Dormition of the Theotokos Today Marks Apex of Grecian Summer

The major religious feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, commemorating the repose, or “falling asleep,” of the Virgin Mary, is celebrated throughout Greece today, Saturday, Aug. 15, coinciding with the peak of the country’s summer holiday season and the annual mass exodus from the cities to the islands, coastal destinations and mainland Greece.

Known in Greek as the Κοίμηση της Θεοτόκου (KI-misi tis Theo-TO-kou), or Dormition of the Theotokos, the feast is one of the major celebrations of the Orthodox Church. It commemorates Mary’s repose and her translation into heavenly life. Orthodox liturgical tradition refers to her as “our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.”

The term Theotokos, meaning “God-bearer” and conventionally rendered in English as “Mother of God,” is among the most prominent expressions of Orthodox devotion to the Virgin Mary. It is rooted in the Church’s theological understanding of Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ and is embedded throughout Orthodox liturgy and hymnography. The feast’s principal troparion describes her as having “passed into life as the Mother of Life,” reflecting the