The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Catholic Culture, Aug. 15, 2023

Ordinary Time: August 15th

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption. Thus he solemnly proclaimed that the belief whereby the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the close of her earthly life, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, definitively forms part of the deposit of faith, received from the Apostles. To avoid all that is uncertain the Pope did not state either the manner or the circumstances of time and place in which the Assumption took place—only the fact of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, is the matter of the definition.

Please see Catholic Culture’s special section on The Assumption.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates several saints today:

• St. Tarcisius (d. 3rd to 4th century), a young martyr of the Eucharist, is commemorated in the . He is the patron saint of First Communicants and altar servers.

• St. Hyacinth of Poland (1185–1257), a canon of Krakow, who joined the Dominican Order in Rome during the lifetime of the founder, in about the year 1217. He returned to Krakow with the first band of Dominican missionaries. The newcomers spread over all the northern countries into Russia, the Balkans, Prussia and Lithuania. St. Hyacinth preached the crusade against the Prussians. He died on the feast of the Assumption, 1257.

• St. Stanislaus of Kostka (1550-1568), was born in Poland. He entered the Jesuits at age 17. He practiced the most severe mortifications, experienced ecstasies at Mass, and lived a life of great sanctity. He died in Rome on August 15, only nine months after joining the Jesuits, and was canonized in 1726. He is venerated in Poland especially as a patron of youth.

The Assumption
Now toward the end of the summer season, at a time when fruits are ripe in the gardens and fields, the Church celebrates the most glorious “harvest festival” in the Communion of Saints. Mary, the supremely blessed one among women, Mary, the most precious fruit which has ripened in the fields of God’s kingdom, is today taken into the granary of heaven.
—Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don’t know how it first came to be celebrated.

Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina in honor of Jupiter.

For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. ….

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