Chapter VII. The Flower of Mortification: Consecrated Virginity
At the beginning of his study on virginity,1 St. Thomas quotes the following words from St. Augustine's De virginitate: "Virginity is continence whereby integrity of the flesh is vowed, consecrated, and observed in honor of the Creator of both soul and body." 2 "It is the continual meditation [or firm purpose] to preserve incorruptible purity in corruptible flesh." 8
St Thomas explains 4 that the act of the virtue of virginity consists formally in the firm resolution to abstain until death from sensual or sexual pleasure. It follows that a virgin preserves her virginity when violated if she withholds her consent, whereas she loses the virtue by mere internal consent to sensual pleasure. In the latter case, it is true that as long as there has been no exterior and gravely culpable action, virginity can be recovered by contrition and penance.
Following the lead of the Angelic Doctor, we now discuss the following topics: (1) the meaning and import of the evangelical counsel inviting men to practice the virtue; (2) the nature of virginity and its relation to die other virtues;
34^ THE LOVE OF GOD
The evangelical counsel
Virginity is the object of an evangelical counsel, St. Paul tells us: "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord ; but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful. ... If thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. . . . The time is short. It remaineth, that they also who have wives be as if they had none. . . . And they that use this world, as if they used it not. For the fashion of this world passeth away. But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is widiout a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of the world, how she may please her husband. . . . Therefore, both he that giveth his virgin in marriage, doth well; and he that giveth her not, doth better." 5
Every evangelical counsel invites us to do something better than the act contrary to it, est de meliori bono. Perpetual virginity preserved for love of God is more perfect than marriage. In fact, our Lord told us that some give up having a family that they may devote themselves more completely to the things of God's kingdom, "for the kingdom of heaven. He that can s I Cor. 7: 25-38.2
take, let him take it." 8 And the Apocalypse adds: "These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth there was found no He; for they are without spot." 7
Also, at the Council of Trent the Church condemned as heretical the Lutheran doctrine that the state of virginity is neither higher nor more perfect than the married state. Luther went so far as to say that the vow of virginity is illicit, because contrary to nature. This heresy St. Thomas refuted 8 before it was even proposed, when he showed that, because the body is made for the soul and the soul for God, a man may lawfully abstain from all carnal pleasure to be free to give himself more fully to the contemplation of divine Truth. That all means may be perfectly subordinated to our last end, the body must live for the soul and the soul for the contemplation, love, and praise of God. It seems questionable that a man could err to the point of holding that virginity preserved for love of God is unlawful. Far from being below the level of common morality, virginity rises above it by disposing the soul for the contemplative life, the life of God. It delivers men from servitude to the body and the passions, which generally overstep the mean unless they are kept this side of it. Our Lord, die Blessed Virgin, and many saints after them have excelled in the practice of this virtue.
Some, following Luther, unreasonably object that the common good of humanity, the perpetuation of the human race assured by marriage, is higher than the individual good sought by the preservation of virginity. Through St. Thomas wis-
dom answers 9 that God, the sovereign good, is above the common good of the human race; the divine good comes before any human good, the good of the soul comes before the good of the body, the good of the contemplative life before that of the active life. Now holy virginity is immediately ordered to the good of the soul, to the contemplative life and union with God, whereas marriage is ordered to the conservation of the human species and to the active life.
Contemplation of divine things being obviously more perfect than the end of marriage 10 (multiplication of the human species), the state of virginity is indisputably a higher state than married life. To deny this would be heretical, as the Council of Trenty stated 11 in the condemnation of Lutheranism and as Pope Pius IX reaffirmed in his attack on modern naturalism. 12
By virginity, a human person lives, in a body of flesh, a wholly spiritual life, a kind of angelic life, a life so pure that it makes the body more and more like the soul, and the soul more and more like God. Virginity disposes the soul for participation in the light and love and strength of God. Purity of heart becomes apparent in look, attitude, and gesture. Sometimes the bodies of the saints have remained incorruptible in death, a glorious sign of their perfect chastity. The common measure provides no norm for virginity; like magnanimity, it has its own lofty measure and tends toward those great things perfecdy in keeping with the sovereign good, God.
