Assumption traditions

Gregory di Pippo at the New Liturgical Movement has a post about the traditions surrounding the story of Our Lady's  Assumption, and also  about an Assumptiontide custom of which I was not aware - that of blessing herbs - which  may well be of interest to readers. It can be seen at The Blessing of Herbs on the Feast of the Assumption

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The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

John Dillon has posted on the medieval-religion discussion group the following, which I have very slightly edited and adapted:

Today, August 15th, is the feast day of:
1a) The Dormition of the Theotokos.
1b) The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As indicated by the entry in the early sixth-century Calendar of Carthage for an August feast of Mary among the Saints, these two closely related Marian feasts are probably at least as old as the later fifth century. Narrative texts providing diverging accounts of Mary's transit are known from at least the mid-fifth century onward; these will have stimulated a desire for formal celebration, despite whatever theological reservations such writings will have evoked (e.g. a book called_The Assumption of Holy Mary is among the apocrypha specifically rejected in the sixth-century Decretum Gelasianum). A major study of these early texts, with English-language translations of them, is Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption (Oxford Univiversity Press, 2002).

In some places in late antiquity (e.g. Egypt, Arabia, Gaul) the feast in question took place in January; in others (e.g. Palestine) it was kept in August, though not always on this day: the aforementioned Calendar of Carthage has it on August 12th. The Emperor Maurice (d. 602) is reported to have established it for the empire as a whole as falling on  August 15th. In Thessaloniki, at least, the observance seems to have begun only in the time of its earlier seventh-century bishop John (610-649), to whom we owe the oldest surviving Greek-language sermon for this feast.

Differences in emphasis led early to the feast's being called in Greek that of the Dormition (Koimēsis; 'Falling Asleep', a metaphor for death), beginning with Mary's death (in what became the standard view for medieval Hellenophones, her soul ascended immediately and her body was taken up after its burial), and, in Latin, that of the Assumption (a term that avoids declaring a position on Mary's physical state upon her entry into Heaven). As the divergent narrative constructions and theological interpretations have hardened over time, it has become customary to speak -- in modern contexts, at least -- of two feasts rather than of one.

A late nineteenth-century translation into English of the three sermons by St. John of Damascus on the Dormition of the Theotokos is here:
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/johndamascus-komesis.asp


A few period-pertinent representations of Mary's Dormition and/or Assumption, supplementing those in various media accessible at Genevra Kornbluth's Archive page dedicated to the Dormition, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin at: www.kornbluthphoto.com/DormitionVirgin.html

a) The Dormition as portrayed in relief in three late tenth- or early eleventh-century Byzantine ivories:
1) late tenth-century; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.132
2) late tenth- or early eleventh-century; in the Musée National du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) in Paris:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dormition_de_la_Vierge.JPG
3) late tenth- or early eleventh-century; in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA:
http://tinyurl.com/pnoosf6

b) The mid-twelfth-century Dormition mosaic (betw. 1146 and 1151) in the chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (a.k.a. chiesa della Martorana) in Palermo:

 

http://tinyurl.com/od35fvm

Detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/ppdaphu
http://tinyurl.com/pwv7e5v

c) The Assumption as portrayed in relief by the Master of Cabestany on the later twelfth-century former tympanum (ca. 1150-1180) of the église Notre-Dame at Cabestany (Pyrénees Orientales) now in the Centre de Sculpture Romane "Maître de Cabestany" there:

 

http://www.wga.hu/art/m/master/cabestan/1cabesta.jpg

d) The Dormition as depicted (at far right) on a later twelfth-century iconostasis beam in the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai (a.k.a. St. Catherine's monastery), St. Catherine, South Sinai governorate:
http://www.icon-art.info/hires.php?lng=en&type=1&id=3667

e) The later twelfth-century (1170s?) Dormition (right) and Assumption (left) reliefs on the lintel of the central portal of the west facade of Senlis' cathédrale Notre-Dame:

 http://tinyurl.com/4xdr2m9

The tympanum relief above portrays the Virgin in Majesty:

