In contrast to popular Marian rites throughout the world, the Jerusalem

Dormition Feast is held on a canonical route that includes the purported

sites of some of the key moments in the Virgin’s life. The festival boasts an

ancient liturgical order consisting of utterances and customs that are assiduously

preserved by Jerusalem’s Greek-Orthodox Church. Drawing on Engelke’s

distinction (2007) between scriptural authority and religious performance and

numerous scholarly analyses of cohesion and dissent at assorted Marian

shrines (e.g., Eade and Sallnow [1991]), this article explores the reactions to

the local ceremonial on the part of various participants. While the clergy

strives to impose its particular reading of the Scriptures on all the attendees,

the different lay groups insist on performing rituals that give expression to

their own knowledge of the canon and their own understanding of the

Virgin’s nature. All told, their reactions range from rigid obedience to creative

practices and heated dissent. The event ultimately splinters off into several

factions and the host’s orderly script is compromised.