COPTIC WITNESS TO THE DORMITIO MARIAE
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beloved disciple and apostle, residing at her house in either Jerusalem or Bethlehem.4 When the Virgin approaches her time of
death, she is troubled by anxieties about death and the afterlife,
worries brought on in part by threats of punishment and damnation
she has heard in sermons preached by her son and his apostles.5
Many narratives of the dormition also describe threats of violence
against her from the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem.
As death draws near, Mary is attended and supported by various saints and spiritual powers who dwell on the other side of the
divide separating mortality from immortality: the risen Jesus, his
apostles, and a choir of angels. Also present, frequently, is a small
company of female virgins who have been receiving instruction from
Mary in holy deportment. In most versions the apostles depart from
their mission fields or rise temporarily from their individual graves
and journey miraculously to Mary's side for this occasion; often
these journeys are described in considerable and repetitious detail.
Dialogue ensues between the Virgin and the apostles (especially
John), between the Virgin and Christ, and then finally between
Christ and the apostles. Sometimes Peter preaches a sermon about
death and the afterlife; often Mary or the apostles may be given
tours of Paradise or Gehenna. Mary's moment of departure is told
with the greatest variation: in some versions she actually dies, is
buried, and then is raised, often on the third day; in other tellings
her body dies, but her soul is given to St. Michael the Archangel or
is taken directly to heaven by Christ. In still other traditions both
her body and soul ascend with the angels without any (ordinary)
death described: thus her assumption.6
4 Stories of John's care of Mary begin with Gospel of John 19: 26-27. The
tradition of the Virgin's residence and dormition in Ephesus begins somewhat
later. For the church-political implications of the contested site of Mary's retirement, death, burial, and the fate of her burial remains, see V. Limberis, Divine
Heiress: The Virgin Mary and the Creation of Christian Constantinople (London
1994) especially 47-61.
5 Cf. e.g. Mary's expressions of concern in the Bohairic Instruction ofEvodius
9 (Robinson, op.cit. [above, n. 2] 56); the Discourse of Theodosius 2 (ibid. 94-7);
the Ps.-Melito Transitus Mariae 3, 8 (Elliott, op.cit. [above, n. 2] 709, 711); or the
Gaelic Testament of Mary 2, 6 (Donahue, op.cit. [above, n. 2] 29-33).
6 See further Jugie, op.cit. (above, n. 3); Mimouni, op.cit. (above, n. 3); Shoemaker, op.cit. (above, n. 3) 109-11. Clayton, op.cit. (above, n. 3).
