It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the Theotokos ("Mother of God", literally translated as God-bearer), and her being taken up into heaven.

Hippolytus of Thebes, a 7th- or 8th-century author, writes in his partially preserved chronology of the New Testament that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus, dying in AD 41.

[9] The Greek sources for the early period are only late copies and the first transmissions and earliest witnesses can be only found and accessed through the fragmentary translations into Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Syriac.

Additionally, the earliest known appearance of the Dormition in art is found on a sarcophagus in the crypt of a church in Zaragoza in Spain dated c.

According to Sophia Fotopoulou, "We have no historical data to indicate how long the Mother of God remained on earth after the ascension of Christ into heaven, nor when, where, or how she died, for the Gospels say nothing of this.

"[19] Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/20–403), a Jew by birth, born in Phoenicia, converted to Christianity in adulthood and lived as a monk for over 20 years in Palestine from 335–340 to 362, writes in "Panarion" in "Contra antidicomarianitas" about the end of the Virgin Mary the following: If any think [I] am mistaken, moreover, let them search through the scriptures any neither find Mary's death, nor whether or not she died, nor whether or not she was buried—even though John surely travelled throughout Asia.

Or she may have been put to death—as the scripture says, 'And a sword shall pierce through her soul'—her fame is among the martyrs and her holy body, by which light rose on the world, [rests] amid blessings.

[22]Ambrose, however, who was a contemporary of Epiphanius, dismissed the view that Mary was martyred when exegeting Saint Simeon's prophecy in (Luke 2.35), seemingly critiquing those who took the prophecy literally, and reducing the number of options to either natural death or assumption: Neither the letter of Scripture nor history teaches that Mary passed from this life by suffering execution, for it is not the soul but the body [some speculate] which is pierced through and through by the material sword.

[24][page needed] The events of the Dormition of the Virgin and her burial are dealt with in several known apocrypha such as the "Liber de transitu Virginis Mariae" by Pseudo-Melito of Sardis (5th century),[25] a passing reference in Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and narratives by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, and Pseudo-Evodius.

[26] Around this time, the first Dormition narratives among mainstream authors appear, namely Jacob of Serug and Theodosius of Alexandria.

According to Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos in his "History of the Church," Emperor Maurice (582–602) issued an edict which set the date for the celebration of the Dormition on August 15.

Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem (630–632) said at this celebration, while preaching, that he regrets the lack of specific information about the death of the Virgin Mary.

[29] According to Truglia, "John of Thessalonica," another 7th century author, "wrote a narrative admittedly based upon details found in earlier homilies.

[31] According to later tradition, Mary, having spent her life after Pentecost supporting and serving the nascent Church, was living in the house of the Apostle John, in Jerusalem, when the Archangel Gabriel revealed to her that her death would occur three days later.

"Dormition" and "Assumption" are the different names respectively in use by the Eastern and Western traditions relating to the end of Mary's life and to her departure from the earth, although the beliefs are not necessarily identical.

[35][36] The Orthodox Church specifically holds one of the two Roman Catholic alternative beliefs, teaching that Mary died a natural death, like any human being; that her soul was received by Christ upon death; and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her repose, at which time she was taken up, both in body and soul, into heaven when the apostles, miraculously transported from the ends of the earth, found her tomb to be empty.

However, the fact that the Church proclaims Mary free from original sin by a unique divine privilege does not lead to the conclusion that she also received physical immortality.

An Epitaphios of the Theotokos, a richly embroidered cloth icon portraying her lying in state is used, together with specially composed hymns of lamentation which are sung with Psalm 118.

The practice slowly spread among the Russian Orthodox, though it is not by any means a standard service in all parishes, or even most cathedrals or monasteries.

This tradition probably developed because in its final form the anaphora has twelve paragraphs, i.e., one for each concelebrating apostle present at the funeral mass of the Theotokos.

In Byzantine art and that of later Orthodox schools the standard depiction shows the body of the Theotokos lying dead on a bed or bier.

Behind this stands, or floats, Christ holding a small body wrapped in a winding cloth, representing the soul of the Theotokos.

There are similarities between the traditional depictions of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Byzantine icons and the account of the death of the Egyptian Desert Father, Sisoes the Great.

[40] In both Christ is seen coming to receive the soul of the dying saint surrounded by an aureola or cloud of blinding light and accompanied by the angels and prophets.

This suggests that contemporary accounts of the deaths of the Desert Fathers accompanied by a sudden burst of light came to influence the development of the iconography of the Dormition.

The Dormition is known as the Death of the Virgin in Catholic art, where it is a reasonably common subject, mostly drawing on Byzantine models, until the end of the Middle Ages.