Chapter 10 

Dormition, Resurrection, Assumption 

       At the end of her life on earth, the Blessed Virgin Mary died, was resurrected from the dead, and was 

assumed into Heaven. Some Catholics doubt that the Virgin Mary died and was resurrected before being 

assumed into Heaven. But the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII,  Munificentissimus Deus, (also titled, 

 Defining the Dogma of the Assumption ), clearly and repeatedly refers to the death of the Virgin Mary.

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 In 

no less than seven separate paragraphs this Apostolic Constitution refers, in one way or another, to the death 

of the Virgin Mary: 

1.     In the same way, it was not difficult for them to admit that the great Mother of God, like her only 

begotten Son, had actually passed from this life.  (paragraph 14) 

2.      `Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered 

temporal death .'   (paragraph 17) 

3.      `As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has 

glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb.'   (paragraph 18) 

4.      this feast shows, not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, 

but that she gained a triumph out of death .  (paragraph 20) 

5.      `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.'   (paragraph 21) 

6.      ` she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her 

up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him.'   (paragraph 22) 

7.     Hence the revered Mother of God finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, 

that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having 

overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven .  (paragraph 40) 

    This Apostolic Constitution also clearly refers to the Resurrection of the Virgin Mary, not only by saying she 

was raised up from the tomb (e.g. #6 above), but also by stating that her soul was reunited with her body: 

  the Virgin Mary's flesh had remained incorrupt for it is wrong to believe that her body has seen 

corruption because it was really united again to her soul and, together with it, crowned with great glory in 

the heavenly courts.  (paragraph 28). Death is the separation of the soul from the body. Resurrection is the re 

uniting of the soul with the body. Here is a clear reference to the Resurrection of the Virgin Mary. 

    Furthermore, nowhere within this Apostolic Constitution does Pope Pius XII in anyway suggest even the 

possibility that the Virgin Mary may not have died at the end of her life on earth. Therefore, it is the teaching 

of the Catholic Church that the Virgin Mary died, was resurrected from the dead, and was thereafter assumed 

into Heaven. This teaching is well understood among the Eastern Churches, where many Christians observe 

the 14 day Fast of the Dormition prior to their celebration of the Virgin Mary's Assumption into Heaven. The 

Dormition of the Virgin Mary is her  falling asleep  in Christ (cf. Jn 11:11 14), in other words, her death. 

    The present chapter begins with the above understanding and goes on to examine the chronology of these 

events at the end of Mary's life on earth. A detailed theology of the end of the Virgin Mary's life can be found 

in my booklet, The Dormition, Resurrection, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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    Saint Bridget of Sweden had a vision in which the Virgin Mary said,  After my Son ascended to Heaven, I 

lived in the world fifteen years the time from my Son's Ascension to my death. 

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 Why does the Virgin 

Mary mark the length of time from her Divine Son Jesus' Ascension, instead of His Crucifixion or 

Resurrection? Because she is counting the length of time from the day Christ left her side to go to Heaven, to 

the day that her soul left this world (at her death) to be at Christ's side in Heaven. Still, the 15 years is not 

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