Parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Spišská Štěpány

The parish church of Szepesváralja, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, dates back to the 13th century and rests on Romanesque foundations built after 1258. It was rebuilt in Gothic style between 1462 and 1497, and then in Classicist style between 1824 and 1829. Its wing altar with the Gothic statue of Mary was made in 1507. ; ; The feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Catholic and Orthodox church holiday celebrated on September 8 every year. Its Latin name is Nativitas Beatae Mariae Virginis. ; The date of the holiday, September 8, was originally the date of the consecration of the Jerusalem church, which was built on the site – near the Bethesda Baths in Jerusalem – where, according to tradition, the house of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, stood, and where the Virgin Mary was born. This church, consecrated in the 5th century, still stands today, dedicated to Saint Anne. The date is also the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, nine months after December 8, so it fits chronologically into the Catholic feast circle. ; Eastern Christianity has been celebrating the feast since the 5th century, Western Christianity since the 7th century, and it was probably introduced into the Western church calendar by Pope Sergius I. Pope Innocent IV made it a special feast with an eighth in the 13th century. In 1955, when organizing the liturgical calendar, Pope Pius XII abolished the eighth attached to it. There is data on the name of the Hungarian Little Assumption from the 15th century onwards. We know of numerous folk customs related to it in our country from the 18th-19th centuries onwards. ; In the Eastern liturgy, the feast is called the Birth of the Most Holy Theotokos, both in the Orthodox Church and in the Greek Catholic rite. ; Today, there are nearly 180 churches or chapels of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hungary, which usually celebrate their feast on this day. The best-known such pilgrimage site in Hungary is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Máriaremete, where numerous miracles and apparitions have occurred.