Against the great traditional doctrine concerning virginity,
12 Encyclical Qui pluribus, Denzinger, no. 1774.
CONSECRATED VIRGINITY 349 Luther made a further objection: since none can know the certainty that they will have the grace to remain faithful to the vow of chastity, no one can prudently and licitly make the vow. Theology replies that we need not have absolute certainty of receiving this grace; it suffices that we hear our Lord's counsel, are attracted by it and, having taken die advice of a good guide, place our confidence in God's grace. Hope's certitude is not speculative like faith's but belongs to the practical order. The will plays a part in it, tending surely, under the direction of faith, toward its divine end. "Hence it is expedient to take vows." 13 The vow of virginity, far from being unlawful, is perfectly fitting for those who feel attracted by our Lord's counsel and put their trust in Him. In the same way conversion to Christianity and the making of the baptismal promises demand only that we know perseverance is possible with the help of grace.
Virginity and the other virtues
Having asked whether virginity is a special virtue distinct from simple chastity, St. Thomas answers unhesitatingly that it is, 14 because of its particular excellence, the renouncement for life of all sensual or sexual pleasure. Two .comparable parallels are magnanimity, which is a special virtue because it reaches out to greatness in the practice of all the other virtues it inspires; and munificence which, by its generosity, surpasses ordinary liberality. On the other hand, conjugal chastity and the chastity of widowhood are not special virtues distinct from ordinary chastity.
The renouncement of the material fecundity of marriage ls Ila Ilae, q. 1 8, a. 4 ; q. 88, a. 4. 14 Ibid., q.152, a.3.
for God's sake receives its hundredfold even in this world; for virginity becomes the principle, or at least the condition, of spiritual fatherhood and motherhood, and the life it transmits lasts not merely for sixty or seventy years but forever. Our Lord founded no family of His own because He came to found the Church, an immense family lasting throughout time and eternity. Together with the apostles, every priest participates in the priesthood of Christ and receives from it his spiritual fatherhood for transmitting the life of grace to souls.
Even more fully than the apostles, the Blessed Virgin received this power and privilege. To her was given not the priestly character but the spirit of the priesthood in its fullness for she is at once the mother of God and the mother of men, the universal mediatrix of all graces in general and in particular. As she stood at the foot of the cross our Lord indicated John, the representative of redeemed humanity, and said to her: "Woman, behold thy son." Together with His mother, all the spouses of Christ who share Mary's virginity are called to share her spiritual motherhood of souls as well. And they, too, must be ready to pray and sacrifice themselves for their children.
From the fact that virginity has such greatness, it does not follow that virgins consecrated to God are always more perfect than faithful Christian mothers. Although a virgin is no doubt more perfect from one point of view, that is, because of her virginity, she can be simply less perfect, if she has less charity. Charity, the supreme virtue, unites us to God and neighbor and inspires and animates all the other virtues. The Christian virgin should be humble in her virginity and not believe that her virginity makes her absolutely more perfect than some good mother who is continually sacrificing herself, in the spirit of Christ, for her children.
Virginity is not, then, the greatest of all virtues 15 but the most perfect form of the virtue of chastity. It stands below the theological virtues, which unite us immediately to God ; below prudence, which directs all the moral virtues; below the virtue of religion, which renders to God the worship that is His due and offers to Him the acts of religious chastity; and even below fortitude, which sacrifices not only certain pleasures but, if need be, life itself for God by enduring martyrdom. Ends always have precedence over means; the virtues, as means, are the more perfect the nearer they approach the end toward which they are ordered.
Although not the greatest virtue, virginity gives to charity a visible body, as it were, and, by the renouncement of all other loves, opens men's eyes to the splendor of love for God.
The consecration of virgins
In his works St. Thomas often refers to the consecration of virgins, 16 particularly in the Fourth Boo\ of the Sentences, , 17 where he asks whether, among people consecrating themselves to the service of God by the vow of perpetual continence, a special veil should be given to virgins. His answer is as follows: "It is unfitting that the Church should have in her liturgy anything erroneous. But throughout the entire ceremony for the veiling of virgins mention is made of integrity of the flesh, as can easily be verified. Therefore the veil of virgins can be given only to virgins."
18 Cf. Tabula aurea operum S. Thomae under the words consccratio, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and virgmitas, 25, 26. 17 Dist. 38, q.i, a.5.
St. Thomas explains the reason for this as follows:
Every sensible thing the Church uses has a spiritual significance. And since a single corporeal thing fails to represent adequately something spiritual, one spiritual reality may sometimes be represented by several corporeal signs. The spiritual marriage of Christ and the Church is fruitful, for by it the sons of God are given birth; it is pure, for, as the Epistle to the Ephesians reads, "Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, . . . that He might present it to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." . . . For which reason, St. Paul writes (II Cor. 11:2) : "For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
Now bodily fruitfulness and virginity or integrity of the flesh are incompatible. Therefore two different signs are needed to represent the spiritual marriage of Christ and His Church, one to image its fruitfulness, the other to reflect its perfect purity or integrity.
