The priest told about the history of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

All the apostles, except Thomas, witnessed the death of the Virgin, and Christ himself, surrounded by many angels, appeared to receive the soul of his Most Pure Mother and lead her to paradise. This was told to Izvestia by the dean of the Baltai district of the Saratov diocese, Priest Oleg Zhilyakov.

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According to the priest, the Mother of God spent all the years after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, preaching the Lord along with the apostles.

"But now the time has come for her earthly demise. One day, during prayer, the Virgin Mary saw the archangel Gabriel, who had once proclaimed to her great joy that she was destined to become the mother of the Savior of the world. This time, the news was different: in three days, her soul would leave her body. But the Mother of God was very happy. After all, she was waiting to meet someone she loved much more than life," he explained.

The priest said that three days later, other apostles gathered in the house of the Apostle John, where Mary lived: the Lord miraculously arranged for them all to return to that day from distant wanderings, where they preached Christ, and only the apostle Thomas was absent. When the time came, Jesus himself, surrounded by many angels, appeared to receive the soul of his Most Pure Mother and lead her to paradise.

Zhilyakov drew attention to the fact that information about the Dormition is not contained in the Holy Scriptures.

"The Holy Scriptures tell us nothing about the life of the Most Holy Theotokos after the Resurrection of Christ. Therefore, we know about the Dormition of the Virgin from two Latin treatises of the fifth century and from the epistle of Pseudo‑Dionysius the Areopagite. The Church believes that these sources preserve the foundation of the Tradition that lived in the early Church," he stressed.

Read more about the history of the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Izvestia article:

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