Dormition of the Virgin Transitus Latin W

Liber de dormitione, transitus latinus W

Standard abbreviation: Dorm. Vir. Trans. W

Other titles: Transitus W, Latin Revision of the Book of Mary’s Repose

Clavis numbers: ECCA 701; CANT 114

Category: Dormition Accounts

Compiled by Brandon W. Hawk, Rhode Island College

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Hawk, Brandon W. “Dormition of the Virgin Transitus Latin W.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/dormition-of-the-virgin-transitus-latin-w/.

Created December 2022. Current as of January 2024.

1. SUMMARY

The Dormition of the Virgin Transitus W is one of the earliest Dormition narratives in Latin, probably created from a Greek source before the end of the sixth century. In basic structure, it is parallel to the Dormition of the Virgin Transitus Greek R, but it differs in many details. It begins with Mary holding vigil after Jesus’ Ascension, when an angel appears to offer her a palm branch and announce her assumption in three days, after which all of the apostles will bury her. Afterward, she travels to the Mount of Olives with the palm and is bathed in angelic light and the angel ascends to heaven.

Mary returns home, deposits the palm, washes, puts on her best clothes, and offers a prayer to God for blessings and protection. She then calls for all of her relatives to join her and tells them about her assumption and gives a speech about the journey of the soul after death accompanied with either an angel of justice or an angel of iniquity.

While Mary talks with her relatives, suddenly the apostle John arrives at her door and Mary requests that John stand guard over her body and lay it in her tomb because the next day she must leave her body. She takes John into her room and shows him her burial clothes and the palm, asking him to carry it in front of her bed when she leaves her body. John responds that he is unable to do this alone and that he will wait for his fellow apostles. After they leave Mary’s room, there is a great thunder and all of the other apostles arrive, having been caught up in the clouds and deposited at Mary’s door. The apostles decide to pray and Peter asks Paul to start, but Paul defers to Peter, whom he calls a pillar of light and the first of the apostles. Peter then offers a prayer.

The apostles greet each other and Peter and Andrew ask John to explain how he arrived at Mary’s house. He tells them that he had been preaching in the “city of Agathe” when he was taken up in a cloud. The apostles all enter the house and greet Mary, then they explain how they arrived. Mary blesses the apostles, leads them to her room, and shows them her burial clothes.

Peter instructs the apostles to stay awake and wait through the night for Jesus. Suddenly, a bright light appears in the house and speaks to Peter. All of the virgins with the apostles ask for Peter to intercede for them and he comforts them, then he instructs them with a speech about Jesus’ teachings, the virtues of virginity, and the journey of the soul after death.

Mary leaves the room and goes out to recite a prayer, then returns to lay down on her bed. The apostles gather around her, and at the sixth hour there is a clap of thunder and the smell of perfume, which puts everyone present to sleep except the apostles and three virgins who are meant to bear witness to Mary’s assumption. Jesus arrives on a cloud with a host of angels and enters the house, with Michael leading the other angels in singing a hymn. Mary blesses Jesus, who receives her soul from her body and gives it to Michael. Mary’s soul shines intensely and when Peter asks who else could have such a bright soul, Jesus offers a speech about the brightness of a pure soul. He then instructs Peter to guard Mary’s body, to bury it in a tomb outside of the city, and to stand guard over the tomb. Jesus then ascends to heaven.

The apostles and the three virgins prepare Mary’s body for her funeral, after which everyone else awakens. Peter gives the palm to John, instructing him to lead the procession with it because he is a virgin, but John defers to Peter, whom he calls the first of the apostles. The apostles surround the bed and, covered by a cloud, progress to the tomb.

The chief priests of the Jews learn about Mary’s funeral procession and Satan enters them, inciting them to kill the apostles and burn Mary’s body. As they attack, a host of angels blind the Jews. One of them, however, is not blinded and attacks the apostles to overthrow the bed; as he reaches to grab the palm, his hands wither and stick to the bed. He begs Peter to help him, but Peter says that it is not in his power to help; rather, healing is dependent on the man’s belief in Jesus. The Jew professes his belief in Jesus as the Son of God and Peter orders the bed to be set down. He instructs the man to kiss the bed, which he does, and he blesses Mary for three hours, after which Peter instructs him to professes his faith in Jesus before his hands are released. Peter then instructs the man to take the palm to the blinded Jews and to offer the promise of their sight if they believe in Jesus. The man does so, and all those who believe are granted their sight.

The apostles carry Mary’s body to the tomb and bury her, then stand guard over the tomb. Jesus appears again with a host of angels and orders Michael to receive Mary’s body into heaven. Michael takes the body and Jesus welcomes the apostles into the clouds, where Mary’s body is deposited under the Tree of Life in Paradise. The angels bring Mary’s soul and join it to her body. Jesus then orders that each of the apostles be returned to where they had been before they were taken to Mary’s house.

The ending varies across the witnesses, with some specifying that Mary’s body is placed in Paradise and some specifying that her soul is rejoined to her body. At least one witness includes a passage in which Jesus commands Michael to open hell so that the apostles might see it, with an extended passage about the torments there before Jesus commands Michael to close hell up again.

Named Historical Figures and Characters: Abraham (patriarch), Andrew (apostle), David (king), Holy Spirit, Isaac (patriarch), Jacob (patriarch), Jesus Christ, John (son of Zebedee), Mary (Virgin), Michael (angel), Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Satan.

