The Church traditions related to the belt
According to an early Church tradition, after the Ascension of our Lord, the Virgin Mary lived St. John the Apostle to whom Christ entrusted His mother while on the Cross. St. John took care of her until she died. Upon the death of the Virgin all the Apostles, except Thomas who was absent in India, conducted a funeral service with a great pomp. Her virtous body was buried in Gethsemane outside Jerusalem. Ont the third day after her death, Thomas arrived in Jerusalem and on his way witnessed the body of the Virgin Mary being carried out by the angels to heaven. He immediately asked her for a blessing and she handed him her belt. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he asked the Apostles to see the tomb of the Virgin. They went and opend the tomb only to find it empty. Then he told them how he saw the body of the Virgin being carried by the angels, showing them the belt that he received from the Virgin as a blessing. The story is well attested to in our liturgical books, and some of the Church Fathers have dealt with it at lenght. Also, in the litugical calendar of our Lady. It is worth quoting here the following hymn from the ShHimo, a book of weekly liturgical prayers of our Syrian Orthodox Church:
"Even your body is far from us, holy one. Your prayer are with us all times. Beseech the Hidden Power. Who descended and dwelt in you, O holy one, that He may pardon us."