Слава Ісусу Христу! Glory be to Jesus Christ!

The Church celebrates the Dormition (Uspinnia) of the Most Holy Theotokos as the feast of the Virgin Mary’s peaceful passing from earthly life into the eternal life of her Son. The feast recalls the Church’s Tradition that the apostles were gathered around Mary at the time of her Dormition and that Christ received and glorified his Mother. In the words of his Beatitude Sviatoslav, Christ takes the Theotokos “body and soul” into heaven; the feast therefore celebrates her as the Mother of Life who passes through death into life.

(Shevchuk, Sviatoslav. “Homily at Univ on the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.” Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, August 2026).

The Dormition is also a feast of Christian hope and resurrection. the tradition of the empty tomb and Mary’s reception, body and soul, into heaven shows that death does not have the final word after Christ’s Resurrection. The feast’s troparion professes that, in her Dormition, the Theotokos “did not forsake the world” but was “translated to life,” affirming that she remains the praying Mother and intercessor.

(Pryriz, Yaroslav. “Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos as a Feast of Hope and Victory.” Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, August 15, 2025).