Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation.

Historically, the Solemnity of the Assumption was already being celebrated on August 15 as early as the 5th century. It carried the sense of Our Lady’s “birth into heaven” or, in the Byzantine tradition, her “Dormition” (falling asleep). The feast later began to be celebrated in Rome in the middle of the 7th century.

It was on November 1, 1950, that Pope Pius XII solemnly declared in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, that:

“The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

Because Mary was preserved from original sin through her Immaculate Conception, she was likewise exempt from the bodily corruption in death that affects humanity.

Unlike Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven by His own divine power (Ascension), Mary was taken up into heaven purely by the grace and power of God (Assumption).

The Assumption fulfills God’s work in her, for it was fitting that the flesh that gave life to the Son of God should never undergo decay. In crowning her earthly life, God turns our eyes toward heaven ; reminding us of the ultimate destiny that awaits us when our own earthly journey is complete.