4.
The apostles and the blessed Mary
Then,
after the wonderful glory of the Lord’s ascension, which inspired the minds of
believers to contemplate heavenly affairs by bruising the head of diabolical
evilness, the holy apostles of our Lord and Saviour gathered with the blessed
Mary, his mother, in one house and always shared everything in common. No one
said that something was his own, but each always possessed everything in
charity, as the holy pen of the acts of the apostles narrates [Acts 4:34]. Then
they were sent throughout different regions to preach the word of God.
Although
the blessed Mary had already been called [to live apart] from this world,
finally the passage of her life was completed, and all the apostles gathered
from their particular regions at her house. When they heard that she must be
taken from the world, they all kept watch with her. And behold, the Lord Jesus came
with his angels, and after taking her soul he gave it to the angel Michael and
left. At dawn the apostles lifted her body on a bed, placed it in a tomb, and
kept guard over it, in anticipation of the arrival of the Lord. And behold,
again the Lord approached them. He took the holy body in a cloud and ordered it
to be brought to Paradise, where, after regaining her soul, Mary now rejoices
with his elect and enjoys the goodness of eternity that will never perish. (Gregory
of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs 4 [trans. Raymond Van Dam; Translated Texts for Historians 4; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988, 2004], 4)
