Mary Immaculate, who from the first moment of her conception was privileged to escape the stain of original sin, also has been given the privilege of escaping the corruption of the tomb. It is her entry, body and soul into the splendor of heaven that the church celebrates on the triumphant and glorious Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady. It is generally held by Church historians that this feast originated in Jerusalem. The Emperor of Constantinople, Mauricius Flavius (d. 602) issued a decree stating that the feast of Mary's Dormition or falling asleep should be celebrated throughout the Byzantine Empire each year on August 15. This feast was introduced in Rome fifty years later and Pope St. Sergius I (687-701) decreed that it be celebrated with a solemn procession, thereby elevated it to the same status as the Annunciation on March 25, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, February 2 and Mary's Nativity on September 8. By the year 740 it appears in the Roman Sacramentary called the "Solemnity of Mary's Resting." Theoteknos (d. 650) bishop of Livas, on the bank of the Jordan River first speaks of the Assumption (Analepsis) and not the Dormition (Koimesis) of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Other early Church writers such as Modestus of Jerusalem and St. Germanus of Constantinople in the eighth century wrote and preached on Mary's Assumption. St. John Damascene at that same time wrote three homilies on the Feast of the Assumption. The following quote is from his second homily: " It is fitting that she, who in childbirth kept her virginity undamaged, should also after death keep her body free from all corruption."

Knoefler published by Pustet in Ratisbonæ