The Ascension of Saint Mary
The high reverence for the Virgin Saint Mary, by Orthodox Tewahedo Church is best expressed and celebrated feasts for her.
The Dormition of the Virgin Mary is on the 21st of Tir. The Virgin slept in the Lord at the age of 64 years, attended by the disciples. In an effulgence of divine light, Christ appeared, with angels and archangels, received her soul, and entrusted it to the archangel Michael.
Holy Orthodox Church celebrates this feast on the 16th of Nehassie, at the end of the fifteen-day fast devoted to the Theotokos. The only apostle who had witnessed the assumption of the Virgin’s body was Saint Thomas.
According to a orthodox tradition, on his way back from India to Jerusalem, Thomas saw the Saint Mary’s body carried on the wings of angels, above the mountain of Akhmim in Upper Egypt. The other apostles, desirous of seeing it as well, kept a fast with prayers and were promised by Christ to have their wish granted. This came to pass on a day that was adopted by the Orthodox church to be the Feast of the Assumption of the Saint Mary, the 16th of Nehassie.
While she was keeping vigil, praying in the Holy Sepulchre, and waiting for the happy minute of her liberation from the bonds of the flesh, the Holy Spirit informed her of her forthcoming departure from this vain world. When the time drew near, the disciples and the virgins of the Mount of Olives (Zeiton) came and the Lady was lying on her bed. Our Lord, surrounded by thousands and thousands of angels, came to Her. He consoled her, and announced her with the everlasting joy which was prepared for Her. She was happy, and she stretched out her hands, blessed the Disciples, and the Virgins. Then, she delivered up her pure soul in the hand of her Son and God, Jesus Christ, Who ascended her to the higher habitations. As of the pure body, they shrouded it and carried it to Gethsemane.
On their way, some of the Jews blocked the way in the face of the disciples to prevent the burial. One of them seized the coffin. His hands were separated from his body, and remained hanging until he believed and repented for his mischievous deed. With the prayers of the holy disciples, his hands were reattached to his body as they had been before.
Saint Thomas was absent at the time of Saint Mary’s departure, but he came after the burial. On his way back to Jerusalem, Saint Thomas saw angels carrying Saint Mary’s pure body and ascending with it to heaven, and one of the angels said to him, “Hurry and kiss the pure body of Saint Mary.” When he arrived to the disciples, they informed him about Saint Mary’s departure. He told them, “I will not believe, unless I see her body, as you all know how I did doubt the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ before.” They took him to the tomb, to uncover the body but they did not find it, and they were perplexed and amazed. St. Thomas told them how he saw the pure body ascending to heaven, carried by angels.
The Holy Spirit then told them, “The Lord did not Will to leave Her Holy body on earth.” The Lord had promised his pure apostles that they would see her in flesh another time. They were waiting for the fulfillment of this truthful promise, until the sixteenth day of the month of Nehassie, when the promise of seeing her was fulfilled. They saw her sitting on the right hand of her Son and her Lord, surrounded by the angelic Host, as David prophesied and said, “At your right hand stands the queen.” (Psalm 45:9) Saint Mary’s life on earth was sixty years. She spent twelve years of them in the temple, thirty years in the house of the righteous Saint Joseph, and fourteen years in the care of Saint John the Evangelist, as the Lord commanded her saying, “Woman behold your Son,” and to Saint John, “Behold your Mother.”
May Her intercession be with us. Amen!
Source: Coptic Synaxarium