Falling Asleep of the BVM – 15th August 2021: St. Luke 1, 46-55
Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens
Today the church universal commemorates a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This celebration is kept by the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican traditions.
On this date the Orthodox speak of the Eternal Sleep of the Mother of God, and Blessed Mary is referred to in Orthodoxy as Panaghia – (All holy). The Roman Church celebrates what they now call the Assumption, a dogma that is barely 200 years old as currently understood. In Greece this date is always a public holiday (and for those outside Greece, who may not know it – there are many for whom today is their ‘name day’ such as those named Panaiotis (Panos for short) or Maria.
On this date, theologically, the Anglican tradition is more akin to the East than to Rome, and for centuries since the Reformation we have commemorated the Dormition, the ‘falling asleep’ of the BVM.
Blessed Mary is human mother of the incarnate Jesus, the fully human Jesus. We must remember however that in Christian theology this same Jesus is also fully divine, so Mary is mother of Jesus, but at the same time Mother of God, as Jesus of Nazareth is both fully human and fully divine. It is on account of this that Blessed Mary is worthy of the titles ascribed to her by the Church. So she is Panaghia (All Holy) in all three traditions, even if only the Orthodox use this distinctive Greek title.