st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

"
1
The translation which follows is Mr. Meyrick s, from his
SERMONS.
131
second of the three homilies on the Assumption.
He cites it as contained in a history of Euthymius.
As the only Euthymius who would naturally
be called an historian was the Euthymius Zigabenus
who lived in the reign of Alexius Comnenus, more
than three centuries later, a good
thrown on this
deal of doubt is
and Cave goes
Euthymiac History,"
so far as to consider the citation proof of a later
authorship. However this
may be, it is in this
homily that the legend of the Assumption first
appears in full detail. According to it, the Emperor
Marcian, and Pulcheria, whose vow of perpetual
virginity would interest her in the subject, sent to
Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, to inquire what the
end of the Virgin Mary had been. Juvenal, says the
preacher, thus
l
replied
: "In the holy and divinelyinspired
Scriptures, indeed, nothing
is recorded of
the departure of the Holy Mary, Mother of God. But
from an ancient and most true tradition, we have
received, that at the time of her glorious falling
asleep all the holy apostles, who were going through
the world for the salvation oMhe nations, borne aloft
in a moment of time, came together to Jerusalem
:
and when they were near her they had a vision of
angels, and divine melody was heard ;
and then with
divine and more than heavenly melody she delivered
her holy soul into the hands of God in an unspeak
able manner. But that which had borne God, being
article on Mary the Virgin, in Smith s
"Dictionary of the
Bible, vol. if., p. 269. With a version by such a scholar ready
made, it would be superfluous to translate the passage afresh.
K 2