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Mary / Virginity
Also See:
Blessed Virgin Mary (Topic Page)
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"Therefore
the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with
child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel." (Isa.
7:14)
"Then
he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, facing the
east; but it was closed. He said to me: This gate is to remain
closed; it is not to be opened for anyone to enter by it; since
the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it, it shall remain
closed." (Ezek. 44:1-2) [Note: This Old Testament passage
may also be a reference to Mary's perpetual virginity.]
"Now
this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother
Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she
was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband,
since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to
shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his
intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take
Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a
son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people
from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had
said through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child
and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,' which means 'God
is with us.' When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord
had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no
relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus."
(Mt. 1:18-25) [Note: The use of the word "until" does
not mean they had marital relations after the birth of Jesus. For
more information on Mary's perpetual virginity, try the Non-Catholics
(apologetics) Section.]
"And
in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a
city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's
name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among
women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought
with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the
angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with
God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth
a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign
in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be
no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done,
because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High
shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin
Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this
is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word
shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid
of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel
departed from her." (Lk. 1:26-38)
"A Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and a
Virgin she remains." (St. Peter Chrysologus, Doctor of the
Church, c. 435 A.D.)
"And
as the ray does not diminish the rightness of the star, so neither
did the Child born of her tarnish the beauty of Mary's virginity."
(St. Bernard, Doctor of the Church)
"Through
an ineffable sacrament of a holy conception and a birth
inviolable, agreeable to the truth of each nature, the same virgin
was both the handmaid and mother of the Lord." (St. Gregory
of Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church)
"To the substance of
a body in which was the Godhead closed doors were no obstacle. For
truly He had power to enter in by doors not open, in Whose Birth
His Mother's virginity remained inviolate." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church)
"It
is truly meet to give thee thanks, O eternal God. Who didst will
that the most blessed Virgin Mary should be the Mother of thy
only-begotten Son: for it was not fitting that God's Mother should
be other than a Virgin, nor that a virgin's Son should be other
than God." (Preface)
"The Mother of God was both a maid and
espoused. Virginity and wedlock are honored in her person. She is
a challenge to heretics who disparage either one or the
other." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")
"[T]hou,
the Star, givest birth to the Sun, as the Moon emits its ray. This
birth injures thee not; thou remainest a Virgin as before. As a
flower loses not its beauty by sending forth its fragrance; so
neither losest thou the bloom of thy Virginity by giving birth to
thy Creator." (Sequence)
"In fact, the Son of God has no mother in
any sense which would involve impurity. Though to appearances she
was married, she did not enter into a marital union." [Tertullian ("an excellent early Christian writer" - although he would ultimately fall into heresy),
c. 197 A.D.]
"The gate which was shut (Ezech. 44,2) was
her virginity. Through it the Lord God of Israel entered; through
it He advanced into this world from the Virgin's womb. And,
because her virginity was preserved intact, the Virgin's gate has
remained shut forever." {Rufinus, c. 5th century A.D.}
"Indeed, her virginity was itself more
beautiful and more pleasing, because Christ, in His conception,
did not Himself take away that which He was preserving from
violation by man; but, before He was conceived He chose one
already consecrated to God of Whom He would be born." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 5th century A.D.)
"From
the words, her first-born Son, some most erroneously suspect that
Mary had other sons, saying that first-born can only be said of
one that has brethren. But this is the manner of Scripture, to
call the first-born not only One who is followed by brethren, but
the first-birth of the mother." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the
Church)
"Reverence her, O you who are married, the
purity of the flesh in incorruptible flesh: you also, holy
virgins, admire the motherhood in a virgin: and all you who are
men, imitate the humility of the Mother of God. Holy angels, honor
the Mother of your King, you who adore the Son of a virgin of our
race, Who is at once our King and yours, the Restorer of our race
and the Founder of your state." (St. Bernard, Doctor of the
Church)
"It is clear, therefore, that the Virgin
gave birth contrary to the order of nature. And this Body which we
consecrate is from the Virgin; why do you seek the natural order
here in the case of the Body of Christ, when the Lord Jesus
Himself was born of the Virgin contrary to nature? It was
certainly the true flesh of Christ which was crucified, which was
buried; truly, therefore, the Sacrament is a sacrament of that
flesh." (St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, 4th century A.D.)
"Jesus did not first come into being as a
simple man, before the union and communion of God in Him; but the
Word Himself, coming into the Blessed Virgin herself, assumed for
Himself His own Temple from the substance of the Virgin, and came
forth from her a man in all that could be externally discerned,
while interiorly He was true God. Therefore He kept His Mother a
Virgin even after her child-bearing, which was done for none of
the other saints." (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Doctor of the
Church)
"Let us rejoice, brethren;
let the nations exult and be glad. It was not the visible sun, but
its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the
Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity,
brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when He was
invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin
bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin
perpetual. Why do you wonder at this O man? It was fitting for God
to be born thus, when He deigned to become man" (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"Surely, we cannot deny that regarding the
sons of Mary the statement is justly censured, and your holiness
has rightly abhorred it, that from the same virginal womb, from
which according to the flesh Christ was born, another offspring
was brought forth. For neither would the Lord Jesus have chosen to
be born of a virgin, if he had judged she would be so incontinent,
that with the seed of human copulation she would pollute that
generative chamber of the Lord's body, that palace of the eternal
King. For he who imputes this, imputes nothing other than the
falsehood of the Jews, who say that he could not have been born of
a virgin. For, if they accept this authority from the priests,
that Mary seems to have brought forth many children, they strive
to sweep away the truth of faith with greater zeal." (Pope
St. Siricius, 392 A.D.)
