Concerning Virginity, Book 1

Chapter 1

1 If, according to the judgment of heavenly Truth, we must give an account of every idle word we have spoken; or if every servant who has buried in his own ground the talents of spiritual grace entrusted to him, which were to be handed to the money-changers so that they might be multiplied by growing interest, whether as a timid lender or as a greedy owner, incurs serious displeasure when his master returns; then we have good reason to fear, we on whom, though our ability is slight, have a pressing duty to lend to the minds of the people the words of God entrusted to us, for fear that interest may also be demanded on our words; especially since the Lord requires of us effort, not success. So I decided to write something. For hearing our words poses a greater risk to modesty than reading them; a book does not blush. 2 And indeed, distrusting my ability but encouraged by examples of the divine mercy, I dare to compose an address; for when God wanted it, even a donkey spoke. If, then, an angel should stand by me, set as I am under the burdens of this world, I too will open a mouth long silent; for he who in that donkey loosened the hindrances of nature can loosen the obstacles of inexperience. In the ark of the Old Testament the priest’s rod blossomed; it is easy for God to make a flower sprout from our knots too in the holy Church. And why should we despair that the Lord may speak in men, when he spoke in thorns? God did not look down on even a bramble. If only he would light up my thorns too! There will perhaps be some who wonder that some brightness shines even in our thorns, some whom our thorn does not burn; there will be some for whom our voice, heard from the bush, loosens the sandal from their feet, so that the step of the mind may be stripped of bodily hindrances. 3 But these are the achievements of holy people. If only Jesus would turn His gaze toward me, lying under that fig tree still without fruit! Our fig tree too would bear fruit after three years. But where can sinners find such hope? If only at least that gardener in the Gospel of the Lord’s vineyard, perhaps already ordered to cut down our fig tree, might let it alone this year too, until he digs around it and puts in a basket of dung; that perhaps he may raise the needy from the earth and lift up the poor from the dung heap! Blessed are those who tie their horses under the vine and the olive, consecrating the course of their labors to light and gladness. Me the fig tree still overshadows, that is, the enticing itch of the world’s delights: low in height, too weak for labor, too soft for use, bearing no fruit. 4 And perhaps someone will wonder why I dare to write, who cannot speak. And yet if we go back to what we read in the Gospel Scriptures and in the deeds of priests, and let the holy prophet Zechariah be our lesson, he will find that there is something which the voice does not express and the pen records. And if the name of John restored the voice to his father, I too should not despair of receiving a voice, mute as I am, if I speak Christ, of whose birth the prophet asks, “Who can describe it?” And so, as a servant, I will proclaim the Lord’s household; for the spotless Lord has consecrated for himself a spotless household even in this body of human frailty, full of defilements.

Chapter 2

5 And it is a fitting start, since today is the birthday of a virgin, that we should speak of virgins, and that this book should begin by praising her. It is a virgin’s birthday: let us follow purity. It is a martyr’s birthday: let us offer sacrifices. It is the birthday of holy Agnes: let men wonder, let little ones not despair, let married women be amazed, let the unmarried imitate. But what can we say worthy of her, whose very name shone with praise? Devotion beyond her age, virtue beyond nature; so that she seems to me to have had not a human name but a prophecy of martyrdom, by which she showed what she was to be. 6 Yet I have something from which help may be found for me. The name of virgin is a title of modesty. I will call her martyr, I will proclaim her virgin. Praise is complete when it is already present and needs no searching out. Let human abilities, then, give way, let eloquence fall silent: a single word is her praise. Old men, young men, and children sing of her. No one is more praiseworthy than one who can be praised by all. Every person becomes a herald, who proclaim the martyr as they speak. 7 She is said to have suffered martyrdom at twelve years old. The more detestable the cruelty that did not spare even such a young age; or rather, the greater the power of faith, which found a witness even in that age. Was there room in that little body for a wound? And she who had no room to receive the sword had what was needed to overcome the sword. Yet girls of that age cannot bear even the stern looks of their parents, and are used to crying at the pricks of a needle as if they were wounds. She, unafraid among the bloody hands of the executioners, she, unmoved by the heavy dragging of the grating chains, now offers her whole body to the sword of the raging soldier, not yet knowing what it is to die, but ready; or, if she was dragged against her will to the altars, she stretches out her hands to Christ among the flames, and on the very sacrilegious hearths makes the sign of the victory of the victorious Lord; then she puts her neck and both hands into iron bonds; but no bond could hold such slender limbs. 8 A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet fit for punishment, and already ripe for victory; hard to fight, easy to crown; she fulfilled the role of a teacher of virtue, though she bore the disadvantage of her age. No bride would hasten so to the bridal chamber as the virgin went out to the place of punishment, glad at her success, swift in step, her head adorned not with braided hair but with Christ, crowned not with flowers but with good character. All wept; she alone without tears. Most wondered that, so lavish with a life she had not yet tasted, she gave it up as though she had already lived it out. All were amazed that she already stood up as a witness to the divinity, who by her age could not yet be legally independent. In the end she won belief in her testimony about God, who would not yet have been believed about a man; for what is beyond nature is from the author of nature. 9 With what terror did the executioner act to be feared, with what coaxing words to persuade her! How many wished that she would come to them in marriage! But she said: “It is a wrong to my bridegroom to look for one who will please me. He who chose me first will receive me. Why do you delay, executioner? Let the body perish that can be loved by eyes I do not want.” She stood, prayed, bowed her neck. You might have seen the executioner tremble as if he himself had been condemned, the slayer’s right hand shake, his face grow pale fearing for someone else’s danger, while the girl did not fear her own. You have, then, in one victim a twofold martyrdom, of modesty and of religion. She both remained a virgin and obtained martyrdom.

