Today, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. Because it falls on a Saturday this year, it is not a holy day of obligation.

The dogma of the Assumption of Mary is our belief that, having been conceived without original sin because of the merits won by her Son on the cross, and preserved from sin during her life, Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. The Eastern Churches call this the “dormition of Mary” or “falling asleep.” It is part of the ancient faith of the Church that was declared a dogma of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

Catholic devotion to Mary is ancient. The oldest extant prayer to Mary is the Sub Tuum Praesidium, a prayer asking for the protection of our Blessed Mother. The Sub Tuum Praesidium is dated to around the year 250. It’s reasonable to conclude that, given the well-developed theology on Mary in the Sub Tuum Praesidium, the faith expressed in this prayer was in place at least decades prior to 250. It’s not as if Catholics in the middle of the third century suddenly started believing about Mary the faith that is found in the prayer. No, the Sub Tuum Praesidium gives testimony to a faith of the Church in Mary that had been developing over decades, and even centuries, prior to when the prayer was composed. Consider, too, that the year 250 is fully 75 years before the First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical Council of the Church, which addressed the Arian heresy, affirmed the divinity of Christ, and gave us the Creed Catholics profess every Sunday at Mass. Think about that: here is a prayer that gives honor to Mary and asks her protection, and it was part of the life of the Church for at least a century prior to the Council that gave us the Creed we profess every Sunday!

Originally written in Greek, an English translation from the Latin reads as such:

We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God. Despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Living in the South, where the dominant Christian tradition is a Reformed or Evangelical Protestantism, Catholics sometimes come under suspicion for our devotion to Mary. But in the Sub Tuum Praesidium, we find a record of the faith of the Church from her earliest centuries in the unique role of Mary in God’s plan for our redemption. She was the one who received the promise of the angel and delivered our Lord in a stable. She was the one who presented Him to His Father, nourished Him at her breast, encouraged Him in His first steps, taught Him the prayers of the faith, found Him among the scholars in the temple, watched Him grow to be a man, initiated His earthly ministry, and watched as the crowds first adored Him, then shouted for His crucifixion. She was the one at the foot of His cross, who took His lifeless body into her arms and wept. She was the one found among the apostles at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Mary is central to the faith of Catholics. We never go wrong in honoring the one who gave us the incarnate Lord, and who faithfully points the way to Him.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.