Since on earth marriage represents the fruitfulness of the spiritual relationship between Christ and His Church, another symbol is needed to typify its integrity. The veiling of virgins accomplishes this in all its words and ceremonies. Because of that fact, only bishops, into whose keeping the Church has been committed, can give virgins the veil, acting as the friend and proxy of the bridegroom. Further, the pure integrity of Christ's union with the Church is symbolized perfectly by virginal continence but only imperfectly by the continence of widows. Therefore, although they too receive the veil, it is not given to them with the same solemnity.
The holy doctor himself raises the objection: "But the veiling of virgins confers no grace; if it did, it would be a sacrament and should be given to non-virgins as well that they may have the help of grace to observe continence." To this he gives answer:
In the consecration of virgins, as in the anointing of kings and other blessings of the same kind, grace is given if there is no obstacle on the part of the recipient. However, these consecrations and blessings are not called sacraments for they were not instituted, like the sacraments, to cure the sickness of sin. 18
For any eminent state of life some special help of grace is needed and is given by some sanctifying action; for example, in the consecration of kings and of monks and of nuns. These consecrations are acts belonging to the hierarchy 19 . . . they have not, however, the nature of sacraments . . . monks and abbots are blessed . . . these blessings, unlike that of holy orders, give no power to those who receive them to dispense divine things. 20 . . .
Marriage is solemnized in ... the array of the bridegroom and the bride and the gathering of their kindred. Now a vow is a promise made to God; wherefore the solemnization of a vow consists in something spiritual or something special pertaining to God; i.e., in some spiritual blessing or consecration which, in accordance with the institution of the apostles, is given when a man makes profession of observing a certain rule, in the second degree after the reception of holy orders as Dionysius states (Eccl. Hier. vi.). The reason of this is that solemnization is not wont to be employed, save when a man gives himself entirely to some particular thing; ... a vow is solemnized when a man devotes himself to the divine ministry by receiving holy orders, or embraces the state of perfection by renouncing the world and his own will by the profession of a certain rule. 21
To St. Thomas' mind, this consecration of persons is lasting, just as the consecration of a chalice endures as long as the chalice is a chalice. 22
Because of the excellence of virginity, the consecration of virgins is reserved to bishops. Whereas priests may bless marriages and give the veil to widows, only the bishop, into whose care the Church has been confided, may espouse virgins to Christ, for they are a figure of die Church, the spouse of the Savior. 23
St. Thomas himself brings up two more objections against this ancient custom of the Church, asking first whether it is not unjust to deny this solemn consecration to those who through violence have lost their virginity yet desire to give themselves to God. He answers diis by saying that those who have been violated against their will keep the glory of thenvirginity in the eyes of God but, because it is so difficult not to take some illicit pleasure in the experience and the Church cannot pass judgment on individual consciences in this matter, the veil of virgins should not be bestowed on those who have suffered external violence to their virginity. Pope St. Leo considered it better that those who had lost their bodily integrity during the barbarian oppression should, out of humility and modesty, not seek to join a community of virgins. 24
The second objection St. Thomas introduces is that scandal would sometimes result when, through refusing someone the veil and consecration of virgins, it became known that she had lost her virginity. To this St. Thomas makes answer that the avoidance of scandal is not a sufficient reason for modifying the sacraments or sacramentals of the Church but that, according to certain theologians, in a particular case, to avoid scandal, those parts of the ceremony which belong to the substance of the consecration and blessing of virgins may be
omitted and the word virginity replaced by the word chastity. 25 As a matter of fact, the ceremonials of some religious orders, notably the Order of St. Dominic, contain certain modifications for the ceremony of veiling widows. 26
In all this St. Thomas' teaching conforms to tradition and follows very closely St. Ambrose's writings, especially the wording he used in consecrating virgins. These came at times even from Bologna and other neighboring cities to receive this consecration from him before the altar at Milan. The same custom existed in the Churches of Africa and, as many documents show, goes back as far as the first century, and it was common teaching that only a bishop could perform this consecration. 27 Many religious belonging to orders antedating die thirteenth century and even a few of recent foundation still receive this ancient consecration. In other orders, the solemn vow of virginity is considered its equivalent.
