Mother Mary, Assumed

Back in the 5th Century

(How can we think that far back?
You read about something
That happens today
And before you sneeze
It’s gone, shivering in the past,
Dead to you
Like a dryness in the mouth,
So dry, you can’t even move the words.)

The Emperor Marcian
(450-457)
Asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem
To bring the relics of Mary, her bones,
When he dropped by Constantinople
On his next visit
Which was going to be an important visit,
With many of those
Important church leaders
That dust the history books.

The Emperor had a nice cathedral
Dedicated to the Apostles
(Until torn down 700 years later)
Where the saintly bones would go nicely.
Mary, Mother of Jesus,
In residence.

Prayers would pile up
Donations would pile up
Pilgrims would pile up
Tourism would pile up

But there would be no delivery of bones,
The Patriarch wrote to his Emperor friend.
There were no bones, he explained,
Ever.

The tomb was empty,
Had always been empty since
The Apostles first laid her wrapped body
In its sandstone cocoon
After she had ‘fallen asleep’
Before their very holy eyes.

Oh, yes, the Apostles
Went to visit Mary’s body
Just as they had gone to visit her son’s
The third day after he was entombed.
But she was gone.