Charity registration No. SC002876   Sunday July 11th. 2010 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Main Menu Notices 2 Page 4 Page 5 Notices n November 11, 1950, Pius XII defined the doctrine of  the Assumption, which stated that, because Mary was  sinless, she did not suffer the corruption of the grave,  but was taken body and soul into heaven. It was the universal will of the people that encouraged Pope Pius XII  to proclaim this truth, which was believed by everyone since the early  days of the Church. So it was nothing new, but rather and opportunity  to define a generally accepted truth.  For 200 years after the crucifixion, every memory of Jesus was  obliterated from the city of Jerusalem, and the sites made holy by His  life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. After the building  of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to  be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord started to be  celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his  mother centred around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion,  where the early Christian community had lived. On the hill itself was  the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where  she had died., and the tomb where she was buried. The memory of Mary was being celebrated as early as this, and later it  was to become the feast of the Assumption. For a time, Mary's  memory was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the  emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it  began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep"  ("Dormition") of the Mother of God.  Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there  was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had  been taken up body and soul into heaven. This belief dated back to the  apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there  were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood  on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also  soon became a place of pilgrimage. Today, the Benedictine Abbey of  the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout  the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople,        >>>>>  Assumption of Mary into heaven