 

http://tinyurl.com/3ho7tvu

f) The Dormition as portrayed in relief by Bonannus of Pisa in a panel of his late twelfth-century bronze doors (later 1180s) for the Porta San Ranieri of Pisa's cattedrale metropolitana primaziale di Santa Maria Assunta, and now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo there:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44884174@N08/14405264453

g) The Dormition as depicted in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century icon from the Desyatinny monastery in Veliky Novgorod, now in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://www.belygorod.ru/img2/Ikona/Used/257Uspenie12_13.jpg

h) The Dormition as depicted in panels of the early thirteenth-century Glorification of the Virgin window (betw. 1205 and 1215) in the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame, Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/o2mfczk
http://tinyurl.com/oac7hya

i) The earlier thirteenth-century Dormition and Assumption reliefs (betw. 1205 and 1230) on the lintel of the central portal of the north porch, basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame, Chartres:
1) Dormition: http://tinyurl.com/4xskuah
2) Assumption: http://tinyurl.com/3phkjl4

j) The Dormition and the Coronation of the Virgin as depicted in the earlier thirteenth century Psalter of St. Louis and Blanche of Castile (ca. 1225; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 1186, fol. 29v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100723j/f66.image

k) The Assumption as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century northern rose window (ca. 1230) of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame, Chartres:
http://manuelcohen.photoshelter.com/image/I0000zDh8M7xMONc

l) The earlier thirteenth-century tympanum relief of the Dormition (ca. 1240?) on the south portal of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame, Strasbourg:

 

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/strasbourg/southdormition.jpg

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/strasbourg/southdormitiondet.jpg

m) The Dormition as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century glass window (ca. 1250-1260) in the Museum Schnütgen, Köln (photograph by Gordon Plumb):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4050070890

n) The later thirteenth-century Dormition fresco (either ca. 1263-1270 or slightly later) in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani:
1) lower part (on earth): http://tinyurl.com/4246jtd
2) upper part (in Heaven): http://tinyurl.com/4yqm6jv
Greatly expandable detail views are here:
http://tinyurl.com/3tnycct

o) The Dormition as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 101r; image greatly expandable):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000890A.jpg

p) The Dormition as depicted by Eutychios and Michael Astrapas in a late thirteenth-century fresco (1294 or 1295) in the church of the Peribleptos (now Sv. Kliment Ohridski) in Ohrid:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110067756467697073060/albums/5249227995814221297/5249235355444298674?pid=5249235355444298674&oid=110067756467697073060
Detail view:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110067756467697073060/albums/5249227995814221297/5249235443048502434?pid=5249235443048502434&oid=110067756467697073060

q) The Dormition as depicted by Jacopo Torriti in his late thirteenth-century apse mosaic (completed, 1296) in Rome's basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore:
http://www.wga.hu/art/t/torriti/mosaic/5scene5.jpg
Detail views:
http://www.wga.hu/art/t/torriti/mosaic/5scene51.jpg
http://www.wga.hu/art/t/torriti/mosaic/5scene52.jpg

r) Pietro Cavallini's late thirteenth-century Dormition mosaic (betw. 1296 and 1300) in Rome's basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere:

http://www.wga.hu/art/c/cavallin/mosaic/6scene.jpg

Detail view:
http://www.wga.hu/art/c/cavallin/mosaic/6scene1.jpg
The verse inscriptions for this cycle were composed by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi, a brother of the donor; as this example shows, insufficient attention was given to insuring that the mosaicists would render accurately the written texts.

