Great Feast
Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos
✓ Comprehensive Orthodox source review completed
The Church celebrates the falling asleep and glorification of the Mother of God.
Core account checked against Orthodox Church in America — Dormition of the Mother of God, Orthodox Church in America — Dormition of the Mother of God, Orthodox Church in America — The Orthodox Faith: Dormition. Additional ecclesiastical references appear below.
Life and Witness
The Falling Asleep of the Mother of God
At the completion of her earthly life, the Most Holy Theotokos received the announcement of her approaching repose. She prepared in prayer and entrusted herself to her Son.
The apostles were gathered in Jerusalem by divine providence to surround her bed, offer prayer and honor the woman from whom the Word of God had taken flesh.
Burial and the Empty Tomb
The apostles carried her body to Gethsemane and placed it in the tomb. Orthodox tradition relates that the Apostle Thomas arrived after the burial and asked to venerate her body.
When the tomb was opened it was found empty. The Church celebrates not an independent resurrection separated from Christ, but the glorification of His Mother through the victory of her Son.
Feast, Fast and Holy Places
The Dormition is preceded by a two-week fast and celebrated with hymns of hope. The lamentations used in many churches join reverent mourning to Paschal expectation.
The Tomb of the Theotokos in Gethsemane is a major Orthodox shrine. August 15 — Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.
From the Orthodox Synaxarion
The Prologue from Ohrid recounts the apostolic gathering around the repose of the Mother of God. The feast is proclaimed not as sorrow without hope but as a testimony to resurrection, communion with Christ and the continuing intercession of the Theotokos.
Historical Record and Ecclesiastical Tradition
The Dormition is not narrated in the canonical New Testament; its received account comes from the Church's ancient liturgical, patristic and hagiographical tradition. The article therefore presents the gathering of the Apostles, the burial and translation of the Theotokos according to Orthodox worship, without importing later confessional definitions or claiming that every narrative detail has equal historical attestation.
Biographical information on this page is based exclusively on the Orthodox ecclesiastical sources listed below.
Orthodox Church in America — Dormition of the Mother of GodOrthodox Church in America — Dormition of the Mother of GodOrthodox Church in America — The Orthodox Faith: DormitionThe Prologue from Ohrid — August 15The Prologue from Ohrid — August 15