The type is thought to have originated in Jerusalem [526 p. 664]. There are, however, several in Western cathedrals and churches.
Праздник Успения завершается чином погребения плащаницы.
Во время всенощного бдения плащаница лежит в середине храма.
После бдения её обносят крестным ходом вокруг храма и вносят в алтарь.
«О дивное чудо! Источник Жизни во гробе полагается, и лествица к Небеси гроб бывает…».
The tradition holds that the Emperor Marcian and his wife Pulcheria wanted to possess the body of Maria, Mother of God.
St Juvenal, at that time Bishop of Jerusalem, made known to the Emperor that Mary died in the presence of all Apostles, but her tomb, when opened at the request of St. Thomas, was found empty.
After this, the Apostles believed that Maria's body was taken up to heaven along with her soul.
The belief in the corporeal Assumption of the Virgin is universal in the East and in the West and is founded on an apocryphal treatise, written around the 4th or 5th century, and attributed to St. John.
The subject appeared in Byzantine art around the 6th century. The feast of Dormition was specially revered in Kievan Rus'.
This subject was derived from apocrypha. Scholars hold that it appeared in Byzantine art back in the 6th century when the feast of the Dormition became established.
Churches consecrated to the Dormition were specially revered in Kyivan Rus'.
The church of the Tithes (996), Kyiv's first made of stone, was possibly the Dormition church, as was the main cathedral of the Kiev-Cave Lavra, built in 1077.
Since the Dormition was a popular subject from the beginning of Russian icon painting, numerous examples of this subject can be found in museums.