Homilia de dormitione, auctore Peudo-Basilio Caesariensi
Standard abbreviation: Hom. Dorm. Vir.
Other titles: none
Other designations: I5 in van Esbroeck’s classification of Dormition traditions; I4 in Mimouni’s
Clavis numbers: ECCA 844; CANT 174
Category: Dormition Accounts
Related literature: Dormition of the Virgin by the Apostle John; Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names 3.2
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Homily on the Dormition of the Virgin, by Pseudo-Basil of Caesarea.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-dormition-of-the-virgin-by-pseudo-basil-of-caesarea/.
Created September 2024.
1. SUMMARY
This homily, extant only in Georgian, identifies as its source “the discourse of John the Theologian and Evangelist,” presumably the popular Dormition of the Virgin by the Apostle John. The Johannine dormition is classified as a Bethlehem account, because it sets some of the narrative in Bethlehem, but Basil’s homily also includes some motifs from the Palm tradition.
The homily begins with Mary in Jerusalem attended by her three virgin companions. Every day she comes to the tomb of her son to pray. This day she has learned she will soon depart the world so she prays to Jesus, beseeching him to protect her from the Jews who want to burn her body and asking him to send the apostle John to her. Gabriel appears, gives her an olive branch, and tells her to go to Bethlehem. Mary spends a brief amount of time there with her three virgins. Mention is made of her practice of praying before an image of Jesus on a linen cloth. Sometimes the image on the cloth would speak to her.
Mary returns to Jerusalem on a Wednesday (from here on the events are explicitly connected to a festal calendar established at the end of the text). There she is greeted by John, followed by the other apostles who arrive on a cloud. Mary shows them the palm given to her by Gabriel and at her request, they each tell her where they have been. Dionysius the Areopagite, Hierotheus, Timothy, and Titus are with them also.
At this point, a mob comes to kill Mary and the apostles, but as they approach, their feet become bound and they are struck blind and mute. One man nearby, Abraham, declares his belief in Jesus and urges the rest to repent; they all do so and come to Mary to confess their iniquity. They return home baptized and converted.
That evening, Mary and the apostles have supper. Mary talks to them about her impending death and expresses concern that she does not know what will happen to her. John laments that they will be orphans without her, while Peter declares that she will will become an intermediary for sinners. The group sings hymns through the night and in the middle of the night a light shines before the image of Jesus. A voice from the light tells the apostles to glorify the departure of Mary and Mary tells them to adorn the image of her son with glory.
Thursday morning arrives and Mary stands in her bedroom before the image and prays; again the image responds to her.
On Friday, the group eats a meal before the image. Mary washes everyone’s feet. When night comes, the earth quakes and Michael and Gabriel appear, along with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the priest Simeon, and John the Baptist. Around mid day the heavenly host appears and then Jesus. He takes Mary’s soul in his arms and ascends with her to heaven, where she stands before God pleading for peace and mercy for souls.
The apostles prepare Mary’s body for burial and take it out to Gethsemane. Once again they are attacked by a mob. One of the attackers, Jephonias grabs the bier and his hands fall to the ground; Peter tells him to pray to Mary and his arms reattach. Mary’s body is placed in the tomb with the image of Jesus. Sometime in the night, the body is taken to heaven.
Basil realizes that one of their number, Thomas, is missing. All of a sudden, he arrives on a cloud. He laments missing the funeral and asks to see Mary’s body. After some disagreement over who should open the tomb (Paul, John, or Peter?), Peter and James the Righteous open it but no body can be found, only Mary’s girdle and burial shroud. The apostles establish the feast of the dormition, which begins 14 August for night one, 15 for the dormition, 16 for laying Mary in her tomb, and 17 for the assumption. Peter establishes three fasts for each day except the dormition which will be a day of rest and declares that anyone who fails to commemorate the the dormition of Mary will be cursed.
Basil states that Mary’s tomb remains a place of cures and miracles. Then he reiterates that the image of Jesus was placed at the tomb. After that, the apostles returned to their lands.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Abraham (patriarch), Abraham (of Jerusalem), Andrew (apostle), Annas (scribe/high priest), Bartholemew (apostle), Caiaphas, David (king), Dionysius the Areopagite, Gabriel (angel), Herod Antipas, Hierotheos, Isaac (patriarch), Jacob (patriarch), James (the Righteous), Jephonias, John (son of Zebedee), John the Baptist, Luke (evangelist), Mark (evangelist), Mary (Virgin), Matthias (apostle), Matthew (apostle), Michael (angel), Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Philip (apostle), Pontius Pilate, Simon (the Canaanite/Zealot), Simeon (high priest), Thomas (apostle), Timothy, Titus.
Geographical locations: Afraeli, Alexandria, Arimathea, Bethlehem, Bythinia, Egypt, Eleutheropolis, Ephesus, Gethsemane, hell, Hierapolis, India, Jerusalem, Judea, Lystra, paradise, Rome, Sebastopolis, Thebais, Thrace, Tiberias, Zion.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Georgian
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, Geo. 68, fols. 140r–157r (11th or 13th cent.) ~ LOC
Esbroeck, Michel van. “L’Assomption de la Vierge dans un Transitus pseudo-Basilien.” AnBoll 92 (1974): 125–63.
Marr, Nicholas. Opisanie gruzinskih rukopisej Sinaiskogo monastyrja. Moscow and Leningrad, 1940 (manuscript description and excerpts, pp. 181–84).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Shoemaker, Stephen J. trans. The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Apocryphes 17. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023 (translation based on edition by van Esbroeck, pp. 293–320; introduction, pp. 47–51).
3.3 General Works
3.3.1 Dormition Narratives
Esbroeck, Michel van. “Les textes litteraires sur l’Assomption avant le Xe siècle.” Pages 265–85 in Les actes apocryphes des apôtres. Edited by François Bovon. Publications de la faculte de theologie de l’Universite de Geneve 4. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1981.
McNamara, Martin. “Transitus Mariae: General Introduction.” Pages 225–44 in Apocrypha Hiberniae II. Apocalyptica 2. Edited by Martin McNamara et al. CCSA 21. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019.
Mimouni, Simon. Dormition et assumption de Marie: Histoire des traditions anciennnes. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995.
__________. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (pp. 166–67).
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
__________. Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Wenger, Antoine. L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle. Études et documents. Archives de l’Orient chrétien 5. Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955.