On Holy Virginity

Description

translation of St. Ambrose's De Virginitate (378)

WARNING: The introduction thinks Saturday (not Sunday) is the Sabbath day; it's written by an Anglican, before his conversion to becoming a Catholic and Jesuit (he knew Cdls. Newman & Manning!).

from Fr. Unger's book on the single life:

St. Ambrose (d. 397) is considered the apostle of virginity in the Western Church. He composed several treatises on the subject. In 377 he wrote On Virgins, to His Sister Marcellina , which consists of three parts: the first is on the excellence of virginity, the second is a group of tableaux of heroines of this form of life, the third gives norms for living as Christ's spouse. That same year he wrote the work On Widows. A year later he composed On Virginity , which is more apologetic in tone. In 391-2 he penned On the Virgin and on the Perpetual Virginity of Holy Mary , because in Mary is realized the supreme model of feminine purity. The next year he produced another precious work, An Exhortation on Virginity.

cf. this letter: Luther certainly promoted what you call the "phallo-naturalistic message". He even wrote that all who have genitalia must use them! Thus he takes "Be fruitful and multiply" in a naturalistic sense as a precept binding on everyone today and thinks that virginity (and thus religious orders) is an assault against nature.

Super Sent., lib. 4 d. 44 q. 1 a. 2 qc. 1 arg. 1 ** / ad 1 (suppl. q. 80 a. 1) is an indirect refutation of Luther's heresy:

[arg. :] Videtur quod non omnia membra corporis humani resurgent. Remoto enim fine, frustra reparatur illud quod est ad finem. Finis autem cujuslibet membri est ejus actus. Cum ergo nihil sit frustra in operibus divinis, et quorumdam membrorum usus post resurrectionem non competat, praecipue genitalium, quia tunc nec nubent nec nubentur (Mt. 22:30); videtur quod non omnia membra resurgent.
…

[ad :] membra dupliciter possunt considerari in comparatione ad animam; vel secundum habitudinem materiae ad formam, vel secundum habitudinem instrumenti ad agentem. Eadem est enim comparatio totius corporis ad totam animam, et partium ad partes, ut dicitur in 2 de anima. Si ergo membrum accipiatur secundum primam comparationem, finis ejus non est operatio, sed magis perfectum esse speciei, quod etiam post resurrectionem requiretur. Si autem membrum accipiatur secundum secundam comparationem, sic finis ejus est operatio; nec tamen sequitur quod quando deficit operatio, frustra sit instrumentum; quia instrumentum non solum servit ad exequendam operationem agentis, sed ad ostendendum virtutem ipsius; unde oportebit ut virtus potentiarum animae instrumentis corporis demonstretur, etsi nunquam in actum prodeant, ut ex hoc commendetur Dei sapientia.

The part I underlined is interesting because instrumental causality seems little understood today, esp. in sacramental theology and in the "perverted faculty argument" against contraception. (I'm also not sure why Casti Connubii etc. argue against contraception by saying it frustrates the natural end of the act as opposed to saying that it is evil to seek pleasure over a marriage good, which is how [it seems] St. Thomas argues against it.)

I've even heard some say Gal. 3:28 ("…non est masculus, neque femina…") means our resurrected bodies will be androgynous! And I've heard it claimed that our souls are male or female, yet St. Thomas denies this (Super Sent. , lib. 4 d. 25 q. 2 a. 1 qc. 1 arg. 3: "Sed sexus non est in anima.") and so does St. Ambrose (De Virginitate cap. 15: "anima enim sexum non habet").

De Virginitate cap. 7, DjVu pp. 58ff. , is interesting because St. Ambrose refutes the objection that his promoting virginity would lead to depopulation of the empire: "The world is alarmed for itself, as though marriages are to be no more and the human race to be extinct. But what need of terror; has there ever in fact been a lack of persons willing to be brides?" "nonnullo enim dixisse audivi quod periit mundus, defecit genus huinanum, conjugia labefacta sunt. Quæro quis tandem quæsivit uxorem, qui non invenerit? "

Re: what you said about St. Alphonsus seeing Our Virgin Mother: from Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend :

[D]espite Mary's exceeding beauty no man could ever [lustfully] desire her, for the reason that the power of her chastity penetrated all who looked upon her, and all lustful desires were quenched in them.

Also, little Jacinta repeatedly exclaimed: “Oh, what a beautiful Lady! Oh, what a beautiful Lady!” (cf. the demon of Medjugorje, who frightened Milka Pavloviv so much that, as Fr. Luigi Villa wrote, she "was terrorized to the extent that, seized by fear, she took off her shoes and fled, and, come close to the village, burst out sobbing.")

from Pius XII's Sacra Virginitas §42: "Ambrose fittingly writes: [semper spectavit ad gratiam sacerdotum, jacere semina integritatis et virginitatis studia provocare.] 'To sow the seeds of perfect purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the function of the priesthood.' [S. Ambros., De virginitate , c. 5, n. 26; PL XVI, 286.]"

To the objection that St. Ambrose was depopulating the Roman Empire by his zealous advocacy of virginity and the religious life, he replied implying there will always be marrieds (On Holy Virginity ch. 7):

Finally, is it [virginity] inexpedient? The world is alarmed for itself, as though marriages are to be no more and the human race to be extinct. But what need of terror; has there ever in fact been a lack of persons willing to be brides? And as to ills arising from either state [virginity or marriage], broken wedlock has been the source of wars and destruction, but to none has consecrated virginity occasioned death, for it is higher than human law and beyond its sanctions; religion gives it its dignity, and its safeguard is the Faith.

and that the population actually grows where virginity is more highly esteemed (ibid.):

Nor is there fear of the extinction of mankind. Facts have proved the contrary, and shewn that where virginity has been most honoured, there most mankind has multiplied. What multitudes of virgins were yearly consecrated at Alexandria, in the African Church, and throughout the East [in the time of St. Ambrose]. Births were rarer in the West, than consecrations of virgins in the East. Even on this ground, then, let not virginity be thought unprofitable; yea, how profitable has it been, seeing that by a Virgin salvation came, to render fruitful the Roman world.

If ye will urge this futile argument, pause and see whither it will carry you. It will lead you to defend the violation of wedlock, if thereby mankind may be more multiplied.

The wedded need not be alarmed, they have their wives; for the unwedded man, whom has he to blame but himself, if he seek a maiden who he knows beforehand will not be a bride? Fathers need not fear, for if other maidens are consecrated, their daughters may be the sooner chosen.