# On Virgins - Author: [Ambrose](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/ambrose/) - Latin title: *De virginibus ad Marcellinam sororem suam* - Date: ca. 377 (approximate) - Source: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 16 (Paris, 1845), cols. 197–244 (not yet checked) (Benedictine text of the Maurists, 1686–90) (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Latina, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/ - Passages: 25 ## On Virgins 1.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-1 - Source: PL 16:188a–189 a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose explains why he writes on virginity despite his lack of eloquence: he must not bury the talent entrusted to him, and God, who made a donkey speak and spoke from a thornbush, can speak through him. ### Latin text Si, juxta caelestis sententiam veritatis ( Matth. XII, 36), verbi totius, quodcumque otiosum fuerimus locuti, habemus præstare rationem: vel si unusquisque servus credita sibi talenta gratiae spiritalis, quae nummulariis dividenda forent, ut crescentibus multiplicarentur usuris, intra terram suam vel quasi timidus fenerator, vel quasi avarus possessor absconderit, non mediocrem, domino revertente, offensam incidet; jure nobis verendum est, quibus licet ingenium tenue, necessitas tamen maxima eloquia Dei credita populi fenerare mentibus, ne vocis quoque nostrae poscatur usura: præsertim cum studium a nobis Dominus, non profectum requirat. Unde scribendi aliquid sententia fuit. Majore siquidem pudoris periculo auditur vox nostra quam legitur; liber enim non erubescit. Et quidem ingenio diffisus, sed divinæ misericordiæ provocatus exemplis, sermonem meditari audeo; nam, volente Deo, etiam asina locuta est (Num. XXII, 28). Quod si mihi sub istius sæculi oneribus constituto assistat angelus, ego quoque muta diu ora laxabo; potest enim solvere impedimenta imperitiæ, qui in illa asina solvit naturæ. In arca veteris Testamenti virga floruit sacerdotis ( Num. XVII, 8): facile Deo ut in sancta Ecclesia de nostris quoque nodis flos germinet. Cur autem desperandum quod Dominus loquatur in hominibus, qui est locutus in sentibus? Deus nec rubum est dedignatus. Atque utinam meas quoque illuminet spinas! Erunt fortassis qui etiam in nostris sentibus aliquem mirentur lucere fulgorem, erunt quos spina nostra non urat; erunt quibus de rubo audita vox nostra solvat de pedibus calceamentum, ut impedimentis corporalibus exuatur mentis incessus. Sed hæc sanctorum merita virorum. Utinam me sub illa infructuosa adhuc ficu jacentem ex aliqua Jesus parte respiceret! ferret quo­ que post triennium fructus et nostra ficus. Sed unde tantum peccatoribus spei? Utinam saltem ille Evangelicus Dominicae cultor vineae ficum nostram fortasse jam jussus excidere, remittat illam et hoc anno, usque dum fodiat, et mittat cophinum stercoris; a ne forte de terra suscitet inopem, et de stercore erigat pauperem! Beati qui sub vite et olea equos suos alligant ( Gen. XLIX, 11 ), laborum cursus suorum luci et lætitiæ consecrantes: me ficus adhuc, id est, illecebrosa deliciarum obumbrat prurigo mundi, humilis ad altitudinem, fragilis ad laborem, mollis ad usum, sterilis ad fructum. Ac fortasse miretur aliquis cur scribere audeo, B qui loqui nequeo. Et tamen si repetamus quae legimus in Evangelicis Scripturis et sacerdotalibus factis; ac nobis sanctus Zacharias propheta documento sit, inveniet esse quod vox non explicet, et stylus signet. Quod si nomen Joannis reddidit patri vocem, ego quoque desperare non debeo quod vocem licet mutus accipiam, si loquar Christum: cujus quidem generationem juxta propheticum dictum quis enarrabit? Et ideo quasi servus, Domini familiam prædicabo; immaculatus enim Dominus immaculatam sibi familiam etiam in hoc pleno colluvionum fragilitatis humanæ corpore consecravit. ### English translation (Claude) If, according to the sentence of the heavenly Truth, we must render an account of every idle word we have spoken; or if every servant who has hidden 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 no small displeasure when his master returns; then we have good reason to fear, we on whom, though our ability is slight, the greatest necessity is laid to lend out to the minds of the people the words of God entrusted to us, lest the interest on our voice too be demanded; especially since the Lord requires of us effort, not success. Hence my decision to write something. For our voice is heard with greater danger to modesty than it is read; a book does not blush. And indeed, distrusting my ability but encouraged by examples of the divine mercy, I venture to compose a discourse; for when God willed 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 shall loosen a mouth long mute; for he who in that donkey loosened the hindrances of nature can loosen the hindrances of unskill. 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 disdain even a bramble. Would that he might 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. But these are the merits of holy men. Would that Jesus might look from some quarter on me, lying under that fig tree still without fruit! Our fig tree too would bear fruit after three years. But whence such hope for sinners? Would that at least that gospel vinedresser of the Lord’s vineyard, perhaps already ordered to cut down our fig tree, might let it alone this year too, until he digs about 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 dunghill! 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 alluring itch of the world’s delights: low in height, frail for labor, soft for use, barren of fruit. 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 set forth and the pen records. And if the name of John restored the voice to his father, I too ought not to despair of receiving a voice, mute as I am, if I speak Christ, whose generation, according to the prophetic saying, who shall declare? 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. ### Scripture references - Matt 12:36: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:27: allusion, high confidence - Luke 19:23: allusion, medium confidence - Num 22:28: allusion, high confidence - Num 17:8: allusion, high confidence - Exod 3:2: allusion, high confidence - Exod 3:5: allusion, high confidence - John 1:48: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 13:7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 13:8: allusion, high confidence - Ps 113:7 (112:7 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 2:8: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 49:11: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:20: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:64: allusion, high confidence - Isa 53:8: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - “Horses” follows Ambrose’s wording of Gen 49:11, which elsewhere speaks of a colt or donkey. “The holy prophet Zechariah” is John the Baptist’s father (Luke 1:20, 63–64). Quotations and allusions: Matt 12:36; Matt 25:14–30 (Luke 19:23); Num 22:28; Num 17:8; Exod 3:2–5; John 1:48; Luke 13:6–9; Ps 113:7 (1 Sam 2:8); Gen 49:11; Luke 1:20, 63–64; Isa 53:8. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.1 (PL 16:188a–189 a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-1). ## On Virgins 1.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-2 - Source: PL 16:189cs–191b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose begins on the feast of the virgin martyr Agnes, who at twelve years old refused suitors, faced the executioner without fear, and won a twofold martyrdom of chastity and faith. ### Latin text Et bene procedit, ut quoniam hodie natalis est virginis, de virginibus sit loquendum, et a praedicatione liber sumat exordium. Natalis est virginis, integritatem sequamur. Natalis est martyris, hostias immolemus, Natalis est sanctæ Agnetis, mirentur viri, non desperent parvuli; d stupeant nuptæ, imi­ tentur innuptæ. Sed quid dignum de ea loqui possumus, cujus ne nomen quidem vacuum luce laudis fuit? Devotio supra ætatem, virtus supra naturam; ut mihi videatur non hominis habuisse nomen, sed oraculum martyris, quo indicavit quid esset futura. Habeo tamen unde mihi subsidium comparetur. Nomen virginis titulus est pudoris. Appellabo martyrem, praedicabo virginem. Satis prolixa laudatio est, quæ non quaeritur, sed tenetur. Faceant igitur ingenia, eloquentia conticescat, vox una præconium est. Hanc senes, hanc juvenes, hanc pueri canant. Nemo est laudabilior, quam qui ab omnibus laudari potest. Quot homines, tot præcones, qui martyrem praedicant, dum loquuntur. Hæc duodecim annorum martyrium fecisse traditur. Quo detestabilior crudelitas, quæ nec minusculæ pepercit ætati: immo magna vis fidei, quæ etiam ab illa testimonium invenit ætate. Fuitne in illo corpusculo vulneri locus? Et quae non habuit quo ferrum reciperet, habuit quo ferrum vinceret. At istius aetatis puellae torvos etiam vultus parentum ferre non possunt, et acu districta solent puncta flere, quasi vulnera. Hæc inter cruentas carnificum impavida manus, hæc stridentium gravibus immobilis tractibus catenarum, nunc furentis mucroni militis totum offerre corpus, mori adhuc nescia, sed parata: vel si; ad aras invita raperetur, tendere Christo inter ignes manus, atque in ipsis sacrilegis focis tropæum Domini signare victoris: tunc ferratis colla manusque ambas inserere nexibus: sed nullus tam tenuia membra poterat nexus includere. Novum martyrii genus? Nondum idonea pœnæ, et jam matura victoriæ: certare difficilis, facilis coronari: magisterium virtutis implevit, quæ præjudicium vehebat ætatis. Non sic ad thalamum nupta properaret, ut ad supplicii locum læta successu, gradu festina virgo processit, non intorto crine caput compta, sed Christo: non flosculis redimita, sed moribus. Flere omnes, ipsa sine fletu. Mirari plerique quod tam facile vitae suae prodiga, quam nondum hauserat, jam quasi perfuncta donaret. Stupere universi, quod jam divinitatis testis existeret, quæ adhuc, a arbitra sui per ætatem esse non posset. Effecit denique ut ei de Deo crederetur, cui de homine adhuc non crederetur. Quia quod ultra naturam est, de auctore naturae est. Quanto terrore egit carnifex ut timeretur, quantis blanditiis ut suaderet! quantorum vota ut sibi ad nuptias perveniret! At illa: Et hæc Sponsi injuria est exspectare placiturum. Qui me sibi prior elegit, accipiet. Quid, percussor, moraris? Pereat corpus quod amari potest oculis quibus nolo. Stetit, oravit, cervicem inflexit. Cerneres trepidare carnificem, quasi ipse addictus fuisset: tremere percussoris dexteram, pallere ora alieno timentis periculo, cum puella non timeret suo. Habetis igitur in una hostia duplex martyrium, pudoris et religionis. Et virgo permansit, et martyrium obtinuit. ### English translation (Claude) And it is a fitting start, since today is the birthday of a virgin, that we should speak of virgins, and that the book should take its beginning from her praise. 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 was not empty of the light of praise? Devotion beyond her age, virtue beyond nature; so that she seems to me to have had not a human name but an oracle of martyrdom, by which she showed what she was to be. 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 full enough that is not sought out but already possessed. Let talents, 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. As many people, so many heralds, who proclaim the martyr as they speak. She is said to have suffered martyrdom at twelve years old. The more detestable the cruelty that did not spare even so tender an 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 amid the fires, and on the very sacrilegious hearths makes the sign of the trophy of the victorious Lord; then she puts her neck and both hands into iron bonds; but no bond could hold such slender limbs. A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet fit for punishment, and already ripe for victory; hard to fight, easy to crown; she fulfilled the office 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 forth 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 forth as a witness to the divinity, who by her age could not yet be her own mistress. In the end she brought it about that she was believed about God, who would not yet have been believed about a man; for what is beyond nature is from the author of nature. With what terror did the executioner act to be feared, with what blandishments 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 another’s peril, 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. ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “Her very name … the light of praise”: Agnes recalls the Greek hagnē, “pure”; hence “the name of virgin is a title of modesty.” Ambrose’s account is the earliest literary account of Agnes; the details (her age, the manner of her death) are his. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.2 (PL 16:189cs–191b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-2). ## On Virgins 1.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-3 - Source: PL 16:191b–191c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Virginity, which makes martyrs, is a heavenly life brought to earth: it seeks its bridegroom, the Word, in the Father’s bosom, and though foreshadowed in Elijah and Miriam, it spread through the world only after the incarnation. ### Latin text Invitat nunc integritatis amor, et tu, soror sancta, vel mutis tacita moribus, ut aliquid de virginitate dicamus; ne veluti transitu quodam perstricta videatur, quae principalis est virtus. Non enim ideo laudabilis virginitas, quia et in martyribus reperitur, sed quia ipsa martyres faciat. Quis autem humano eam possit ingenio comprehendere, quam nec natura suis inclusit legibus? Aut quis naturali voce complecti, quod supra usum naturae sit? E caelo accersivit quod imitaretur in terris. Nec immerito vivendi sibi usum quæsivit e cœlo, quae sponsum sibi invenit in caelo. Hæc nubes, aera, angelos, sideraque transgrediens, Verbum Dei in ipso sinu Patris invenit, et toto hausit pectore. Nam quis tantum cum invenerit, relinquat boni? Unguentum enim exinanitum est nomen tuum: propterea adolescentulæ dilexerunt te, et attraxerunt te (Cant. I, 2). Postremo non meum est illud, quo­ niam quae non nubent, neque nubentur, erunt sicut angeli in caelo. Nemo ergo miretur si angelis comparentur, quae angelorum Domino copulantur. Quis igitur neget hanc vitam fluxisse de cœlo, quam non facile invenimus in terris, nisi postquam Deus in haec terreni corporis membra descendit (IV Reg. II, 11)? Tunc in utero e virgo concepit, et Verbum caro factum est, ut caro fieret Deus. Dicet aliquis: Sed etiam Elias nullis corporei coitus fuisse permixtus cupiditatibus invenitur. Ideo ergo curru raptus ad caelum, ideo cum Domino apparet in gloria, ideo Dominici venturus est praecursor adventus. Et Maria tympanum sumens pudore virgineo thoros duxit. Sed considerate cujus illa speciem tunc gerebat. Nonne Ecclesiæ, quæ religiosos populi coetus qui carmina divina concinerent, immaculato virgo spiritu copulavit? Nam etiam templo Hierosolymis fuisse legimus virgines deputatas. Sed quid Aposto- Ins dicit? Hæc autem in figura contingebant illis, ut essent indicia futurorum (I Cor. X, 11); figura enim in paucis est, vita in pluribus. At vero posteaquam Dominus in corpus hoc veniens, contubernium divinitatis et corporis sine ulla concretæ confusionis tabe sociavit, tunc toto orbe diffusus corporibus humanis vitæ caelestis usus inolevit. Hoc illud est quod ministrantes in terris angeli (Matth. IV, 11) declararunt futurum genus, quod ministerium Domino immaculati corpo­ ris obsequiis exhiberet. Hæc est cælestis illa mili­ tia, quam laudantium exercitus angelorum promittebat in terris. Habemus ergo auctoritatem vetustatis a sæculo, plenitudinem professionis a Christo. ### English translation (Claude) Now the love of purity invites us, and you too, holy sister, silently, by your quiet ways, invite us to say something of virginity, lest the chief virtue seem to be touched on only in passing. For virginity is not praiseworthy because it is found also in martyrs, but because it itself makes martyrs. But who could comprehend by human ability that which not even nature has enclosed within her laws? Or who could embrace in a natural voice 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 very bosom of the Father, 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.” Lastly, it is not my saying that those who neither marry nor are given in marriage will be as the angels in heaven. Let no one wonder, then, if they are compared with angels who are joined to the Lord of 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. 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 advent. “And Miriam, taking a timbrel, led the dances with virginal modesty.” But consider whose figure she then bore. 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 in a figure, as signs of things to come”; for the figure is in a few, the life in many. 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 render service to the Lord with the obedience of a spotless body. This is that heavenly host 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 the profession from Christ. ### Scripture references - Song 1:3 (1:2 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:30: allusion, high confidence - Isa 7:14: allusion, high confidence - John 1:14: quotation, high confidence - 2 Kgs 2:11: allusion, high confidence - Matt 17:3: allusion, high confidence - Mal 4:5: allusion, high confidence - Exod 15:20: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 10:11: quotation, high confidence - Matt 4:11: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:13: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - 2 Macc 3:19 (2 Maccabees): echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. The “holy sister” is Marcellina, Ambrose’s sister, to whom the work is addressed. The reference (IV Reg. II, 11) is printed after “descended into … this earthly body”; it belongs to Elijah’s ascent. Quotations and allusions: Song 1:3 (LXX 1:2–3); Matt 22:30; Isa 7:14; John 1:14; 2 Kgs 2:11; Matt 17:3; Mal 4:5; Exod 15:20; 2 Macc 3:19 (virgins in the temple, a tradition); 1 Cor 10:11; Matt 4:11; Luke 2:13–14. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.3 (PL 16:191b–191c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-3). ## On Virgins 1.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-4 - Source: PL 16:191c–193b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Pagan virginity (the Vestals, the priestesses of Pallas, Phrygian and Bacchic rites, a Pythagorean woman who bit off her tongue) is temporary, hired, or failed; Christian virgins such as Agnes conquer even unseen powers. ### Latin text Certe non est hoc mihi commune cum gentibus, non populare cum barbaris, non cum cæteris animantibus usitatum: cum quibus etsi unum eumdemque vitalem aeris hujus carpimus spiritum, vulgarem terreni corporis participamus statum, generandi quoque non discrepamus usu; hoc solo tamen naturæ parilis convicia declinamus, quod virginitas affectatur a gentibus, sed consecrata violatur: incursatur a barbaris, nescitur a reliquis, Quis mihi praetendit a Vestæ virgines et Palladis sacerdotes? Qualis ista est non morum pudicitia, sed annorum: quae non perpetuitate, sed ætate præscribitur! Petulantior est talis integritas, cujus corruptela seniori servatur aetati. Ipsi docent virgines suas non debere perseverare, nec posse, qui virginitati finem dederunt. Qualis autem est illa religio, ubi pudicae adolescentes jubentur esse, impudicae anus? Sed nec illa pudica est, quae lege retinetur: et illa impudica, quæ lege dimittitur. O mysteria! o mores! ubi necessitas imponitur castitati, auctoritas libidini datur. Itaque nec casta est, quæ metu cogitur: nec honesta, quæ mercede conducitur: nec pudor ille, qui intemperantium oculorum quotidiano expositus convicio, flagitiosis aspectibus verberatur. Conferuntur immunitates, offeruntur pretia; quasi non hoc maximum petulantiæ sit indicium, castitatem vendere. Quod pretio promittitur, pretio solvitur: pretio addicitur, pretio annumeratur. Nescit redimere castitatem, quae vendere solet. Quid de sacris Phrygiis loquar, in quibus impudicitia disciplina est, atque utinam sexus fragilioris! Quid de orgiis Liberi, ubi religionis mysterium est incentivum libidinis? Qualis igitur potest ibi vita esse sacerdotum, ubi colitur stuprum deorum? Non habent igitur e sacram virginem. Videamus ne forte aliquam vel philosophiæ præcepta formaverint, quae magisterium sibi omnium solet vindicare virtutum. Pythagorea quædam una ex virginibus celebratur fabula, cum a tyranno cogeretur secretum prodere, ne quid in se ad extorquendam confessionem vel tormentis liceret, morsu linguam abscidisse, atque in tyranni faciem despuisse; ut qui interrogandi finem non faciebat, non haberet quam interrogaret. Eadem tamen forti animo, sed tumenti utero, exemplum taciturnitatis et proluvium castitatis, victa est cupiditatibus, quae tormentis vinci nequivit. Igitur quæ mentis potuit tegere secretum, corporis non texit opprobrium. Vicit naturam, sed non tenuit disciplinam. Quam vellet in voce munimentum sui pudoris existere! Eoque fortasse erudierat illam patientia, ut culpam negaret. Non igitur invicta undi­ que; nam et tyrannus, licet non potuerit invenire quod interrogabat, tamen quod non interrogabat, invenit. Quanto nostrae virgines fortiores, quae vincunt etiam quas non vident potestates: quibus non tantum de carne et sanguine, sed etiam de ipso mundi principe sæculique rectore victoria est! Ætate utique Agnes minor, sed virtute major, triumpho numerosior, constantia confidentior, non sibi linguam propter metum abstulit, sed propter tropaeum reservavit. Nihil enim habuit quod prodi timeret, cujus non erat criminosa sed religiosa confessio. Itaque illa secretum tantummodo celavit; hæc probavit Dominum, quem quia aetas nondum poterat confiteri, natura confessa est. ### English translation (Claude) 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 one same vital breath of this air, share the common condition of the earthly body, and do not differ in the manner of begetting, yet by this alone we escape the reproaches of our common nature: that virginity is affected by the Gentiles but violated once it has been consecrated, assailed by the barbarians, unknown to the rest. 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 the more wanton, whose corruption is reserved for a later age. 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 bidden 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. Immunities are conferred, 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 made over for a price and paid out for a price. She who is used to selling chastity does not know how to redeem it. What shall I say of the Phrygian rites, in which unchastity is a discipline, and would it were only of 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. Let us see whether perhaps the precepts 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 torments 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. 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 torments. 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. Not unconquered on every side, then; for the tyrant too, though he could not find out what he was asking, yet found out what he was not asking. 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, firmer in constancy, 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 bore witness to the Lord, whom, because her age could not yet confess him, her nature confessed. ### Scripture references - Eph 6:12: allusion, high confidence - John 12:31: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - “A disgrace to chastity” renders proluvium (literally “a flood”), which appears to be a slip for a word of that sense; uncertain. The story of the Pythagorean woman who bit off her tongue is told of Timycha (Iamblichus, Pythagorean Life 31); Ambrose’s version adds that she was later found pregnant. Allusions: Eph 6:12; John 12:31. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.4 (PL 16:191c–193b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-4). ## On Virgins 1.