Chapter 3

10 Now the love of purity invites us, and you too, holy sister, silently, by your quiet ways, invite us to say something of virginity, so that this chief virtue does not seem to receive only a passing mention. For virginity is not praiseworthy because it is found also in martyrs, but because it itself makes martyrs. 11 But who could comprehend by human ability that which not even nature has enclosed within her laws? Or who could embrace in ordinary speech what is above the course of nature? It brought from heaven what it was to imitate on earth. And not without reason did it seek its way of life from heaven, which found its bridegroom in heaven. Passing beyond clouds, air, angels and stars, it found the Word of God in the Father’s own embrace, and drew him in with its whole heart. For who, having found so great a good, would leave it? “For your name is ointment poured out; therefore the maidens have loved you and drawn you.” Finally, I am not the one who says that those who neither marry nor are given in marriage will be as the angels in heaven. No one should be surprised, then, that those united with the Lord of angels are compared with angels. Who, then, would deny that this life has flowed from heaven, which we do not easily find on earth until after God came down into the members of this earthly body? Then a virgin conceived in the womb, and the Word became flesh, that flesh might become God. 12 Someone will say: “But Elijah too is found to have been entangled in no desires of bodily intercourse.” That is why he was caught up to heaven in a chariot, why he appears with the Lord in glory, why he is to come as forerunner of the Lord’s coming. “And Miriam, taking a tambourine, led the dances with virginal modesty.” But consider whom she represented then. Was it not the Church’s, which as a virgin of spotless spirit joined together the devout gatherings of the people to sing divine songs? For we read also that virgins were appointed to the temple at Jerusalem. But what does the Apostle say? “Now these things happened to them as a symbol, as signs of things to come”; for the symbol appears in a few, but the way of life in many. 13 But after the Lord, coming into this body, joined the union of divinity and body without any taint of confused mingling, then the practice of heavenly life spread through the whole world and took root in human bodies. This is what the angels who ministered on earth declared would come: a race that would offer service to the Lord with the obedience of a spotless body. This is that heavenly army which the army of praising angels promised on earth. We have, then, the authority of antiquity from the beginning of the world, and the fullness of this calling from Christ.

