Definition of "dormition" [dormition]

• The process of falling asleep. (noun)
• The process of death or the actual death itself. (noun)
• The death and assumption into heaven of the Virgin Mary. (noun)

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• "In the eighth century, for example, John Damascene, establishing a direct relationship between the 'dormition' of Mary and the death of Jesus, explicitly affirms the truth of her bodily assumption."
• "Following this, a twofold tradition - in Jerusalem and in Ephesus - attests to her 'dormition', as the Eastern Christians call it, her 'falling asleep' in God."
• "Mary asked that the Twelve Apostles be brought to her, then fell into a deep sleep, the dormition, and died peacefully."