s) The Assumption as depicted in the late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century Rothschild Canticles, a devotional miscellany of Flemish or Rhineland origin (New Haven, CT, Beinecke Library, Beinecke MS 404, fol. 185v):
http://brbl-media.library.yale.edu/images/1011872_quarter.jpg

t) The Dormition as depicted in an early fourteenth-century fresco (ca. 1310) in the church of the Dormition in the Žiča monastery in Kruševica:
http://www.maletic.org/serbian-frescoes/single-gallery/2856690

u) The Dormition as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century mosaic (betw. 1315 and 1321), Chora Church (Kariye Camii), Istanbul:
http://mlewiphotos.com/d/9939-2/43210_01-12-SI+51zxs.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ox8yx88

v) The Dormition as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110067756467697073060/albums/5245687190076668897/5245713881427488098?pid=5245713881427488098&oid=110067756467697073060

w) The Assumption as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1326-1350) of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 23r):
http://tinyurl.com/3namtmw

x) The Dormition and the Funeral of Mary as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century French-language legendary of Parisian origin (ca. 1327), with illuminations attributed to the Fauvel Master (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fols. 58r, 59v):
1) Dormition: http://tinyurl.com/4xp7bq4
2) Funeral: http://tinyurl.com/3qopwxv

y) The Dormition and the Assumption as depicted in earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the nave of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć:
1) Dormition:
http://tinyurl.com/3ggkb74
2) Assumption:
http://tinyurl.com/4xyuqgw
Detail view (Assumption):
http://tinyurl.com/3ue2yj8

z) The Dormition as depicted in a mid-fourteenth-century (1348) copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 204r):
http://tinyurl.com/3za6eus

aa) The Dormition and Assumption as portrayed in high relief by Andrea Orcagna on his later fourteenth-century Tabernacle (1359) in Florence's chiesa di Orsanmichele:
http://www.wga.hu/art/o/orcagna/tabern_2.jpg

bb) The Dormition as depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored in 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's Monastery at Markova Sušica:
http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/monmarkovi/MadonnaDormition.jpg
Detail view:
http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/monmarkovi/MaryDormCX.jpg

cc) The Dormition and Assumption as depicted in an early fifteenth-century missal for the Use of Gand / Ghent (Valenciennes, Bibliothèque de Valenciennes, ms. 122, fol. 27v):
http://tinyurl.com/qgnlm3z

dd) The Dormition as depicted in an early fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1410-1412) of Marco Polo's Devisement du monde (Paris: BnF, ms. Français 2810, fol. 163r):
http://tinyurl.com/4xz59y8

ee) The Dormition as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century Novgorod School icon now in the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg:
http://www.belygorod.ru/img2/Ikona/Used/258UspenieGRM.jpg

ff) The Dormition as depicted by Andrea del Castagno in an earlier fifteenth-century mosaic (1442 or 1443) in the basilica di San Marco in Venice:
http://www.wga.hu/art/a/andrea/castagno/1_1440s/042dormi.jpg

gg) The Dormition and Assumption as portrayed in high relief by Veit Stoss in the central panel of his late fifteenth-century polychromed wood altarpiece (betw. 1477 and 1489) in the church of St. Mary, Kraków:

 

http://tinyurl.com/offjkyj

Detail view (Dormition):
http://tinyurl.com/okzjf6b
Detail view (Assumption):
http://tinyurl.com/qyow5eb

hh) The Assumption as depicted in a late fifteenth-century addition (1491?) in the guildbook of the London's Worshipful Company of Skinners' Confraternity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (London, Guildhall Library, MS 31692):
http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/medieval/images/full_p58_assumption.jpg

ii) The Assumption as portrayed in high relief by Tilman Riemenschneider in the central panel of his early sixteenth-century limewood altarpiece of Mary (ca. 1510) in the Herrgottskirche in Creglingen (Lkr. Main-Tauber-Kreis) in Baden-Württemberg:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hen-magonza/9798485103
Many detail views here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gripspix/albums/

Gordon Plumb has also posted some Assumption images in glass plus one textile fragment:


Saint-Nicholas-de-Port, Bay 23, 2c:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15022597834
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15457218748
Bay 23, 1a-2a, Glass by Valentin Bousch, the Alsatian glazier; date, c.1514-20:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15640633501


Elland, St Mary the Virgin W. Yorks., east window, 2b:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15032047739