Chapter 4

14 This, certainly, I do not share with the Gentiles; it is not common among the barbarians, nor usual among the other living creatures. With them, though we breathe the same life-giving breath of this air, share the common condition of the earthly body, and do not differ in the way we reproduce, yet by this alone we escape the reproaches of our common nature: that virginity is imitated by the Gentiles but violated once it has been consecrated, assailed by the barbarians, unknown to the rest. 15 Who holds up to me the virgins of Vesta and the priestesses of Pallas? What sort of chastity is this, not of character but of years, which is prescribed not for life but for a period of age? Such integrity is all the more shameless, when its corruption is postponed until later life. They themselves teach that their virgins ought not to persevere and cannot, who have set an end to virginity. What sort of religion is it, where girls are ordered to be chaste and old women unchaste? But neither is she chaste who is held by law, and she unchaste who is released by law. What mysteries! What morals! Where necessity is imposed on chastity, authority is given to lust. And so she is not chaste who is forced by fear, nor honorable who is hired for pay; nor is that modesty which, exposed every day to the abuse of intemperate eyes, is struck by shameful glances. Exemptions are granted, rewards offered; as though this were not the greatest sign of wantonness, to sell chastity. What is promised for a price is dissolved for a price; it is handed over for a price and paid out for a price. She who is used to selling chastity does not know how to redeem it. 16 What shall I say of the Phrygian rites, in which unchastity is a discipline, and if only it were limited to what is called the weaker sex! What of the orgies of Liber, where the mystery of religion is an incitement to lust? What sort of life can the priests have, then, where the debauchery of the gods is worshiped? They have, then, no consecrated virgin. 17 Let us see whether perhaps the teachings of philosophy, which usually claims to be the teacher of all virtues, have formed one. A certain story is told of one of the Pythagorean virgins: when she was being compelled by a tyrant to betray a secret, so that torture might have no power over her to extort a confession, she bit off her tongue and spat it into the tyrant’s face, so that he who would not stop questioning might have no one to question. 18 Yet the same woman, with a brave mind but a swelling womb, an example of silence and a disgrace to chastity, was overcome by desires, she who could not be overcome by torture. So she who could hide the secret of her mind did not cover the shame of her body. She conquered nature, but did not keep discipline. How she must have wished that there were in her voice a defense of her modesty! And perhaps her endurance had trained her for this, to deny her guilt. So she was not invincible in every respect; for the tyrant too, though he could not find out what he was asking, yet found out what he was not asking. 19 How much braver are our virgins, who conquer even powers they do not see, whose victory is not only over flesh and blood but over the very prince of the world and ruler of the age! Agnes, younger in age but greater in virtue, richer in triumph, more firmly steadfast, did not take away her tongue for fear, but kept it for her trophy. For she had nothing she feared to betray, since her confession was not of a crime but of religion. So the one only concealed a secret; this one testified to the Lord, whom, because her age could not yet confess him, her nature confessed.

Chapter 5

20 In speeches of praise it is customary to praise the homeland and the parents, so that by mention of the founder the dignity of the descendant may be enhanced. Though I have undertaken not a speech praising virginity but a portrait of it, I think it appropriate to explain what its homeland is and who its author. And first let us define where its homeland is. For if the homeland is where one’s birthplace is, then the homeland of chastity is certainly in heaven. So here it is a stranger, there a citizen. 21 And what is virginal chastity but integrity free from contagion? And whom can we consider its author but the spotless Son of God, whose flesh did not see corruption, whose divinity did not experience contagion? See, then, how great are the merits of virginity. Christ before the Virgin, Christ from the Virgin: born indeed of the Father before the ages, but born of the Virgin for the sake of the ages. The former belongs to his own nature, the latter for our benefit. The former he always was; the latter He chose. 22 Consider also another merit of virginity: Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin, and, if one may say so, Christ belongs to virginal chastity; for virginity is Christ’s, not Christ virginity’s. She is a virgin, then, who was married; a virgin who carried us in her womb; a virgin who gave birth; a virgin who nursed us with her own milk; of whom we read: “What great things the virgin of Jerusalem has done! The breasts will not fail from the rock, nor the snow from Lebanon, nor will the water turn aside that is carried by a strong wind.” What kind of virgin is this, watered by the fountains of the Trinity, for whom waters flow from the rock, breasts do not fail, honey is poured out? Now the rock, according to the Apostle, is Christ. So from Christ the breasts do not fail, from God the brightness, from the Spirit the river. This is the Trinity that waters its Church: the Father, Christ, and the Spirit. 23 But now let us come down from the mother to the daughters. “Concerning virgins,” says the holy Apostle, “I have no command of the Lord.” If the Teacher of the Gentiles did not have one, who could? And indeed he did not have a command, but he had an example. For virginity cannot be commanded, only desired; for things beyond our reach belong to prayer rather than to instruction. “But I want you,” he says, “to be free from anxiety. For he who is without a wife is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please God … and the virgin thinks of the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and spirit. For she who is married thinks of the things of the world, how to please her husband.”

