Dormition
/dɔːˈmɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1(In the Orthodox Church) the passing of the Virgin Mary from earthly life.Eastern Christians celebrate not the Assumption, but the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary....
- The decisive turning point in the scholarship of early El Greco came out of the blue in 1983, when the Dormition of the Virgin shown in the London exhibition was found.
- This is a knot of ideas which embraces scientific ideas and Christian imagery, specifically in this case that most potent of all icons, the Dormition of the Virgin, in which the dead son symbolically gives birth to his own dead mother.
1.1The feast held on 15 August in honour of the Dormition, corresponding to the Assumption in the Western Church.The feast celebrated in the Byzantine calendar as the Dormition on 15 August became the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin in the west.
Origin
Late 15th century: from French, from Latin dormitio(n-) 'falling asleep', from dormire 'to sleep'.