It is known that Mary spent the remainder of her days after the crucifixion in the household of the apostle John:
From the cross Jesus gave the care of his mother to his youngest apostle, John, and the care of John to his mother.
This is what the Gospel of John records:
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:25-27)
Where was John’s house?
There is no dispute that John lived with Mary in Jerusalem after 33 AD for at least about 12 years. Mary played a key role in holding the very early Christian community together in Jerusalem participating in their prayer meetings.
The early tradition is that John continued to live in Jerusalem and only left after Mary died and after the Council of Jerusalem in AD 50/51. A later thesis is that John went to Ephesus with Mary so she spent the last period of her life in Ephesus.
I decided that to form an opinion on this issue I would look at the location of churches built to mark the locations of events in the life of Jesus and of the early church.
Abbey of the Dormition on Mount Zion
The Abbey of the Dormition was built to mark the spot where Mary lived and died according to early church tradition. The church marking the location of Mary’s house is outside Zion Gate on Mount Zion, south west of the city. It is near the site of the Last Supper. It is an ancient Christian Quarter now the Armenian Quarter.
During the Byzantine period of the 6th century there was a church called Abbey of Hagia Sion. It was destroyed in the Persian sack of Jerusalem in 614. The foundations of this church were rediscovered in 1899 and the present Abbey of the Dormition constructed in 1900. It belongs to the Benedictine Order in Jerusalem.
Dormition in French and Latin means ‘falling asleep’. It denotes that Mary died naturally of old age peacefully falling asleep. The church marking the spot where Mary died on Mount Zion also marks the location of the house where she lived.
The connection of Mary with Mount Zion is seen in an Orthodox Ethiopian Church named Church of Mary of Zion in the ancient city of Aksum. This church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant, but it was last seen in 1691.
Merry and True 