Chapter 6

24 I do not, indeed, discourage marriage; but I set out the benefits of virginity. “Let him who is weak,” he says, “eat vegetables.” One thing I require, another I admire. “Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.” This is the command for the married. But what does he say of virgins? “He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her does better.” The one does not sin if she marries; the other, if she does not marry, is for eternity. There is a remedy for weakness, here the glory of chastity. The one is not blamed; the other is praised. 25 Let us compare, if you please, the goods of married women with the least of the goods of virgins. Though a noble woman may boast of her fruitful childbearing, the more children she has borne, the more she has suffered. Let her count the comforts of her children, but let her count equally the troubles. She marries, and weeps. What sort of prayers are those that are wept over! She conceives and grows heavy. Fruitfulness, surely, begins to bring a burden before it brings fruit. She gives birth and falls ill. What a sweet pledge, beginning in danger and ending in dangers, which will be a pain before it is a pleasure! It is bought through dangers, and not possessed at will. 26 Why should I recount the troubles of nursing, of bringing up, of marrying off? These are the miseries of the fortunate. A mother has heirs, but she increases her sorrows. We should not speak of misfortunes, for fear of making even the holiest parents tremble. See, my sister, how hard it is to suffer what ought not even to be heard. And these things belong to the present age. “But the days will come when they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne.” For the daughters of this age are born and bear children; but the daughter of the kingdom abstains from the pleasure of a husband and from the pleasure of the flesh, that she may be holy in body and spirit. 27 Why should I go over the burdensome submission and service of women bound over to their husbands, whom God commanded to serve before he commanded slaves to? I mention these things so that they may obey more willingly; for to them, if they are good, this is the reward of love; if bad, the penalty of sin. 28 From this arise those incitements to vice, that they paint their faces with carefully chosen colors, while they fear to displease their husbands, and from adulterating the face they go on to plan the adultery of chastity. What madness this is, to alter the likeness of nature and seek a painting, and, while they fear their husband’s judgment, to betray their own! For she first passes sentence on herself who desires to change what she was born. So while she tries to please others, she first displeases herself. What truer judge of your ugliness, woman, do we look for than yourself, who fear to be seen? If you are beautiful, why do you hide yourself? If ugly, why do you lie that you are beautiful, when you will have the thanks neither of your own conscience nor of another’s mistake? For he loves another woman, and you wish to please another man. And are you angry if he loves another, when he is taught to commit adultery in you? You are a bad teacher of your own wrong. For even a woman who has suffered a pimp refuses to act as a pimp; and though a vile woman, yet she sins not against another but against herself; and crimes are almost more tolerable in the other case; for there it is chastity that is adulterated, here nature. 29 Then, what a price is needed to keep even a beautiful woman from displeasing! Here costly necklaces hang from the neck, there a garment of gold trails along the ground. Is this beauty, then, bought or possessed? What of the various attractions applied even to the sense of smell! Ears are weighed down with jewels, another color is poured over the eyes. What remains her own where so much is changed? A woman loses her own senses, and believes she can live? 30 But you, blessed virgins, who know nothing of such torments, rather than ornaments; you whose beauty is holy modesty coloring your shy faces and good chastity; you, not bound over to human eyes, do not measure your worth by someone else’s mistaken judgment. You too surely have a battle for your beauty, in which the form of virtue, not of the body, does battle: a beauty no age extinguishes, no death can snatch away, no sickness corrupt. Seek God alone as the judge of beauty, who loves the more beautiful souls even in a less beautiful body. No burden of the womb is known, no pain of childbirth; and yet more numerous is the offspring of a devout mind, which holds all people as its children: fruitful in successors, barren of bereavements, it knows no funerals, it knows heirs. 31 So holy Church, unstained by intercourse, fruitful in childbearing, is a virgin in chastity, a mother in offspring. A virgin, then, gives us birth, filled not by a man but by the Spirit. A virgin gives us birth, not with pain of limbs but with the joys of angels. A virgin nourishes us, not with the milk of the body but with the Apostle’s, with which he nursed the still weak age of the growing people. What married woman, then, has more children than holy Church, who is a virgin in her sacraments, a mother to the peoples, whose fruitfulness Scripture too attests, saying: “For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband”? Our Church has no husband, but she has a bridegroom: whether as the Church among the nations or as the soul within each person, she weds the Word of God as an eternal bridegroom without any loss of modesty, free from injury and fruitful in reason.

