Catholics understand that at the end of the Virgin's earthly life, Our Lord
assumed his Mother into heaven, body and soul.
We understand that this is different from what occurs with other saints. That is, the saints' love is perfected such
that their souls do not need to go to purgatory. Accordingly, their souls go to heaven while their bodies await the
Resurrection of the Dead. But Mary is different.
In these beautiful images by 13th-14th century Italian artists, one sees something unusual: surrounded by angels, saints and others, Our Lady is lying on a bed with her Son nearby. Jesus is holding a small figure of an infant or very young girl. It is easy to understand that this relates to Jesus taking Mary to heaven.
But why
is she depicted as an infant or child rather than the middle-aged woman she
must have been at the end of her earthly life?
A post at Aleteia, which discusses the same imagery in the Eastern
context, explains it this way, "the image of Christ cradling Mary’s infant
soul, symboliz[es] her birth into new, eternal life [.]" Perhaps, however, it would be better to say that Christ is cradling the infant Mary (body and soul), since in heaven she is in her glorified body.
Images:
Top: Giotto's Assumption
Middle: Duccio's Assumption
Bottom: Fra Angelico's Assumption
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