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the
sword of sorrow which she had escaped when giving birth to him, should look
upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should
possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every
creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.
Different views of Mary's tomb, below:
The
tomb is an empty stone bench. On the side facing the western entrance are three
holes that were cut into the stone and allow the visitors to touch the inside
of the tomb.
Ave Maria! (Latin)
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in
mulieribus,
et benedictus
fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater
Dei,
ora pro nobis
peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora
mortis nostrae. Amen.
Mary's tomb:
Ave Maria! (English)
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou
among women,
and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother
of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and in the hour
of our death. Amen.
Assumption mentioned
in early sources
The name of the
Church of the Assumption reflects the Christian belief that Mary was bodily
assumed into heaven. This belief is mentioned in early apocryphal sources, as
well as in authenticated sermons by Eastern saints such as St Andrew of Crete
and St John of Damascus.
The Assumption of
Mary has been a subject of Christian art for centuries (and its feast day was
made a public holiday in England by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century).
It was defined as a doctrine of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
The Eastern Orthodox
churches celebrate the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God on August
15, the same day that the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the
Assumption of Mary.
