--- kwildgen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Can I get some enlightenment about this tomb? If Mary was assumed
> into
> heaven, why a tomb? Is there an official version of this or is this
> all
> a matter of tradition/apocrypha? In fact the term in use when I was
> learning about all this was "dormition" rather than "death" of the
> Virgin.
> Oriens, I bet a message from you will be awaiting my perusal Mardi
> Gras
> morning. This will make Kwild child's heart sing.
> KW
Swilled Gin:
The main source for the Assumption is the "De Transitu Beatae Mariae,"
a Latin text based on earlier Coptic and Greek versions, attributed to
Melito, Bishop of Sardis in the later second century, but in fact at
the earliest a fourth-century work. It was used, in a much compressed
form, by Gregory of Tours in his treatise "De Gloria Martyrum" (590)
and no doubt thereby gained wider currency in the west.
The story of the Assumption as given in the "De Transitu" can be
briefly summarized as follows: in the second year after Christ's death
an angel appears to Mary, warns her of her approaching death and
presents her with a palm; the apostles are miraculously brought from
their various misions; Mary gives John the palm, warning him that the
Jews will attempt to destroy her body; on the third day Christ appears
and receives her soul and delivers it to the archangels Michael and
Gabriel; three virgins prepare the body for burial; the apostles
carry her bier to the tomb, accompanied by a host of angels; the Jews
attempt to seize the bier and the hands of their leader are fixed to it
so that he cannot move them; the angels smite the Jews with blindness;
Peter releases the hands of the Jew when he confesses that Jesus was
the Christ, and sends him into the city to cure the blindness of the
people by laying the palm on the eyes of those who believe; Mary is
brought to the valley of Jehoshaphat and laid in a new tomb; the Lord
appears and the apostles beseech Him to take the body of his mother up
into heaven; Michael brings the soul of the Virgin, the grave is
opened and the Lord greets her with the words, 'Thou that didst not
suffer corruption by union of the flesh, shalt not suffer dissolution
of the body in the sepulchre'; Mary rises up from the grave and
worships Him and is borne by angels into Paradise.
And no doubt it happened just like that.
My source here is the Introduction to T.S.R. Boase, "The York Psalter",
The Faber Library of Illuminated Manuscripts, London 1962.
Oriens.
____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk
or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|