Assumption of Mary

Mary the Assumption (Latin Assumptio Mariae Virginis Beatae ), and the Assumption of Mary or completion is a feast of the Roman Catholic Church on August 15. In the Old Catholic Church August 15 is celebrated as the home of Mary corridor. The same applies to the Orthodox Churches and in particular the Syriac Orthodox Church, the feast also on August 15 - commit under the name Dormition of the Most Holy Champion ours, the Theotokos - depending on the particular Church of the old or new calendar. On August 15, the old calendar (28 August the new ) the Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Greek and the Coptic Orthodox Church follow with the Assumption. On August 29, the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Assumption of Mary.

The theological background

The feast of Mary's Assumption into heaven is based on a Marian feast, that Cyril of Alexandria introduced in the 5th century. This feast he laid on the 15th August. With the belated celebration of this feast ends in the Eastern Churches, the church year, which begins on 1 September with the preliminary celebration of the Nativity of the Theotokos on September 8.

The belief in the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven is attested since the 6th century and was established in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. raised in the Apostolic Constitution Deus Munificentissimus for the Roman Catholic Church dogma. In the Litany of Loreto the invocation was " you Queen, assumed into Heaven 'is added.

About the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven is not reported in the canonical writings, but some scriptures are interpreted as evidence (cf. Rev 12:1 about EU and Coronation of the Virgin ). In apocryphal gospels is widely reported, the apostles had been spent from their mission locations through the air at the deathbed of Mary, either to Jerusalem or Ephesus. You have Mary buried after their death and the grave closed with a great stone; But now is Christ appeared with the angels, the stone had been rolled away and Christ had Maria called out. These minutes, probably on a lost writing Transitus Mariae ( passing over Mary, written around 400) is due, was particularly important for the liturgical texts of the Byzantine churches.

Although colloquially in German the term of the Assumption is familiar with the mystery of the Assumption of Mary is hard to distinguish between Christ's ascension into heaven of the. Therefore, two different terms are used in many languages ​​, such as in Latin: Ascensio Dominii, driveway of the Lord ', but Assumptio of Mary Assumption of Mary '. However, the Greeks, not to say the Assumption ' talk (see below), for, Ascension' ἡ Ἀνάληψις τοῦ Κυρίου what latin Assumptio Domini would mean.

The festival also has the earlier testified name Dormition of Mary (Latin ), Koimesis (Greek ) or Dormition of Mary. In the Orthodox Church, which the bodily assumption of Mary is not dogmatic in the sky, this designation is used exclusively. On the hard iconic Christ takes the soul of Mary ( shown as a babe ) in reception, and the Kontakion of the feast reads: " The indefatigable in intercessions Theotokos [ ... ] have grave and death is not overcome, because it has as the mother of life he led over to life. "

Customs

Catholic Church

In ancient calendars there is the feast as vnser frawn day of ski training, with Our Vrowen day of ski training, our fraun day of ski training, unnser women day of skiing extension, our love frawn day of ski training, Our Lady Fraunhofer day ski dung, holy day of ski training loved by the Gots VND junckfrawen Mary, or in transcriptions as our women day of divorce or of our dear women day the divorce.

On this day also herbs are blessed in the Catholic Church spread. In documents of the 14th century, it says " Our Lady root consecration ".

Found mainly in southern Germany and Tyrol evening solemn Pontifikalämter with subsequent processions. The most important include the Fatima ship procession in Lindau on Lake Constance with seven ships and about 4,000 visitors. By far the largest Pontifical Mass with procession of lights is celebrated in the Bavarian- Swabian pilgrimage Maria Pieta. In the summer of 2009 came alone 18,000 believers. Since 1640, pilgrimages are held in Warendorf in Münster country to the mercy images in St. Marys and St. Lawrence. The festival is celebrated after the festival with a big city procession at the weekend. In the East Westphalian city East Country Delbrück at the Feast of the Assumption is celebrated with a huge procession of lights since 2010 on each of the following Sunday.

In Italy, August 15, the day of the Assumption, traditionally a public holiday called Ferragosto, which probably goes back to the Roman times.

Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox Church the two-week Marie fasting takes place before the Feast of the Dormition in which wherever possible on meat, fish, dairy products and should also be dispensed with wine and oil ( excluding weekends).

National holiday

At the Synod of Mainz, 813, the feast of the Assumption of Mary was added in the sky, despite a previously made ​​standardize the Christian holidays the General Calendar, headed by Archbishop Richulf. Assumption is a public holiday in Austria (§ 7 Rest Periods Act ), the national holiday in the Principality of Liechtenstein ( Labour Law Article 18, paragraph 2), a special Sunday official holiday in eight cantons of Switzerland ( under Article 20a paragraph 1 ArG ) and in seven other cantons one, at least in some communities working day, in two countries, Germany is at least partially a legal holiday, in the Saarland under § 2 SFG and Bavaria under Article 1 of the Law on the protection of Sundays and holidays in municipalities with a predominantly Catholic population; which are, according to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data Processing currently 1,700 of 2,056 municipalities ( 83%).

Also, a legal holiday of the Assumption in a number of other predominantly Catholic countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, but also in the Orthodox Greece, Georgia, Romania and Cyprus.

In Tyrol the Feast of the Assumption in 1959 was declared to commemorate the liberation of Tyrol in 1809 to the national holiday called High Women's Day.

Heraldry

The recorded in the sky Mother of God appears among others in the coat of arms of the municipality of Santa Maria in Calanca.

Music

Heinz Martin Lonquich composed in 2003 a German Mass for the Feast of the Assumption.