Tomb of the Virgin Mary

alt=|thumb|505x505px|Plan and vertical cross-section of the site

Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary, also Tomb of the Virgin Mary (; ; ; ; ) or the Church of the Assumption (), is a Christian church built around an ancient Judean rock-cut tomb in the Kidron Valley – at the foot of Mount of Olives, in East Jerusalem – believed by Christians to be the burial place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Status Quo, a 250-year-old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.

Christian tradition

The Sacred Tradition of Eastern Christianity teaches that the Virgin Mary died a natural death (the Dormition of the Theotokos, the falling asleep), like any human being; that her soul was received by Christ upon death; and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her repose, at which time she was taken up, soul and body, into heaven in anticipation of the general resurrection. Her tomb, according to this teaching, was found empty on the third day.

Roman Catholic teaching holds that Mary was "assumed" into heaven in bodily form, the Assumption; the question of whether or not Mary actually underwent physical death remains open in the Catholic view. On 25 June 1997 Pope John Paul II said that Mary experienced natural death prior to her assumption into Heaven.

A narrative known as the Euthymiaca Historia (written probably by Cyril of Scythopolis in the 5th century) relates how the Emperor Marcian and his wife, Pulcheria, requested the relics of the Virgin Mary from Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, while he was attending the Council of Chalcedon (451). According to the account, Juvenal replied that, on the third day after her burial, Mary's tomb was discovered to be empty, only her shroud being preserved in the church of Gethsemane. In 452 the shroud was sent to Constantinople, where it was kept in the Church of Our Lady of Blachernae (Panagia Blacherniotissa).

According to other traditions, it was the Cincture of the Virgin Mary which was left behind in the tomb, or dropped by her during Assumption.

History and archaeology

Roman-period cemetery

In 1972, Bellarmino Bagatti, a Franciscan friar and archaeologist, excavated the site and found evidence of an ancient cemetery dating to the 1st century; his findings have not yet been subject to peer review by the wider archaeological community, and the validity of his dating has not been fully assessed.

Bagatti interpreted the remains to indicate that the cemetery's initial structure consisted of three chambers (the actual tomb being the inner chamber of the whole complex), was adjudged in accordance with the customs of that period.

Byzantine- and Early Muslim-period structures

Later, the tomb interpreted by the local Christians to be that of Mary's was isolated from the rest of the necropolis, by cutting the surrounding rock face away from it. An edicule was built on the tomb.

During the following centuries the church was destroyed and rebuilt many times, but the crypt was left untouched, as for Muslims it is the burial place of the mother of prophet Isa (Jesus).

Crusader church and monastery

By 1130, during the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the church was rebuilt by the Benedictines, As a result of that, the Franciscans, who had owned the church since 1363, were forced to leave.

Authenticity

Ephesus as alternative

A legend, which was first mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis in the 4th century AD, purported that Mary may have spent the last years of her life in Ephesus, Turkey. The Ephesians derived it from John's presence in the city, and Jesus’ instructions to John to take care of Mary after his death. Epiphanius, however, pointed out that although the Bible mentions John leaving for Asia, it makes no mention of Mary going with him. The Eastern Orthodox Church tradition believes that Virgin Mary lived in the vicinity of Ephesus, at Selçuk, where there is a place currently known as the House of the Virgin Mary and venerated by Catholics and Muslims, but argues that she only stayed there for a few years, even though there are accounts of her spending nine years until her death.

Pro: apocrypha

Although no information about the end of Mary's life or her burial are provided in the New Testament accounts, and many Christians believe that none exist in early apocrypha, some apocryphon are offered as supporting Mary's death (or other final fate). The Book of John about the Dormition of Mary, written in either the 1st, 3rd, 4th, or 7th century, places her tomb in Gethsemene, as does the 4th century Treatise about the passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Before as well as after the anonymous traveller from Piacenza, during the 4th to early 8th centuries, Saints Epiphanius of Salamis, Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, Modest, Sophronius of Jerusalem, German of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, and John of Damascus talk about the tomb being in Jerusalem, and bear witness that this tradition was accepted by all the Churches of East and West.

Other claims

Christianity

Turkmen Keraites believe, according to a Nestorian tradition, that another tomb of the Virgin Mary is located in Mary, Turkmenistan – a town originally named Mari.

Another tradition exists among the Christians of Nineveh in northern Iraq, that the tomb of Mary is located near Erbil, linking the site to the direction of tilt of the former Great Mosque of al-Nuri minaret in Mosul.

Ahmadiyya

The Ahmadiyya movement believe that Mary was buried in the town of Murree, Pakistan, and her tomb is presently located in the shrine Mai Mari da Ashtan. The authenticity of these claims is not yet academically established and has not undergone any scholastic or academic research, nor canonical endorsement from the Holy See, nor anyone else.

Gallery

File:Tomb of the Virgin Mary. Staircase of 47 steps..jpg|Staircase of 47 steps leading from the entrance down into crypt with the tomb

Image:4960-20080122-0718UTC--jerusalem-entering-marys-tomb.jpg|The entrance stairs, lower part

File:Mary's tomb,Melisende IMG 0251c.jpg|The Chapel of Saints Joachim and Anne, originally the tomb of Queen Melisende of Jerusalem

File:Painting at Tomb of Mary.JPG|Icons in the Chapel of Saints Joachim and Anne

File:Tomb of the Virgin Mary. Altar.jpg|The Tomb of Mary: facade covered in icons and entrance door

File:maria-tomb.jpg|The Tomb of Mary: facade covered in icons and entrance door

File:Mary's tomb PA180062.JPG|Inside the Tomb of Mary: the stone bench on which the Virgin's body was laid out

File:Mary and christ,photo frame at Tomb of Mary.JPG|Crypt, western apse: icon of Mary and Christ

File:Dormition Church3099.JPG|Icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos

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Festivities

Orthodox Dormition

Each 25 August (12 August according to the Julian calendar), the Orthodox icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos is carried in a procession from the Metochion of Gethsemane across from the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to the Tomb of Mary. Here it remains throughout the period around the Orthodox Day of Dormition (28 August), including the Lamentations of the Eve of the Dormition, until being taken back on 5 September (23 August Julian) in another procession.

References

Bibliography

(about Arculf, p. 17)
(pp. 20–21)
Olsson, Suzanne, Jesus in Kashmir The Lost Tomb (2019) |Investigation in to the alleged final resting place of Mary in Mari Ashtan, Pakistan, with photos and additional resource links.
(pp. 464–469)
(pp. 210, 219)
(p. 102)
(pp. 27, 33, 193)
(pp. 20–21)
(pp. 287–306)
(pp. 305–313)
(pp. 40, 402)

External links

Tomb of the Virgin Mary at Sacred Destinations provides a description of the interior and history of the site.
Jerusalem Mary`s Tomb at http://allaboutjerusalem.com
Assumptions About Mary (comments on the historicity of the site) at Catholic Answers.
O Svetoj zemlji, Jerusalimu i Sinaju at http://www.svetazemlja.info
Photos of the Tomb of the Virgin at the Manar al-Athar photo archive