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Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received
from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time
drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself,
He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would
translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing
this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed
continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared
whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking
place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where
each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the
house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their
sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction
as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining
upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the
hands of her Son and God.
With reverence and many lights, and chanting burial hymns, the Apostles took
up that God-receiving body and brought it to the sepulchre, while the Angels
from Heaven chanted with them, and sent forth her who is higher than the Cherubim.
But one Jew, moved by malice, audaciously stretched forth his hand upon the
bed and immediately received from divine judgment the wages of his audacity.
Those daring hands were severed by an invisible blow. But when he repented
and asked forgiveness, his hands were restored. When they had reached the place
called Gethsemane, they buried there with honor the all-immaculate body of
the Theotokos, which was the source of Life. But on the third day after the
burial, when they were eating together, and raised up the artos (bread) in
Jesus' Name, as was their custom, the Theotokos appeared in the air, saying "Rejoice" to
them. From this they learned concerning the bodily translation of the Theotokos
into the Heavens.
These things has the Church received from the traditions of the Fathers, who
have composed many hymns out of reverence, to the glory of the Mother of our
God.
Apolytikion in
the First Tone:
In birth, you preserved your virginity; in death, you did not abandon the world,
O Theotokos. As mother of life, you departed to the source of life, delivering
our souls from death by your intercessions.
Source: http://www.goarch.org
Read lives of other Saints - https://www.truechristianity.info/en/saints_en.php
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