Apocalyptic Traditions in the Armenian Dormition Narratives

The early traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption are a particularly rich, if frequently overlooked, repository of early Christian apocalyptic traditions. In Armenian, the apocalyptic elements of the Virgin's quietus are best preserved in Dormition narratives that have been translated from Greek. Nevertheless, of all the Armenian Dormition narratives, this precis of John's homily best conveys the apocalyptic elements of the earliest traditions. The earliest Dormition narrative actually composed in Armenian appears to be the so-called "Armenian Transitus", a rather unique account that survives only in Armenian, where it is widely attested in a number of manuscripts, primarily in liturgical collections. While the Virgin's central role in Christianity's apocalyptic imagination was firmly established by the ancient Dormition narratives, the real florescence of this tradition of Marian apocalyptic is to be found in the medieval versions of the Apocalypse of the Virgin, in Armenian as well as in Greek. Keywords: Armenian Dormition narratives; Christian apocalyptic traditions; Marian apocalyptic; Virgin Mary