Chapter 7

32 You have heard, parents, in what virtues you ought to train your daughters, in what disciplines to instruct them, so that you may have daughters by whose merits your sins may be redeemed. A virgin is God’s gift, her parent’s offering, a priesthood of chastity. A virgin is her mother’s sacrifice, by whose daily offering the divine power is appeased. A virgin is her parents’ inseparable pledge, who does not trouble them about a dowry, does not desert them by moving away, does not offend them by wrongs. 33 But someone wants to have grandchildren and gain the name of grandfather. First he gives up his own while he seeks those of others; then he begins to be cheated of what is certain while he hopes for what is uncertain. He hands over his own wealth and is still asked for more; unless he pays the dowry, he is pressed to pay it; if he lives long, he is a burden. This is to buy a son-in-law, not to gain one, who sells the parents the sight of their own daughter. Is she carried for so many months in the womb for this, that she should pass into another’s power? Is care taken to make the virgin attractive for this, that she may be taken from her parents the sooner? 34 Someone will say: “So you discourage marriage?” No, I encourage it, and I condemn those who are accustomed to discourage it; for I am in the habit of recounting the marriages of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and the other women of old as examples of exceptional virtues. For he who condemns marriage condemns children too, and condemns the fellowship of the human race carried on through the series of generations. For how could age follow age to last through the world, unless the grace of marriage stirred the desire to have children? Or how can it be proclaimed that the spotless Isaac came to God’s altar as the victim of his father’s devotion, that Israel, set in a human body, saw God and gave the people a holy name, if one condemns their origin? These men, sacrilegious though they are, have one thing which even the wisest may approve in them: by condemning marriage they profess that they ought not to have been born. 35 I do not, then, discourage marriage; but I list the benefits of consecrated virginity. The one is the gift of few, the other of all. Nor can there be virginity unless it has something from which to be born. I compare good with good, so that what excels may stand out more clearly. Nor do I put forward any opinion of my own, but I repeat that which the Holy Spirit proclaimed through the prophet: “Better,” he says, “is childlessness with virtue.” 36 For first, in that which brides desire above all, to boast of the handsomeness of their bridegroom, they must confess themselves unequal to the sacred virgins, to whom alone it is given to say: “You are fairer in form than the sons of men; grace is poured out on your lips.” Who is this bridegroom? Not one bound to lowly service, not proud of perishable riches, but one whose throne is forever and ever. “Kings’ daughters are in his honor. The queen stood at your right hand in a robe of gold,” clothed about with a variety of virtues. “Hear, then, daughter, and see, and listen closely, and forget your people and your father’s house; for the King has desired your beauty, for he is the Lord your God.” 37 And notice how much the Holy Spirit has bestowed on you by the testimony of divine Scripture: a kingdom, gold, beauty. A kingdom, either because you are the bride of the eternal King, or because, bearing an undefeated spirit, you are not held captive by the attractions of pleasure but rule over them as a queen; gold, because, as that metal is more precious when tested by fire, so the beauty of a virginal body consecrated to the divine Spirit gains an increase of its loveliness; and beauty: who can reckon any beauty greater than the loveliness of her who is loved by the King, approved by the Judge, dedicated to the Lord, consecrated to God; always a bride, always unwed, so that love never ends and modesty suffers no loss? 38 This, surely, is true beauty, which lacks nothing, which alone deserves to hear from the Lord: “You are all beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you. Come here from Lebanon, bride, come here from Lebanon; you will pass and pass through, from the beginning of faith, from the head of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” These signs show the perfect and blameless beauty of the virginal soul, consecrated to the divine altars, which, not bending toward mortal things amid the attacks and lairs of spiritual beasts but intent on the mysteries of God, has been found worthy of the beloved, whose breasts are full of gladness: “For wine gladdens the heart of man.” 39 “The fragrance of your garments,” he says, “is above all spices.” And below: “And the fragrance of your garments is as the fragrance of Lebanon.” See what progress you give us, virgin. Your first fragrance is above all the spices that were put into the Savior’s burial; and it breathes of the dead impulses of the body and of the delights of the limbs that have perished. Your second fragrance, like the fragrance of Lebanon, gives off the integrity of the Lord’s body, the flower of virginal chastity.

