Virgin (title)

Procession of virgin martyrs bearing both martyr's palms and wreaths as the crown of a virgin (master of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, 6th century)

The title Virgin (Latin: Virgo, Ancient Greek: Παρθένος) is an honorific bestowed on female saints and blesseds, primarily used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

Chastity is one of the seven virtues in Christian tradition, listed by Pope Gregory I at the end of the 6th century. In 1 Corinthians, Paul the Apostle states that the virgins and the unmarried women are "concerned about the Lord's affairs", and that their "aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit". In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul alludes to the metaphor of the Church as Bride of Christ by addressing the congregation: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ".

In the theology of the Church Fathers, the prototype of the sacred virgin is Mary, the mother of Jesus, consecrated by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. Although not directly stated in the gospels, the perpetual virginity of Mary was widely upheld as a dogma by the Church Fathers from the 4th century.

Virgin martyrs

Saint Euphemia with the crown of a virgin, a white lily and the martyr's palm (Andrea Mantegna, 1454)

In the hagiography of Christian martyrs of the late 1st to early 4th centuries, virgin martyrs (Latin virgo et martyr, Greek παρθένος-μάρτυρας, Russian дева-мученица) were often persecuted for their refusal to enter a worldly marriage after having vowed to keep their virginity for the sake of heaven. Other virgin martyrs lost their lives in defensum castitatis ('in defense of chastity'). A group of virgin martyrs of the early church, namely Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret of Antioch, Barbara of Nicomedia and Dorothea of Caesarea, is called "the four capital virgins", three of them belong to the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

In the Roman Missal and the Book of Hours, virgins and virgin martyrs have their own common. Different martyrologies (for example the Martyrologium Romanum or the Martyrologium Hieronymianum) list early virgin martyrs, some of which are also named in the Canon of the Mass.

Consecrated virgins

The tradition of the rite of the Consecratio virginum (consecration of a virgin) dates back to the 4th century, the form of life to apostolic times. The first known formal consecration is that of Saint Marcellina, dated AD 353, mentioned in De Virginibus by her brother, Saint Ambrose. Another early consecrated virgin is Saint Genevieve (c. 422c. 512).

According to Raymond of Capua, Saint Catherine of Siena (c. 1347–1380) at the age of 21 (c. 1368) experienced what she described in her letters as a mystical marriage with Jesus Christ, later a popular subject in art as the mystic marriage of Saint Catherine.

Canon 922 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "From apostolic times Christian virgins, called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the Church's approval to live in a state of virginity 'for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven'."

Virgins are consecrated for the church as a bride of Christ both in the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic church. While in the latter one the consecration has been bestowed for centuries only for nuns living in cloistered monasteries, the bestowal for women living in the world has been reintroduced under Pope Paul VI in 1970. The number of consecrated virgins ranges in the thousands. Estimates derived from the diocesan records range at around 5,000 consecrated virgins worldwide As of 2018.

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-02-11 20:40 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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