Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII
Munificentissimus Deus
Defining the Dogma of the Assumption
November 1, 1950
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1. The most bountiful God, who is almighty, the plan of whose
providence rests upon wisdom and love, tempers, in the secret purpose
of his own mind, the sorrows of peoples and of individual men by means
of joys that he interposes in their lives from time to time, in such a
way that, under different conditions and in different ways, all things
may work together unto good for those who love him.(1)
2. Now, just like the present age, our pontificate is weighed down by
ever so many cares, anxieties, and troubles, by reason of very severe
calamities that have taken place and by reason of the fact that many
have strayed away from truth and virtue. Nevertheless, we are greatly
consoled to see that, while the Catholic faith is being professed
publicly and vigorously, piety toward the Virgin Mother of God is
flourishing and daily growing more fervent, and that almost everywhere
on earth it is showing indications of a better and holier life. Thus,
while the Blessed Virgin is fulfilling in the most affectionate manner
her maternal duties on behalf of those redeemed by the blood of Christ,
the minds and the hearts of her children are being vigorously aroused
to a more assiduous consideration of her prerogatives.
3. Actually God, who from all eternity regards Mary with a most
favorable and unique affection, has "when the fullness of time came"(2)
put the plan of his providence into effect in such a way that all the
privileges and prerogatives he had granted to her in his sovereign
generosity were to shine forth in her in a kind of perfect harmony.
And, although the Church has always recognized this supreme generosity
and the perfect harmony of graces and has daily studied them more and
more throughout the course of the centuries, still it is in our own age
that the privilege of the bodily Assumption into heaven of Mary, the
Virgin Mother of God, has certainly shone forth more clearly.
4. That privilege has shone forth in new radiance since our predecessor
of immortal memory, Pius IX, solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the
loving Mother of God's Immaculate Conception. These two privileges are
most closely bound to one another. Christ overcame sin and death by his
own death, and one who through Baptism has been born again in a
supernatural way has conquered sin and death through the same Christ.
Yet, according to the general rule, God does not will to grant to the
just the full effect of the victory over death until the end of time
has come. And so it is that the bodies of even the just are corrupted
after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its
own glorious soul.
5. Now God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted
from this general rule. She, by an entirely unique privilege,
completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result
she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the
grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the
redemption of her body.
6. Thus, when it was solemnly proclaimed that Mary, the Virgin Mother
of God, was from the very beginning free from the taint of original
sin, the minds of the faithful were filled with a stronger hope that
the day might soon come when the dogma of the Virgin Mary's bodily
Assumption into heaven would also be defined by the Church's supreme
teaching authority.
7. Actually it was seen that not only individual Catholics, but also
those who could speak for nations or ecclesiastical provinces, and even
a considerable number of the Fathers of the Vatican Council, urgently
petitioned the Apostolic See to this effect.
8. During the course of time such postulations and petitions did not
decrease but rather grew continually in number and in urgency. In this
cause there were pious crusades of prayer. Many outstanding theologians
eagerly and zealously carried out investigations on this subject either
privately or in public ecclesiastical institutions and in other schools
where the sacred disciplines are taught. Marian Congresses, both
national and international in scope, have been held in many parts of
the Catholic world. These studies and investigations have brought out
into even clearer light the fact that the dogma of the Virgin Mary's
Assumption into heaven is contained in the deposit of Christian faith
entrusted to the Church. They have resulted in many more petitions,
begging and urging the Apostolic See that this truth be solemnly
defined.
9. In this pious striving, the faithful have been associated in a
wonderful way with their own holy bishops, who have sent petitions of
this kind, truly remarkable in number, to this See of the Blessed
Peter. Consequently, when we were elevated to the throne of the supreme
pontificate, petitions of this sort had already been addressed by the
thousands from every part of the world and from every class of people,
from our beloved sons the Cardinals of the Sacred College, from our
venerable brethren, archbishops and bishops, from dioceses and from
parishes.
