The question then arises
concerning the nature of her passing, and concretely whether she died or not.
This issue examines whether she experienced the separation of the soul from the
body. The dogma of the Assumption of the Mother of God leaves open the question
of whether or not she died. A minority of theologians hold that she did not in
fact suffer death. In the late fourth century, we find the earliest known,
non-Apocryphal mention of the close of Mary’s life, in the writings of St
Epiphanius (315-403), Bishop of Constantia, on the island of Cyprus: ‘Whether
she died or was buried we do not know . . . Say she died a natural death. In that
case she fell asleep in glory, and departed in purity, and received the crown
of her virginity. Or say she was slain with the sword according to Simeon’s
prophecy. Then her glory is with the martyrs, and she through whom the divine
light shone upon the world is in the place of bliss with her sacred body. Or
say she left this world without dying, for God can do what He wills. Then she
was simply transferred to eternal glory.’ St. Epiphanius genuinely may have not
known, or else he was being careful not to play into the hands of contemporary
heretics, the Antidicomarianites and the Collyridians. The former group denied
the perpetual virginity of Mary; the latter, erring in the opposite direction,
maintained that divine worship should be given to her. To claim that Our Lady
died was to give possible fuel to the former heresy (for it was to suggest that
the body of Mary was subject to the corruption of the tomb, and thus minimize
her prerogatives); to assert that she did not die was to encourage the latter. (Paul
Haffner, The Mystery of Mary [Herefordshire, U.K.: Gracewing, 2024], 210-11)