"Besides, what is admirable beyond the
power of thoughts or words to express, He is born of His Mother
without any diminution of her maternal virginity, just as He
afterwards went forth from the sepulchre while it was closed and
sealed, and entered the room in which His disciples were
assembled, the doors being shut; or, not to depart from every-day
examples, just as the rays of the sun penetrate without breaking
or injuring in the least the solid substance of glass, so after a
like but more exalted manner did Jesus Christ come forth from His
mother's womb without injury to her material virginity. This
immaculate and perpetual virginity forms, therefore, the just
theme of our eulogy. Such was the work of the Holy Ghost, who at
the Conception and birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother
as to impart to her fecundity while preserving inviolate her
perpetual virginity." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"Without
any doubt whatever we must assert that the Mother of Christ was a
virgin even in His Birth: for the prophet says not only: 'Behold a
virgin shall conceive,' but adds: 'and shall bear a son.' This
indeed was befitting for three reasons. First, because this was in
keeping with a property of Him whose Birth is in question, for He
is the Word of God. For the word is not only conceived in the mind
without corruption, but also proceeds from the mind without
corruption. Wherefore in order to show that body to be the body of
the very Word of God, it was fitting that it should be born of a
virgin incorrupt. Whence in the sermon of the Council of
Ephesus...we read: 'Whosoever brings forth mere flesh, ceases to
be a virgin.' But since she gave birth to the Word made flesh, God
safeguarded her virginity so as to manifest His Word, by which
Word He thus manifested Himself: for neither does our word, when
brought forth, corrupt the mind; nor does God, the substantial
Word, deigning to be born, destroy virginity.' Secondly, this is
fitting as regards the effect of Christ's Incarnation: since He
came for this purpose, that He might take away our corruption.
Wherefore it is unfitting that in His Birth He should corrupt His
Mother's virginity. Thus Augustine says in a sermon on the
Nativity of Our Lord: 'It was not right that He who came to heal
corruption, should by His advent violate integrity.' Thirdly, it
was fitting that He Who commanded us to honor our father and
mother should not in His Birth lessen the honor due to His
Mother." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and
"greatest theologian in the history of the Church")
"It
is written (Ezekiel 44:2): 'This gate shall be shut, it shall not
be opened, and no man shall pass through it; because the Lord the
God of Israel hath entered in by it.' Expounding these words,
Augustine says in a sermon (De Annunt. Dom. iii): 'What means this
closed gate in the House of the Lord, except that Mary is to be
ever inviolate? What does it mean that no man shall pass through
it, save that Joseph shall not know her? And what is this - The
Lord alone enters in and goeth out by it - except that the Holy
Ghost shall impregnate her, and that the Lord of angels shall be
born of her? And what means this - it shall be shut for evermore -
but that Mary is a virgin before His Birth, a virgin in His Birth,
and a virgin after His Birth?' I answer that, Without any
hesitation we must abhor the error of Helvidius, who dared to
assert that Christ's Mother, after His Birth, was carnally known
by Joseph, and bore other children. For, in the first place, this
is derogatory to Christ's perfection: for as He is in His Godhead
the Only-Begotten of the Father, being thus His Son in every
respect perfect, so it was becoming that He should be the
Only-begotten son of His Mother, as being her perfect offspring.
Secondly, this error is an insult to the Holy Ghost, whose shrine
was the virginal womb (Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti), wherein He had formed the flesh of
Christ: wherefore it was unbecoming that it should be desecrated
by intercourse with man. Thirdly, this is derogatory to the
dignity and holiness of God's Mother: for thus she would seem to
be most ungrateful, were she not content with such a Son; and were
she, of her own accord, by carnal intercourse to forfeit that
virginity which had been miraculously preserved in her. Fourthly,
it would be tantamount to an imputation of extreme presumption in
Joseph, to assume that he attempted to violate her whom by the
angel's revelation he knew to have conceived by the Holy Ghost. We
must therefore simply assert that the Mother of God, as she was a
virgin in conceiving Him and a virgin in giving Him birth, did she
remain a virgin ever afterwards." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor
of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
Also
See: Mary's
Maternity [Pg.] | Annunciation
/ Incarnation [Pg.] | Jesus
& Mary [Pg.] | Praise
of Mary | Mary's
Virtues | We
Should Imitate Mary / Mary is Our Model | Mary
is Always Ready To Help Us | Powerful
Intercession of Mary | Marian
Facts | Marian
Scriptural References | Some
Reasons to Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary
| Some
Thoughts on the Blessed Virgin Mary
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