10. Consequently, while we sent up earnest prayers to God that he might
grant to our mind the light of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to make a
decision on this most serious subject, we issued special orders in
which we commanded that, by corporate effort, more advanced inquiries
into this matter should be begun and that, in the meantime, all the
petitions about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven
which had been sent to this Apostolic See from the time of Pius IX, our
predecessor of happy memory, down to our own days should be gathered
together and carefully evaluated.(3)
11. And, since we were dealing with a matter of such great moment and
of such importance, we considered it opportune to ask all our venerable
brethren in the episcopate directly and authoritatively that each of
them should make known to us his mind in a formal statement. Hence, on
May 1, 1946, we gave them our letter "Deiparae Virginis Mariae," a
letter in which these words are contained: "Do you, venerable brethren,
in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma
of faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire it?"
12. But those whom "the Holy Spirit has placed as bishops to rule the
Church of God"(4) gave an almost unanimous affirmative response to both
these questions. This "outstanding agreement of the Catholic prelates
and the faithful,"(5) affirming that the bodily Assumption of God's
Mother into heaven can be defined as a dogma of faith, since it shows
us the concordant teaching of the Church's ordinary doctrinal authority
and the concordant faith of the Christian people which the same
doctrinal authority sustains and directs, thus by itself and in an
entirely certain and infallible way, manifests this privilege as a
truth revealed by God and contained in that divine deposit which Christ
has delivered to his Spouse to be guarded faithfully and to be taught
infallibly.(6) Certainly this teaching authority of the Church, not by
any merely human effort but under the protection of the Spirit of
Truth,(7) and therefore absolutely without error, carries out the
commission entrusted to it, that of preserving the revealed truths pure
and entire throughout every age, in such a way that it presents them
undefiled, adding nothing to them and taking nothing away from them.
For, as the Vatican Council teaches, "the Holy Spirit was not promised
to the successors of Peter in such a way that, by his revelation, they
might manifest new doctrine, but so that, by his assistance, they might
guard as sacred and might faithfully propose the revelation delivered
through the apostles, or the deposit of faith."(8) Thus, from the
universal agreement of the Church's ordinary teaching authority we have
a certain and firm proof, demonstrating that the Blessed Virgin Mary's
bodily Assumption into heaven- which surely no faculty of the human
mind could know by its own natural powers, as far as the heavenly
glorification of the virginal body of the loving Mother of God is
concerned-is a truth that has been revealed by God and consequently
something that must be firmly and faithfully believed by all children
of the Church. For, as the Vatican Council asserts, "all those things
are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in
the written Word of God or in Tradition, and which are proposed by the
Church, either in solemn judgment or in its ordinary and universal
teaching office, as divinely revealed truths which must be
believed."(9)
13. Various testimonies, indications and signs of this common belief of
the Church are evident from remote times down through the course of the
centuries; and this same belief becomes more clearly manifest from day
to day.
14. Christ's faithful, through the teaching and the leadership of their
pastors, have learned from the sacred books that the Virgin Mary,
throughout the course of her earthly pilgrimage, led a life troubled by
cares, hardships, and sorrows, and that, moreover, what the holy old
man Simeon had foretold actually came to pass, that is, that a terribly
sharp sword pierced her heart as she stood under the cross of her
divine Son, our Redeemer. In the same way, it was not difficult for
them to admit that the great Mother of God, like her only begotten Son,
had actually passed from this life. But this in no way prevented them
from believing and from professing openly that her sacred body had
never been subject to the corruption of the tomb, and that the august
tabernacle of the Divine Word had never been reduced to dust and ashes.
Actually, enlightened by divine grace and moved by affection for her,
God's Mother and our own dearest Mother, they have contemplated in an
ever clearer light the wonderful harmony and order of those privileges
which the most provident God has lavished upon this loving associate of
our Redeemer, privileges which reach such an exalted plane that, except
for her, nothing created by God other than the human nature of Jesus
Christ has ever reached this level.
15. The innumerable temples which have been dedicated to the Virgin
Mary assumed into heaven clearly attest this faith. So do those sacred
images, exposed therein for the veneration of the faithful, which bring
this unique triumph of the Blessed Virgin before the eyes of all men.
Moreover, cities, dioceses, and individual regions have been placed
under the special patronage and guardianship of the Virgin Mother of
God assumed into heaven. In the same way, religious institutes, with
the approval of the Church, have been founded and have taken their name
from this privilege. Nor can we pass over in silence the fact that in
the Rosary of Mary, the recitation of which this Apostolic See so
urgently recommends, there is one mystery proposed for pious meditation
which, as all know, deals with the Blessed Virgin's Assumption into
heaven.
