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The Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven, often shortened to the Assumption, and also known as the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary,〔 according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of Anglicanism, was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. The Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory".〔Pope Pius XII: ("''Munificentissimus Deus'' - Defining the Dogma of the Assumption" ), par. 44. Vatican, November 1, 1950〕 This doctrine was dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in the apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' by exercising papal infallibility.〔''Encyclopedia of Catholicism'' by Frank K. Flinn, J. Gordon Melton 207 ISBN 0-8160-5455-X page 267〕 While the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church believe in the Dormition of the Theotokos, which is the same as the Assumption,〔(Munificentissimus Deus, 17 ) In the liturgical books which deal with the feast either of the dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin there are expressions that agree in testifying that, when the Virgin Mother of God passed from this earthly exile to heaven, what happened to her sacred body was, by the decree of divine Providence, in keeping with the dignity of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and with the other privileges she had been accorded.〕 the alleged physical death of Mary has not been dogmatically defined. In ''Munificentissimus Deus'' (item 39) Pope Pius XII pointed to the Book of Genesis (3:15) as scriptural support for the dogma in terms of Mary's victory over sin and death as also reflected in 1 Corinthians 15:54: "then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory".〔''Introduction to Mary'' by Mark Miravalle (1993) Queenship Pub. Co. ISBN 978-1-882972-06-7 pages 75-78〕〔Paul Haffner in ''Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, seminarians, and Consecrated Persons'' (2008) ISBN 9781579183554 edited by M. Miravalle, pages 328-350〕〔Apostolic Constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' (item 39at the Vatican web site )〕 In the churches that observe it, the Assumption is a major feast day, commonly celebrated on August 15. In many countries the feast is also marked as a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church and as a Festival in the Anglican Communion. == History of the belief == Although the Assumption (Latin: ''assumptio'', "a taking") was only relatively recently defined as infallible dogma by the Catholic Church, and in spite of a statement by Saint Epiphanius of Salamis in AD 377 that no one knew whether Mary had died or not,〔Epiphanius, Panarion, Haer. 78.10–11, 23〕 apocryphal accounts of the assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 4th century. The Catholic Church itself interprets chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation as referring to it.〔Apostolic Constitution, ''Munificentissimus Deus'', para 27, Vaticsn (1950)〕 The earliest known narrative is the so-called ''Liber Requiei Mariae'' (''The Book of Mary's Repose''), which survives intact only in an Ethiopic translation.〔Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the ''Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption''〕〔(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006). A complete translation of this earliest text appears at pp. 290–350〕 Probably composed by the 4th century, this Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century. Also quite early are the very different traditions of the ''"Six Books" Dormition narratives''. The earliest versions of this apocryphon are preserved by several Syriac manuscripts of the 5th and 6th centuries, although the text itself probably belongs to the 4th century.〔William Wright, ''"The Departure of my Lady Mary from this World,"''〕〔''The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record'', 6 (1865): 417–48 and 7 (1865): 108–60. See also Agnes Smith Lewis, ed., Apocrypha Syriaca, Studia Sinaitica, XI (London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1902).〕 Later apocrypha based on these earlier texts include the ''De Obitu S. Dominae'', attributed to St. John, a work probably from around the turn of the 6th century that is a summary of the "Six Books" narrative. The story also appears in ''De Transitu Virginis'', a late 5th century work ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis that presents a theologically redacted summary of the traditions in the ''Liber Requiei Mariae''. The ''Transitus Mariae'' tells the story of the apostles being transported by white clouds to the deathbed of Mary, each from the town where he was preaching at the hour. The ''Decretum Gelasianum'' in the 490s declared some ''transitus Mariae'' literature apocryphal. An Armenian letter attributed to Dionysus the Areopagite also mentions the event, although this is a much later work, written sometime after the 6th century. John of Damascus, from this period, is the first church authority to advocate the doctrine under his own name. His contemporaries, Gregory of Tours and Modestus of Jerusalem, helped promote the concept to the wider church. In some versions of the story the event is said to have taken place in Ephesus, in the House of the Virgin Mary, although this is a much more recent and localized tradition. The earliest traditions all locate the end of Mary's life in Jerusalem (see "Mary's Tomb"). By the 7th century a variation emerged, according to which one of the apostles, often identified as St Thomas, was not present at the death of Mary, but his late arrival precipitates a reopening of Mary's tomb, which is found to be empty except for her grave clothes. In a later tradition, Mary drops her girdle down to the apostle from heaven as testament to the event.〔(Ante-Nicene Fathers - ''The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325'' ), vol. 8 page 594〕 This incident is depicted in many later paintings of the Assumption. Teaching of the Assumption of Mary became widespread across the Christian world, having been celebrated as early as the 5th century and having been established in the East by Emperor Maurice around AD 600.〔''Butler's Lives of the Saints'' by Alban Butler, Paul Burns 1998 ISBN 0860122573 pages 140-141〕 It was celebrated in the West under Pope Sergius I in the 8th century and Pope Leo IV then confirmed the feast as official.〔 Theological debate about the Assumption continued, following the Reformation, climaxing in 1950 when Pope Pius XII defined it as dogma for the Catholic Church. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott stated, "The idea of the bodily assumption of Mary is first expressed in certain transitus-narratives of the fifth and sixth centuries.... The first Church author to speak of the bodily assumption of Mary, in association with an apocryphal transitus B.M.V., is St. Gregory of Tours."〔Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Rockford: Tan, 1974), pp. 209–210〕 The Catholic writer Eamon Duffy states that "there is, clearly, no historical evidence whatever for it."〔Eamon Duffy, What Catholics Believe About Mary (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1989), p. 17〕 However, the Catholic Church has never asserted nor denied that its teaching is based on the apocryphal accounts. The Church documents are silent on this matter and instead rely upon other sources and arguments as the basis for the doctrine. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Assumption of Mary」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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