To understand the Dormition (falling asleep) of the Theotokos, it is helpful to study the icon of this Feast. Mary is reclined on a bier as she would be upon her death and at her funeral. Standing over her is the resurrected Lord Christ, which we know because of the radiant light surrounding Him and the host of angels that accompany Him. Also present are the Apostles except St. Thomas, who was not there. Christ is holding her soul in what appears to be a baby in swaddling clothes. This represents her birth into eternal life.
Floros & Lauros the Monk-martyrs of Illyria
These Martyrs were twin brothers, and stonemasons. After the martyrdom of their teachers Proclus and Maximus, they left Byzantium and came to the city of Ulpiana in Illyricum, where a certain Licinius hired them to build a temple for the idols. The wages he gave them, they distributed to the poor, and when the temple was built, Floros and Lauros gathered the paupers, and with their help put ropes about the necks of the idols, pulled them to the ground, and furnished the temple as a church. When Licinius learned of this, he had the paupers burned alive in a furnace. Floros and Lauros were tormented, then cast into a deep well, where they gave up their souls to the Lord. When their holy relics were recovered years later, they poured forth myrrh and worked many miracles; they were enshrined in Constantinople.
