The Assumption

Original painting in gouache

on paper lace

According Tradition, after the falling asleep of the Virgin Mother, she was buried, but her body did not suffer corruption.  When the tomb was opened, it was empty, filled with flowers and the fragrance of holiness.

Freed from the weight of  the body,
the Virgin is carried to Heaven. 

With jubilation the Heavens receive her,
and the angels sing.

Chas. Van de Vyvere , Bruge, Belgium

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse.
There is the cypress with spikenard and fragrant trees
of Lebanon and all the finest perfumes.
~ Office of the Assumption

 [Mary is told of her passing]

~ woodblock 16th cent. book illustration 

Woodblock of the icon of the Dormition*

Original woodcut from a book of meditations on the Rosary, 1521.

*In the Church in the East, the Feast of the Assumption is celebrated as the Feast of the Dormition, or The Falling Asleep of the Virgin Mother. This woodblock recalls the spiritual lesson contained in the icon.

Mary has fallen asleep in the Lord with the Apostles gathered around her while, in heaven, Christ receives his mother into His arms. He holds her now as if she were a small child. 

Since icons are outside of time and several scenes may be shown together, the icon also shows not only all the apostles who were with her at the time of her falling asleep but also the image of St. Thomas who arrived after her passing at the tomb;  according to Tradition, the Virgin dropped her sash down to him a sign of her continuing presence.