The feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is celebrated this coming week. From the earliest years, Holy Church believed that at the end of her earthly life the Mother of God was assumed bodily into heaven by God’s power and, hence, we acknowledge her as Heaven’s Queen.
According to tradition, all the Apostles except Thomas were present at the end of her life. When Thomas joined them, late, they opened her tomb at his request and found, not her body, but roses and lilies. For this reason they believed she was bodily assumed into heaven. Pius XII infallibly defined this as a dogma of the Church in 1950.
