What actually – and since when – is celebrated on August 15th?

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Collect for the Holy Day of St Mary the Virgin, BCP

The Eastern and Oriental Churches commemorate today the “falling asleep” (Dormition) of the Theotokos (the Gods-bearer). In the Roman Catholic Church this is the Feast of Assumption of the Mother of God. The majority of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht , though belonging to the Western tradition, also celebrate the Dormition following the tradition of the Christian East. Only the Polish Catholic Church and the Church of the Mariavites follow in this matter the Western tradition and commemorate the Assumption. And for the Mariavites it is also a very special day, because it was on August 15th 1914 that the cathedral in Plock was consecrated and exactly four years later renamed as the Temple of Mercy and Love. On this day crowds of Mariavite pilgrims visit the church in Plock and take part in the celebrations that take place there.
The Dormition and the Assumption are different names for the same story, although the beliefs are not entirely the same.
The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches teach that Theotokos died a natural death, like any human being; that her soul was received by Christ upon death; and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her repose, at which time she was taken up, bodily only, into heaven. Her tomb was found empty on the third day.
Roman Catholic teaching holds that Mary was “assumed” into heaven in bodily form. Some Catholics agree with the Orthodox that this happened after Mary’s death, while some hold that she did not experience death. Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus (1950), which dogmatically defined the Assumption, appears to have left open the question of whether or not Mary actually underwent death. While the Assumption is dogmatically defined in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition the Dormition is less dogmatically and more liturgically and mystically defined.

And what do Anglicans celebrate on this day?
The Prayer Books of the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada mark 15 August as the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the day is observed as a Holy Day of St Mary the Virgin. In the Church of England the day is a Festival of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Many Anglo-Catholics often observe the feast day as “The Assumption”.
There is place for both the Dormition and the Assumption in the Anglican devotion.
The feast dates back to a feast introduced by Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century. He chose August 15th to be the day of her commemoration, because that was the day the pagans celebrated the ascension of Astraea .
The earliest known western account of Mary’s bodily assumption into Heaven is in Gregory of Tours’ 6th-century Glory of the Martyrs . Greek sermons on the subject also circulated in the Christian world. Although the accounts sometimes contradict each other with respect to details, the following elements are common to most of them:
1. John the Evangelist and the other apostles and disciples are miraculously transported from all over the world to Jerusalem (or Bethlehem) to accompany Mary in her final hour.
2. The apostles gather around the Virgin and make speeches, pray and sing.
3. Mary lies in her bed and her soul rises up (or Christ takes it up) to Heaven. There is a sweet smell. This is called the Dormition of the Virgin.
4. The apostles move the body to Gethsemane (in another version to the Valley of Jehoshaphat). Two interruptions occur along the way. One is a mob come to protest (or to burn the body). The other is a Jew (or high priest) whose hand is damaged when he touches the bier; he begs for mercy, is healed, and converts.
5. The body is placed in a grave. Thereupon (or after three days) the soul returns to the body and Mary goes up (or is taken up by angels or by Christ) bodily to Heaven. The event is witnessed by the apostles (or not, because of a blinding light) and accompanied by a sweet smell and the voices of angels. It is called the Assumption (that is, the “taking up”) of the Theotokos.
6. The action either continues in Heaven with a welcome by Christ or returns to the apostles.
7. In some texts St. Thomas (or an unnamed apostle) arrives late and either demands proof of the Assumption or confirms it (having seen it from afar) and is asked for proof by the apostles. In either case, the proof is a belt given to the apostle by Mary.
Not only in regard to today’s feast, but more generally – in regard to the Marian cult as such – one can ask how actually did its development start?
This appears to be an organic development in the evolution of the Church, which quite early appropriated many of the titles and functions of the feminine Holy Spirit to Mary (some time ago we wrote about the feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit). M. Sophia Compton, an Orthodox author, writes in her article John of Damascus and the Mother of God :

