On Holy Virginity

by Augustine of Hippo

"WE lately put forth a book “of the Good of Marriage,” in which also we admonished and admonish the virgins of Christ, not, on account of that greater gift which they have received, to despise, in comparison of themselves, the fathers and mothers of the People of God; and not to think those men, (whom the Apostle sets forth as the olive, that the engrafted wild olive be not proud,) who did service to Christ about to come hereafter, even by the begetting of sons, on this account of less desert, because by divine right continence is preferred to wedded life, and pious virginity to marriage. Forsooth in them were being prepared and brought forth future things, which now we see fulfilled in a marvellous and effectual manner, whose married life also was prophetic: whence, not after the wonted custom of human wishes and joys, but by the very deep counsel of God, in certain of them fruitfulness obtained to be honored, in certain also barrenness to be made fruitful. But at this time, towards them unto whom it is said, “if they contain not, let them be married,” we must use not consolation, but exhortation. But them, unto whom it is said, “Whoso can receive, let him receive,” we must exhort, that they be not alarmed; and alarm that they be not lifted up. Wherefore virginity is not only to be set forth, that it may be loved, but also to be admonished, that it be not puffed up". -Saint Augustine, On Holy Virginity

Genres: Catholic

42 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 3, 2011

About the author

Early church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical Confessions in 397 and the voluminous City of God from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.

An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.

People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."

The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."

Santo Agostinho

Reviews

[Francis E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by St. Augustine is first an exposition of the greatness of virginity and celibacy, then an exhortation for virgins not to grow proud on account of the great gift they have received.

The model for pure Virginity is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was a Virgin for Her entire life, having consecrated herself by a vow of virginity even before the Annunciation by St. Gabriel the Archangel. She is not only Virgin, but also fruitful, having given birth to Christ. Not only Virgin and fruitful, but also pure. She is Mother not just of Christ, but also of His members, I.e. the Church. Therefore the Church finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Blessed Virgin: for the Church is a pure Virgin, who has not defiled herself by committing adultery, and nevertheless is ever-fruitful, bringing forth children by baptism. Hence Christ states, “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt. 12:50). Mary’s blessedness is not merely on account of her fleshly connection to Christ, but also because of her charity by which she loved God, I.e. by her spiritual connection. It would have profited her nothing to be Mother of God if she did not keep God’s commandments. Yet this does not mean that being the Theotokos does not come with its many privileges, for St. Augustine himself hints as the Virgin’s sinlessness in On Nature and Grace, on account of her status as the Theotokos.

Virgins, then, follows the example of the Blessed Virgin. Their blessedness is not on account of the carnal virginity itself, but rather on account of its dedication to God. Their reward is greater than that of the rest, for they imitate Angelic Virtue while still on earth (Mt. 22:30). They have listened to our Lord saying, “Let the one who is able to receive this receive it,” and received it (Mt. 19:12). This virginity is not merely greater on account of avoiding earthly troubles, but also because of its greater recompense in Heaven, even above the other sons and daughters (Is. 56:4-5). St. Augustine therefore states, correctly, that it is not expedient to marry, save if one is not able to contain.

But lest the virgins grow proud, St. Augustine reminds them that this gift is not of themselves, for no one can be continent except God gives it (Wisdom 8:21), rather, every good gift comes from the Father of lights (James 1:17), and we have nothing that we have not received, and hence we cannot boast as though we had not received it (1 Corinthians 4:7). If they wish to imitate Christ in His virginity, they must follow Him too in His humility. Augustine constantly reminds us: “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord” (Sirach 3:18).



“All these [begetting and educating children piously], however, are offices of human duty: but virginal chastity and freedom through pious continence from all sexual intercourse is the portion of Angels, and a practice, in corruptible flesh, of perpetual incorruption. To this let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield, all chastity of married life; the one is not in (man's) power, the other is not in eternity; free choice has not fruitfulness of the flesh, heaven has not chastity of married life. Assuredly they will have something great beyond others in that common immortality, who have something already not of the flesh in the flesh.” (12)

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

In honor of Chastity Month, I have decided to finally read Augustine's treatise on virginity. A few years ago, I listened to the Librivox audiobooks of a couple of church fathers' views on virginity, but this was very early in my autodidactic journey, so I retained precious little from what I read, and left no notes. The one thing I did remember was a distinction between physical and spiritual virtue in regards to virginity, which means that one can be outwardly (physically) a virgin while inwardly (spiritually) being unchaste (and vise versa). This vise versa is important, because it gives rape victims comfort, and, on the obverse side of the coin, it chastises incels who think that merely not having sex is enough to be truly chaste.

