Marian devotees celebrate Tuesday, Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the principal and the oldest feast of the Holy Mother.
Commemorative masses will be celebrated in parishes placed under her patronage in different parts of the country.
Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula will celebrate a fiesta mass at 12 noon at the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish on Asuncion Street, Malate, Manila.
Holy masses will also be celebrated at 8 a.m. and at 6 p.m. A solemn procession follows the evening mass.
This year’s feast coincides with the 71st parish fiesta.
Feast masses will also be celebrated at the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Guinobatan, Albay.
Observed as a public holiday in some countries, Roman Catholics consider the Feast of the Assumption as the Blessed Mother’s “heavenly birthday” in commemoration of the belief of her physical assumption into heaven.
The belief of the bodily taking up of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Heaven at the end of her earthly life, is also observed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodoxy among others,
Mary’s assumption into heaven was defined as a dogma of faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950. The Second Vatican Council states that the “Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of all things.”