Spirit emerges first in the Old Testament texts in endless metaphorical prefigurations of the Shekinah and in the Wisdom texts as the divine Mediator and Enlightener. Congar has noted that the real function of Wisdom in the Old Testament texts is to guide humans in accordance with God’s will. This is why she chose to reside with Israel, “where she formed God’s friends and prophets.” Wherever Shekinah/Sophia appears, she leads to participation in God, or she occupies an intermediate position between humans and God. This Shekinah-Spirit—in which tradition has recognized a “certain maternal function”— has characteristic features as a Guide, Bridge, Sanctifier and Teacher, a role clearly absorbed by Mary early in Church tradition.
Alexander Schmemann, writing about the age of the Ecumenical Councils, sees Mary’s emerging presence most profoundly in the Liturgy, observing that: “what gives significance to the flourishing of these [Marian] feasts…is the growing strength of the Mariological theme in the context of the churches”, that is, in the liturgies and theological poetry. As early as Gregory Thaumaturgus (213-270) in his Second Homily on the Annunciation, Mary is compared to the throne upon the cherubim, in Psalm 80:1. The last of the patristic Fathers in the Orthodox tradition, St Gregory Palamas, saw the Mother of God as the “source and root of
the race of liberty…[who] dwells on the frontier between created and uncreated natures.”
(…)
Andrew of Crete, writing in the 6th century, said Mary “imitated Wisdom in her own being and has offered herself completely as a mystical, heavenly banquet-table, prepared for those who are spiritually initiated in divine realities.” In her subtle role as teacher and Mother of the Church and protector of doctrine, she initiates each of her children into those Mysteries made manifest by the Word and sanctified by the Spirit. John rejoices that ‘the Father predestined her and the prophets spoke of her through the Holy Spirit.” In the year 634, St. Sophronious wrote about her, “Mary, the holy and illustrious one…full of divine Wisdom, free of all stain of body and soul and intellect…becomes the co-operatrix of the Incarnation of the Creator.”
There is a charming homily given by St George of Nikomedia, a deacon at Hagia Sophia in the 9th century, when the battle of iconoclasm had subsided, which demonstrates the power of mythopoetic theologizing. In it Mary’s role as intercessor was clearly explained within the context of her motherhood through the imagery of the dwelling, or abode, which was the most typical iconic type which Mary absorbed from the Old Testament types. George puts these words into the mouth of Christ, addressing his Mother, in a symbolic re-interpretation of John 19:26.
You will give them your bodily presence in place of mine. Be for them all that mothers naturally are for their children, or rather all that I should be by my presence…They will pay considerable respect to you because you are the Mother of the Lord and because I came to them through you, they acquire in you the placable intercessor toward me …[To John, he then says] … It is not only for you but also for the other disciples that I have made her mother and guide, and it is my will that she should be honored in the fullest sense with the dignity of mother. Though I have forbidden you to call anyone on earth father, I wish nonetheless that you call her Mother and honor her as such, she who was for me an abode more than heavenly …
St. George then explains to the faithful that “She is to be called Mother by all, because she was the abode, the skenoma for Christ” This word (skenoma), is the Greek word which, like the Hebrew Shekinah, means tent, tabernacle, or dwelling, that is, where the glory of the Lord resided.
Source

Now a certain question not only could, but also should be asked. Are we still able to recognise in these beautiful visions the Jewish girl, Miriam of Nazareth, who has once answered God’s call with her fiat? Isn’t she – if not entirely than at least to a great extent – set apart from the rest of humankind, elevated above humanity and thus DEHUMANISED? We think this is a real danger, which influences the meaning of today’s feast. In this respect we not only understand the critical approach of the Reformation to the Marian cult, but even tend to agree with it in a certain degree.

How should we react to this danger?

One of the possible reactions is to remove the Mother of God from our worship. Many Protestants chose to do so. Another possible reaction is to stress the humanity of the Blessed Virgin, in order to make her elevation an annunciation of the transformation God invitees every human being to (see our reflections on the Feast of Transfiguration). An example of such an approach can be provided by a fragment of a sermon by an Anglican theologian bishop George Bull (1634-1710) we found in the book Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness .

The blessedness of the holy Virgin is not so altogether proper to her, or incommunicable to others, but that the meanest sincere Christian may share with her in the better part if it. Wonderful and full of comfort are the words of our Saviour, Luke xi. Where, when a certain woman, hearing his excellent discourse, cried our, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked , ver 27, our Saviour answers, ver. 28, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word if God, and keep it . Which is not a negation of the blessedness of his mother, (for that would be a plain contradiction to my text,) but a correction of the woman’s mistake, who so admired the blessedness of the mother of such son that she scarce thought of any other blessedness. Our Saviour therefore tells her, that blessed are they also, yea and chiefly, that hear the word of God, and keep it . And in another place our gracious Lord being told that his mother and brethren desired to speak with him, gave this short answer, Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hands towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mothe r. Matt. xii. 48,49,50. Where I think there is a mighty emphasis in those words of our Saviour, my Father which is in heaven ; as if he had said, You Jews think of me as a mere man, and understand not any other relation that I have, besides that which is according to the flesh: but know ye that I am a higher original, even the eternal Son of the eternal God dwelling in heaven; and as such I own no relation but what is spiritual, and every obedient disciple of mine is to me as a brother, or sister, or mother. Indeed, the Virgin herself was more blessed by conceiving Christ in her heart by faith, than by conceiving him in her womb. And in this her chiefest blessedness the meanest Christian, that is a sincere one, may be a sharer with her. Christ may be thus formed, nay he must be so in every one that shall be saved, Galatians iv. 19. And if we be true Christians, though all generations so not call us blessed, as the holy Virgin, yet together with her we shall be indeed blessed beyond all generations, even for ever and ever.
To God the Father, son, and Holy Ghost, be given and ascribed all honour and glory, all religious worship and adoration, now and for evermore. Amen .
Source :  Rowell G., Stevenson K., Williams R., Love’s Redeeming Work:
The Anglican Quest for Holiness , Oxford University Press, 2001.

In the Polish tradition the Feast of Assumption is called the Feast of the Mother of God of the Herbs. Theologian Dorota Szczerba writes in Tygodnik Powszechny :

Traveling through Poland on the Feast of the Mother of God of the Herbs – especially taking the side roads – one can see processions of people going to or exiting churches, carrying bouquets of flowers. There happen to be ears of rye, oat and wheat, rowan-tree branches and even single carrots included in the bouquets.
Source

We can remember the intense smell filling the Byzantine Catholic church in Veľký Lipník, Slovakia, where we participated in this feast’s celebrations last year. It’s hard not to agree with Dorota Szczerba that on the [Feast of] the Mother of God of the Herbs matter enters the church exceptionally powerfully . It’s also hard to resist the association with the intuitions of hermetism and alchemy, which point at a direct link between the Latin word mater (mother) and materia (matter). Matt Gunter, an Episcopal priest and blogger, whose thoughts we have already quoted, wrote a few days ago on his blog:

The material world is created by God and declared good. It has been blessed by its being assumed by divinity in the incarnation. In spite of its tragic history, the material world is all part of creation destined for New Creation in resurrection. Matter matters.
Source

We have the idea, even though we don’t have any historical evidence to prove it, that the proximity of the Feast of the Transfiguration and of the Assumption in the liturgical church calendar is perhaps not merely accidental. On the Feast of Transfiguration we wrote that the mystery of transformation is about the whole reality. Today we write about the elevation of a human being/mother/matter. In some sense, both the festivals complete and concretize each other. Dorota Szczerba starts her article with the statement, Mary went into heaven together with her body. In heaven she has the same body she had when she walked through Jerusalem and Nazareth , and asks, what does it mean for us ? Perhaps we can find an answer in Matt Gunter’s text:

Matter matters and, rejoicing in the power of the resurrection, we live in the hope that it (including us God-breathed, material, embodied creatures) will be transfigured in resurrection glory.

Precisely because a few days ago we wrote about the spiritual foundations of being , that is worth to be stressed now.