Our Blessed Mother Mary did not ascend into heaven on her own power, as Christ did, but was raised into heaven by God’s grace.  The Feast of the Assumption is marked as a major feast day and a public holiday in many countries.  In most countries, including the United States, it is a Holy Day of Obligation, and Catholics are required to attend Mass.

The belief in the Assumption of Mary was a widely-held tradition, and a frequent meditation in the writings of saints throughout the centuries. However it was not defined officially until the past century. In 1950, Pope Pius XII made an infallible, ex-cathedra statement in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus officially defining the dogma of the Assumption.

“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 pope wrote.

Within the decree, which was passed beforehand to dioceses around the world, Pope Pius XII surveys centuries of Christian thought and the writings of a number of saints on the Assumption of Mary.

For a better understanding of the history of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, please read:  The History of the Assumption, and-Why It’s A Holy Day of Obligation, by By Adelaide Mena