The Assumption of Mary, a Catholic holiday celebrated on 15 August, is a national and bank holiday in Croatia and will be observed with holy masses and pilgrimages in about 1160 Marian shires throughout the country on Monday.
Cardinals and bishops will say masses in major Marian shrines, including, Marija Bistrica, Sinj, Aljmas, Ilaca, Split and Trsat in Rijeka where thousands of pilgrims are flocking to for celebrations that started this weekend.
The Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life. The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.