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-5 - Source: PL 16:193b–195c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Virginity’s homeland is heaven and its author is Christ, born of the Father and of a Virgin; the Church is the virgin mother watered by the Trinity; Paul had no command about virgins, because virginity can be desired but not commanded. ### Latin text In laudationibus solet patria prædicari et parentes; ut commemoratione auctoris dignitas successionis exaggeretur: ego licet laudationem non susceperim virginitatis, sed expressionem; ad rem tamen pertinere arbitror, ut quæ sit ei patria, quis auctor, appareat. Ac prius ubi sit patria definiamus. Si enim ibi est patria, ubi genitale domicilium: in caelo profecto est patria castitatis. Itaque hic advena, ibi incola est. Quid autem est castitas virginalis, nisi expers contagionis integritas? Atque ejus auctorem quem possumus aestimare, nisi immaculatum Dei Filium, cujus caro non vidit corruptionem, divinitas non est experta contagionem? Videte igitur quanta virginitatis merita sint. Christus ante virginem, Christus ex virgine; a Patre quidem natus ante sæcula, sed ex virgine natus ob saecula. Illud naturae suæ, hoc nostræ utilitatis est. Illud erat semper, hoc voluit. Spectate et aliud virginitatis meritum: Christus virginis sponsus, et si dici potest, Christus virgineæ castitatis; virginitas enim Christi, non virginitatis est Christus. Virgo est ergo quæ nupsit, virgo quæ nos suo utero portavit, virgo quae genuit, virgo quae proprio lacte nutrivit, de qua legimus: Quanta fecit virgo Hierusalem! Non deficient de petra ubera, neque nix a Libano, aut declinabit aqua valido vento quæ portatur (Jerem. XVIII, 13 et seq.). Qualis est hæc virgo quæ Trinitatis fontibus irrigatur: cui de petra fluunt aquæ, non deficiunt ubera, mella funduntur? Petra autem est juxta Apostolum Christus. Ergo a Christo non deficiunt ubera, claritas a Deo, flumen ab Spiritu. Hæc est Trinitas quæ Ecclesiam suam irrigat, Pater, Christus, et Spiritus. Sed et jam a matre descendamus ad filias. De virginibus, inquit sanctus Apostolus, prœceptum Domini non habeo. Si Doctor gentium non habuit, habere quis potuit? Et praeceptum quidem non habuit, sed habuit exemplum. Non enim imperari potest virginitas, sed optari; nam quae supra nos sunt, in voto magis quam in magisterio sunt. Sed volo vos, inquit, sine sollicitudine esse. Nam qui sine uxore est, sollicitus est quæ Domini sunt, quomodo placeat Deo... et virgo cogitat quæ Domini sunt, ut ait sancta corpore et spiritu. Nam quæ nupta est, cogitat quæ mundi sunt, quomodo placeat viro suo. ### English translation (Claude) In panegyrics 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 panegyric on virginity but a portrait of it, I think it pertinent to make plain 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. And what is virginal chastity but integrity free from contagion? And whom can we reckon 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 to our profit. The former he always was; the latter he willed. 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. 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 that are above us 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, 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.” ### Scripture references - Ps 16:10 (15:10 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Acts 2:31: allusion, medium confidence - Jer 18:13: quotation, high confidence - Jer 18:14: quotation, high confidence - Deut 32:13: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 10:4: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:25: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:32: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:34: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. The virgin “who was married … who nursed us” is the Church, as the next sentences show (“the mother”). Quotations and allusions: Ps 16:10 (Acts 2:31); Jer 18:13–14; Deut 32:13; 1 Cor 10:4; 1 Cor 7:25, 32–34. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.5 (PL 16:193b–195c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-5). ## On Virgins 1.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-6 - Source: PL 16:195c–197a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Marriage is not condemned, but virginity is better: Ambrose sets the troubles of married women (childbirth, servitude, cosmetics) against the lasting beauty and spiritual fruitfulness of virgins, and the virgin Church, mother of many. ### Latin text Non ego quidem dissuadeo matrimonium, sed virginitatis attexo beneficium, Qui infirmus est, inquit, olera manducet. Aliud exigo, aliud admiror. Alligatus es uxori? Noli quærere solutionem. Solutus es ab uxore? Ne quæsieris uxorem. Hoc præceptum est copulatis. De virginibus autem quid ait? Et qui matrimonio jungit virginem suam, bene facit: et qui non jungit, melius facit. illa non peccat, si nubat: hæc si non nubat, æterna est. Ibi remedium infirmitatis, hic gloria castitatis. Illa non reprehenditur, ista laudatur. Conferamus, si placet, bona mulierum cum ultimis virginum. Jactet licet fecundo se mulier nobilis partu: quo plures generaverit, plus laborat. Numeret solatia filiorum, sed numeret pariter et molestias. Nubit et plorat. Qualia sunt vota, quæ flentur! Concipit et gravescit. Prius utique impedimentum fecunditas incipit afferre, quam fructum. Parturit, et ægrotat. Quam dulce pignus quod a periculo incipit, et in periculis desinit, prius dolori futurum. quam voluptati! Periculis emitur, nec pro arbitrio possidetur. Quid recenseam nutriendi molestias, instituendi et copulandi? Felicium sunt istae miseriae. Habet mater hæredes, sed auget dolores. Nam de adversis non oportet dicere, ne sanctissimorum parentum animi contremiscant. Vide, mi soror, quam grave sit pati, quod non oportet audiri. Et haec in præsenti sæculo. Venient autem dies, quando dicant: Beatae steriles, et ventres qui non genuerunt. Filiæ enim hujus sæculi generantur, et generant: filia autem regni abstinet a voluptate viri, et a voluptate carnis; ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu. Quid ergo famulatus graves et addicta viris servitia replicem feminarum, quas ante jussit Deus servire quam servos (Gen. III, 16)? Quæ eo prosequor, ut indulgentius obsequantur; quibus hoc si probæ, merces est charitatis: si improbæ, pœna delicti. Hinc illa nascuntur incentiva vitiorum, ut quæsitis coloribus ora depingant, dum viris displicere formidant, et de adulterio vultus meditantur adulterium castitatis. Quanta hic amentia, effigiem mutare naturæ, picturam quærere; et dum verentur maritale judicium, prodere suum! Prior enim de se pronuntiat, quæ cupit mutare quod nata est. Ita dum aliis studet placere, prius sibi ipsa displicet. Quem judicem, mulier, veriorem reqUirimus deformitatis tuae, quam te ipsam, quae videri times! Si pulchra es, quid absconderis? Si deformis, cur te formosam esse mentiris, nec tuae conscientiae, nec alieni gratiam erroris habitura? Ille enim alteram diligit, tu alteri vis placere. Et irasceris si amet aliam, qui adulterare in te docetur? Mala magistra es injuriæ tuæ. Lenocinari enim refugit, etiam quæ passa lenonem est; ac licet vilis mulier, non alteri tamen, sed sibi peccat: tolerabilioraque propemodum in altero crimina sunt; ibi enim pudicitia, hic natura adulteratur. Jam quanto pretio opus est, ne etiam pulchra displiceat! Hinc pretiosa callo dependent monilia, inde per humum vestis trahitur aurata. Emitur igitur hæc species, an habetur? Quid, quod etiam ad odorem variæ adhibentur illecebræ! Gemmis onerantur aures, oculis color alter infunditur. Quid ibi remanet suum, ubi tam multa mutantur? Sensus suos amittit mulier, et vivere posse se credit? Vos vero, beatae virgines, quae talia tormenta potius quam ornamenta nescitis: quibus pudor san­ ctus verecunda suffusus ora, et bona castitas est decori: non humanis addictae oculis, alieno errore merita vestra pensatis. Habetis sane et vos vestræ militiam pulchritudinis, cui virtutis militat forma, non corporis: quam nulla exstinguit aetas, nulla eripere mors potest, nulla ægritudo corrumpere. Solus formæ arbiter petatur Deus, qui etiam in corpore minus pulchro diligat animas pulchriores. Non uteri onus notum, non dolor partus; et tamen numerosior soboles piae mentis, quæ omnes pro liberis habet: fecunda successoribus, sterilis orbitatibus, nescit funera, novit hæredes. Sic sancta Ecclesia immaculata coitu, fecunda partu, virgo est castitate, mater est prole. Parturit itaque nos virgo non viro plena, sed spiritu. Parit nos virgo non cum dolore membrorum, sed cum gaudiis angelorum. Nutrit nos virgo non corporis lacte, sed Apostoli. quo infirmam adhuc crescentis populi lactavit ætatem. Quae igitur nupta plures liberos habet quam sancta Ecclesia, quæ virgo est sacramentis, mater est populis, cujus fecunditatem etiam Scriptura testatur dicens: Quoniam plures filii desertæ magis quam ejus quæ habet virum? Nostra virum non habet, sed sive anima in singulis, Dei verbo, sine ullo flexu pudoris, quasi sponso innubit æterno, effeta injuriæ, feta rationis. ### English translation (Claude) 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 to be loosed. Are you loosed 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. 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. How sweet a pledge, which begins in peril and ends in perils, which will be a pain before it is a pleasure! It is bought with perils, and not possessed at will. 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 griefs. Of misfortunes one ought not to speak, lest the minds of 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 begotten and beget; 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. Why should I go over the burdensome subjection and the servitude 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 the more willingly; for to them, if they are good, this is the reward of love; if bad, the penalty of sin. From this arise those incitements to vice, that they paint their faces with sought-out 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 strives 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 pander refuses to play the pander; 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. Then, what a price is needed lest even a beautiful woman displease! 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 allurements 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? But you, blessed virgins, who know nothing of such torments, rather than ornaments; you whose beauty is holy modesty suffusing your bashful faces and good chastity; you, not bound over to human eyes, do not weigh your merits by another’s mistake. You too surely have the warfare of 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. Let God alone be sought as 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. 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”? Ours has no husband, but … whether … the soul in each one weds the Word of God as an eternal bridegroom without any lapse of modesty, barren of injury, fruitful in reason. ### Scripture references - Rom 14:2: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:27: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:38: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:28: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 7:34: quotation, high confidence - Luke 23:29: quotation, high confidence - Gen 3:16: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 3:2: allusion, high confidence - Isa 54:1: quotation, high confidence - Gal 4:27: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction; Migne’s cross-reference to Augustine (On Christian Doctrine 4.21) and a repeated line at the end are removed too. At the end the digital text has lost words (marked “…”): the sense is that the Church among the peoples, or the soul in each person, weds the Word as bridegroom. “Whom God commanded to serve before he commanded slaves”: Gen 3:16, before slavery appears in Gen 9:25. Quotations and allusions: Rom 14:2; 1 Cor 7:27, 38, 28, 34; Luke 23:29; Gen 3:16; 1 Cor 3:2; Isa 54:1 (Gal 4:27). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.6 (PL 16:195c–197a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-6). ## On Virgins 1.