" That belief (the Assumption of Mary) was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)
At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven."
WHAT? Is that how this started? Oh, that's funny! I hold the apostles in the highest esteem, but hearsay about their deductive reasoning does not cut it for theological debates.
I have been given the promise and guarantee that the scriptures are the inerrant word of God. I have no promise or guarantee that the apostles always spoke truth and neither do I have any promise or guarantee that hearsay stories about the apostles are true.
This is the same reason that I don't pray to the saints. I have been given no promise or guarantee that they can or will listen.