16. This belief of the sacred pastors and of Christ's faithful is
universally manifested still more splendidly by the fact that, since
ancient times, there have been both in the East and in the West solemn
liturgical offices commemorating this privilege. The holy Fathers and
Doctors of the Church have never failed to draw enlightenment from this
fact since, as everyone knows, the sacred liturgy, "because it is the
profession, subject to the supreme teaching authority within the
Church, of heavenly truths, can supply proofs and testimonies of no
small value for deciding a particular point of Christian doctrine."(10)
17. In the liturgical books which deal with the feast either of the
dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin there are
expressions that agree in testifying that, when the Virgin Mother of
God passed from this earthly exile to heaven, what happened to her
sacred body was, by the decree of divine Providence, in keeping with
the dignity of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and with the other
privileges she had been accorded. Thus, to cite an illustrious example,
this is set forth in that sacramentary which Adrian I, our predecessor
of immortal memory, sent to the Emperor Charlemagne. These words are
found in this volume: "Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of
this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but
still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten
your Son our Lord incarnate from herself."(11)
18. What is here indicated in that sobriety characteristic of the Roman
liturgy is presented more clearly and completely in other ancient
liturgical books. To take one as an example, the Gallican sacramentary
designates this privilege of Mary's as "an ineffable mystery all the
more worthy of praise as the Virgin's Assumption is something unique
among men." And, in the Byzantine liturgy, not only is the Virgin
Mary's bodily Assumption connected time and time again with the dignity
of the Mother of God, but also with the other privileges, and in
particular with the virginal motherhood granted her by a singular
decree of God's Providence. "God, the King of the universe, has granted
you favors that surpass nature. As he kept you a virgin in childbirth,
thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it
by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb."(12)
19. The fact that the Apostolic See, which has inherited the function
entrusted to the Prince of the Apostles, the function of confirming the
brethren in the faith,(13) has by its own authority, made the
celebration of this feast ever more solemn, has certainly and
effectively moved the attentive minds of the faithful to appreciate
always more completely the magnitude of the mystery it commemorates. So
it was that the Feast of the Assumption was elevated from the rank
which it had occupied from the beginning among the other Marian feasts
to be classed among the more solemn celebrations of the entire
liturgical cycle. And, when our predecessor St. Sergius I prescribed
what is known as the litany, or the stational procession, to be held on
four Marian feasts, he specified together the Feasts of the Nativity,
the Annunciation, the Purification, and the Dormition of the Virgin
Mary.(14) Again, St. Leo IV saw to it that the feast, which was already
being celebrated under the title of the Assumption of the Blessed
Mother of God, should be observed in even a more solemn way when he
ordered a vigil to be held on the day before it and prescribed prayers
to be recited after it until the octave day. When this had been done,
he decided to take part himself in the celebration, in the midst of a
great multitude of the faithful.(15) Moreover, the fact that a holy
fast had been ordered from ancient times for the day prior to the feast
is made very evident by what our predecessor St. Nicholas I testifies
in treating of the principal fasts which "the Holy Roman Church has
observed for a long time, and still observes."(16)
20. However, since the liturgy of the Church does not engender the
Catholic faith, but rather springs from it, in such a way that the
practices of the sacred worship proceed from the faith as the fruit
comes from the tree, it follows that the holy Fathers and the great
Doctors, in the homilies and sermons they gave the people on this feast
day, did not draw their teaching from the feast itself as from a
primary source, but rather they spoke of this doctrine as something
already known and accepted by Christ's faithful. They presented it more
clearly. They offered more profound explanations of its meaning and
nature, bringing out into sharper light the fact that this feast shows,
not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained
incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly
glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ-truths that the liturgical books had frequently touched upon
concisely and briefly.