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-7 - Source: PL 16:197a–199a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose urges parents to dedicate daughters as virgins; he does not condemn marriage (those who do condemn their own birth), but praises virginity, whose bridegroom is the King of Ps 45 and the Song of Songs. ### Latin text Audistis, parentes, quibus erudire virtutibus, quibus instituere disciplinis filias debeatis; ut habere possitis quarum meritis vestra delicta redimantur. Virgo Dei donum est, munus parentis, sacerdotium castitatis. Virgo matris hostia est, cujus quotidiano sacrificio vis divina placatur. Virgo individuum pignus parentum, quæ non dote sollicitet, non emigratione destituat, non offendat injuriis. Sed nepotes aliquis habere desiderat, et avi nomen acquirere. Primum suos tradit, dum quærit alienos: deinde certis defraudari incipit, dum sperat incertos: confert opes proprias, et adhuc poscitur; nisi dotem solvat, exigitur: si diu vivat, onerosus est. Emere istud est generum, non acquirere, qui parentibus filiæ vendat aspectus. Ideone tot mensibus gestatur utero, ut in alienum transeat potestatem? Ideo commendandæ virginis cura suscipitur, ut citius parentibus auferatur? Dicet aliquis: Ergo dissuades nuptias? Ego vero suadeo, et eos damno qui dissuadere consueverunt; utpote qui Sarae ac Rebeccae et Rachel, cæterarumque veterum conjugia feminarum pro documentis singularium virtutum recensere soleam. Qui enim copulam damnat, damnat et filios: et ductam per successionum seriem generis societatem damnat humani. Nam quemadmodum duratura in sæculum ætas succedere posset ætati, nisi gratia nuptiarum procreandæ studium sobolis incitaret? Aut quomodo prædicari potest quod immaculatus Isaac ad altaria Dei victima paternæ pietatis accessit, quod Israel humano situs in corpore Deum vidit, et religiosum populo dedit nomen, quorum originem damnat? Unum sane habent homines licet sacrilegi, quod in his etiam a sapientissimis probetur; quia conjugia damnando, profitentur se non debuisse nasci. Non itaque dissuadeo nuptias, sed fructus sacratæ virginitatis enumero. Paucarum quippe hoc munus est, illud omnium. Nec potest esse virginitas, nisi habeat unde nascatur. Bona cum bonis comparo, quo facilius quid praestet, eluceat. Neque meam ullam sententiam affero, sed eam repeto, quam edidit Spiritus sanctus per prophetam: Melior est, inquit, sterilitas cum virtute (Sap. IV, 1), Primum enim quod nupturae prae caeteris concupiscunt, ut sponsi decore se jactent, eo necesse est impares sacris se fateantur esse virginibus, quibus solis contingit dicere: Speciosus forma præ filiis hominum, diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis. Quis est iste sponsus? Non vilibus addictus obsequiis, non caducis superbus divitiis: sed cujus sedes in sæculum saeculi. Filiæ regum in honore ejus. Astitit regina a dextris tuis in vestitu deaurato, varietate circumamicta virtutum. Audi igitur, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam, et obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui; quoniam concupivit Rex speciem tuam, quia ipse est Deus tuus. Et adverte quantum tibi Spiritus sanctus Scripturæ divinæ testificatione detulerit, regnum, aurum, pulchritudinem: regnum, vel quia sponsa es regis æterni, vel quia invictum animum gerens, ab illecebris voluptatum non captiva habens, sed quasi regina dominaris: aurum, quia sicut illa materies examinata igne pretiosior est, ita corporis species virginalis Spiritui consecrata divino, formæ suae acquirit augmentum: pulchritudinem vero quis potest majorem existimare decore ejus, quæ amatur a Rege, probatur a Judice, dicatur Domino, consecratur Deo: semper sponsa, semper innupta; ut nec amor finem habeat, nec damnum pudor. Hæc profecto vera pulchritudo est, cui nihil deest, quae sola meretur audire a Domino: Tota es formosa, proxima mea, et reprehensio non est in te. Sponsa, veni huc a Libano, veni huc a Libano, transibis et pertransibis a principio fidei, a capite Sanir et Hermon, a latibulis leonum, a montibus pardorum. Quibus indiciis ostenditur perfecta, et irreprehensibilis virginalis animæ pulchritudo, altaribus consecrata divinis, inter occursus et latibula spiritalium bestiarum non inflexa mortalibus, sed intenta mysteriis Dei meruisse dilectum, cujus ubera plena lætitiæ: Vinum enim lætificat cor hominis. Odor, inquit, vestimentorum illorum super om­ nia aromata. Et infra: Et odor vestimentorum tuorum sicut odor Libani. Vide quem nobis tribuas, virgo, processum. Primus enim odor tuus super omnia aromata, quae in Salvatoris missa sunt sepulturam; et emortuos corporis motus, membrorumque redolet obiisse delicias. Secundus odor tuus sicut odor Libani, Dominici corporis integritatem, virgineæ florem castitatis exhalat. ### English translation (Claude) 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, the 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. 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 dunned for 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? 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, Rebecca, Rachel, and the other women of old as examples of singular 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 of begetting offspring? 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. I do not, then, discourage marriage; but I enumerate the fruits 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 shine forth the more easily. 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.” 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 mean services, not proud of perishable riches, but one whose throne is for ever 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 incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house; for the King has desired your beauty, for he is the Lord your God.” 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 unconquered mind, you are not held captive by the allurements of pleasures 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 comeliness 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 neither has love an end nor modesty a loss? This, surely, is true beauty, which lacks nothing, which alone deserves to hear from the Lord: “You are all beautiful, my near one, and there is no blemish in you. Come hither from Lebanon, bride, come hither 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.” By these signs is shown 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 deserved the beloved, whose breasts are full of gladness: “For wine gladdens the heart of man.” “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 advance 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, breathes forth the integrity of the Lord’s body, the flower of virginal chastity. ### Scripture references - Gen 22:9: allusion, high confidence - Gen 32:28: allusion, high confidence - Gen 32:30: allusion, high confidence - Ps 45:2 (44:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:6 (44:7 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Ps 45:9 (44:10 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:10 (44:11 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 45:11 (44:12 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 4:7: quotation, high confidence - Song 4:8: quotation, high confidence - Song 4:10: quotation, high confidence - Song 4:11: quotation, high confidence - Ps 104:15 (103:15 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - John 19:39: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 4:1 (Wisdom of Solomon): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - “Better is childlessness with virtue” is Wis 4:1, which Ambrose cites as the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet. The editor’s reference to Ps 45 is not printed; the quotations follow the Latin Psalter (LXX 44). “Lions’ dens … leopards”: Song 4:8. Quotations and allusions: Gen 22:9; Gen 32:28–30; Ps 45:2, 6, 9–11 (LXX 44:3, 7, 10–12); Song 4:7–8, 10–11; Ps 104:15 (LXX 103:15); John 19:39–40. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.7 (PL 16:197a–199a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-7). ## On Virgins 1.8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-8 - Source: PL 16:199a–199c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The virgin should be like the bee, chaste and industrious, feeding on the dew of God’s word, guarding her speech, and gathering riches for the poor; Christ is the lily among thorns. ### Latin text Favum itaque mellis tua opera componant; digna enim virginitas quae apibus comparetur: sic laboriosa, sic pudica, sic continens. Rore pascitur apis, nescit concubitus, mella componit. Ros quoque virginis est sermo divinus; quia sicut ros, Dei verba descendunt. Pudor virginis est intemerata natura. Partus virginis fetus est labiorum, expers amaritudinis, fertilis suavitatis. In commune labor, communis est fructus. Quam te velim, filia, imitatricem esse hujus apiculæ, cui cibus flos est, ore soboles tegitur, ore componitur! Hanc imitare tu, filia. Verba tua nullum doli velamen obtendant, nullum habeant fraudis involucrum; ut et puritatem habeant, et gravitatis plena sint. Meritorum quoque tuorum tibi aeterna posteritas tuo ore pariatur. Nec soli tibi, sed etiam pluribus congreges (quid scis enim quando a te anima tua reposcatur?) ne receptacula horreorum frumentis coacervata dimittens, nec vitae tuae usui profutura, nec meritis, rapiaris eo quo thesaurum tuum ferre non possis. Dives igitur esto, sed pauperibus; ut naturae participes tuae, participes sint etiam facultatum. Florem quoque tibi demonstro carpendum, illum utique qui dixit: Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium. Tamquam lilium in medio spinarum (Cant. II, 1, 2); quod est evidentis indicii, spiritalium nequitiarum sentibus virtutes obsideri; unde nemo fructum referat, nisi qui cautus accedat. ### English translation (Claude) 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 untouched nature. The virgin’s offspring is the fruit of the lips, free of bitterness, rich in sweetness. The labor is shared; the fruit is shared. 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 guile, have no wrapping of deceit, so that they may have purity and be full of seriousness. Let an eternal posterity of your merits too be brought forth for you by your mouth. And gather not for yourself alone but for many (for how do you know when your soul will be required of you?), lest, leaving storehouses heaped with grain, useful neither for your life nor for your merits, you be snatched away 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. I also show you a flower to be plucked: him, namely, 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. ### Scripture references - Song 4:11: allusion, high confidence - Deut 32:2: allusion, high confidence - Luke 12:18: allusion, high confidence - Luke 12:20: allusion, high confidence - Song 2:1: quotation, high confidence - Song 2:2: quotation, high confidence - Eph 6:12: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Georg. 4.197–202 (Virgil): echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, which names the verse being expounded (“the honeycomb dripping,” Song 4:11); removed by a logged correction. The digital text’s Dos is read as flos (“flower”). Ancient writers believed that bees do not mate and that they gather their young with their mouths (e.g. Virgil, Georgics 4.197–202). Quotations and allusions: Song 4:11; Deut 32:2; Luke 12:20; Song 2:1–2; Eph 6:12. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.8 (PL 16:199a–199c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-1/#p-1-8). ## On Virgins 1.9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-9 - Source: PL 16:199c–203b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose urges the virgin to seek Christ, the flower found in enclosed gardens, using verses of the Song of Songs; Christ, white and ruddy, divine and human, seals the virgin, angels guard her, and her sober life keeps her from the causes of sin. ### Latin text Sume igitur alas, virgo, sed spiritus; ut supervoles vitia, si contingere cupis Christum: In altis habitat, et humilia respicit; et species ejus sicut cedrus Libani, qui comam nubibus, radicem terris inserit. Principium enim ejus e cœlo, posteriora ejus in terris, fructus caelo proximos edit. Scrutare diligentius tam bonum florem, necubi eum in pectoris tui convalle reperias; humilibus enim frequenter inhalatur. Amat generari in hortis, in quibus eum Susanna dum deambularet, invenit: mori prius, quam violari parata (Dan. XIII, 7). Qui sint autem horti, ipse demonstrat dicens: Hortus conclusus, soror mea Sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus (Cant. IV, 12); eo quod in hortis hujusmodi impressa signaculis imagine Dei, sinceri fontis unda resplendeat; ne volutabris spiritalium bestiarum sparsa cœno fluenta turbentur. Hinc ille murali septus spiritu pudor clauditur, ne pateat ad rapinam. Itaque sicut hortus furibus inaccessus vitem redolet, flagrat oleam, rosam renidet; ut in vite religio, in olea pax, in rosa pu­ dor sacratae virginitatis inolescat. Hic est odor quem Jacob patriarcha flagravit, quando meruit audire: Ecce odor filii mei sicut odor agri pleni. Nam licet plenus omnibus fere fructibus patriarchæ sancti fuerit ager; ille tamen fruges majore virtutis labore generavit, hic flores. Accingere itaque, virgo, et si vis hujuscemodi tibi ut hortus aspiret, propheticis eum claude præceptis. Pone custodiam ori tuo, et ostium circumstantiæ labiis tuis (Psal. CXL, 3); ut etiam tu possis dicere: Tamquam malus in lignis nemoris, ita fraternus meus in medio filiorum. In umbra ejus concupivi et sedi, et fructus ejus dulcis in faucibus meis. Inveni quem dilexit anima mea, tenui eum, et non relinquam (Cant. III, 4). Descendit fraternus meus in hortum suum, ut manducet fructum pomorum suorum. Veni, fraterne mi, exeamus in agrum. Pone me ut sigillum in cor tuum, et velut signaculum super brachium tuum (Cant. VIII, 6). Fraternus meus candidus et rubeus. Decet enim ut plene noveris, virgo, quem diligis, atque omne in eo et ingenitae divinitatis et assumptae mysterium incorporationis agnoscas. Candidus merito, quia patris splendor: rubeus, quia partus est virginis. Color in eo fulget et rutilat utriusque naturæ.. Memento tamen antiquiora in eo divinitatis insignia, quam corporis sacramenta; quia non cœpit a virgine, sed qui erat, venit in virginem. Ille discretus a militibus, ille lancea vulneratus (Matth. XXVII, 29 et seq.), ut nos sacri vulneris cruore sanaret, respondebit tibi profecto (est enim mitis et humilis corde, blandus aspectu): Exsurge, Aquilo, et veni, Auster, aspira hortum meum, et fluant aromata mea (Cant. IV, 16). Ex omnibus enim partibus mundi odor sacratæ religionis inolevit, dilectaeque virginis membra flagrarunt. Formosa es, proxima mea, ut bona opinio: pulchra, ut Hierusalem. Non caduci itaque corporis pulchritudo vel morbo peritura, vel senio; sed nullis obnoxia casibus opinio bonorum numquam moritura meritorum, virginibus est decori. Et quoniam non humanis jam, sed caelestibus, quorum vitam vivis in terris, digna es comparari: accipe a Domino præcepta quæ serves. Pone me ut sigillum, inquit, in cor tuum, et velut signaculum super brachium tuum: quo signatiora prudentiae tuae factorumque documenta promantur, in quibus figura Dei Christus eluceat, qui paternae ambitum exaequans naturæ, totum quidquid a Patre divinitatis assumpsit, expressit. Unde etiam apostolus Paulus in Spiritu nos dicit esse signatos; quoniam Patris imaginem habemus in Filio, sigillum Filii habemus in Spiritu. Hac Trinitate signati caveamus diligentius, ne quod accepimus pignus in cordibus nostris, aut morum levitas, aut ullius adulterii fraus resignet. Sed facessat hic sacris virginibus metus, quibus tanta praesidia tribuit primum Ecclesia, quae tenerae prolis sollicita successu, ipsa quasi murus abundantibus in modum turrium increscit uberibus, donec soluto obsidionis hostilis incursu, pacem validæ juventuti, maternae praesidio virtutis, acquirat. Unde et Propheta ait: Fiat pax in virtute tua, et abundantia in turribus tuis. Tum ipse pacis Dominus postquam validioribus brachiis commissa sibi vineta complexus, patmites suos gemmare conspexerit, vultu præsule, nascentibus fructibus auras temperat, sicut ipse testatur dicens: Vinea mea est in conspectu meo, mille Salomoni, et ducenti qui servant fructum ejus (Cant. VIII, 12). Supra ait: Sexaginta potentes, in circumitu propaginis ejus, strictis armatos ensibus, et eruditos praeliaribus disciplinis; hic mille et ducentos. Crevit numerus, ubi crevit et fructus; quia quo sanctior quisque, eo munitior. Sic Elisaeus propheta exercitus angelorum præsidia sibi adesse monstravit: sic Jesus Nave ducem militiae cœlestis agnovit. Possunt igitur fructum in nobis custodire, qui possunt etiam militare pro nobis. Vobis autem, virgines sanctae, speciale præsidium est, quae intemerato pudore sacrum Domini servatis cubile. Neque mirum si pro vobis angeli militant, quæ angelorum moribus militatis. Meretur eorum præsidium castitas virginalis, quorum vitam meretur. Et quid pluribus exsequar laudem castitatis? Castitas etiam angelos fecit. Qui eam servavit, angelus est: qui perdidit, diabolus. Hinc religio etiam nomen accepit. Virgo est, quae Deo nubit: meretrix, quæ deos fecit. Nam de resurrectione quid dicam, cujus praemia jam tenetis? In resurrectione autem neque nubent, neque ducent uxores: sed erunt sicut angeli, inquit, in cœlo. Quod nobis promittitur, vobis praesto est, votorumque nostrorum usus apud vos. De hoc mundo estis, et non estis in hoc mundo. Sæculum vos habere meruit, tenere non potuit. Quam praeclarum autem angelos propter intemperantiam suam in saeculum cecidisse de coelo, virgines propter castimoniam in caelum transisse de sæculo? Beatae virgines, quas non illecebra sollicitat corporum, non colluvio praecipitat voluptatum! Cibus parcimoniae, potus abstinentiæ docet vitia nescire, qui docet causas nescire vitiorum. Causa peccandi etiam justos sæpe decepit. Hinc populus Dei postquam sedit manducare et bibere, Deum negavit. Hinc Loth concubitus filiarum ignoravit, et pertulit. Hinc inversis vestigiis filii Noe patris quondam pudenda texerunt: quae procax vidit, modestus erubuit, pius texit, offensurus si et ipse vidisset. Quanta vini est vis, ut quem diluvia non nudaverunt, vina nudarent! ### English translation (Claude) Take wings, then, virgin, but the wings of the spirit, so that you may fly above vices, if you desire to reach Christ. He dwells on high and looks on lowly things; 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. 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, lest its streams be stirred up, spattered with mud from the wallowing places of spiritual beasts. Hence that modesty, fenced by the Spirit as by a wall, is shut in, lest it 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 deserved 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. Gird yourself, then, virgin, and if you want such a garden to breathe for you, close it in with the precepts 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 kinsman 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 kinsman has gone down into his garden to eat the fruit of his apples. Come, my kinsman, let us go out into the field. Set me as a seal upon your heart, and as a signet upon your arm. My kinsman is white and ruddy.” For it is fitting, 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; ruddy, 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. 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, kindly in look): “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 near one, 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 report of merits, subject to no chance and never to die, that is the beauty of virgins. 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 precepts you are to keep. “Set me,” he says, “as a seal upon your heart, and as a signet upon your arm,” so that the proofs of your prudence and your deeds may be brought out the more clearly marked, in which Christ, the figure of God, may shine forth, 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 more careful heed, lest levity of conduct or the fraud of any adultery break the seal on the pledge we have received in our hearts. 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. Hence the prophet too says: “Let there be peace in your strength, and abundance in your towers.” 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 countenance 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.” Above he says: “Sixty mighty men round about 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 host. 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. Nor is it any wonder if angels fight for you who fight with the conduct of angels. Virginal chastity merits the protection of those whose life it merits. 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 harlot, 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. And how glorious, that angels for their incontinence fell from heaven into the world, and virgins for their chastity have passed from the world into heaven! Blessed virgins, whom no allurement of bodies entices, no flood of pleasures hurls down! Frugal food and abstemious drink teach them not to know vices, by teaching them not to know the causes of vices. The cause of sinning has often deceived even the righteous. Hence the people of God, after it sat down to eat and drink, denied God. Hence Lot did not know of his daughters’ lying with him, and yet bore it. Hence 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! ### Scripture references - Ps 113:5 (112:5 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Ps 113:6 (112:6 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Song 5:15: allusion, high confidence - Song 4:12: quotation, high confidence - Gen 27:27: quotation, high confidence - Ps 141:3 (140:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 2:3: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:4: quotation, high confidence - Song 6:2: quotation, high confidence - Song 7:11: quotation, high confidence - Song 8:6: quotation, high confidence - Song 5:10: quotation, high confidence - Heb 1:3: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:28: allusion, high confidence - John 19:34: allusion, high confidence - Matt 11:29: allusion, high confidence - Song 4:16: quotation, high confidence - Song 6:4: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 1:22: allusion, high confidence - Eph 1:13: allusion, high confidence - Song 8:10: allusion, high confidence - Ps 122:7 (121:7 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 8:12: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:7: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:8: allusion, high confidence - 2 Kgs 6:17: allusion, high confidence - Josh 5:14: allusion, high confidence - Matt 22:30: quotation, high confidence - John 17:16: allusion, high confidence - Exod 32:6: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 10:7: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 19:33: allusion, high confidence - Gen 9:23: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sus 7–23 (Susanna): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “Religion too has taken its name” probably alludes to the derivation of religio from religare, “to bind”; Ambrose does not explain. “My kinsman” renders fraternus (literally “brotherly one”), the Latin of the Song for “my beloved.” “As good report” (ut bona opinio, Song 6:4) follows the Latin that Ambrose quotes, where the Hebrew has the city name Tirzah. Quotations and allusions: Ps 113:5–6 (LXX 112:5–6); Song 5:15; Sus 7–23; Song 4:12; Gen 27:27; Ps 141:3 (LXX 140:3); Song 2:3; 3:4; 6:2; 7:11; 8:6; 5:10; Heb 1:3; Matt 27:28; John 19:34; Matt 11:29; Song 4:16; 6:4; 2 Cor 1:22 (Eph 1:13); Song 8:10; Ps 122:7 (LXX 121:7); Song 8:12; 3:7–8; 2 Kgs 6:17; Josh 5:14; Matt 22:30; John 17:14–16; Exod 32:6 (1 Cor 10:7); Gen 19:33–35; Gen 9:21–23. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.9 (PL 16:199c–203b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-9). ## On Virgins 1.10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-10 - Source: PL 16:203b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Virgins are spared greed and the burdens of brides, who load themselves with jewels like chains and are auctioned to suitors like slaves. ### Latin text Quid illud? Quantae felicitatis est, quod nulla vos habendi cupiditas inflammat? Pauper quod habes poscit, quod non habes non requirit. Fructus laboris tui thesaurus est inopi, et duo aera si sola sint, census est largientis. Audi ergo, soror, quantis careas. Nam cavere quid debeas, nec meum est docere, nec tuum discere; perfectæ enim virtutis usus magisterium non desiderat, sed informat. Cernis ut pomparum ferculis similis incedat, quæ se componit ut placeat, omnium in se vultus et ora convertens, eo ipso quo studet placere, deformior; prius enim populo displicet, quam placeat viro. At in vobis rejecta decoris cura plus decet: et hoc ipsum quod vos non ornatis, ornatus est. Cerne laceras vulneribus aures, et depressæ onera miserare cervicis. Non sunt allevamenta pœnarum discrimina metallorum. Hinc collum catena constringit, inde pedem compes includit. Nihil refert auro corpus oneretur an ferro. Sic cervix premitur, sic gravatur incessus. Nil pretium juvat; nisi quod vos mulieres, ne pereat vobis poena, trepidatis. Quid interest, utrum aliena sententia, an vestra vos damnet? Hinc vos etiam miserabiliores quam qui publico jure damnantur, quod illi optant exui, vos ligari. Quam vero miserabilis illa conditio, quod tamquam mancipii forma venalis, nuptura licitatur; ut qui pretio vicerit, emat. Tolerabilius tamen mancipia veneunt, quæ sæpe sibi dominos eligunt: virgo si eligat, crimen est; si non eligat, contumelia. Quæ quamvis pulchra sit et decora, et timet et cupit videri: cupit, ut se charius vendat: timet, ne hoc ipsum dedeceat quod videtur. Quanta autem votorum ludibria, et ad procorum eventus suspecti metus, ne pauper illudat, ne dives fastidiat, ne pulcher irrideat, ne nobilis spernat! ### English translation (Claude) What else? How great a happiness it is that no desire of possessing inflames 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. Hear, then, sister, from how much you are spared. For what you ought to guard against it is neither for me to teach nor for you 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 becoming, and the very fact that you do not adorn yourselves is an adornment. 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 lest your punishment be lost to you. 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. 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 be beautiful and comely, she both fears and desires to be seen: she desires it, so as to sell herself more dearly; she fears lest the very fact of being seen be unbecoming. And what mockeries of hopes there are, and anxious fears about how the suitors will turn out: lest a poor man deceive her, a rich one disdain her, a handsome one laugh at her, a noble one despise her! ### Scripture references - Mark 12:42: allusion, high confidence - Mark 12:44: allusion, high confidence - Luke 21:2: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. Allusion: Mark 12:42–44 (Luke 21:2–4). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.10 (PL 16:203b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-10). ## On Virgins 1.11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-11 - Source: PL 16:203c–205c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose answers the complaint that he praises virginity in vain: virgins come to Milan from Placentia, Bononia, and Mauritania, while mothers at home hinder their daughters; the virgins of Bononia live together and win others to their life. ### Latin text Dicet aliquis: Tu nobis quotidie virginum canis laudes. Quid faciam qui eadem quotidie cantito, et proficio nihil? Sed non mea culpa. Denique de Placentino sacrandæ virgines veniunt, de Bononiensi veniunt, de Mauritania veniunt, ut hic velentur. Magnam rem videtis. Hic tracto, et alibi persuadeo. Si ita est, alibi tractemus, ut vobis persuadeamus. Quid, quod etiam qui me non audiunt, sequuntur: qui audiunt, non sequuntur? Nam plerasque virgines cognovi velle, et prohiberi etiam pro­ dire a matribus, et quod est gravius, viduis, cum quibus hic mihi sermo est. Nempe si hominem vellent amare filiæ vestrae, per leges possent eligere quem vellent. Quibus igitur hominem eligere licet, Deum non licet? Contuemini quam dulcis pudicitiae fructus sit, qui barbaricis quoque inolevit affectibus. Ex ultimis infra ultraque Mauritaniae partibus deductæ virgines hic sacrari gestiunt; et cum sint omnes familiæ in vinculis, pudicitia tamen nescit esse captiva. Profitetur regnum aeternitatis, quæ mœret injuriam servitutis. Nam quid de Bononiensibus virginibus loquar, fecundo pudoris agmine, quæ mundanis se deliciis abdicantes, sacrarium virginitatis incolunt? Sine contubernali sexu, contubernali pudore provectae ad vicenarium numerum, et centenarium fructum, relictoque parentum hospitio, tendunt in tabernaculis Christi, indefessae milites castitatis: nunc canticis spiritalibus personant, nunc victum operibus exercent, liberalitati quoque subsidium manu quærunt. Quod si investigandi virgines inoleverit odor (namque prae cæteris speculandi venatum pudoris explorant), totis curarum vestigiis prædam latentem usque ad ipsa cubilia persequuntur: aut si liberior alicujus volatus affulserit, totis omnes videas assurgere alis, concrepare pennis, emicare plausu; ut casto pudicitiae choro cingant volantem, donec obvio delectata comitatu, in plagas pudoris et indaginem castitatis domus patriæ oblita, succedat. ### English translation (Claude) 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 Placentia, they come from that of Bononia, 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. 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 forbidden even 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? 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 professes the eternal kingdom. And what shall I say of the virgins of Bononia, 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 they resound with spiritual songs, now they earn their living by labor, and seek with their hands the means for generosity as well. 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 on every track of their 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. ### Scripture references - Matt 13:8: allusion, high confidence - Eph 5:19: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 4:28: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 45:10 (44:11 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Placentia and Bononia are Piacenza and Bologna. The digital text’s “Ex ultimi infra ultraque Mauritaniae partibus” is translated as “the farthest parts of Mauritania, on this side and beyond.” “The company that meets her” renders a damaged word (al- Denti), read by sense. Allusions: Matt 13:8; Eph 5:19; 1 Thess 4:11; Eph 4:28; Ps 45:10 (LXX 44:11). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.11 (PL 16:203c–205c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-11). ## On Virgins 1.12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-12 - Source: PL 16:205c–207a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Virginity is best when chosen even against parents, whose resistance is a training ground; Ambrose tells of a noble girl who fled to the altar to escape marriage and whose kinsman died after challenging her. ### Latin text Bonum itaque si virgini studia parentum quasi flabra pudoris aspirent: sed illud gloriosius, si teneræ ignis aetatis etiam sine veteribus nutrimentis sponte se rapiat in fomitem castitatis. Dotem negabunt parentes: sed habes divitem sponsum cujus contenta thesauro, patriae successionis emolumenta non quæras. Quanto dotalibus praestat compendiis casta paupertas! Et tamen quam audistis aliquando propter studium integritatis, legitimæ factam successionis extorrem? Contradicunt parentes: sed volunt vinci. Resistunt primo, quia credere timent: indignantur frequenter, ut discas vincere: abdicationem minantur, ut tentent si potes damnum sæculi non timere: quæsitis blandiuntur illecebris, ut videant si variarum mollire te non queat blanditia voluptatum. Exerceris, virgo, dum cogeris. Et hæc tibi prima certamina, anxia parentum vota proponunt. Vince prius, puella, pietatem. Si vincis domum, vincis sæculum. Sed esto maneant vos damna patrimonii: nonne caducarum et fragilium dispendia facultatum futura cœli regna compensant? Quamquam si verbis caelestibus credimus, Nemo est qui reliquerit domum, aut parentes, aut fratres, aut uxorem, aut filios, propter regnum Dei, et non recipiat septies tantum in hoc tempore: in sæculo autem venturo vitam æternam possidebit. Crede fidem tuam Deo, quæ homini pecuniam credis: fenerare Christo. Bonus depositae spei custos multiplicatis fidei tuae talentum solvit usuris. Non fallit veritas, non circumscribit justitia, non decipit vir­ tus. Quod si non creditis oraculo, vel exemplis credite. Memoriæ nostrae puella dudum nobilis in sæculo, nunc nobilior Deo, cum urgeretur ad nuptias a parentibus et propinquis, ad sacrosanctum altare confugit. Quo enim melius virgo, quam ubi sacrificium virginitatis offertur? Nec is quidem finis audaciæ. Stabat ad aram Dei pudoris hostia, victima castitatis: nunc capiti dexteram sacerdotis imponens, precem poscens, nunc justae impatiens morae, ac summum altari subjecta verticem. Num melius, inquit, maforte me quam altare velabit, quod sanctificat ipsa velamina? Plus talis decet flammeus, in quo caput omnium Christus quotidie consecratur. Quid agitis vos, propinqui? quid exquirendis adhuc nuptiis sollicitatis animum? Jamdudum provisas habeo. Sponsum offertis? Meliorem reperi. Quaslibet exaggerate divitias, jactate nobilitatem, prædicate potentiam: habeo eum cui nemo se comparet, divitem mundo, potentem imperio, nobilem cælo. Si talem habetis, non refuto optionem: si non reperitis, non providetis mihi, parentes, sed invidetis. Silentibus cæteris, unus abruptius: Quid si, inquit, pater tuus viveret, innuptam te manere pateretur? Tum illa majori religione, moderatiore pietate: Et ideo fortasse defecit, ne quis impedimentum possit afferre. Quod ille responsum de pa­ tre, de se oraculum, maturo sui probavit exitio. Ita cæteri eadem sibi quisque metuentes, favere cœperunt, qui impedire quærebant: nec dispendium debitarum attulit virginitas facultatum, sed etiam emolumentum integritatis accepit. Habetis, puellæ, devotionis praemium: parentes, cavete offensionis exemplum. ### English translation (Claude) 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 of its own accord 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 profits of a father’s inheritance. How far chaste poverty surpasses the gains of a dowry! 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 sought-out allurements, to see whether the blandishment 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 filial affection. If you conquer your home, you conquer the world. But suppose that loss of patrimony awaits you: do not the future kingdoms of heaven make up for the expense of perishable and fragile means? Indeed, if we believe the heavenly words, “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 oracle, at least believe examples. 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 kinsfolk, 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, kinsfolk? Why do you still trouble my mind with seeking a marriage? I have long since 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.” 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 put a hindrance 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. ### Scripture references - Luke 18:29: quotation, high confidence - Luke 18:30: quotation, high confidence - Mark 10:29: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 25:27: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - “Seven times as much” follows the Latin text Ambrose quotes of Luke 18:30 (some witnesses; others “many times as much”). “Bridal veil” renders flammeus, the bride’s veil; maforte is a woman’s mantle or veil. Quotations and allusions: Luke 18:29–30 (Mark 10:29–30); Matt 25:27; 1 Tim 6:20. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 1.12 (PL 16:205c–207a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/1-9/#p-1-12). ## On Virgins 2.