The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the dogma that the Virgin Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory at the end of her earthly life. The belief is rooted in the Church’s Tradition.
Read the full Assumption novena on the novena page. You can also learn more about novenas here.
What Is the Assumption Novena?
Pope Pius XII, in 1950 dogmatically defined the Assumption in Munificentissimus Deus,
For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
The early Christians honored the Virgin Mary for her role as the mother of Jesus. Stories of her Assumption began to circulate as early as the 4th or 5th century, with various apocryphal writings describing her miraculous Assumption into Heaven.
Her Assumption is a unique privilege granted to her because of her sinlessness and her role as the Mother of God.
The Assumption is a central element of Marian devotion and is reflected in prayers, hymns, and art. It inspires us to reflect on the glory of Heaven and the hope of our own resurrection.