Virginity, contemplation, and divine union
If virginity is to be a spiritual flower of unfading perfection and delicacy, it must be carefully guarded. It needs exterior mortification of the body and the senses, particularly sight and touch, and interior mortification both of the imagination and its bent for day dreaming and of the heart and its weakness for forging chains to bind its own liberty to seek and find God. It must have the freedom of a strong flame to reach up to its infinitely good and beautiful Lord and love.
God gives the virtue of virginity. To keep it we must
26 Processionarium juxla ritum S. Ordinis Vracdicatorum , 1913, pp. 152-62, "Officium ad ponendum velum monialibus."
27 Cf. Migne's Palrologiu Latina, III, General Index, CCXX, p. 710, Index de virginibus, chap. De consecratione virginum. See also XVI, 204, 275, 372; LII, 1098, 1099, 1100; LXXVTH, 173; CLXX, 558.
turn to the two great mediators deeded to us for the support of our weakness. We must consecrate ourselves to Mary, the Virgin of virgins, so that she may bring us close to Christ, who leads us to the Father, making real the words of the beatitude, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." Blessed are those who keep their hearts lifted up to the Most High. They will see Him face to face in heaven and even, though in another way, in this life— within themselves and within their brethren, in that inner sanctuary He deigns to make His home.
St. Thomas, in his Commentary on St. Matthew, remarks that a pure heart free from thoughts and affections apart from God is like a temple consecrated to the Lord where He may be contemplated even in this world. Nothing proves so great a hindrance to divine contemplation as impurity. The pure must possess peace, too, for as the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness: without which no man shall see God." 28 Even during their lifetime, the saints, with hearts full of grace and divine justice, contemplate God in a way far beyond the reach of those who know Him only through material creation. The higher the effects of the First Cause, the better they make Him known to us. Pure hearts, as they come to know God better, make Him known more perfectly, being more like Him, tasting and knowing His sweetness.
By perfect chastity, the soul becomes purified of all inordinate affections and, freed from every illusion, mounts, by the gift of understanding, from the sensible to the spiritual and, without in this life being able to behold God as He is, yet sees more and more clearly what He is not and how He infinitely surpasses not only all material things, but all actual and po-
tential spirits. And the soul gains deeper and deeper insight into the truth that the intimate life of God surpasses every idea that we can form of Him. Even on earth the pure of heart begin to taste experimentally that God is, in a sense, greater than truth or goodness or wisdom or love or justice or mercy or omnipotence, for His intimate life contains formally and eminently these infinite perfections, grounded and identified in an ineffable harmony, revealed only in the beatific vision, and never fully comprehensible except to His own uncreated intelligence. 29
Happy are diose who hear the evangelical counsel of virginity and follow it perfectly. To them, as to St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. John of the Cross, it is given to grasp the meaning of the book closed to so many, the Canticle of Canticles. Under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, who loves to stoop down to pure hearts, they discover in its pages spiritual beauties hidden from the most penetrating human critics.
In The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena certain passages form one of the loveliest spiritual canticles ever written and express the complete and deepening consecration of perfect virginity.
Wherefore these pierced feet are steps by which thou canst arrive at his side, which manifests to thee the secret of his heart, because the soul, rising on the steps of her affection, commences to taste the love of his heart. 80
But there are many who begin their course climbing so slowly, and render their debt to me by such small degrees, and with such negligence and ignorance, that . . . because they imperfectly
climb to the first step of the Bridge of Christ crucified, they do not arrive at the second step of his heart. 31
These weak ones of whom I speak relax their energy, impatiently turning backwards, and sometimes abandon, under colour of virtue, many of their exercises, saying to themselves, "This labour does not profit me." All this they do because they feel themselves deprived of mental consolation. 32
The soul who has climbed this step with servile fear and mercenary love alone, falls into many troubles. Such souls should arise and become sons, and serve me, irrespective of themselves. . . . While they remain in the state of mercenary love I do not manifest myself to them. If they, through displeasure at their imperfection, and love of virtue, dig up, with hatred, the root of spiritual selflove . . . they will be so pleasing to me that they will attain to the love of the friend. And I will manifest myself to them, as my Truth said in these words: "He who loves me shall be one thing with me and I with him, and I will manifest myself to him and we will dwell together." This is the state of two dear friends, for though they are two in body, yet they are one in soul through the affection of love, because love transforms the lover into the object loved, and where two friends have one soul, there can be no secret between them, wherefore my Truth said: "I will come and we will dwell together," and this is the truth. 33
Where did the soul know of this her dignity, in being kneaded and united with the blood of the Lamb, receiving the grace in holy baptism, in virtue of the blood? In the side, where she knew the fire of divine charity. . . . Because ... I had finished the actual work of bearing pain and torment, and yet I had not been able to show, by finite things, because my love was infinite, how much more love I had, I wished diee to see the secret of the heart, show-
CONSECRATED VIRGINITY 359 ing it to thee open, so that thou mightest see how much more I loved than I could show thee by finite pain. 34
Such as arrive at the mouth show it by taking the office of the mouth. The mouth speaks ... and tastes. . . . The soul does likewise. First she speaks to me with the tongue of holy and continual prayer . . . offering to me sweet and amorous desires for the salvation of souls, and actually announcing the doctrine of my Truth, admonishing, counselling, confessing . . . taking the food of souls, for my honour, on the table of the cross . . . swallowing, for the sake of the salvation of souls, insults, villainies, reproofs and persecutions. ... She then tastes the relish of the fruit of toil and the delight of the food of souls, on fire with my love and that of her neighbour. . . .