Chapter 8

40 Let your works, then, build a honeycomb; for virginity is worthy to be compared with bees: so industrious, so modest, so self-controlled. The bee feeds on dew, knows no mating, makes honey. The virgin’s dew too is the divine word, for the words of God come down like dew. The virgin’s modesty is a nature kept intact. The virgin’s offspring is the fruit of the lips, free of bitterness, rich in sweetness. The labor is shared; the fruit is shared. 41 How I wish you, daughter, to be an imitator of this little bee, whose food is flowers, whose offspring is gathered with the mouth and formed with the mouth! Imitate her, daughter. Let your words spread no veil of deceit, have no wrapping of deceit, so that they may have purity and be full of seriousness. 42 Let your words also bring forth an enduring succession of worthy deeds. And do not gather for yourself alone but for many (for how do you know when your soul will be required of you?), so that you are not snatched away after leaving storehouses heaped with grain that benefit neither your life nor your character to a place where you cannot carry your treasure. Be rich, then, but for the poor, so that those who share your nature may share your means also. 43 I also show you a flower to be plucked: the One who said: “I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys, as a lily among thorns”; which is a clear sign that the virtues are besieged by the thorns of spiritual wickedness, so that no one carries off the fruit except one who approaches with caution.

Chapter 9

44 Take wings, then, virgin, but the wings of the spirit, so that you may fly above wrongdoing, if you desire to reach Christ. He lives on high and looks upon the humble; and his appearance is like a cedar of Lebanon, which thrusts its foliage into the clouds and its root into the earth. For its beginning is from heaven, its lower parts on earth, and it puts forth fruit close to heaven. Search carefully for so good a flower, in case you may find it in the valley of your heart; for it is often breathed in by the lowly. 45 It loves to grow in gardens, where Susanna found it while she walked, ready to die rather than be violated. And what the gardens are he himself shows, saying: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed”; because in gardens of this kind, with the image of God impressed by seals, the water of the pure fountain shines, so that its streams are not stirred up, spattered with mud from the wallowing places of spiritual beasts. So that modesty, fenced by the Spirit as by a wall, is shut in, so that it does not lie open to plunder. And so, like a garden inaccessible to thieves, it breathes of the vine, is fragrant with the olive, gleams with the rose; so that in the vine religion, in the olive peace, in the rose the modesty of consecrated virginity may grow. This is the fragrance the patriarch Jacob breathed when he was found worthy to hear: “See, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a full field.” For though the field of the holy patriarch was full of almost all fruits, that field produced crops by a greater labor of virtue, this one flowers. 46 Prepare yourself, then, virgin, and if you want such a garden to breathe for you, close it in with the teachings of the prophets: “Set a guard on your mouth, and a door around your lips”; so that you too may be able to say: “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. In his shade I longed and sat, and his fruit was sweet in my throat. I found him whom my soul loved; I held him, and I will not let him go. My beloved has gone down into his garden to eat the fruit of his apples. Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field. Set me as a seal upon your heart, and as a signet upon your arm. My beloved is white and red.” For it is appropriate, virgin, that you should know fully him whom you love, and recognize in him the whole mystery both of the unbegotten divinity and of the body he assumed. White, rightly, because he is the radiance of the Father; red, because he is the offspring of a virgin. The color of each nature shines and glows in him. But remember that in him the marks of the divinity are older than the mysteries of the body; for he did not begin from a virgin, but he who already was came into a virgin. 47 He who was stripped by the soldiers, who was wounded by the lance, that he might heal us with the blood of his sacred wound, will surely answer you (for he is gentle and lowly in heart, kind in appearance): “Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; blow upon my garden, and let my spices flow.” For from all parts of the world the fragrance of consecrated religion has spread, and the limbs of the beloved virgin have breathed it out. “You are beautiful, my beloved, as good report; lovely as Jerusalem.” So it is not the beauty of a perishable body, which will die either by sickness or by old age, but the good reputation earned by worthy deeds, secure against chance and never dying, that is the beauty of virgins. 48 And since you are worthy to be compared no longer with human beings but with heavenly beings, whose life you live on earth, receive from the Lord the instructions you are to keep. “Set me,” he says, “as a seal upon your heart, and as a signet upon your arm,” so that the evidence of your wisdom and your deeds may be brought out the more clearly marked, in which Christ, the figure of God, may shine, who, matching the full compass of the Father’s nature, has expressed the whole of the divinity he received from the Father. Hence the apostle Paul too says that we have been sealed in the Spirit; for we have the image of the Father in the Son, and the seal of the Son in the Spirit. Sealed by this Trinity, let us take greater care that careless behavior or adulterous deceit does not break the seal on the pledge we have received in our hearts. 49 But let fear depart from the sacred virgins, to whom the Church first gives such protection; anxious for the welfare of her tender offspring, she herself, like a wall, rises with breasts abounding like towers, until, the onset of the enemy’s siege broken, she wins peace for her vigorous youth by the protection of a mother’s strength. So the prophet also says: “Let there be peace in your strength, and abundance in your towers.” 50 Then the Lord of peace himself, after he has embraced with stronger arms the vineyards entrusted to him and seen his shoots putting forth buds, with a expression that watches over them tempers the breezes for the young fruit, as he himself testifies, saying: “My vineyard is before me; a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit.” 51 Above he says: “Sixty mighty men all around its shoots,” armed with drawn swords and trained in the disciplines of war; here, a thousand two hundred. The number has grown where the fruit has grown; for the holier each one is, the better guarded. So the prophet Elisha showed that the armies of angels were present to protect him; so Joshua son of Nun recognized the captain of the heavenly army. Those, then, who can also fight for us can guard the fruit in us. But you, holy virgins, have a special protection, you who with untouched modesty keep the Lord’s sacred bed. It is no surprise that angels fight for you who fight with the conduct of angels. Virginal chastity deserves protection from those whose way of life it shares. 52 And why should I pursue the praise of chastity at greater length? Chastity has made even angels. He who has kept it is an angel; he who has lost it, a devil. From this religion too has taken its name. She is a virgin who marries God; a prostitute, who makes gods. And what shall I say of the resurrection, whose rewards you already hold? “But in the resurrection they will neither marry nor take wives, but will be like the angels,” he says, “in heaven.” What is promised to us is present to you, and the enjoyment of our hopes is with you. You are of this world, and you are not in this world. The age has been able to have you, but not to hold you.

