It is not merely an assumption that Mary’s Assumption into heaven, body and soul is a fact. This doctrine of the Catholic Church is ancient and was held true by the earliest followers in the Church. There was a tomb and a veneration of the place where Mary went to her final sleep. The Dormitatio is still held as a sacred space in the city of Jerusalem. At the Council of Chalcedon in 472, a request was made to have the bones of Mary translated to Constantinople for permanent veneration there. When the tomb was opened for that purpose, no bones or any vestiges remained. This fact fortified the belief held for centuries that Mary’s body, through which Jesus came into this world, was taken up into heaven as was the Body of her Son.