August 15 | The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated on August 15th to honor the bodily and spiritual passage of Mary from this world into Heaven.

The belief that Mary’s body and soul are in Heaven has been a longstanding tradition in the Catholic faith and was finally decreed a dogma of the faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Although Scripture does not speak of the event of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, Revelation 12 speaks of “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” which is commonly believed to be Mary. 

In his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus Pope Pius XII quotes St. John of Damascus on the Assumption:

It was fitting that 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 in the act of 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.

This apostolic constitution goes on to name numerous other Church Fathers and traditions that all agree on Mary’s bodily assumption into Heaven. Because of Mary’s special relationship with Christ on earth, it is only fitting that she be close to Him in Heaven as well. 

This feast is a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics.

Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us.