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Walter,
Actually we call it the Assumption, not the Ascension, of the Virgin Mary, because Assumption means it was not under her power, and Ascension implies that it would be under her own power, equal to Christ's Ascension.
The belief in the Assumption is very old. St. John of Damascus in the 8th century (P.G., I, 96) thus formulates the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem:
| St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to Heaven. |
Eric
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