ABSTRACT
The regard in which consecrated virginity was held equated with the standing of martyrdom in preceding centuries as the sign of a superior commitment to Christianity. For all that ‘we do not disparage marriage’ (Jerome Against Jovinian 1.3) and ‘the first natural bond of society is that of man and his wife’ (Augustine On the Good of Marriage 1) nonetheless ‘in the resurrection there will be no marrying nor giving in marriage’ (Augustine On the Sermon on the Mount 1.15.40); ‘the fruitfulness of the flesh is not equal to holy virginity’ (Gregory of Nyssa On Virginity 8), ‘for this is a richer and more fruitful condition of blessedness, not to have a pregnant womb but to develop the soul’s lofty capacities’ (ibid. 9). To abstain from the usual patterns of life, to refrain from the temptations of a relationship and a family, was to be at least peculiar, at best outstanding, and in a highly visible and controversial way; if successfully pursued, such a route must surely be a visible sign of greater commitment and power; and greater gifts from God. Virginity is a grace but also ‘a helpmate’ to greater efforts, according to Gregory of Nyssa (ibid. 4, 9); it is incumbent on those practising it to be still more pure in other respects also, as they are the vanguard of the church. Thus the great difference between fleshly and spiritual virginity is underlined: Virginity is only holy because it is dedicated to God, not in itself; it is fleshly but of the spirit’ (ibid. 8) and ‘Virginity of the body is devised to further such a disposition of the soul’ (ibid. 5). Similarly John Chrysostom stressed ‘virginity is defined not just by the one point of never having had sex: she who is careful for things of the world cannot be a virgin’ and ‘evil is not in cohabitation but in impediments to the strictness of life’ (Hom. 19 on I Cor VII:7); ‘she is not pure who is compelled [to virginity] by fear, nor honourable who does this for gain’ (Ambrose On Virginity 1.15). By that same token, Virginity can be lost even by a thought’; and those possessed of such thoughts ‘are evil virgins, virgins in flesh, not in spirit’ (Jerome Let. 22.5).
