The Assumption explained: why the 15th of August

A public holiday in Portugal, a holy day of obligation in most of the Catholic world — and one of the least understood feasts of the year.

On 15 August, churches across the world keep a feast whose name many Catholics can recite but few can explain: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Portugal it is a public holiday. In Fátima it draws pilgrims. And in a great many homes it passes as a warm summer day with a vaguely Marian flavour.

So it is worth asking plainly: what is the Assumption, why the fifteenth of August, and why does the Church treat it as one of the highest feasts of the year?

What is the Assumption of Mary?

The Assumption is the belief that at the end of her earthly life, the Virgin Mary was taken up — body and soul — into heavenly glory.

Two words in that sentence carry the whole weight. Body, because the claim is not merely that her soul went to heaven, which Christians hold of all the saved. And taken, because Mary did not ascend by her own power. Christ ascended; Mary was assumed. The Latin verb is passive on purpose.

The Church defined this as dogma on 1 November 1950, when Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. The definition is careful and short:

"…the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

Notice what the definition does not settle: whether Mary died first. The Latin Church has generally held that she did — a death without corruption, often called the Dormition, or "falling asleep," which is the name the Eastern Churches use for the same feast on the same date.

Why is the Assumption celebrated on 15 August?

The date is older than the dogma by some fourteen centuries.

By the fifth century, Christians in Jerusalem were keeping a feast of Mary on 15 August at a church between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In the late sixth century the Byzantine Emperor Maurice fixed the observance of the Dormition on 15 August throughout the empire. Rome adopted the feast in the seventh century, under Pope Sergius I, who added a procession from the Roman Forum to Saint Mary Major.

So the answer to "why 15 August" is not doctrinal but historical: the Church has kept this day for Mary since the age of the Church Fathers, and the 1950 definition simply gave dogmatic weight to a feast the faithful had already been celebrating for around 1,500 years.

Is 15 August a holy day of obligation?

In most countries, yes. The Assumption is a solemnity and a holy day of obligation in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Poland, much of Latin America, and — with some diocesan variation — in the United States, where the obligation is lifted when the date falls on a Saturday or Monday. It is also a civil public holiday in a number of traditionally Catholic countries.

Where is the Assumption in the Bible?

There is no verse that narrates it, and Catholic teaching does not claim there is. The doctrine rests on the Church's tradition and on a reading of Scripture as a whole rather than on a single proof text. Three lines of argument are usually given.

The woman clothed with the sun

Revelation 12 describes "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" — read by the Fathers as both the Church and Mary, glorified in heaven.

The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark, which carried the word of God, was made of incorruptible wood and overlaid with gold. Mary, who carried the Word himself, is understood as the living Ark — and so, fittingly, not subject to decay.

The logic of the Immaculate Conception

Bodily corruption is a consequence of sin. If Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception, the Church reasons, then her body was not subject to the corruption that sin brought into the world.

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What the Assumption actually means for you

It is tempting to treat the Assumption as a piece of Marian trivia — a nice thing that happened to someone else, two thousand years ago. The Church reads it very differently.

Mary assumed is Mary as first, not as exception. What has already happened to her is what Christians profess every Sunday will happen to them: "I believe in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting." The Assumption is that article of the Creed, already fulfilled in one person. She is the sign that the promise is not metaphorical.

This is why the feast has always had a physical character in Catholic culture — processions, flowers, the blessing of herbs and of the harvest in central Europe, and in Portugal the sea processions of coastal parishes. A feast about a body taken to glory is properly kept with the body: walking, carrying, singing, kneeling.

How to keep 15 August at home

• Go to Mass. It is a solemnity; in most places it is also an obligation. This is the whole of the minimum, and it is not a small thing.
• Pray the Glorious Mysteries. The fourth is the Assumption itself, the fifth her coronation. If you pray one set of mysteries this month, make it this one — our step-by-step guide to the Rosary sets out the order.
• Bring flowers to her image. The oldest domestic custom attached to the feast, and the simplest.
• Bless the house. A short prayer at the door with holy water is traditional in August in many regions.
• Give something away. In several countries the day is kept with alms — the harvest shared, because the first fruits were shared with her.

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The Assumption and Fátima

For anyone who follows the Fátima story, 15 August carries a second meaning. In 1917 it was the day the three shepherd children were released from the jail at Ourém, after three days of interrogation and the threat of being boiled in oil for refusing to reveal the secret. They walked home on the feast of the Assumption — and four days later, Our Lady kept the appointment she had missed, at Valinhos.

Assumption and Fátima meet neatly, then: a feast of a body carried to glory, and three children whose bodies were threatened for keeping her words.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Assumption of Mary?

The Assumption is the Catholic dogma that at the end of her earthly life the Virgin Mary was taken up, body and soul, into heavenly glory. It was defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950 in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

Why is the Assumption celebrated on August 15?

The date long predates the dogma. A feast of Mary was kept on 15 August in Jerusalem by the fifth century; the Byzantine Emperor Maurice fixed the Dormition on that date in the late sixth century, and Rome adopted it in the seventh century under Pope Sergius I.

Is the Assumption in the Bible?

There is no verse that narrates the Assumption. The doctrine rests on the Church’s tradition, supported by readings of Revelation 12, the typology of the Ark of the Covenant, and the theological consequence of the Immaculate Conception.

Did Mary die before she was assumed?

The dogma deliberately leaves this open, saying only that she was assumed "having completed the course of her earthly life." The Western tradition generally holds that she died a death without corruption; the Eastern Churches call it the Dormition, or falling asleep.

Is August 15 a holy day of obligation?

In most countries, yes. It is a solemnity and holy day of obligation in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Poland and much of Latin America, and in the United States except when the date falls on a Saturday or Monday.

What is the difference between the Assumption and the Ascension?

The Ascension is Christ rising to heaven by his own divine power. The Assumption is Mary being taken up by God’s power. The grammar carries the theology: Christ ascended, Mary was assumed.