re mary s assumption in article may athos rutgers edu brian finnerty bfinnert chaph usc edu writes one last point an ex catholic attempted to explain catholic doctrine on the assumption by asserting it is connected to a belief that mary did not die this is not a correct summary of what catholics believe the dogma of the assumption was carefully phrased to avoid saying whether mary did or did not die in fact the consensus among catholic theologians seems to be that mary in fact did die this would make sense christ died and his mother who waited at the foot of the cross would want to share in his death the above article is a good short summary of traditional christian teaching concerning the death of mary also very good is re question about the virgin mary by micheal d walker he tells the story very well i would like to add that in the eastern orthodox church we celebrate the dormition or falling asleep of the theotokos the mother of god the icon for this day shows mary lying on a bed surrounded by the apostles who are weeping christ in his resurrected glory is there holding what seems to be a small child this is in fact mary s soul already with christ in heaven the assumption of mary is one more confirmation for us as christians that christ did indeed conquer death it forshadows the general resurrection on the last day the disciples were not surprised to find mary s body missing from the grave she was the mother of the savior she was the first of all christians she gave birth to the word of god if it were not for her we would not be saved this is why we pray in the orthodox church through the prayers of the theotokos savior save us timothy richardson rich student tc umn edu
