The doctrine of the Assumption didn’t become a required belief for Catholics until 1950, when Pope Pius XII declared it to be infallibly true.
It wasn’t “required” in the sense of being dogmatically defined until 1950. But it was generally taught, and generally believed, before that.
And the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception didn’t become a required belief (dogma) until 1854.
Most people have no clue about the original meaning of “to beg the question”. This used to irritate me but I have come to accept the fact that English is a dynamic language. The strict grammarians have lost that battle, along with insisting that “their” is not a singular pronoun.
Right, but Catholics didn’t have to believe it.
But artistic representations of the Assumption appear much earlier than that. Titian’s famous Assumption, for instance, dates to 1516-18.
The problem is that Renaissance and Baroque artists often incorporated themes derived from apocryphal texts in addition to canonical sources. According the Golden Legend (a famous and influential compilation of apocryphal stories about Christ and the saints), Mary undergoes a real, physical death and is buried, but on the third day, she is resurrected and assumed bodily into heaven.
So those Catholic artists that CalMeacham mentions would (most likely) have believed in both the Virgin’s death AND her Assumption.
I’d just like to add that the wiki page for St. Anne is very informative on this subject. St. Anne was Mary’s mother, if you didn’t know.
Definitely not the way I learned it in Catholic School. We were just taught about the Assumption. That’s why finding depictions of Mary on her deathbed were such a surprise to me. We’d never been taught about Mary dying. It was implied that she was assumed into Heaven while still alive.
OTOH in the Eastern Churches (Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic), that which was described by Götterfunken is the tradition of the Dormition of Mary, which is pretty much as described, in which Mary undergoes a brief temporary death a-la-JC only without the whole descent-into-Sheol schtick (sinless, remember) and THEN is granted the Resurrection and Assumed to rejoin the family.
The Western Church, though, apparently officially says Mary was Assumed “at the end of her earthly life” without going into detail as to exactly what happened. The sequential mechanics of the event are apparently not part of the dogma? Any help, Bricker, tomndebb?
So that aspect, whether the Assumption means she was “raptured” a-la-Elijah or preemptively Resurrected and Assumed, is apparently a matter of debate and disagreement all the way to modern theological times.
(The Golden Legend is where you find things like the Grail and the whole gang taking summer trips to Cornwall 
, it’s fun but nondoctrinal)
…
Me either–like you, I only learned about the Death of the Virgin imagery from art history (and I have to say it came as a surprise to me, too, the first time I saw it).
It was apparently a very common theme up through the Baroque era, but afterwards it seems to have died off (heh) in popularity–at least in the Western Church. After the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church began insisting that artists adhere more strictly to scriptural sources, and discouraged them from relying on apocryphal texts like the Golden Legend (which had provided so much of the imagery for medieval and Renaissance art). As a result, several popular but not officially-sanctioned beliefs gradually disappeared. At the same time, other popular traditions remained so strong that they eventually became accepted by the Church as legitimate. The doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Virgin are examples of the latter–long the object of popular devotion, and without scriptural basis, but today recognized as dogma by the Church.
It’s interesting what JRDelirious says about the Dormition of the Virgin and the Eastern Churches. A lot of Mary’s iconography (and the apocryphal legends about her childhood, etc.) had become common in Byzantine art long before they’d become common in Western art. I suspect that the Death of the Virgin imagery was originally based on Byzantine prototypes.
orthodox type here.
most ikons will show the death of the theotokos thusly:
a central “laying out” of the theotokos with the apostles and morners around her. behind here will be her son bearing a small doll like looking theotokos which represents her soul.
she was buried in a traditional manor ( with an interesting bit of someone’s hands falling off and being put back on) when her grave was visited (thomas again) her body was gone.
Was it Stately and Wayne?
Forgive me. I couldn’t help myself.
Broadly, the Eastern tradition - shared by the Orthodox and by Eastern Catholics - is that the Virgin died and was then assumed into heaven. The Western tradition, common among Latin Catholics, was that she was assumed instead of dying. The dogmatic formulation of the doctrine is compatible with both traditions - presumably intentionally so.
I believe catholics believe Mary never sinned ever. I was brought up catholic but left that church and became a christian. We believe Jesus had no sin, but Mary conceived without having had sex first, though she later had relations.
Catholics are Christians.
To be clear, “theotokos” means something like “Mother of God”? I haven’t encountered the term before.
Catholics believe that Mary never in her life had sex, and also believe that she never in her life sinned, but the two beliefs are completely unrelated. The Catholic church does not teach, and never has taught, that sex within marriage is sinful. Mary could have had sex with Joseph, her husband, and still have been without sin.
theotokos is greek for god bearer. most orthodox types will refer to her using the greek title. the more common terms of “bvm” or “our lady” are frowned as they don’t give her her full due.
calmeacham, i sure the “manor” was a hole-in-the-wall orig. but has become quite the stately building now!
It’s of Mary, technically. This is one of those terms, like “Frankenstein,” “begging the question,” or “fascist,” that is misused more than it’s used correctly–much to the chagrin of those of us who value precise & meaningful intercourse.
I wouldn’t put begging the question on that list. Persons who use it to mean “Phenomenon X makes one wonder about Possibility Y” are using begging the question in a literal rather than metaphorical sense.