These two cities dispute the place of the assumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven

San Juan counts in his Gospel who welcomed the Virgin at home since Christ crucified was entrusted in Jerusalem, where there is a tomb of Mary. However, the apostle went to live in another city.

A Blessed and even a Pope affirmed that in the latter site the Virgin left to heaven, but the pontiff died before formalizing him.

In the holy city

The ancient Christian tradition points out that the Virgin ended her pilgrimage for this land in what is currently the Jerusalem’s Basilica. From there the apostles would have taken Mary’s body to a sepulcher in the vicinity of Gethsemaní.

About this grave is today Orthodox Church of the sepulcher of Marywhere the Franciscans custodians of the Holy Land are going to pray “Officially” once a yearevery August 15. On this day, the custodian of the Holy Land enters to pray before the rock where the body of the Virgin would have led to, rather than be taken to heaven in body and soul.

In the city of the main Marian Dogma

On the other hand, saints and ancient writers indicate That San Juan lived in Ephesus, a city in ruins in the current Türkiye, and there are those who believe that there was the apostle with the Virgin.

In one SINODAL LETTER of the Ephesus council (431 AD), meeting of bishops that defined the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary, a relationship of John and the Mother of God with this city was mentioned. Which could confirm that here was the Virgin.

Also, according to the Catholic encyclopedia The historian Hebrew bar (Approx. 1226-1286), a bishop Jacobita (Sirio Orthodox), said that San Juan “founded the Church of Ephesus, and buried Mary in an unknown place.”

This story gained relevance with the visions of the Beata Ana Catalina Emerick (1774-1824), who He indicated of a site in this city, where he affirmed that the Mother of God lived until he passed to the other world.

Besides, She described how the body of the Virgin was transferred by the apostles of this place to a grave and how the Mother of God was taken to heaven in body and soul.

With the references of the Beata, the SERVA DE DIOS MARIE DE MANDAT-GRANCEY (1837-1915), French religious of the Daughters of Charity, and two Vicentine (or Lazaristas) priests They found in 1891 The ruins of a house, in a hill near Ephesus, and that today is the Marian sanctuary Meryemana House“The house of Mother Maria” in Turkish.

With the approval of saints and pontiffs

According to him National Catholic Registerpublication of Ewtn News, Pope Leo XIII gave his blessing to the place in 1896, while San Juan XXIII granted plenary indulgence in 1961 for those who visited her and Saint Paul VI He went to see her in 1967.

Also, San John Paul II celebrated a Mass in the house of the Virgin in 1979 and Benedict XVI also presided there a Eucharist in 2006.

It is necessary to indicate that centuries before, Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) said that the Mother of God ended her days in Ephesus.

According to the Catholic encyclopediathe Pontiff even had “the intention of eliminating from the breviary (official book of daily prayers of the Church) those lessons where the death of Mary in Jerusalem was mentioned, but died before carrying it out.”

So far, nothing is conclusive. There are those who believe that the Virgin was carried by Christ from Jerusalem, others that from Ephesus. But beyond the place, what we believe for dogma de fe It is that the Mother of God was elevated in body and soul to heaven.