The interpretation timeline

The Dogma of the Assumption

Pius XII defined the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma of faith.

1950 Rome

Modern

1900 – 1953
1950
Event
The Dogma of the Assumption

Pope Pius XII defined the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven as a dogma of the Catholic Church. The Eastern churches had long kept the feast of her Dormition — her "falling asleep" — without defining it in the same way; the text of the 1950 definition is under copyright.

Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.