From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
August 15, 2026 (#122)
The Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Solemnity of her Assumption
The feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is both ancient and new. The belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was received body and soul into the Kingdom of heaven at the time of (or after or prior to) her death was firmly held by the Church almost certainly by the middle of the 4th century. And by the year 600 AD, the Christian East was celebrating a feast to commemorate it, on August 15. In the East, the feast was known as that of the Dormition of the Mother of God. The feast was introduced about 50 years later in Rome by Pope Sergius, and by the time of Pope Nicholas I (858-867), it was celebrated with a solemnity equal to that of Christmas and Easter.
In 1946, Pope Pius XII asked the Catholic bishops of the world, “Do you, venerable brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire it?” There was a nearly unanimous affirmative response to both questions. And so, on November 1, 1950, the same pope declared the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to be a dogma of Catholic faith in an apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus. In doing so, the pope left several questions unresolved, e.g., whether this took place at Ephesus or in Jerusalem, and whether the Virgin Mary experienced a physical death prior to her assumption or was assumed prior to her death, etc.
Prior to this solemn and infallible proclamation, Pope Pius XII, in 1944, had already established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to be celebrated on the octave day of the Assumption, that is, August 22nd. This observance of the mid-20th century led to the devotional practice of dedicating the entire month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, in 1969, with the reform of the General Roman Calendar, by the authority of Pope St. Paul VI, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was transferred to the Saturday immediately following the celebration of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that is, the third Saturday after Pentecost. At the same time, the pope moved the celebration of the Queenship of Mary from May 31 to August 22, as it stands today. (In those communities using the 1962 Roman Missal, these Marian feasts remain as they were between 1944 and 1969.)
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a special devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, still fostered in the religious communities of women and men she founded. It is expressed by the prayerful invocation frequently used by the Missionaries of Charity, “Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of our joy, pray for us!” In addition, by a special indult of the Holy See, the Missionaries of Charity continue to observe the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 22.
“Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of our joy, pray for us!”
Statues and other devotional material related to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can be found at In His Name Catholic Bookstore:
