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Dormition of Our Most Holy and Glorious Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary.

When the time arrived that our Savior was pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He sent his Archangel Gabriel to inform her that three days hence, He would take her from this temporal life to eternity. Giving thanks to God, she prepared what was necessary for her burial. Angels called the apostles from wherever they were preaching and brought them to the house of the Mother of God. When they arrived, she told them of the coming event. She consoled them in their sorrow, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. At the appointed time, she blessed the Apostles, and reclining upon her bed, peacefully gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God. Apostle Thomas arrived late and longed to see the Theotokos one last time. When they opened the tomb, they found only the burial clothes. However, she appeared to all of the apostles that evening and comforted them all saying that she would always be with them. The icon of the Dormition captures the scene when her soul departed painlessly from her body. She is thought to have been around sixty years of age at this time. Peter is by her head, and Paul is by her feet. The other apostles surround her, and Jesus with His Angels is seen receiving her soul, which is pictured as a baby in swaddling clothes.