How Old Was the Theotokos When She Reposed?

 

How Old Was the Theotokos When She Reposed?

By Professor Dr. Spyridon Kontoyiannes,

Professor of Theology at the University of Athens

As the tradition of our Church teaches, the Falling Asleep of the Theotokos took place at the house of John the Evangelist, where the All Holy Virgin stayed, together with his brother James and their mother Salome who was related to the Theotokos, according to the known consignment of Christ from the Cross (John 19:26-27). The Theotokos was informed about her imminent falling asleep by an angel three days before the event, and so she was able to prepare herself and to give her two garments to two widowed neighbors.

When the All-holy Virgin fell asleep and her eyes were closed, the Apostles, who had been miraculously gathered together in Jerusalem from the “ends of the earth,” raised her bier and carried it to the garden of her family in Gethsemane, where her parents, Joachim and Anna, had been buried, and buried it there. During the transportation of the bier, fanatical Jews tried to overturn it, but they were miraculously blinded. Only one of them was able to touch the bier, but an invisible sword cut his two hands.

Many of the faithful, however, on many occasions have raised the question: how old was our All-holy Lady when she fell asleep? To find the age of the Theotokos at the time of her falling asleep we need to take the events of her life one by one, as they are delivered by the New Testament and the tradition of our Church.

1. As regards the date of the birth of the Theotokos, the Menaia of the Church record according to the tradition the 8th of September of the year 16 BC.

2. Her betrothal by Zachariah her relative (Luke 1:36) to Joseph who was also her relative (Luke 1:27 3:23ff), occurred when the All-holy Virgin was 14 years old.

3. Her Annunciation that she would give birth to the Son and Word of God by the Archangel Gabriel occurred in the year 1 BC, i.e. when the All-holy Virgin had completed her 15th year.

4. Therefore, when she gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ she was 16 years old.

5. At the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, in May of the year AD 33, the All-holy Virgin had completed her 48th year and was present together with the Apostles at the Upper Room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14, 2:1ff).

All the above-mentioned pieces of information concerning the life of the All-holy Theotokos are supplied by Luke the Evangelist in his Gospel and in his book the Acts of the Apostles, in combination with the great and sacred events of the Church, because the All-holy Virgin was the most venerable person in the early Church as the Mother of our Savior and God.

So, when in the year AD 48/49, another great and sacred event took place in the Church, the Apostolic Synod, Luke does not say whether our All-holy Lady was present. He does so, not out of contempt or irreverence towards her holy person but simply because by his silence he indicates that she had fallen asleep a little earlier than the summoning of the Apostolic Synod in AD 47 or 48/49. It would have been unthinkable and irrational if the first historian of the Church willfully ignored the person who gave birth to the Redeemer of the world; the person to whom human beings for over two thousand years “have been turning, after God” and regard her as their “indissoluble fortress and protection.” The silence of Luke the Evangelist in this case means nothing else than that our All-holy Lady had fallen asleep. She fell asleep and was transported to heaven as the Mother of our God and our Mother to Life at the age of 62/63.

The only Apostle who was absent from the funeral of the Theotokos was Thomas. However, when he arrived three days later and went to grave of the Theotokos, he did not find her body there but only her sepulcher clothes. At the grave of the Theotokos a magnificent temple was erected which is attributed to St. Helen. After the destruction of this temple the Byzantine emperors Marcian (450-457) and Pulcheria erected the temple which still exists today.

It was at this temple in Gethsemane that Saint John Damascene delivered his celebrated Orations on the Falling Asleep of the Theotokos. It is with him that we too sing today: “Let us praise her today with sacred songs… Let us honor her with an all-night vigil… Let us thank her with purity of soul and body… Let us cry with Gabriel, the first leader of the angels… Rejoice, you through whom death is being pushed aside and life has been brought in” (Oration II on the Dormition of the Theotokos, 16).

(Original: https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2015/08/how-old-was-theotokos-when-she-reposed.html )

Closing of churches - Catholicism dying in Europe (including Malta)

The below is just a sample. The situation is much worse:

The Netherlands

In the Dutch province of Friesland, more than 250 of 720 existing churches have been transformed or closed. 

The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint Ignatius Church.

The Church of St. Jacobus, one of the oldest of the city of Utrecht, was converted into a luxury residence. 

A library opened in a former Dominican church in Maastricht.

Belgium

In Mechelen, Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel now stands. Catholic arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.

In Tournai, the Church of St. Margherita has been transformed into apartments.

Eight centuries after its founding, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament at Binche, a majestic building in the heart of a medieval town close to Brussels, was put on sale for the symbolic sum of one euro. 

The Church of St. Catherine, built in 1874, dominates the historic centre of Brussels, the only religious building created in the city at the end of Ancien Régime, and today one of the most protected in the EU's capital, especially after the terror attacks there in 2016. Brussels, however, wanted to convert the church into a fruit market. Only the mobilization of the faithful hindered the city's plan.

The Church of Saint-Hubert in Watermael-Boitsfort now accommodates apartments. 

In Malonne, the chapel of Piroy has been transformed into a restaurant. 

In Namur, the Saint-Jacques Church was transformed into a clothing store and the Church of Notre Dame, built in 1749 and deconsecrated in 2004, is now a "cultural space."

France 

Some years ago, Muslim French leader Dalil Boubakeur suggested turning empty churches into mosques. 

In the French region of Vierzon, the Church of Saint-Eloi has become a mosque. 

The diocese of Bourges had put the church on sale, and a Muslim organization made a most generous offer to buy the site. 

In the Quai Malakoff, in Nantes, the old Church of Saint Christopher became the Mosque of Forqane.

A few years ago, Niall Ferguson, the brilliant contemporary historian, wrote about Europe's future as "the creeping Islamicization of a decadent Christendom." 

It is easy to find images of the decay of Europe's Christianity and the growth of Islam in the heart of the old continent. 

Every traveller in any modern European city can notice the new mosques being built alongside abandoned and secularized churches, some converted into museums.