As regards the references to the decease of the Holy Virgin found in patristic literature, we find Epiphanius alluding to it, but in such general terms as to show he knew nothing about it for certain.[511] Then we have a letter of the so-called Areopagite Dionysius containing the essential points of the tradition for the death and burial of the Holy Virgin, which we find later on in St John Damascene. The date of this letter depends upon the view taken of the author and date of the pseudo-Dionysian writings. The garden of Gethsemani is named as the place of burial.[512] The same tradition appears in the apocryphal Apocalypse on the “_transitus_” of Mary, where the year of her death is given as the third after our Lord’s resurrection,[513] while other authorities give it as the twelfth. The chief authority, however, for the event is St John Damascene. Relying on the history of an otherwise unknown Euthymius, he describes the circumstances in detail. According to this informant, Pulcheria, wife of the Emperor Marcian (450-457), had erected a Church in honour of the Holy Virgin in the suburb of Constantinople called Blachernæ, to which she wished to translate the earthly remains of our Lady. With this end in view, she addressed herself to Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem during the sitting of the Council of Chalcedon, but he informed the Emperor and Empress that the body of the Mother of God was not to be found in Jerusalem. She had indeed been buried there in the Garden of Gethsemani in the presence of all the Apostles; Thomas alone was absent, and only arrived on the third day after the burial; in order that he too might venerate the body of the Mother of God, the tomb was opened, but nothing was found save the linen grave-clothes, which gave forth a fragrant perfume. Whereupon the Apostles concluded that our Lord had taken up into heaven the body which had borne Him. In his panegyric on the Holy Virgin, Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem († 634), states that already in the seventh century there was a special festival in Jerusalem to celebrate her decease (κοίμησις). In addition, we have sermons dealing with this event by Andrew of Crete († 720 _circ._) and Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 733).[514] The bodily assumption of Mary into heaven was already known in the West in the sixth century, and is alluded to in Gregory of Tours.[515]