The Orthodox and Catholic Churches share three basic beliefs about Mary: that of her perpetual virginity, that she has the title ‘Bearer of God’ or ‘Mother of God’, and that she was assumed into heaven.
Ever virgin
The perpetual virginity of Mary was proclaimed at the Synod of Milan in 389 AD. Mary is called ‘ever-virgin’ meaning that she was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, virgin at his birth, and remained virgin throughout her life.
In the pseudepigrapha Gospel of James Salome is said to be a midwife who examines the Virgin Mary after the birth of Jesus and finds her still to be intact. This forms part of the belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary for some devotees.
A Biblical indication in support of Mary being a virgin is that she went to live with the apostle John after Jesus died. This indicates that her husband Joseph had died as he was much older than her, and that the brothers of Jesus were not her children. If James and the other brothers had been Mary’s sons, she would have gone to live with one of them. But Mary had no other children apart from Jesus, which means it is possible that she remained ever virgin.
Mother of God
At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD Mary was proclaimed ‘Mother of God’. It is a title that had been used as early as the 2nd century, for example, by Origen in Alexandria.
The Rosary prayer includes this address: “Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen”
I, personally would feel more comfortable with ‘Bearer of God’ as a translation from the Greek ‘Theotokos’ or ‘Bearer of Christ’. However, Nestorius proposed that Mary should be called ‘Christotokos’ or ‘Bearer of Christ’ as a more suitable title. He rejected Theotokos or ‘Mother of God’. But at the Council of Ephesus Nestorius was rejected as a heretic on the basis that he separated the human and the divine nature of Jesus. I would not want to be called a Nestorian by using the term ‘Bearer of Christ’, although it seems to me to be a better title.
Assumption of Mary
Belief in the assumption of Mary came from the twelve apostles themselves. They were there when she died and saw her empty tomb knowing her body had been buried in the tomb three days earlier. As a dogma it was the last to be formalized: Pope Pius XII proclaimed this dogma only in 1950.
There are some Roman Catholic devotees who visit the House of the Virgin Mary near Ephesus, and believe that Mary did not die, but was taken up alive and immortal from her house. They believe she had no sin and so did not need to die.
Orthodox Christian belief is that Mary died a natural death, was buried, and that her body was resurrected and then taken up body and soul into heaven. Thus, Mary was resurrected before the general resurrection of everybody at the end of time. This belief means that Mary has passed beyond judgment and now enjoys the glory of the resurrected life already now.
Nobody seems to believe that the dead body was taken up to heaven from the tomb. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in another text in the 4th century that Mary was taken up into heaven like Elijah. But we don’t know whether Elijah was alive, dead or resurrected before he went up in a whirlwind and a chariot.
There are a range of beliefs among those who believe in the Assumption. All agree that Mary’s pure and sinless body was not left to the corruption of the grave after she died.
The above three beliefs are shared by Orthodox and Catholic Christians. The fourth belief of the Immaculate Conception outlined below is only a Roman Catholic belief.
Merry and True 