Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/513

 VIRGIN

459

VIRGIN

Goc. cit., 4, 5) are the martyrs; they are declared to be without spot, as in an earlier chapter (vii, 14) ; they are said to "have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb".

In the article Nuns it is shown how Christian vir- gins have been one of the glories of the Church since the first ages, and how very ancient is the profession of virginity. Under Religious Life is treated the difficulty of proving the strict obligation of persever- ance before the fifth century, when we meet with the letter of Innocent V (404) to Vitricius (chapters xiii, xiv; cf. P. L., XX, 478 sqq.). Even at an earlier period still, the bishop presided at the clothing, and the con- secration of virgins became a sacramental rite, in which the prayers and benedictions of the Church were added to the prayers and merits of those who pre- sented themseh-es, in order to obtain for them the grace of fidelity in their subhme profession. In the fourth century no age was fixed for the con.secration; virgins offered themselves when quite young, at ten or twelve years of age. As there were children offered by their parents to the monastic life, so also there were children vowed to virginity before their birth, or very shortly after. Subsequently the law was passed which forbade consecration before the age of twenty-five years.

The ceremony prescribed in the Roman Pontifical is very solemn, and follows, step by step, that of an ordination. It is reserved to the bishop, and can never be repeated. The days fixed for the solemnity were at first the Epiphany, Easter week, and the feasts of the Apostles. The third Council of the Lateran gave permission to consecrate virgins on all Sundays, and custom sometimes extended the per- mission (C. Subdiaconos, 1, De temp, ordinat., 1, 10). The ceremony takes place during Mass; the archpricst certifies the worthiness of the candidates, as he does that of the deacons. After the introductory hymns, the pontiff first asks them all together if they are resolved to persevere in their purpose of holy virginity; they answer: "Volumus" (we are). Then he asks each one severally: "Dost thou promise to preserve perpetual virginity"? and when she answers, "I do promise", the pontiff says, "Deo gratias". The litany of the saints is then sung, with a double invocation on behalf of the virgins present: "Ut praesentes ancillas benedicere . . . sanctificare dig- neris" ("That thou wouldst vouchsafe to bless and sanctify thy handmaidens here present"). It is to be remarked that the third invocation, "et consecrare digneris" ("That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to conse- crate them"), which is added for major orders, is omitted here. The hymn "Veni Creator" follows, after which the pontiff blesses the habits, which the virgins put on. He then blesses the veil, the ring, and the crown. After the singing of a very beautiful preface, the bishop gives these three articles to the virgins with the formula- used in ordinations, and the ceremony ends with a benediction, some prayers, and a long anathema directed against any persons who attempt to seduce the virgins from their holy profes- sion. Sometimes after the Mass, the bishop gave them, as also to the deaconesses, the Book of Hours, to recite the Office.

From the fourth century the virgins wore a modest dress of dark colour; they were required to devote themselves to prayer (the canonical hours), manual labour, and an ascetic life. After the eighth century, as enclosure became the general law for persons con- secrated to God, the rea.son for this special consec'ra- tion of persons, already i)rotected by the walls of the monastery and by their reUgious profession, ceased to exist. Secret faults committed before or even after admission to the monastery led to questions which were very delicate to decide, and which became the subject of controversy. Was one who had lost her virginity to make the fact known at the price of

her reputation? Was it enough to present herself as a virgin in order to be able to receive consecration? (See for example "Theol. moralis Salmaticensium ", Q. xvi de 6 et 9 praecepto, i, n. 75; or Lessius, "De justitia", etc., IV, ii, dub. Id.) The ceremony be- came more and more rare, though exanqilcs were found still in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; but it was not practised in the Mendicant orders. Saint Antoninus knew it in the fifteenth century; while St. Charles Borromeo in vain tried to revive it in the sixteenth. The abbess alone received and still receives a solemn benediction.

Virginity is irreparably lost by sexual pleasure, voluntarily and completely experienced. " I tell you without hesitation", writes St. Jerome in his twenty- second Epistle to St. Eustochium, n. 5 (P. L., XXII, 397) "that though God is almighty. He cannot restore a virginity that has been lost". A failure in the resolution, or even incomplete faults, leave room for efficacious repentance, which restores virtue and the right to the aureola. Formerly virginity was required as a condition for entrance into some monasteries; at the present day, in most congregations, a pontifical dispensation is necessary for the reception of persons who have been married (the Order of the Visitation however is formally open to widows); but bodily integrity is no longer required. If the candidate's reputation is intact, the doors of monasteries are open to a generous repentance as to a generous innocence. (See Nuns; Religious Life; Vows; Veil, Relig- ious.)

Besides St. Thomas, Summa theol. Supplement, Q. xc\-i, and all the moralists see: MARxfeNE, De antiq. eccl, rit.; Thomassinus, Vetus et nova eccl. discip,; Vermeersch, De relig. instil, et pers., II, suppl. I. De ascetis et virginibus (4th ed.. Bruges, 1909); WiLPEKT, Die Ctillgeweihlen Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahr- hun'hrl' II ili'i- Kiii'h iFrnliiirL'. I s'.)2) ; KocH, ViTgines Christi in Ti-rl' iinil I'll!. I.- II, hi my II M'Hi?!; ScHlwiETZ, Des morgenlan- f/!.s./,- MiiKi hfiiiii, ]. h,i \ :i f, Ilium der drei erstenchristl. Jahrh. (Mmiiiz. I'Hili; HiiMHi-. HI 11, DiF Orrfcn und Kongr. der kath. Kirclic. I (2nil .■<!.. I'aderborn. I'JO?).

A. Veemeersch.

Virgin Mary, Devotion to the Blessep. — Down to the Council of Nicwa. — Devotion to Our Blessed Lady in its ultimate analysis must be regarded as a practical application of the doctrine of the Com- munion of Saints. Seeing that this doctrine is not contained, at least ex-plicitly, in the earlier forms of the Apostles' Creed, there is perhaps no gi'ound for sur- prise if we do not meet with any clear traces of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin in the first Christian cen- turies. The earhest unmistakable examples of the "worship" — we use the word of course in .a relative sense — of the saints is connected with the veneration paid to the martyrs who gave their lives for the Faith. The subject has been fully treated by Kirsch ("Com- munion of Saints", tr., pp. 19 sq., 72 sq.). From the first century onwards, martyrdom was regarded as the surest sign of election. The martyrs, it was held, passed immediately into the presence of God. Over their tombs the Holy Sacrifice w.as offered (a practice which may possibly be alluded to in Apoc, vi, 9) while in the contemporary narrative of the martyr- dom of St. Polycarp (c. l.'il) we have already mention of the "birthday", i. e. the annual commemoration, which the Christians might be expected to keep in his honour. This attitude of mind becomes still more explicit in Tertullian and St. Cyprian, and the stress laid upon the "sati.sfactory" character of the suffer- ings of the martyrs, emphasizing theviewthat by their death they could obtain gi-accs and blessings for others, naturally and imnicdiately led to their direct invocation. A further r('inff)rcement of the same idea was derived from the cull of the angels, which, while pre-Christian in its origin, was heartily embraced by the faithful of the .sub-.\postolic age (see the examples given by Kirsch, loc. cit., pp. 33-39; from Hennas, Ju.stin, etc.). It seems to have been only as a sequel of some such development that men turned to implore