The Virtues and States of Life

Authors	Henry, Antonin Marcel, O.P. Putz, Louis J., C.S.C. Olsen, Robert J. Lennon, Genevieve T.
Series	Theology Library [4.0]
Publisher	Fides Publishers Association
Published	23 gen 1957
Date	23 feb 2022
Languages	eng
Identifiers	lcc: 54-10891

Description

PDF pp. 591-7 are a good overview of virginity and its comparison with marriage and widowhood; explains well the divisus est of 1 Cor. 7:33.

Religious congregations of non-virgins?

P. Lafetur, O.P., in The Virtues and States of Life by A. M. Henry, O.P. (1957), p. 583 says:

[…] loss of virginity make the consecration to God which follows it something different from that of virginity. This is so true that a special congregation was to receive into the contemplative life those persons whom the sin (not only against the sixth commandment, but especially that sin) had touched. And it has been correctly observed that even those persons whose disgrace had remained completely secret felt more at ease in communities of this kind than in monasteries established principally for virgins.

What are these "special [religious] congregations" who accept non-virgins?

Fr. Lafetur doesn't seem to be referring to a congregation of the sort as the Congregation for Religious, but to religious communities.