1950 · Vatican City

Dogma of the Assumption

Pope Pius XII solemnly defined that Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life, the only exercise of papal infallibility since Vatican I formally defined the power.

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, defining as a dogma of the faith that Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. It was the first and, as of today, the only time a pope has explicitly invoked the infallibility defined at Vatican I in 1870 to define a new dogma. The belief itself was ancient. Christians in both East and West had celebrated the Assumption (or Dormition, as the East calls it) since at least the sixth century. By the twentieth century, Pius XII consulted the bishops of the world and found near-unanimous support. The definition was careful in its wording. It did not say whether Mary died before being assumed or was taken up without dying. That question was deliberately left open. What it did affirm was that Mary's body did not see corruption. She was not simply a soul in heaven; she was there, body and soul, as a sign of what God intends for all the redeemed. The definition came at a striking historical moment: five years after World War II and the Holocaust, in the early years of the nuclear age. Pius XII saw the Assumption as an affirmation of the dignity of the human body at a time when bodies had been treated as disposable on an industrial scale.

Why it matters

The only formal exercise of papal infallibility as defined by Vatican I, defining an ancient belief about Mary's bodily assumption into heaven as binding dogma.