Geographical Locations: Egypt, Israel, Gomorrah, Mount of Olives, Sodom.

2. RESOURCES

2.1 Web Sites and Other Online Sources

“Assumption of Mary.” Wikipedia.

“Dormition of the Mother of God.” Wikipedia.

2.2 Art and Iconography

“Iconography of the Virgin Mary. Part 4: The Dormition.” Christian Iconography.

“The Dormition of the Virgin and Saints.” A tenth-century ivory carving from Constantinople at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Latin (BHL 5352b–n); sigla from Wilmart

B Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Baluze 270, fols. 167^r–174^r (8th/9th cent.) ~ Biblissima; Gallica

F Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nouv. acq. lat. 1605, fols. 22^v and 27^r–30^v (10th/11th cent.)

G St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 732, fols. 115^r–142^r (11th cent.) ~ e-Codices

M Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 13781, fols. 20^r–24^r (13th cent.) ~ Gallica

P Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 430, fols. 109^r–110^v (ca. 840)

R Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 119, fols. 133^r–135^v (12th cent.) ~ DigiVatLib

S Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale, Sessoriano 121, fols. 83^v–93^r (13th cent.)

T Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale, 1396, fols. 45^v–48^r (13th cent.) ~ BVMM

V Silos, fonds reconstitué, 2, fols. 188^r–205^r (11th cent.)

Cambridge, Pembroke College, 25 (11th cent.) ~ IMAGES

Dublin, Trinity College, F.05.03, fols. 143–144 (15th cent.)

Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, 59, fols. 10^v–12^r (11th cent.)

Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, 105, fols. 51^r–56^r (14th cent.)

Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, 788, fol. 34^v (9th cent.) ~ Lyon

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 3550, fols. 1^r–11^r (13th cent.) ~ Gallica

Spoleto, ArchDuomo, légendier de San Felice di Narco, vol. 2, fols. 242^r–243^r (12th cent.)

Trier, Stadtbibliotek, 550/1538, fols. 52^r–57^v (14th cent.)

Clayton, Mary. The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (edition of abridged version in Cambridge, Pembroke 25, pp. 328–33).

Marocco, G. “Nuovi documenti sull’Assunzione del Medio Evo latino: due ‘transitus’ dai codici 59 et 105 di Ivrea.” Marianum 12 (1950): 449–52 (editions of fragmentary versions in Ivrea 59 and 105).

Wenger, Antoine. L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VI^e au X^e siècle. Études et documents. Archives de l’Orient chrétien 5. Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955 (edition of fragment in Lyon 788, p. 257, and edition of Paris lat. 3550, pp. 258–59).

Wilmart, André. “L’ancien récit latin de l’Assomption.” Pages 323–62 in Analecta Reginensia. Extraits des manuscrits latins de la reine Christine conservés au Vatican. Studi e Testi 59. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1933 (edition based on BFGMPRSTV).

3.1.2 Old English (combines Dorm. Vir. Trans. W with chs. 15–17 of Assumption of the Virgin by Pseudo-Melito)

3.1.2.1 Corpus 198

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 198, pp. 350–59 (9th–11th cent.)

Clayton, Mary. Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (text and translation with commentary, pp. 246–72).

3.1.2.2 Blicking Homily 13

Princeton, Princeton University Library, W.H. Scheide Collection 71 (the Blickling Book), fols. 84^v–98^v (10th cent.)

Clayton, Mary. The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (text and translation with commentary, pp. 246–72).

Kelly, Richard J., ed. and trans. The Blickling Homilies. 2 vols. London and New York: Continuum, 2003–2009.

Morris, Richard, ed. The Blickling Homilies. Early English Text Society, o.s. 58, 63, 73. London: Oxford University Press, 1874–1880; repr. in 1 vol. 1967 (edition and facing English translation, pp. 136–59).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Shoemaker, Stephen, trans. The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Apocryphes 17. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023 (pp. 257–68).

3.2.2 French

Mimouni, Simon Claude. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (translation of Wilmart’s edition and variants, including the ending with the torments of hell from Wenger’s edition of Paris lat. 3550, pp. 184–96).

3.3 General Works

Bover, José Maria. “La Asunción de María en el Transitus ‘W’ y en Juan de Tesalónica.” Estudios Eclesiásticos 20 (1946): 415–36.

Capelle, D. B. “Les anciens récits de l’Assomption et Jean de Thessalonique.” Revue de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale 12 (1940): 209–35.

Clayton, Mary. The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (pp. 278–97).

__________. “The Transitus Mariae: The Tradition and Its Origins.” Apocrypha 10 (1999): 74–98 (esp. 94–98).

Faerber, Robert. “La tradition littéraire de la dormition et de l’assomption de Marie en anglais ancien.” Apocrypha 10 (1999): 99–138.

Kabir, Ananya Jahanara. Paradise, Death and Doomsday in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (pp. 59–64).

Mimouni, Simon Claude. Dormition et Assumption de Marie. Histoire des traditions anciennes. Théologie Historique 98. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995 (see esp. pp. 261–64 and 281–86).

__________. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (see esp. pp. 18–19, 165–96, and 184–96).

Rivière, Jean. “Le plus ancien Transitus latin et son dérivé grec.” Revue de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale 8 (1936): 1–33.

Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (pp. 35–37).

Willard, Rudolph. “La ville d’Agathé? Note sur le Transitus Mariae C.” Échos d’Orient 38, no. 195–196 (1939): 346–54.