Chapter 10

53 And how glorious, that angels because of their lack of self-control fell from heaven into the world, and virgins for their chastity have passed from the world into heaven! Blessed virgins, whom no attraction of bodies entices, no flood of pleasures hurls down! Frugal food and restrained drinking teach them not to know wrongdoing, by teaching them not to know the causes of wrongdoing. The cause of sinning has often deceived even the righteous. So the people of God, after it sat down to eat and drink, denied God. So Lot did not know of his daughters’ lying with him, and yet bore it. So the sons of Noah once covered their father’s nakedness with backward steps: what the wanton one saw, the modest one blushed at, the dutiful one covered, fearing to offend if he too looked. How great is the power of wine, that wine stripped him whom the flood did not! What else? How happy you are that no desire for possessions consumes you! The poor man asks for what you have; he does not demand what you have not. The fruit of your labor is a treasury for the needy, and two small coins, if they are all one has, are the giver’s whole fortune. 54 Hear, then, sister, from how much you are spared. For what you ought to guard against it is neither my place to teach nor yours to learn; for the practice of perfect virtue does not need instruction but gives it. You see how she who dresses herself to please walks along like the floats in a procession, drawing everyone’s looks and faces to herself, and the uglier for her very effort to please; for she displeases the people before she pleases a husband. But in you the casting aside of the care for adornment is more attractive, and the very fact that you do not adorn yourselves is an adornment. 55 Look at the ears torn by wounds, and pity the burden on the bowed neck. Differences of metal bring no relief to punishments. Here a chain binds the neck, there a fetter encloses the foot. It makes no difference whether the body is loaded with gold or with iron. Either way the neck is weighed down, either way the step is burdened. The cost is no help; except that you women tremble for fear that you may lose your punishment. What difference does it make whether another’s sentence condemns you or your own? In this you are even more wretched than those condemned by public law, that they wish to be freed from their chains, you to be bound. 56 And how wretched is that condition, that a girl about to marry is put up for bidding like a slave for sale, so that he who wins with his price buys her! Yet slaves are sold more tolerably, for they often choose their masters; if a virgin chooses, it is a crime; if she does not choose, an insult. Though she is beautiful and attractive, she both fears and desires to be seen: she desires it, so as to sell herself more dearly; she fears that being seen may itself be improper. And what mockeries of hopes there are, and anxious fears about how the suitors will turn out: a poor man may deceive her, a rich one look down on her, a handsome one laugh at her, a noble one despise her!

