Liber de dormitione (armeniace)
Standard abbreviation: Dorm. Vir. (Arm.)
Other titles: “Standard Transitus,” some manuscripts attribute the text to Nicodemus
Other designations: AM1 in van Esbroeck’s classification of Dormition traditions
Clavis numbers: CANT 160; ECCA 283
Category: Dormition Accounts
Related literature: no specific account
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Dormition of the Virgin (Armenian).” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/dormition-of-the-virgin-armenian/.
Created October 2024.
1. SUMMARY
The Armenian dormition sometimes reads like an apocryphal narrative, sometimes like a homily. It is distinguished from other dormition accounts also in its lengthy speeches that praise the celibate life. Likely it was produced in a monastic environment with the goal of providing encouragement and consolation.
The text opens with Mary in Jerusalem. The angel of the Lord appears and tells her to go to the Mount of Olives. Once there, the angel tells Mary that it will soon be time for her departure. He reassures her that her passing will be like no one else’s and her Son will lead her to eternal rest. Mary tells him she is ready and the angel departs. Then Mary delivers a lengthy prayer emphasizing her own life of chastity and providing encouragement for others who live as she does. A voice from above responds favorably to her prayer and then she returns to her home. The virgins who attend Mary ask her why she went to the Mount of Olives and express sorrow to hear of her impending departure. In comforting them, Mary again speaks about the chaste life.
John arrives and Mary tells him he will lead her to Christ and will sing hymns to help her pass over the demons of wickedness on the earth. She asks him also to protect her body from her enemies amongst the Jews. John is grieved to hear about her departure. He asks her to be an intercessor, a guide enlightening believers to the knowledge of the truth. Through her the curse of Adam and Eve has been lifted. When John finishes speaking, the rest of the apostles arrive. They do not know why they are there but Peter steps forward and calls upon God to reveal it. John tells them about Mary’s impending departure and they weep and comfort each other. Then they go into the home to see Mary. She delivers another speech of praise; Peter follows with his own praises, this time of Mary.
After Peter’s monologue Mary withdraws to wash herself and dress in new garments. The old garments she gives to the virgins. For the rest of the day and the following night, they all pray. In the morning Mary dies and a light fills the house.
The apostles lift up Mary’s body to take it to her prepared tomb. The Jews of the city take this moment to attack the apostles but they are struck blind. One of them runs up and touches Mary’s clothes; s a result, his hands are cut off. He asks the apostles for mercy. When he declares belief in Christ and Mary as his mother, he is healed. The group reach the tomb, attended by the light that filled Mary’s home. The light does not cease for three days. On the fourth day, angels descend and lift up Mary’s body into the clouds. The body is taken to paradise but here the author breaks into the narrative to say that he does not know if Mary’s body and soul were reunited or not. She was accepted into endless life, he says, not according to other teachings that put forward other stories.
The apostles baptize the man who was healed and news spreads of his miraculous healing. The apostles ask Peter to say some encouraging words before they depart. Instead, Peter compels Paul to speak. He says that Mary’s departure must be celebrated with psalms and hymns, a church must be built where she rests, and they are all to emulate her purity and virginity so that they may achieve perfection. Paul then continues with praises of virginity. With a final call to preach to various congregations, Paul finishes his speech and the apostles disperse.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Adam (patriarch), Andrew (apostle), Eve (matriarch), Gabriel (angel), James (son of Alphaeus), James (son of Zebedee), John (son of Zebedee), Judas (son of James; the Zealot), Mary (Virgin), Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Philip (apostle), Simon (the Canaanite/Zealot), Thomas (apostle).
Geographical Locations: Jerusalem, Mount of Olives.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Armenian (BHO 640–641)
3.1.1.1 Long Recension
A Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arm. 110, fols. 479–486 (1194)
B Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arm. 117, fol. 151f. (1305) ~ Mimouni lists as 118 ~ GALLICA
E Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arm. 178, fols. 586–591 (12th cent.) ~ GALLICA
b Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 512 (1637)
e Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 271 (1223)
d Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 1553 (1215)
3.1.1.2 Short Recension
C Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arm. 120, fols. 135–141 (14th cent.) ~ GALLICA
c Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 653 (1847)
a Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 1014 (12th cent.)
Unassigned:
Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 2, fols. 169v–175v (15th cent.)
Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 5, fols. 315r–333v (13th cent.)
Venice, Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro, 382, fols. 1r–23v (13th cent.)
Yerevan, Matenadaran, 993 (1456)
Tayec‘i, E. Ankanon girk‘ nor ktakaranac‘ (Libri spurii Noui Testamenti). 2 vols. Venice, 1898 (text of short recension based principally on manuscript a with readings from bcde, vol. 2, pp. 451–78).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 German
Vetter, Paul. “Die armenische ‘Dormitio Mariae.’” Theologische Quartalschrift 84 (1902): 321–49 (German translation of the longer recension based on A with readings from BCDE and abcde).
3.2.2 Italian
Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (summary only, vol. 1.2, pp. 524–25).
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.
Jugie, Martin. La Mort et l’Assumption de la Sainte Vierge: Étude historico-doctrinale. Studi e Testi 114. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944.
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.
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.
3.3.2 Dormition of the Virgin (Armenian)
Jugie, Martin. La Mort et l’Assumption de la Sainte Vierge: Étude historico-doctrinale. Studi e Testi 114. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944 (see pp. 155–56).
Mimouni, Simon. Dormition et assumption de Marie: Histoire des traditions anciennnes. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995 (pp. 322–28).