Dormition
JOHN A. MCGUCKIN
The term refers to the “Falling Asleep” (death) of the Mother of God. Icons of the Dormition are traditionally placed over the western interior wall of Orthodox churches, so that they are the last thing believers see as they leave. A superlative example is the mosaic panel still surviving in the Savior in Chora Church in Constantinople. They are a didactic icon about the death of the elect believer. Christ, in glory, attends the bier of the Virgin and catches up her soul (depicted as a little child in swaddling clothes) while the attending apostles and ancient fathers (such as James of Jerusalem and Dionysius the Areopagite) surround her, grieving. After receiving her soul, Orthodox tradition states that three days later the Lord resurrected her body in anticipation of the End Day, and took it also into heaven. The Feast of the Dormition is one of the solemn festivals of the liturgical year, and observed in the Orthodox world on August 15 with a two-week fasting period preceding it.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Daley, B. E. (trans.) (1997) On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Shoemaker, S. J. (2003) Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikhailovich (1821–1881)
SAMUEL NEDELSKY
Russian writer, essayist, and philosopher famous for his exploration of the human psyche within the Christian context of sin, repentance, and rebirth. He was raised in a devoutly Orthodox home in Moscow, where he received formal religious instruction and made annual spring pilgrimages to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Following his arrest in 1849 for political conspiracy, he underwent a gradual spiritual regeneration following a “conversion experience” in the Omsk prison. In June 1878, following the death of his young son Alyosha, he visited the famous monastery of Optina Pustyn’ with Vladimir Solovyov, where he had three meetings with Starets Amvrosii (Grenkov), who served as a model for Starets Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov.
SEE ALSO: Elder (Starets); Optina; Solovyov, Vladimir (1853–1900)
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Cassedy, S. (2005) Dostoevsky’s Religion. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Frank, J. (1976–2002) Dostoevsky, 5 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jones, M. (2005) Dostoevsky and the Dynamics of Religious Experience. London: Anthem Press.
Pattison, G. and Thompson, D. (2001) Dostoevsky and the Christian Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stanton, L. (1995) The Optina Pustyn Monastery in the Russian Literary Imagination: Iconic Vision in Works by Dostoevsky, Gogol, Tolstoy, and Others. New York: Peter Lang.