By Friar Trevor D’Souza, OFM –
The Apostolic Constitution of Pope of Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, Defining the dogma of the Assumption, November 1, 1950, highlights the role of many philosophers and theologians who played an important role in synthesising theological reflections based on Scared Scripture to help in defining the dogma of the Assumption.
The dogma states:
“Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death” – CCC 966.
St Francis of Assisi, who during his life time, had a great love and reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary, had already set the tone and tenor for his friars who were to follow him and continue this tradition. The friars who followed did not disappoint Francis. In the Spirit of Assisi, St Anthony of Padua, St Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, Bernadine of Sienna and others became champions of the Marian dogmas that were announced by the Church, especially the Immaculate Conception and Assumption. Below is given the role of three Franciscans who played a vital role in the proclamation of the Assumption of Mary.
In his salutations and praises to the Blessed Virgin Francis writes:
Praise the holy Lady,
The most holy Queen,
Mary, only Mother of God.
She is forever Virgin,
Heavenly chosen of the Father,
And consecrated by the beloved Son with the Holy Ghost the Paraclete.
They three descended in you, And remaining there still, For grace’s fullness and every goodness.
Praise God’s Palace,
Praise God’s Tabernacle
Praise God’s Robe
Praise God’s Servant
Praise God’s Mother!
– Saint Francis of Assisi, Praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary –
Saint Anthony of Padua, (in Portuguese: St. António de Lisboa), born Fernando Martins de Bulhões (1195 – 13 June 1231), also known as Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy.
In para no. 29 the Pope highlights the contribution made by St Anthony of Padua thus:
“Among the holy writers who at that time employed statements and various images and analogies of Sacred Scripture to Illustrate and to confirm the doctrine of the Assumption, which was piously believed, the Evangelical Doctor, St. Anthony of Padua, holds a special place. On the feast day of the Assumption, while explaining the prophet’s words: “I will glorify the place of my feet,”(Is 61:13) he stated it as certain that the divine Redeemer had bedecked with supreme glory his most beloved Mother from whom he had received human flesh. He asserts that “you have here a clear statement that the Blessed Virgin has been assumed in her body, where was the place of the Lord’s feet. Hence it is that the holy Psalmist writes: ‘Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark which you have sanctified.”‘ And he asserts that, just as Jesus Christ has risen from the death over which he triumphed and has ascended to the right hand of the Father, so likewise the ark of his sanctification “has risen up, since on this day the Virgin Mother has been taken up to her heavenly dwelling (footnote 28: St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones Dominicales et in Solemnitatibus, In Assumptione S. Mariae Virginis Sermo).”
The Seraphic Doctor, Saint Bonaventure (in Italian: San Bonaventura) (1221 – 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian medieval Franciscan, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also Cardinal Bishop of Albano.
In para no. 32 the Pope highlights the contribution made by St Bonaventure thus:
“Along with many others, the Seraphic Doctor held the same views. He considered it as entirely certain that, as God had preserved the most holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her virginal purity and integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes. (Footnote 32: St. Bonaventure, De Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo V).
Explaining these words of Sacred Scripture: “Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?”(Song 8:5) and applying them in a kind of accommodated sense to the Blessed Virgin, he reasons thus: “From this we can see that she is there bodily…her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude.(Footnote 34: St. Bonaventure, De Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 1).”
Bernardino of Siena, (also known as Bernardine; 8 September 1380 – 20 May 1444) was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics. His popular preaching made him famous during his own lifetime, although it was frequently directed against sorcery, gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, sodomy (homosexuality) and usury (as commonly practiced by Jews)
In para no. 33 the Pope highlights the contribution made by Bernardine of Siena thus:
“ In the fifteenth century, during a later period of scholastic theology, St. Bernardine of Siena collected and diligently evaluated all that the medieval theologians had said and taught on this question. He was not content with setting down the principal considerations which these writers of an earlier day had already expressed, but he added others of his own. The likeness between God’s Mother and her divine Son, in the way of the nobility and dignity of body and of soul – a likeness that forbids us to think of the heavenly
Queen as being separated from the heavenly King – makes it entirely imperative that Mary “should be only where Christ is.”(Footnote 35: St. Bernardine of Siena, In Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 11). Moreover, it is reasonable and fitting that not only the soul and body of a man, but also the soul and body of a woman should have obtained heavenly glory. Finally, since the Church has never looked for the bodily relics of the Blessed Virgin nor proposed them for the veneration of the people, we have a proof on the order of a sensible experience.(Footnote 36: St. Bernardine of Siena, In Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo 11).”