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-1 - Source: PL 16:207b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose explains that in this book he will instruct virgins by examples rather than precepts, and that he writes at their request so that those absent may have his words. ### Latin text Superiore libro quantum virginitatis munus sit, voluimus ( non enim potuimus) explicare; ut per se cœlestis gratia muneris invitet legentem. Secundo libro virginem institui decet, et tamquam competentium præceptorum magisteriis erudiri. Sed quoniam nos infirmi ad monendum sumus, et impares ad docendum (debet enim is qui docet supra eum qui docetur excellere), ne vel susceptum deseruisse munus, vel nobis arrogasse amplius videremur, exemplis potius quam praeceptis putavimus imbuendam: licet amplius proficiatur exemplo; quoniam nec difficile quod jam factum est æstimatur, et utile quod probatum, et religiosum quod haereditario quodam paternæ virtutis usu in nos est successione transfusum. Quod si quis nos præsumptionis arguit, arguat potius sedulitatis; quia rogantibus virginibus ne hoc quidem putavi negandum. Malui enim me in periculum deduci pudoris, quam non obsequi voluntati earum, quarum studiis etiam Deus noster placido se indulget assensu. Sed neque praesumptio notari potest, quoniam cum haberent unde discerent, affectum potius quam magisterium quæsiverunt meum: et excusari sedulitas; quoniam cum haberent auctoritatem martyris ad observantiam disciplinæ, non superfluum judicavi, si nostri sermonis blanditiam derivarem ad professionis illecebram. Ille docere facilis, qui severo vitia coercet affectu: nos qui docere non possumus, blandiamur. Et quoniam pleraeque absentes nostri desiderabant sermonis usum, volumen hoc condidi: quo profectæ ad se vocis meae munus tenentes, deesse non crederent, quem tenerent. Sed proposita persequamur. ### English translation (Claude) In the preceding book we wished (for we were not able) to set out how great the gift of virginity is, so that the grace of the heavenly gift might of itself invite the reader. In the second book it is fitting that the virgin be instructed and taught as if by the lessons of suitable precepts. But since we are weak at admonishing and unequal to teaching (for he who teaches ought to excel him who is taught), lest we should seem either to have abandoned the task we undertook or to have claimed too much for ourselves, we thought that she should be formed by examples rather than by precepts. Besides, more progress is made by example, since what has already been done is not thought difficult, what has been proved is thought useful, and what has been handed down to us by a kind of inherited practice of ancestral virtue is thought holy. If anyone accuses us of presumption, let him accuse us rather of diligence; for when virgins asked, I thought that not even this should be refused. I preferred to be brought into danger to my modesty rather than fail to comply with the wish of those whose zeal our God too favors with gracious assent. But presumption cannot be charged, since, though they had sources from which to learn, they sought my affection rather than my teaching; and diligence may be excused, since, though they had the authority of a martyr for keeping the discipline, I did not judge it superfluous to turn the charm of our speech into an allurement to the profession. He finds teaching easy who restrains vices with stern feeling; let us, who cannot teach, coax. And since very many, being absent, wished to have the benefit of our discourse, I have composed this volume, so that, holding the gift of my voice which has gone out to them, they might not think him absent whom they held. But let us pursue what we have set before us. ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with a column number and Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “The authority of a martyr” probably refers to Agnes (Book 1). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.1 (PL 16:207b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-1). ## On Virgins 2.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-2 - Source: PL 16:207b–211c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Mary’s life is the pattern of virginity: humble, modest, sparing, studious, seldom abroad, devoted to her kin; she will lead virgins to Christ, who will commend them to the Father, and their minds are altars on which Christ is offered. ### Latin text Sit igitur vobis tamquam in imagine descripta virginitas vita Mariae, de qua velut speculo refulgeat species castitatis et forma virtutis. Hinc sumatis licet exempla vivendi, ubi tamquam in exemplari magisteria expressa probitatis, quid corrigere, quid effingere, quid tenere debeatis, ostendunt. Primus discendi ardor nobilitas est magistri. Quid nobilius Dei matre? quid splendidius ea, quam Splendor elegit? quid castius ea quae corpus sine corporis contagione generavit? Nam de cæteris ejus virtutibus quid loquar? Virgo erat non solum corpore, sed etiam mente, quæ nullo doli ambitu sincerum adulteraret affectum: corde humilis, verbis gravis, animi prudens, loquendi parcior, legendi studiosior: non in incerto divitiarum, sed in prece pauperum spem reponens: intenta operi, verecunda sermone, arbitrum mentis solita non hominem, sed Deum quærere: nullum taedere, bene velle omnibus, assurgere majoribus natu, aequalibus non invidere, fugere jactantiam, rationem sequi, amare virtutem. Quando ista vel vultu laesit parentes? quando dissensit a propinquis? quando fastidivit humilem? quando derisit debilem? quando vitavit inopem; eos solos solita coetus virorum invisere, quos misericordia non erubesceret, neque præteriret verecundia? Nihil torvum in oculis, nihil in verbis procax, nihil in actu inverecundum: non gestus fractior, non incessus solutior, non vox petulantior; ut ipsa corporis spe­ cies simulacrum fuerit mentis, figura probitatis. Bona quippe domus in ipso vestibulo debet agnosci, ac primo prætendat ingressu nihil intus latere tenebrarum; ut mens nostra a nullis repagulis corporalibus impedita, tamquam lucernae lux intus posita foris luceat. Quid ego exsequar ciborum parcimoniam, officiorum redundantiam: alterum ultra naturam superfuisse, alterum pene ipsi naturae defuisse: illic nulla intermissa tempora, hic congeminatos jejunio dies? Et siquando reficiendi successisset voluntas, cibus plerumque obvius, qui mortem arceret, non delicias ministraret. Dormire non prius cupiditas quam necessitas fuit; et tamen cum quiesceret corpus, vigilaret animus: qui frequenter in somnis aut lecta repetit, aut somno interrupta continuat, aut disposita gerit, aut gerenda prænuntiat. Prodire domo nescia, nisi cum ad Ecclesiam conveniret, et hoc ipsum cum parentibus aut propinquis. Domestico operosa secreto, forensi stipata comitatu; nullo meliore tamen sui custode quam se ipsa: quæ incessu affatuque venerabilis, non tam vestigium pedis tolleret, quam gradum virtutis attolleret. Ut tamen alios habeat virgo membrorum custodes suorum, morum autem suorum se habeat ipsa custodem: plures erunt de quibus discat, si ipsa se doceat quæ virtutes magistras habet: quia quidquid egerit, disciplina est. Sic Maria intendebat omnibus, quasi a pluribus moneretur: sic omnia implebat virtutis officia, ut non tam disceret, quam doceret. Talem hanc evangelista monstravit, talem angelus reperit, talem Spiritus sanctus elegit. Quid enim in singulis morer, ut eam parentes dilexerint, extranei prædicaverint, quæ digna fuit ex qua Dei Filius nasceretur? Hæc ad ipsos ingressus angeli inventa domi in penetralibus, sine comite, ne quis intentionem abrumperet, ne quis obstreperet; neque enim comites feminas desiderabat, quæ bonas cogitationes comites habebat. Quin etiam tum sibi minus sola videbatur, cum sola esset. Nam quemadmodum sola, cui tot libri adessent; tot archangeli, tot prophetae? Denique et Gabriel eam ubi revisere solebat, invenit: et angelum Maria quasi virum specie mota trepidavit, quasi non incognitum audito nomine recognovit. Ita peregrinata est in viro, quae non est peregrinata in Angelo; ut agnoscas aures religiosas, oculos verecundos. Denique salutata obmutuit, et appellata respondit: sed quae primo turbaverat affectum, postea pro­ misit obsequium. Quam vero religiosa in propinquas fuerit, Scriptura divina significat. Nam et humilior facta est, ubi se a Deo cognovit electam, et statim ad cognatam suam in montana processit: non utique ut exemplo crederet, quae jam crediderat oraculo: Beata enim, inquit, quæ credidisti. Et tribus cum ea mensibus mansit. Tanti autem intervallo temporis non fides quæritur, sed pietas exhibetur. Et hoc posteaquam in utero parentis exsiliens puer matrem Domini salutavit, prius compos devotionis, quam naturæ. Inde tot sequentibus signis, cum sterilis pareret, virgo conciperet, loqueretur mutus, adoraret magus, exspectaret Simeon, sidera nuntiarent, Maria mobilis ad introitum, immobilis ad miraculum: Conservabat, inquit, hæc omnia in corde suo. Quamvis mater Domini, discere tamen praecepta Domini desiderabat: et quæ Deum genuerat, Deum tamen scire cupiebat. Quid, quod annis quoque omnibus ibat in Hierusalem solemni die paschæ, et ibat cum Joseph? Ubique in virgine comes singularum virtutum est pudor. Hic individuus debet esse virginitati, sine quo non potest esse virginitas. Nec ad templum igitur Maria sine pudoris sui custode processit. Hæc est imago virginitatis. Talis enim fuit Maria, ut ejus unius vita omnium sit disciplina. Si igitur auctor non displicet, opus probemus; ut quae­ cumque sibi ejus exoptat præmium, imitetur exemplum. Quantae in una virgine species virtutum emicant? Secretum verecundiae, vexillum fidei, devotionis obsequium: virgo intra domum, comes ad ministerium, mater ad templum. O quantis illa virginibus occurret, quantas complexa ad Dominum trahet, dicens: Haec thorum filii mei, haec thalamos nuptiales immaculato servavit pudore! Quemadmodum eas ipse Dominus commendabit Patri; nimirum illud repetens suum: Pater sancte, istae sunt quas custodivi tibi, in quibus Filius hominis caput reclinans quievit; peto ut ubi ego sum, et ipsae sint mecum. Sed si non solis sibi debent prodesse, quae non solis vixerunt sibi: haec parentes, haec redimat fratres. Pater juste, mundus me non cognovit, istae autem me cognoverunt, et mundum cognoscere noluerunt. Quæ pompa illa, quanta angelorum lætitia plaudentium, quod habitare mereatur in caelo, quae caelesti vita vixit in sæculo! Tunc etiam Maria tympanum sumens, choros virginales excitabit cantantes Domino quod per mare saeculi sine sæcularibus fluctibus transierunt. Tunc unaquaeque exsultabit dicens: Et introibo ad altare Dei mei, et ad Deum qui lætificat juventutem meam. Immolo Deo sacrificium laudis, et reddo Altissimo vota mea. Neque enim dubitaverim vobis patere altaria Dei, quarum mentes altaria confidenter dixerim, in quibus quotidie pro redemptione corporis Christus immolatur. Nam si corpus virginis Dei templum est, animus quid est, qui tamquam membrorum cineribus egestis, sacerdotis æterni retectus manu, vaporem divini ignis exhalat? Beatæ virgines, quæ tam immortali spiratis gratia, ut horti floribus, ut templa religione, ut altaria sacerdote! ### English translation (Claude) Let the life of Mary, then, be set before you as virginity portrayed in an image, from which, as from a mirror, the beauty of chastity and the form of virtue shine back. From it you may take examples for living, where, as in a pattern, lessons in goodness drawn to the life show what you ought to correct, what to copy, what to hold fast. The first spur to learning is the nobility of the teacher. What is nobler than the mother of God? What more splendid than she whom Splendor chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without bodily contagion? For what shall I say of her other virtues? She was a virgin not only in body but also in mind, who never adulterated her sincere affection by any winding of guile: humble in heart, grave in words, prudent in mind, sparing of speech, devoted to reading; placing her hope not in uncertain riches but in the prayer of the poor; intent on work, modest in speech; accustomed to seek as judge of her mind not man but God; hurting no one, wishing well to all, rising before her elders, not envying