The Orthodox Church believes she is without sin. The Orthodox Church does not consider the original sin as our "sin" but only a consequence of Adam's and Eve's sin, mortality. Sin is something we do, not somrething we are born with—the way a drug-addicted infant is born with the consequence of his drug-addicted mother's sin. Surely, you can't blame the baby for his addiction and call him sinful!
So, there was no need for Mary to be "cleansed" of original sin, because if she were and she remained sinless, as the Orthodox believe, she would NOT have died just as Eve would have never died without the sin. But Eve died because she committed sin. If Mary were exactly like Eve, through immaculate Conception, then the only way Mary would have died is if she committed sin, which the Church believes she did not.
Unlike the West, the East believes, and has pretty much always believed, that Mary died (exemplified by the ancient anhnual Feast of the Dormition of Theotokos not celebrayted in the West) and was raised on the third day and assumed bodily to heaven.
She didn't die because she sinned but because she was human, as we all are. We are all born mortal, but not sinful. Obviosuly Christ found no sin in the "little ones," for theirs is the kingdom of heaven accoridng to him.
She didn't die because she sinned but because she was human, as we all are. We are all born mortal, but not sinful. Obviosuly Christ found no sin in the "little ones," for theirs is the kingdom of heaven accoridng to him.
So, are you saying the Orthodox Church believes Adam and Eve would have died anyway if they had not sinned ?
... And what about Romans 5:19? " For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners"