"A great sign appeared in heaven"

For those ofus who still abstain on Fridays, even in places where it is not obligatory, a Friday Solemnity is a nice thing. Even where Friday abstinence is obligatory (i.e., England and Wales, etc.), Friday solemnities abrogate that obligation. So, have a steak or cheeseburger and enjoy it today.

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably my favorite holy day. Called her "Dormition" ("going to sleep") in the East, this observance is a fairly ancient one. It is observed in West and the East on the same day. One issue about our Blessed Mother's being bodily assumed into heaven is whether she died and was then taken up or whether she was taken up without dying.

Assumption of Mary, Rubens, ca. 1626

Among Roman Catholics, the most supportable position is that the Blessed Virgin Mary died and was bodily assumed into heaven. As a result, her body did not decay. This is position is not a dogmatic one. In his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, promulgated 1 November 1950, in which he infallibly declared Mary's Assumption as a dogma of the faith, Pope Pius XII, while clearly leaning toward the position that she first died, does not make that de fide.

It also bears noting that since the First Vatican Council's definition of papal infallibility in 1870 with the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus, there has only been one infallible declaration, a singluar extraordinary exercise of the papal magisterium, which is found in Munificentissimus Deus. Prior to Vatican I, Pope Pius IX infallibly declared the Blessed Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception in 1854 with Ineffabilis Deus, .

In Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII, by "the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul," and on his own authority,

pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory (sec. 44)

Upon being so assumed, she was crowned as Queen of Heaven. Therefore, one week after the celebrating the solemnity of her assumption, the Church observes the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Our traditio for today's Solemnity is the Introit for the Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Signum Magnum (i.e., "A Great Sign").