I was glad to see a similar distinction made by Augustine early on in this treatise, specifically paragraph 2, which ends with "virgin both in body and spirit;" as stated above, I find this distinction helpful for many reasons, but the largest that Augustine dives into throughout the work is reinforcing humility in the face of virginity. One of his largest worries is that people will, like arrogant incels, remain chaste outwardly but neglect the other virtues. He wasn't necessarily worried people would feel left out as virgins; strangely enough, he was worried in the other direction, namely that people would think too highly of themselves as virgins, and look down on married couples as somehow "sinful." Augustine spills the vast majority of the treatise's ink on clarifying this, and I'd like to shout out the translator for doing an absolutely abysmal job. Basically, this seems to have been one of the most literal translations I've ever read, because nearly every sentence went on for too long and pushed too many verbs or negations to the end. I'm not sure if the problem is Augustine's writing, or the translator being lazy, but either way that's why one star was deducted. The other was for how tediously long Augustine spent on debunking the supposed sinfulness of marriage. I'm thankful that we don't have to debate whether sex within marriage is sinful, but nowadays we have much more virulent debates raging which weren't even being debated back then. Strange how times change.

Backtracking just a moment, in the preface to the treatise Augustine calls virginity "God's gift;" this conception couldn't be farther from the contemporary view of virginity as a curse which one must be rid of as soon as physically possible (ha get it). By contrast, Augustine points out that virginity should be the status quo, and, if one absolutely cannot handle it, one may marry. The reason for this hierarchy is scriptural, in that continence is valued above marriage both in Paul's writings and in Jesus' words. Another extremely important point is that Augustine on at least three occasions explicitly states that virginity is the goal for both men and women, exploding the myth that only women are to be virgins. That in reality is a holdover from pre-christian paganism, not anything that Christianity ever commanded. In fact, Christianity was often attacked by the pagans for its insistence on monogamy, because that puts equal sexual limitations on both men and women. Christians who do hold the view that women are uniquely meant to be virginal while men don't have to be betray their lack of scriptural knowledge, a more general lack of wisdom, and their proclivity to pagan heresies.

The only possible way one might get that women-only view of virginity is through the image of the Virgin Mary, and the Church's emphasis on her. Augustine helpfully points out the beauty of her paradoxical place: she remained a virgin AND YET was fruitful; the rest of the church, by contrast, must choose one or the other. Augustine links those who remain virgins to Mary, as such: "That Birth of the Holy Virgin is the ornament of all holy virgins; and themselves together with Mary are mothers of Christ, if they do the will of His Father." This is an extension of Christ's admonition that his followers are his family, and it combines that with the gendering of the Church as Christ's bride. Augustine seems to float back and forth comfortably between discussing virgins as male and female: the latter (she/her) is most commonly used with regard to Mary and the Church metaphor mentioned previously, and the former (he/him) when discussing Eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom, and Christ's own virginity. Augustine stresses that point about Christ being a virgin, and he goes so far as to point out that only virgins may follow precisely in Christ's steps; everyone else imitates him but receives a slightly lesser reward on that one point: "He set forth in Himself, what behooved for us to imitate. And many things in Him are set forth for all to imitate: but virginity of the flesh not for all;"

One thing I did enjoy throughout was Augustine's emphasis on grace, not works (lest any should boast, which formed the main thrust of his attack against pride), and his emphasis on scripture (essentially, if you disagree with him, you disagree with scripture, and you got bigger problems bub). I see why Luther loved him so much. One especially fun part was something I wish I could convey to certain people who love cherry picking the bible:

just as a case shall come to hand, wherein to defend their own perverse opinion: and thus, while they had rather defend than amend their own opinions, they essay to break the authority of holy Scripture, whereby alone all proud and hard necks are broken.

This is a clunky way of saying "instead of defending your own proud, defiant opinions, seek wisdom in the Word." Augustine uses such talk of wisdom as coming from God to help tie things back to the point he made at the start about virginity being a gift: just as wisdom, which comes from God, is a gift, so too is virginity. Like all good things, virginity comes from outside of ourselves, and the moment we start bragging about it (or worse, looking down on others who lack it) is the moment we need to realize we're the pharisee and not the tax collector in the parable (which he also ties in at the end). All around, this treatise would have been amazing if it was half as long, better translated, and would have belabored a few points less. Despite that, it was great food for thought and a good source of reflection and wisdom.

[Connor Longaphie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an ok explanation and defense of religious celibacy. It's ok. Its not that good