21. Thus St. John Damascene, an outstanding herald of this traditional
truth, spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily
Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and
privileges. "It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact
in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even
after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a
child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was
fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should
live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her
Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the
sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to
him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting
that God's Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she
should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid
of God."(17)
22. These words of St. John Damascene agree perfectly with what others
have taught on this same subject. Statements no less clear and accurate
are to be found in sermons delivered by Fathers of an earlier time or
of the same period, particularly on the occasion of this feast. And so,
to cite some other examples, St. Germanus of Constantinople considered
the fact that the body of Mary, the virgin Mother of God, was incorrupt
and had been taken up into heaven to be in keeping, not only with her
divine motherhood, but also with the special holiness of her virginal
body. "You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your
virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of
God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into
dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of
incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in
perfect life."(18) And another very ancient writer asserts: "As the
most glorious Mother of Christ, our Savior and God and the giver of
life and immortality, has been endowed with life by him, she has
received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who
has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a
way known only to him."(19)
23. When this liturgical feast was being celebrated ever more widely
and with ever increasing devotion and piety, the bishops of the Church
and its preachers in continually greater numbers considered it their
duty openly and clearly to explain the mystery that the feast
commemorates, and to explain how it is intimately connected with the
other revealed truths.
24. Among the scholastic theologians there have not been lacking those
who, wishing to inquire more profoundly into divinely revealed truths
and desirous of showing the harmony that exists between what is termed
the theological demonstration and the Catholic faith, have always
considered it worthy of note that this privilege of the Virgin Mary's
Assumption is in wonderful accord with those divine truths given us in
Holy Scripture.
25. When they go on to explain this point, they adduce various proofs
to throw light on this privilege of Mary. As the first element of these
demonstrations, they insist upon the fact that, out of filial love for
his mother, Jesus Christ has willed that she be assumed into heaven.
They base the strength of their proofs on the incomparable dignity of
her divine motherhood and of all those prerogatives which follow from
it. These include her exalted holiness, entirely surpassing the
sanctity of all men and of the angels, the intimate union of Mary with
her Son, and the affection of preeminent love which the Son has for his
most worthy Mother.
26. Often there are theologians and preachers who, following in the
footsteps of the holy Fathers,(20) have been rather free in their use
of events and expressions taken from Sacred Scripture to explain their
belief in the Assumption. Thus, to mention only a few of the texts
rather frequently cited in this fashion, some have employed the words
of the psalmist: "Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the
ark, which you have sanctified"(21); and have looked upon the Ark of
the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord's
temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved
and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such
glory in heaven. Treating of this subject, they also describe her as
the Queen entering triumphantly into the royal halls of heaven and
sitting at the right hand of the divine Redeemer.(22) Likewise they
mention the Spouse of the Canticles "that goes up by the desert, as a
pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense" to be
crowned.(23) These are proposed as depicting that heavenly Queen and
heavenly Spouse who has been lifted up to the courts of heaven with the
divine Bridegroom.
27. Moreover, the scholastic Doctors have recognized the Assumption of
the Virgin Mother of God as something signified, not only in various
figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the
sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos.(24)
Similarly they have given special attention to these words of the New
Testament: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you
among women,"(25) since they saw, in the mystery of the Assumption, the
fulfillment of that most perfect grace granted to the Blessed Virgin
and the special blessing that countered the curse of Eve.
28. Thus, during the earliest period of scholastic theology, that most
pious man, Amadeus, Bishop of Lausarme, held that the Virgin Mary's
flesh had remained incorrupt-for it is wrong to believe that her body
has seen corruption-because it was really united again to her soul and,
together with it, crowned with great glory in the heavenly courts. "For
she was full of grace and blessed among women. She alone merited to
conceive the true God of true God, whom as a virgin, she brought forth,
to whom as a virgin she gave milk, fondling him in her lap, and in all
things she waited upon him with loving care."(26)
29. Among the holy writers who at that time employed statements and
various images and analogies of Sacred Scripture to Illustrate and to
confirm the doctrine of the Assumption, which was piously believed, the
Evangelical Doctor, St. Anthony of Padua, holds a special place. On the
feast day of the Assumption, while explaining the prophet's words: "I
will glorify the place of my feet,"(27) he stated it as certain that
the divine Redeemer had bedecked with supreme glory his most beloved
Mother from whom he had received human flesh. He asserts that "you have
here a clear statement that the Blessed Virgin has been assumed in her
body, where was the place of the Lord's feet. Hence it is that the holy
Psalmist writes: 'Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the
ark which you have sanctified."' And he asserts that, just as Jesus
Christ has risen from the death over which he triumphed and has
ascended to the right hand of the Father, so likewise the ark of his
sanctification "has risen up, since on this day the Virgin Mother has
been taken up to her heavenly dwelling."(28)
30. When, during the Middle Ages, scholastic theology was especially
flourishing, St. Albert the Great who, to establish this teaching, had
gathered together many proofs from Sacred Scripture, from the
statements of older writers, and finally from the liturgy and from what
is known as theological reasoning, concluded in this way: "From these
proofs and authorities and from many others, it is manifest that the
most blessed Mother of God has been assumed above the choirs of angels.