The death of the sensitive will, after the soul has eaten of the affection of my charity, is the sign by which it is known, in truth, that the soul has arrived at the third step, that is the mouth. And in the mouth she finds peace and quiet, and nothing can disturb her peace and quiet, because her sensual will is dead. They who have arrived at this step, bring forth the virtues upon their neighbor without pain, not because pain is no longer painful to them, but because, their sensitive will being dead, they voluntarily bear pain for my sake. They run without negligence, by the doctrine of Christ crucified, and slacken not their pace on account of persecutions, injuries or pleasures of the world. They pass by all these things with fortitude and perseverance, their affection clothed in the affection of charity, and eating the food of souls with true and perfect patience, which patience is a sign that the soul is in perfect love, loving without any consideration of self. For did she love me and her neighbour for her own profit, she would, in impatience, slacken her steps, but loving me, who am the Supreme Being and worthy to be loved, she loves herself and her neighbour through
3 6o THE LOVE OF GOD me alone, caring only for the glory and praise of my name, which causes her to be patient and strong to suffer, and persevering. 35
Such as these follow the Immaculate Lamb, my only-begotten Son, who was both blessed and sorrowful on the cross. He was sorrowful in that he bore the cross of the body, suffering pain and the cross of desire, in order to satisfy for the guilt of the human race, and he was blessed because the divine nature, though united with the human, could suffer no pain, but always kept his soul in a state of blessedness, being revealed without a veil to her, so that he was both blessed and sorrowful, for, while the flesh endured, neither the Deity nor the superior part of the soul, which is above the intellect, could suffer. 36
So these, my sons of delight, who have arrived at the third and fourth states, are sorrowful, for they carry both a physical and a mental cross — that is to say, they bear pain in their bodies according to my permission, and in their mind the cross of desire, for they are tortured by sorrow at the offence done to me, and the loss of their neighbour. Yet I say to thee that they are blessed, because the delight of charity which makes them so, cannot be taken away from them. . . . 3T
Souls, arising with anxious desire, run, with virtue, by the Bridge of the doctrine of Christ crucified, and arrive at the gate, lifting up their minds in me, and in the blood, and burning with the fire of love they taste in me, the eternal Deity, who am to them a sea pacific, with whom the soul has made so great a union, that she has no movement except in me. 38
These passages echo the song of St. Agnes: "It is Christ whom I love, I am become the bride of him whose mother is a virgin, and whose father knoweth not a woman, the instru-
88 The doctrine dictated by St. Catherine o£ Siena duplicates St. Thomas', as discussed earlier, chap. 4, art. 2. 8 ' Chap. 78. 88 Chap. 79.
ments of his music sound sweetly in mine ears: When I love him I am chaste; when I touch him I am pure; when I possess him I am a virgin."
St. Paul was speaking to all the faithful when he wrote: "For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (II Cor. 11: 2). The faithful form one body, the Church, the spouse of Christ, which must persevere in faith and hope and love. Our insight into this supernatural mystery grows as we see that the spiritual union of Christ and the Church is fruitful and perfectly pure and that it needs to be symbolized in its fecundity by the sacrament of matrimony and in its absolute purity by the consecration of virgins, who, like the Church, bear the name of spouses of Jesus Christ.
When in heaven we shall see all the souls saved by the prayers and sacrifices of those whom Christ has chosen for close association in His inner life and the great redemptive mission and mystery, then only shall we understand the value and rich fruitfulness of this spiritual union.
Footnotes
Chapter 13 of 37