Glasgow, Burrell Collection, (ex Hampton Court Hereforshire):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2212659812

Angers Cathedral, Bay 123, 5b-5c:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/10293464646
and

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/6048290101


Wrangle, St Mary and St Nicholas, Lincolnshire, nV, 2d:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8164595993

York, St Mary, sIII:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/6046643403

Stanford-on-Avon, St Nicholas, Northamptonshire, sVI, 2b:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8681972558

York Minster, CHnII, 8e:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5033252986
York Minster, Chapter House, CHnII, 8c:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5033249132

Normanton, All Saints W Yorks, east window, 3c, Thomas receiving Virgin's girdle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4322986955

North Moreton, All Saints, Oxfordshire, sII, 3e:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2945593238

Troyes, Cathédrale St Pierre et St Paul, Bay 201, scene on left:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2197859715

York, St Denys, sIII, 2b:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3218202676

Careby, St Stephen, Lincolnshire, detail of cope fragment:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2209918427

East Harling, St Peter and St Paul, Norfolk, east window, 2e:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2481558468


Warwick, St Mary, Beauchamp Chantry, nIII, A1-A6:
This glass contains the opening part of the antiphon "Gaudeamus", which forms the first part of the introit appointed in the Sarum Gradual for the festival of the Assumption of the BVM.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4373047659

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College Chapel:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/6512358415

The Dormition of the Virgin - Orthodox liturgies

Kyle Washut has an interesting post on the New Liturgical Movement about Orthodox liturgical traditions and customs in regard to celebrating the Dormition and the Assumption of Our Lady. It can be viewed at Burial Rites of the Theotokos. 

He begins by giving the text of an address by St John Paul II about whether or not Our Lady actually died - a point raised by a friend yesterday after we attended the Assumption Mass. Apparently the idea that the Virgin did not die like the rest of us only took hold in the seventeenth century, and as the post makes clear is unknown to Orthodoxy - or indeed to the wonderful Mystery play enacted each year at Elche in Spain, about which I posted in 2010 in Assumptiontide in Spain.

The Assumption of Our Lady

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, and to mark the fact here is a rather splendid late medieval depiction of the event.

Image: standingonmyhead

I have taken it from Fr Longenecker's blog post for yesterday, which sets out his understanding as a former Evangelical turned Anglo-Catholic, who finally became a Catholic, which can be read at 10 Things to Remember About the Assumption of Mary

The lunchtime Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Assumption at the Oxford Oratory today drew an extremely large congregation - not just EF regulars, but a large number of new faces - and one which many churches wouild be happy with at their main Sunday Mass I suspect. That is something which certainly goes against the idea that the "old" Mass puts people off.

The Assumption of Our Lady

The Dormition and the Assumption of Our Lady

Fra Angelico, c.1395 -1455

Image: tomperna.org

Assumpta es Maria

The Assumption of the Virgin
El Greco, 1577

Image:backtoclassics.com

The Spanish Privilege at the Oxford Oratory

I noted at the Vigil Mass for the Assumption at the Oxford Oratory this evening that the celebrant was vested in Spanish blue in honour of Our Lady. I gather the handsome Low Mass set is a recent acquisition for the sacristy, and looks very fine. I posted about the use of this liturgical colour in Spanish Blue. I am assured that the Oratorians are fully entitled to use the Spanish Privilege in this matter.

Now all we want is the High Mass set...

The Assumption in Brighton

Having celebrated the Assumption on its transferred date on Sunday I took myself off to see my friends at St Mary Magdalen Brighton for their Extraordinary Form celebration with a low Mass yesterday evening.

Difficulties on the way with transport, credit cards and hotels began to look like a diabolical assault, but I managed to attend the Mass, celebrated by Fr Blake, and ending with the singing of the Salve Regina before a candle bedecked Lady Chapel altar.

