(Vatican Radio) Each year, the Catholic Church remembers the Assumption of Our Lady
into Heaven on August 15th. Different traditions hold that the Virgin
Mary left this earthly life between three and fifteen years after Christ’s death and
Resurrection. She was assumed into heaven some accounts say, as she reposed in eternal
sleep – either in Jerusalem or in Ephesus, in modern day Turkey. Early accounts
from the holy land reported that a Christian cult venerating Christ’s mother had grown
up around a place on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, just south of the Old City walls. The
spot, known from early times as Hagia Maria, continues to this day to be the site
of veneration and prayers to Our Lady. Today, German speaking Benedictine monks care
for the Catholic Church of the Dormition built there, over the ruins of a series of
early Christian shrines. Today, the monks serve the Church, guests and pilgrims
and work for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land. Tracey McClure sat down
with the noted scholar and author Fr. Peter Stravinskus, who has led us in reflections
on the holy sites in the land of Christ’s birth – to ask him his thoughts on this
Jerusalem shrine, celebrating the Virgin’s death and assumption into heaven… listen
to the program: