By Leonette Cicirella

"Father in heaven, all creation rightly gives you praise, for all life and all holiness come from you. In the plan of your wisdom she who bore the Christ in her womb was raised body and soul in glory to be with Him in heaven."
(From the Opening Prayer, Mass for the Feast of the Assumption)

For centuries, the mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary's Assumption into heaven has been celebrated by the Universal Church as a religious holy day, a day of prayer and reflection on this glorious privilege that was granted to Mary. When Italian immigrants arrived in America, this was one of the religious feasts or festivals that they traditionally celebrated. Italian immigrants in Cleveland's Little Italy community have been commemorating the Feast of the Assumption with various activities since 1898. During the Feast, they celebrated their blessings and gave what they could to the church to help the poor and less fortunate.

The Blessed Virgin Mary's Assumption into heaven is not only a holy day for those who have a strong devotion to the Madonna, but perhaps more importantly it is a belief that has been studied and expounded upon by many saints and doctors of the Church. Drawing on the writings and teachings of learned religious leaders such as St. Sergius, St. Leo IV, St. John Damascene, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Albert the Great, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus and St. Peter Canisius, the Catholic Church proclaimed the Assumption of Mary as the fourth Dogma on the Virgin Mary.

Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution entitled, Munificentissimus Deus (1950), stated: "... 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." (Paragraph 44)

In the years that followed this promulgation of Church teaching, devotion to Mary was enhanced by further explanation of Her Assumption into heaven by Pope Paul VI in his Papal Encyclical, Apostolic Exhortation For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1974. As Pope Paul stated, "The solemnity of August 15 celebrates the glorious Assumption of Mary into heaven. It is a feast of her destiny of fullness and blessedness, of the glorification of her immaculate soul and of her virginal body, of her perfect configuration to the Risen Christ, a feast that sets before the eyes of the Church and of all mankind the image and the consoling proof of the fulfillment of their final hope, namely, that this full glorification is the destiny of all those whom Christ has made His brothers…"

Besides inspiring a number of the Church's Magisterium and spiritual writers, Mary's Assumption into heaven has served to inspire numerous artists and poets in their expressions of religious devotion. Renowned painters such as El Greco, Gherardo di Jacopo, Nicolas Poussin, Massimo Stanzione and Sir Peter Paul Rubens have rendered their interpretations of the Assumption in their various works. The sculptor Giuseppe Armani has gracefully portrayed Mary's Assumption; the Blessed Virgin is surrounded by several angels leading her to heaven.

In his poem, The Assumption, John Beaumont articulates the profound significance of this Marian belief.

"This is she in whose pure womb
Heaven's Prince remained;
Therefore in no earthly tomb
Can she be contained.

Heaven she was, which held that fire,
Whence the world took light,
And to Heaven doth now aspire
Flames with flames t'unite.

Over the years, celebrations of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary may have changed and religious devotions may have become minimized, but the Universal Church will ever continue to honor her Mother. Pope Pius XII wrote his "Apostolic Constitution" defining the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, but his words are quite timely today: "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." (Paragraph 42)

Ave Maria! Buon Festa!