And this we believe in every way to be true."(29) And, in a sermon
which he delivered on the sacred day of the Blessed Virgin Mary's
annunciation, explained the words "Hail, full of grace"-words used by
the angel who addressed her-the Universal Doctor, comparing the Blessed
Virgin with Eve, stated clearly and incisively that she was exempted
from the fourfold curse that had been laid upon Eve.(30)
31. Following the footsteps of his distinguished teacher, the Angelic
Doctor, despite the fact that he never dealt directly with this
question, nevertheless, whenever he touched upon it, always held
together with the Catholic Church, that Mary's body had been assumed
into heaven along with her soul.(31)
32. Along with many others, the Seraphic Doctor held the same views. He
considered it as entirely certain that, as God had preserved the most
holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her virginal purity and
integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never have
permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes.(32)
Explaining these words of Sacred Scripture: "Who is this that comes up
from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"(33)
and applying them in a kind of accommodated sense to the Blessed
Virgin, he reasons thus: "From this we can see that she is there
bodily...her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were
there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to
the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in
body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude.(34)
33. In the fifteenth century, during a later period of scholastic
theology, St. Bernardine of Siena collected and diligently evaluated
all that the medieval theologians had said and taught on this question.
He was not content with setting down the principal considerations which
these writers of an earlier day had already expressed, but he added
others of his own. The likeness between God's Mother and her divine
Son, in the way of the nobility and dignity of body and of soul - a
likeness that forbids us to think of the heavenly Queen as being
separated from the heavenly King - makes it entirely imperative that
Mary "should be only where Christ is."(35) Moreover, it is reasonable
and fitting that not only the soul and body of a man, but also the soul
and body of a woman should have obtained heavenly glory. Finally, since
the Church has never looked for the bodily relics of the Blessed Virgin
nor proposed them for the veneration of the people, we have a proof on
the order of a sensible experience.(36)
34. The above-mentioned teachings of the holy Fathers and of the
Doctors have been in common use during more recent times. Gathering
together the testimonies of the Christians of earlier days, St. Robert
Bellarmine exclaimed: "And who, I ask, could believe that the ark of
holiness, the dwelling place of the Word of God, the temple of the Holy
Spirit, could be reduced to ruin? My soul is filled with horror at the
thought that this virginal flesh which had begotten God, had brought
him into the world, had nourished and carried him, could have been
turned into ashes or given over to be food for worms."(37)
35. In like manner St. Francis de Sales, after asserting that it is
wrong to doubt that Jesus Christ has himself observed, in the most
perfect way, the divine commandment by which children are ordered to
honor their parents, asks this question: "What son would not bring his
mother back to life and would not bring her into paradise after her
death if he could?"(38) And St. Alphonsus writes that "Jesus did not
wish to have the body of Mary corrupted after death, since it would
have redounded to his own dishonor to have her virginal flesh, from
which he himself had assumed flesh, reduced to dust."(39)
36. Once the mystery which is commemorated in this feast had been
placed in its proper light, there were not lacking teachers who,
instead of dealing with the theological reasonings that show why it is
fitting and right to believe the bodily Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary into heaven, chose to focus their mind and attention on the
faith of the Church itself, which is the Mystical Body of Christ
without stain or wrinkle(40) and is called by the Apostle "the pillar
and ground of truth."(41) Relying on this common faith, they considered
the teaching opposed to the doctrine of our Lady's Assumption as
temerarious, if not heretical. Thus, like not a few others, St. Peter
Canisius, after he had declared that the very word "assumption"
signifies the glorification, not only of the soul but also of the body,
and that the Church has venerated and has solemnly celebrated this
mystery of Mary's Assumption for many centuries, adds these words of
warning: "This teaching has already been accepted for some centuries,
it has been held as certain in the minds of the pious people, and it
has been taught to the entire Church in such a way that those who deny
that Mary's body has been assumed into heaven are not to be listened to
patiently but are everywhere to be denounced as over-contentious or
rash men, and as imbued with a spirit that is heretical rather than
Catholic."(42)
37. At the same time the great Suarez was professing in the field of
mariology the norm that "keeping in mind the standards of propriety,
and when there is no contradiction or repugnance on the part of
Scripture, the mysteries of grace which God has wrought in the Virgin
must be measured, not by the ordinary laws, but by the divine
omnipotence."(43) Supported by the common faith of the entire Church on
the subject of the mystery of the Assumption, he could conclude that
this mystery was to be believed with the same firmness of assent as
that given to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Thus he
already held that such truths could be defined.