The Lady Chapel
Photo from St Mary Magdalen Brighton parish website

The reredos of the altar is in mid-fourteenth century style and was, I am given to understand, painted by a previous parish priest to create the impression of what was the medieval practice in such matters. Although some of his colour scheme is not perhaps that close to the middle ages - for example the Christ Child in salmon pink is perhaps a little unlikely for a medieval colour scheme - but it is a reminder of the lavish use of colour in the fourteenth century. The overall effect is nevertheless rather charming.

Mass was followed by celebratory drinks and several of us went off for an excellent Italian meal. So, despite the difficulties encountered en route, it proved to be a very enjoyable evening with friends and a genuine celebration of Our Lady's entrance into eternal bliss.

Assumptiontide in Spain

The New Liturgical Movement has a splendid set of photographs of spectacular Assumptiontide processions in Spain, and also of the Mystery Play at Elche in the province of Alicante. You can see them here.

Many years ago I watched, on two separate occasions. a television programme about the wondrous Elche play. The play was approved by Pope Urban VIII in 1632, but is said to date from, if I recall aright, the thirteenth century. This spectacular production takes place within the church is a precious survival of medieval and early modern devotional theatre. It is an example of things which were casualties of the reforming zeal of the dangerous modernisers of the Council of Trent.

The NLM photographs convey something of it, but film is what really conveys the excitement and sense of occasion, and NLM does have a link to a video.



I have lifted the following account from a site dealing with holiday rentals in the area:

The Elche Mystery Play is a lyrical drama dating from the Middle Ages, is the city's most deeply-rooted cultural symbol. In 2001, UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of World Oral and Intangible Heritage.

The play is performed in the Basilica of Santa María every 14th and 15th August with full dress-rehearsal performances taking place earlier on the 11th,12th and 13th. It narrates the Dormition, Assumption and Coronation in Heaven of the Virgin Mary. The play has survived due to the determination of the citizens of Elche past and present. After the performing of plays in churches was banned by the Council of Trent, Elche obtained a Bull from Pope Urban VIII to keep the play alive. Such has been the determination of the citizens of Elche that the Play is now the last surviving example of this type of drama. The Mystery Play's music, including monody and polyphony, uses Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque melodies. It is performed by a non-professional adult choir and a children's choir whose innocent voices represent the Virgin and the angels.

However, the really distinguishing factor of the Elche Mystery Play is its complex medievally-inspired production, dividing the scenic space into horizontal, worldly space and vertical, aerial space and using aerial equipment that converts the whole into a spectacular experience.

A cadafal, or temporary square stage, accessed by an andador, or ramp, is raised in the centre of the Basilica's transept. This is where most of the action takes place while a false ceiling is installed in the base of the cupola above the stage.

When the Gates of Heaven are opened, a complex piece of stage machinery, the magrana, firstly lowers an angel bearing a message, followed by a choir of angels to guide the Virgin in her Assumption to the heavens where she will be crowned by God Eternal from a third machine, the Trinitat. At the moment of her coronation a shower of tinsel falls from heaven in what is undoubtedly the most moving moment of the whole Play.

Assumption at Sandford on Thames

A conversation this afternoon between two friends about the carving of the Assumption of Our Lady in Sandford on Thames church, which lies just to the south of Oxford, and which I regret to say I have not so far managed to get to see, led me to search for it in the internet. I found this photo by Martin Beek on Flickr:

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Church of St Andrew.

The great treasure in this church is the unique carving mounted in the south wall of the chancel.It was carved from Barrington stone at the beginning of 15th century and depicts the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The carving of the Virgin is surrounded by an aureole with two angels below the figure holding a reliquary. The carving was hidden to protect it and was discovered in 1723 face down near the south porch where it had been used as a step.

It seemed an appropriate thing to share on this eve of the Assumption, and indeed to make it better known.

In addition to that summary I would point readers to three interesting posts from 2008 by Fr Hunwicke about the sculpture, which add to the story and provide food for thought. They can be found here, and here and here.

Whatever the precise source of the carving it is yet another reminder of what was lost from English churches both in terms of art and devotion during the sixteenth century.