Chapter 11

57 Someone will say: “Every day you sing us the praises of virgins.” What am I to do, who sing the same things every day and achieve nothing? But it is not my fault. Indeed, virgins come to be consecrated from the district of Piacenza, they come from that of Bologna, they come from Mauritania, to receive the veil here. You see a remarkable thing. I preach here, and persuade elsewhere. If that is so, let us preach elsewhere, so as to persuade you. 58 What of the fact that those who do not hear me follow, and those who hear me do not follow? For I have known very many virgins who wished it and were not even allowed to come forward by their mothers, and, what is more serious, by widows, with whom I am now speaking. Surely, if your daughters wished to love a man, they could by law choose whom they wished. Are those who may choose a man not permitted to choose God? 59 See how sweet is the fruit of chastity, which has taken root even in barbarian hearts. Virgins brought here from the farthest parts of Mauritania, on this side and beyond, long to be consecrated here; and though all their families are in chains, chastity does not know how to be a captive. She who mourns the wrong of servitude declares her allegiance to the eternal kingdom. 60 And what shall I say of the virgins of Bologna, a fruitful host of chastity, who, renouncing worldly delights, dwell in the sanctuary of virginity? Without the companionship of the other sex, advanced by the companionship of chastity to the number of twenty and to the hundredfold fruit, they have left the shelter of their parents and press on into the tents of Christ, untiring soldiers of chastity. Now their spiritual songs ring out, now they earn their living by labor, and seek with their hands the means for generosity as well. 61 And if they have caught the scent of a virgin to be tracked down (for beyond others they scout and search out the quarry of chastity), they pursue the hidden prey along every path with attentive care to its very lair; or if the flight of one freer than the rest has appeared, you would see them all rise on every wing, beat their feathers, flash with applause, so as to surround her as she flies with a chaste chorus of modesty, until, delighted by the company that meets her and forgetful of her father’s house, she comes into the nets of modesty and the enclosure of chastity.

Chapter 12

62 It is good, then, if the zeal of parents breathes on a virgin like breezes of modesty; but it is more glorious if the fire of tender age, even without the old fuel, catches by itself into the flame of chastity. Parents will refuse a dowry; but you have a rich bridegroom, and, content with his treasure, you will not look for the benefits of a father’s inheritance. How far chaste poverty surpasses the gains of a dowry! 63 And yet whom have you ever heard of who was exiled from her lawful inheritance for her devotion to integrity? Parents object, but they want to be overcome. They resist at first, because they are afraid to believe; they are often indignant, so that you may learn to conquer; they threaten disinheritance, to test whether you can be without fear of worldly loss; they coax with carefully chosen attractions, to see whether the appeal of various pleasures can soften you. You are being trained, virgin, while you are being pressed. And these are the first contests that the anxious wishes of parents set before you. Conquer first, girl, your affection for your parents. If you conquer your home, you conquer the world. 64 But suppose that loss of your inheritance awaits you: do not the future kingdoms of heaven make up for the expense of perishable and fragile means? Indeed, if we believe the words from heaven, “There is no one who has left home, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive seven times as much in this time; and in the age to come he will possess eternal life.” Entrust your faith to God, you who entrust your money to a man; lend to Christ. The good guardian of the hope deposited with him repays the talent of your faith with multiplied interest. Truth does not deceive, justice does not defraud, virtue does not mislead. If you do not believe the divine message, at least believe examples. 65 Within my memory a girl, once noble in the world, now nobler with God, when she was being pressed to marry by her parents and relatives, took refuge at the holy altar. For where is a virgin better than where the sacrifice of virginity is offered? Nor was this the limit of her daring. She stood at the altar, an offering of modesty, a victim of chastity, now placing the priest’s right hand on her head and asking for prayer, now, impatient of the just delay, putting the top of her head beneath the altar. “Will a veil cover me better,” she said, “than the altar, which sanctifies the veils themselves? Such a bridal veil is more fitting, on which Christ, the head of all, is consecrated every day. What are you doing, relatives? Why do you still trouble my mind with seeking a marriage? I have long ago made provision. Do you offer me a bridegroom? I have found a better. Heap up his riches as you will, boast of his nobility, proclaim his power: I have one to whom no one may compare himself, rich in the world, powerful in rule, noble in heaven. If you have such a one, I do not refuse the choice; if you do not find one, you are not providing for me, parents, but begrudging me.” 66 While the others were silent, one said rather abruptly: “What if your father were alive? Would he allow you to remain unmarried?” Then she, with greater devotion and more restrained respect: “And perhaps that is why he died, so that no one could stand in my way.” That answer, concerning her father but a prophecy concerning himself, he proved true by his own early death. So the rest, each fearing the same for himself, began to favor what they had sought to hinder; and her virginity brought no loss of the property due to her, but also received the reward of integrity. You have, girls, the reward of devotion; parents, beware the example of offense.