38. All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the
theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate
foundation. These set the loving Mother of God as it were before our
very eyes as most intimately joined to her divine Son and as always
sharing his lot. Consequently it seems impossible to think of her, the
one who conceived Christ, brought him forth, nursed him with her milk,
held him in her arms, and clasped him to her breast, as being apart
from him in body, even though not in soul, after this earthly life.
Since our Redeemer is the Son of Mary, he could not do otherwise, as
the perfect observer of God's law, than to honor, not only his eternal
Father, but also his most beloved Mother. And, since it was within his
power to grant her this great honor, to preserve her from the
corruption of the tomb, we must believe that he really acted in this
way.
39. We must remember especially that, since the second century, the
Virgin Mary has been designated by the holy Fathers as the new Eve,
who, although subject to the new Adam, is most intimately associated
with him in that struggle against the infernal foe which, as foretold
in the protoevangelium,(44) would finally result in that most complete
victory over the sin and death which are always mentioned together in
the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles.(45) Consequently, just as
the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final
sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed
Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the
glorification of her virginal body, for the same Apostle says: "When
this mortal thing hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory."(46)
40. Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a
hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of
predestination,(47) immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin
in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer
who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally
obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should
be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her
own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to
the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right
hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.(48)
41. Since the universal Church, within which dwells the Spirit of Truth
who infallibly directs it toward an ever more perfect knowledge of the
revealed truths, has expressed its own belief many times over the
course of the centuries, and since the bishops of the entire world are
almost unanimously petitioning that the truth of the bodily Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven should be defined as a dogma of
divine and Catholic faith--this truth which is based on the Sacred
Writings, which is thoroughly rooted in the minds of the faithful,
which has been approved in ecclesiastical worship from the most remote
times, which is completely in harmony with the other revealed truths,
and which has been expounded and explained magnificently in the work,
the science, and the wisdom of the theologians - we believe that the
moment appointed in the plan of divine providence for the solemn
proclamation of this outstanding privilege of the Virgin Mary has
already arrived.
42. We, who have placed our pontificate under the special patronage of
the most holy Virgin, to whom we have had recourse so often in times of
grave trouble, we who have consecrated the entire human race to her
Immaculate Heart in public ceremonies, and who have time and time again
experienced her powerful protection, are confident that this solemn
proclamation and definition of the Assumption will contribute in no
small way to the advantage of human society, since it redounds to the
glory of the Most Blessed Trinity, to which the Blessed Mother of God
is bound by such singular bonds. It is to be hoped that all the
faithful will be stirred up to a stronger piety toward their heavenly
Mother, and that the souls of all those who glory in the Christian name
may be moved by the desire of sharing in the unity of Jesus Christ's
Mystical Body and of increasing their love for her who shows her
motherly heart to all the members of this august body. And so we may
hope that those who meditate upon the glorious example Mary offers us
may be more and more convinced of the value of a human life entirely
devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father's will and to bringing good
to others. Thus, while the illusory teachings of materialism and the
corruption of morals that follows from these teachings threaten to
extinguish the light of virtue and to ruin the lives of men by exciting
discord among them, in this magnificent way all may see clearly to what
a lofty goal our bodies and souls are destined. Finally it is our hope
that belief in Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven will make our
belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective.
43. We rejoice greatly that this solemn event falls, according to the
design of God's providence, during this Holy Year, so that we are able,
while the great Jubilee is being observed, to adorn the brow of God's
Virgin Mother with this brilliant gem, and to leave a monument more
enduring than bronze of our own most fervent love for the Mother of
God.
44. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of
supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the
Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his
special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the
immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the
increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and
exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own
authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely
revealed dogma: that 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.
45. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or
to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has
fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.
46. In order that this, our definition of the bodily Assumption of the
Virgin Mary into heaven may be brought to the attention of the
universal Church, we desire that this, our Apostolic Letter, should
stand for perpetual remembrance, commanding that written copies of it,
or even printed copies, signed by the hand of any public notary and
bearing the seal of a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity,
should be accorded by all men the same reception they would give to
this present letter, were it tendered or shown.
47. It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration,
pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and
counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him
know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed
Apostles Peter and Paul.
48. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the great Jubilee,
1950, on the first day of the month of November, on the Feast of All
Saints, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.
PIUS XII
ENDNOTES
1. Rom 8:28.
2. Gal 4:4.
3. Cf. Hentrich-Von Moos, Petitiones de Assumptione Corporea B.
Virginis Mariae in Caelum Definienda ad S. Sedem Delatae, 2 volumes
(Vatican Polyglot Press, 1942).
4. Acts 20:28.
5. The Bull Ineffabilis Deus, in the Acta Pii IX, pars 1, Vol. 1, p.
615.
6. The Vatican Council, Constitution Dei filius, c. 4.
7. Jn 14:26.
8. Vatican Council, Constitution Pastor Aeternus, c. 4.
9. Ibid., Dei Filius, c. 3.
10. The encyclical Mediator Dei (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XXXIX, 541).
11. Sacramentarium Gregorianum.
12. Menaei Totius Anni.
13. Lk 22:32.
14. Liber Pontificalis.
15. Ibid.
16. Responsa Nicolai Papae I ad Consulta Bulgarorum.
17. St. John Damascene, Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genetricis
Semperque Virginis Mariae, Hom. II, n. 14; cf. also ibid, n. 3.
18. St. Germanus of Constantinople, In Sanctae Dei Genetricis
Dormitionem, Sermo I.
19. The Encomium in Dormitionem Sanctissimae Dominae Nostrate Deiparae
Semperque Virginis Mariae, attributed to St. Modestus of Jerusalem, n.
14.
20. Cf. St. John Damascene, op. cit., Hom. II, n. 11; and also the
Encomium attributed to St. Modestus.
21. Ps 131:8.
22. Ps 44:10-14ff.
23. Song 3:6; cf. also 4:8; 6:9.
24. Rv 12:1ff.
25. Lk 1:28.
26. Amadeus of Lausanne, De Beatae Virginis Obitu, Assumptione in
Caelum Exaltatione ad Filii Dexteram.
27. Is 61:13.
28. St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones Dominicales et in Solemnitatibus, In
Assumptione S. Mariae Virginis Sermo.
29. St. Albert the Great, Mariale, q. 132.
30. St. Albert the Great, Sermones de Sanctis, Sermo XV in
Annuntiatione B. Mariae; cf. also Mariale, q. 132.
31. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., I, lla; q. 27, a. 1; q. 83, a. 5,
ad 8; Expositio Salutationis Angelicae; In Symb. Apostolorum Expositio,
a. S; In IV Sent., d. 12, q. 1, a. 3, sol. 3; d. 43, q. 1, a. 3, sol.
1, 2.
32. St. Bonaventure, De Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo V.
33. Song 8:5.
34. St. Bonaventure, De Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 1.
35. St. Bernardine of Siena, In Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo
11.
36. Ibid.
37. St. Robert Bellarmine, Conciones Habitae Lovanii, n. 40, De
Assumption B. Mariae Virginis.
38. Oeuvres de St. Francois De Sales, sermon for the Feast of the
Assumption.
39. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part 2, d. 1.
40. Eph 5:27.
41. I Tim 3:15.
42. St. Peter Canisius, De Maria Virgine.
43. Suarez, In Tertiam Partem D. Thomae, q. 27, a. 2, disp. 3, sec. 5,
n. 31.
44. Gen 3:15.
45. Rom 5-6; I Cor. 15:21-26, 54-57.
46. I Cor 15:54.
47. The Bull Ineffabilis Deus, loc. cit., p. 599.
48. I Tim 1:17.
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