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The Passing of Mary

Unknown

Section 1

About this work

Author: Unknown

1. Therefore, when the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was hanging

‹ Salutation / Introduction Section 2 ›

on

the

tree

fastened

by

the

nails

of

the

cross

for

the

life

of

the

whole

world

,

He

saw

about

the

cross

His

mother

standing

,

and

John

the

evangelist

,

whom

He

peculiarly

loved

above

the

rest

of

the

apostles

,

because

he

alone

of

them

was

a

virgin

in

the

body

.

He

gave

him

,

therefore

,

the

charge

of

holy

Mary

,

saying

to

him

:

Behold

thy

mother

!

and

saying

,

to

her

:

Behold

thy

son

!

From

that

hour

the

holy

mother

of

God

remained

specially

in

the

care

of

John

,

as

long

as

she

had

her

habitation

in

this

life

.

And

when

the

apostles

had

divided

the

world

by

lot

for

preaching

,

she

settled

in

the

house

of

his

parents

near

Mount

Olivet

.

Notes

1
The otherms. has the following introductory chapter: Melito, servant of Christ, bishop of the church of Sardis, to the venerable brethren in the Lord appointed at Laodicea, in peace greeting. I remember that I have often written of one Leucius, who, having along with ourselves associated with the apostles, turned aside through alienated feelings and a rash soul from the path of rectitude, and inserted very many things in his books about the acts of the apostles. Of their powers, indeed, he said many and diverse things; but of their teaching he gave a very false account, affirming that they taught otherwise than they did, and establishing his own impious statements, as it were, by their words. Nor did he think this to be enough; but he even vitiated, by his impious writing, the assumption of the blessed ever-virgin Mary, the mother of God, to such a degree that it would be impious not only to read it in the church of God, but even to hear it. When you ask us, therefore, what we heard from the Apostle John, we simply write this, and have directed it to your brotherhood; believing, not the strange dogmas hatched by heretics, but the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, while the threefold person of the Godhead and undivided substance remains; believing not that two human natures were created by a good God, which by the craft of the serpent was vitiated through sin, and restored through the grace of Christ. [Tischendorf gives this from Maxima Bibliotheca vet. patr , ii. 2, pp. 212 sqq. (ed. Sugdun).—R.]
2
John xix. 26, 27.