Two early documents on the Feast of the Dormition

02 September 2010

We have today added two documents that will be of value to those interested in studying the histories of the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God - a feast for which we have of late been publishing various documents. The first is a document from the apocryphal documents of the New Testament era: Pseudo-John the Theologian's Concerning the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God. A pseudepigraphic text of the fifth or sixth century, this document provides an interesting glimpse into some of the variations in the Dormition tradition that were in circulation in the early period (this text being an example of the 'Bethlehem tradition'), that were known to the Fathers of the Church yet not incorporated into the ongoing liturgical testimony of the feast by reason of their variation from its core details.

Similarly, we have added Theodosius of Alexandria's Discourse on the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God. This late sixth-century text bears witness to the development of the feast within the Coptic milieu, where formerly the commemoration of the dormition was kept separately from that of the bodily assumption of the Virgin, but in Theodosius' day had come together. This is thus a fascinating historical document, as well as a textual insight into some of the common themes between broader Orthodox liturgical life, and the widening gulf with miaphysite contexts (Theodosius himself was at first recognised by the Eastern Orthodox, though later rejected).