This photo shows the life-sized statue of the Blessed Virgin in her "dormition". It is Catholic doctrine that the Blessed Virgin was assumed by Jesus into Heaven, body and soul. In pronouncing this dogma in 1954, Pope Pius XII did not make any pronouncement on whether the Blessed Virgin physically died or merely fell asleep for this translation from earth to Heaven. He simply declared that "at the end of her earthly sojourn" she was taken into Heaven by the power of Jesus.