by Norman A. Rubin

Created on: July 25, 2010

Day of the Feast of Assumption of St. Mary; and the August day was complete with clear skies in an expectant atmosphere of being. From the bell tower of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, bells are pealing the solemn hour of High Mass. The clear tones waft from the Valley of Kidron to the City of David; its notes calling out the glory of the day and its celebration of the Mass in St. Mary’s glorification. 

“Gaudeamus Omnes in Domino...

Diem Festum Celebrantes sub honore...

MARIAE VIRGINIS

Gloria Patria Halleluiah...

(Glory to Mary Glory to the Father, Halleluliah) 

The diminishing notes of the bells fall soundlessly on the solemn on the solemn ground of Mt. Zion in the Holy city of Jerusalem. Mt. Zion: on this mount Christendom issued forth from its mother religion Judaism and for here the Disciples of Jesus went forth to bring the faith in the one God of Israel to the whole world. Here, on Mt. Zion, Jesus appeared to them after His resurrection, and here they were filled with Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-13) 

And here on Mt. Zion, St. Mary, Mother of Jesus, lived the circle of the Disciples abiding in the ‘Upper room and receiving the Holy Spirit with them on the Feast of Pentecost. Here, ST. Mary fell into an eternal sleep (Dormito Sanctae Mariae – ‘The Sleep St. Mary) Christ, Himself came to summon his Mother; her soul  passed visibly into His hand.  “Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come. (Sg 2:13) St. Mary was taken into the heavens, body and soul: the Assumption. 

To the north of the early Christian Church of the Apostles, the Byzantines, around the year 383 AD, built their own Zion church. It was called the ‘Church of the Pillars’ because of the ‘Scourging Pillar’ inserted into the colonnade of the building. It had been brought from the house of Caiaphas. In 415 AD, Bishop John II of Jerusalem remodeled this church into the splendid Basilica of Hagia Sion that covered a large part of Mount Zion. In its northwest corner, one is shown the place where St. Mary lived after the resurrection of her son and where She fell into an eternal sleep. (In its center of church of the Abbey, surrounded by six pillars, lies the statue of Mary, asleep. This is where, according to ancient Christian tradition, Mary lived and died after her son's resurrection.) 

The Basilica of Hagia Sion was destroyed in the year 1099 AD. The Crusaders rebuilt the

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