her equals, shunning boasting, following reason, loving virtue. When did she wound her parents even by a look? When did she quarrel with her relatives? When did she disdain the lowly? When did she mock the weak? When did she avoid the needy? She was accustomed to visit only those gatherings of men at which mercy would not blush nor modesty have to pass by. Nothing stern in her eyes, nothing forward in her words, nothing immodest in her actions; no languid gesture, no loose gait, no pert voice; so that the very appearance of her body was an image of her mind, a figure of goodness. For a good house ought to be recognized at its very entrance, and show at the first step inside that no darkness lurks within; so that our mind, hindered by no bodily barriers, may shine outward like the light of a lamp set within. Why should I recount her sparing use of food, her abundance of duties: the one went beyond nature, the other almost fell short of what nature needs; in the one no times were left out, in the other days were doubled by fasting? And whenever the wish to take refreshment came, the food was usually whatever came to hand, such as would keep off death, not supply delights. Sleep came to her from necessity before desire; and yet while her body rested, her mind was awake, a mind that often in sleep either goes over what has been read, or continues what sleep interrupted, or carries out what was planned, or foresees what is to be done. She did not know how to go out of the house except to go to church, and then with her parents or relatives. Busy in the privacy of home, attended when abroad; yet with no better guardian of herself than herself, who, venerable in gait and address, did not so much lift the footstep as raise the step of virtue. Though a virgin may have others as guardians of her limbs, let her be the guardian of her own conduct: she will have many from whom to learn if she teaches herself, she who has the virtues for teachers; for whatever she does is a lesson. So Mary attended to everything as though she were being admonished by many; so she fulfilled every duty of virtue that she did not so much learn as teach. Such the evangelist showed her, such the angel found her, such the Holy Spirit chose her. Why should I dwell on details: how her parents loved her, how strangers praised her, who was worthy that the Son of God should be born of her? At the angel’s very entrance she was found at home in the inner rooms, without a companion, so that no one might break her attention, no one disturb her; for she did not want women as companions, who had good thoughts for companions. Indeed, she seemed to herself less alone when she was alone. For how was she alone, with so many books present to her, so many archangels, so many prophets? And so Gabriel found her where he was accustomed to visit her; and Mary trembled at the angel, as though disturbed by the appearance of a man, but on hearing his name recognized him as one not unknown. So she was a stranger toward a man who was no stranger toward an angel, that you may recognize devout ears and modest eyes. Indeed, when greeted she was silent, and when addressed she answered; and she who at first had been troubled in feeling afterward promised obedience. How devoted she was to her relatives divine Scripture indicates. For she became the humbler when she knew herself chosen by God, and went at once to her kinswoman in the hill country: not, surely, to believe through an example, she who had already believed the oracle; for “Blessed are you,” it says, “who believed.” And she stayed with her three months. In so long an interval it is not faith that is sought but devotion that is shown. And this was after the child, leaping in his mother’s womb, greeted the mother of the Lord, possessed of devotion before he possessed nature. Then, amid so many signs that followed, when a barren woman gave birth, a virgin conceived, a mute man spoke, magi worshiped, Simeon waited, stars announced, Mary, moved at the coming in, unmoved at the miracle, “kept,” it says, “all these things in her heart.” Though mother of the Lord, she yet desired to learn the precepts of the Lord; and she who had borne God yet longed to know God. What of the fact that every year she went to Jerusalem on the solemn day of the Passover, and went with Joseph? Everywhere in a virgin modesty is the companion of each virtue. It must be inseparable from virginity, without it virginity cannot exist. So Mary did not go even to the temple without the guardian of her modesty. This is the image of virginity. For such was Mary that her life alone is a lesson for all. If, then, the author does not displease, let us approve the work, so that whoever longs for her reward may imitate her example. How many forms of virtue shine out in one virgin! The secret of modesty, the banner of faith, the service of devotion: a virgin within the house, a companion for ministry, a mother at the temple. O how many virgins will she meet, how many will she embrace and bring to the Lord, saying: “This one kept my son’s bed, these his bridal chambers, with spotless modesty!” How the Lord himself will commend them to the Father, repeating, surely, his own words: “Holy Father, these are they whom I have kept for you, on whom the Son of Man laid his head and rested; I ask that where I am, they too may be with me. But since those who did not live for themselves alone ought not to profit themselves alone, let this one redeem her parents, this one her brothers. Righteous Father, the world has not known me, but these have known me, and have not wished to know the world.” What a procession that will be, what joy of applauding angels, that she deserves to dwell in heaven who lived a heavenly life in the world! Then Mary too, taking a timbrel, will rouse choirs of virgins singing to the Lord, because they have passed through the sea of the world without its worldly waves. Then each one will exult, saying: “And I will go in to the altar of my God, to God who gladdens my youth. I offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and I pay my vows to the Most High.” For I would not doubt that the altars of God are open to you, whose minds I would confidently call altars, on which Christ is offered daily for the redemption of the body. For if a virgin’s body is a temple of God, what is her mind, which, as though the ashes of the limbs had been raked away and it had been uncovered by the hand of the eternal priest, breathes out the vapor of the divine fire? Blessed virgins, who breathe so immortal a grace, as gardens with flowers, as temples with religion, as altars with the priest! ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 6:17: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:26: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:29: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:38: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:39: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:45: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:56: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:41: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:64: allusion, high confidence - Matt 2:11: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:25: allusion, high confidence - Matt 2:2: allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:19: quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:41: allusion, high confidence - Luke 9:58: allusion, medium confidence - John 17:11: allusion, high confidence - John 17:12: allusion, high confidence - John 17:24: quotation, high confidence - John 17:25: quotation, high confidence - Exod 15:20: allusion, high confidence - Ps 43:4 (42:4 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 50:14 (49:14 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:19: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, and has a cross-reference of Migne’s to Augustine (On Christian Doctrine 4.21), which quotes this passage; both removed by logged corrections. The words of the Lord to the Father are Ambrose’s adaptation of John 17. “Mary … taking a timbrel” recalls Miriam (Latin Maria) at the Red Sea (Exod 15:20); Ambrose may mean Miriam or Mary the mother of the Lord. Quotations and allusions: 1 Tim 6:17; Luke 1:26–29, 38, 39–45, 56; Luke 1:24, 31, 64; Matt 2:11; Luke 2:25; Matt 2:2; Luke 2:19, 41; Luke 9:58; John 17:11–12, 24–25; Exod 15:20; Ps 43:4 (LXX 42:4); Ps 50:14 (LXX 49:14); 1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 5:1. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.2 (PL 16:207b–211c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-2). ## On Virgins 2.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-3 - Source: PL 16:211c–211b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Thecla, condemned to the beasts for refusing marriage, was honored by the lion that licked her feet; Ambrose promises a recent example to show that Paul teaches all. ### Latin text Ergo sancta Maria disciplinam vitæ informet, Thecla doceat immolari: quæ copulam fugiens nuptialem, et sponsi furore damnata, naturam etiam bestiarum virginitatis veneratione mutavit. Namque parata ad feras, cum aspectus quoque declinaret virorum, ac vitalia ipsa saevo offerret leoni, fecit ut qui impudicos detulerant oculos, pudicos referrent. Cernere erat lingentem pedes bestiam cubitare humi, muto testificantem sono quod sacrum virginis corpus violare non posset. Ergo adorabat prædam suam bestia: et propriæ oblita naturæ naturam induerat quam homines amiserant. Videres quadam naturae transfusione homines feritatem indutos, saevitiam imperare bestiæ: bestiam elosculantem pedes virginis, docere quid homines deberent. Tantum habet virginitas admirationis, ut eam etiam leones mirentur. Non impastos cibus flexit, non citatos impetus rapuit, non stimulatos ira exasperavit, non usus decepit assuetos, non feros natura possedit. Docuerunt religionem dum adorant martyrem: docuerunt etiam castitatem, dum virgini nihil aliud nisi plantas exosculantur, demersis in terram oculis, tamquam verecundantibus, ne mas aliquis vel bestia virginem nudam videret. Dicet aliquis: Cur exemplum attulisti Mariae, quasi reperiri queat matrem Domini quæ possit imitari? Cur etiam Theclae, quam gentium Doctor instituit? Da hujuscemodi doctorem, si discipulam requiris. Hujuscemodi recens vobis exemplum profero, ut intelligatis Apostolum non unius esse doctorem, sed omnium. ### English translation (Claude) So let holy Mary shape the discipline of life; let Thecla teach how to be offered: she who, fleeing the marriage bond and condemned through the fury of her betrothed, changed even the nature of beasts by reverence for virginity. For when she had been made ready for the wild beasts, shunning even the gaze of men and offering her very vitals to the fierce lion, she brought it about that those who had brought shameless eyes took them away modest. One could see the beast lying on the ground licking her feet, testifying with a mute sound that it could not violate the sacred body of the virgin. So the beast adored its prey, and, forgetting its own nature, had put on the nature that men had lost. You might see, by a kind of exchange of nature, men clothed in ferocity commanding cruelty of the beast, and the beast kissing the virgin’s feet, teaching what men ought to do. So much admiration does virginity command that even lions admire it. Food did not move them, hungry as they were; their onset did not carry them away, roused as they were; anger did not inflame them, goaded as they were; habit did not mislead them, used to it as they were; their nature did not master them, wild as they were. They taught religion by adoring the martyr; they taught chastity too, by kissing nothing of the virgin but the soles of her feet, with eyes sunk to the ground as though ashamed, lest any male, even a beast, should see the virgin naked. Someone will say: “Why have you brought forward the example of Mary, as though anyone could be found who could imitate the mother of the Lord? Why Thecla too, whom the Teacher of the Gentiles instructed? Give us a teacher of that kind, if you require a disciple of that kind.” I bring you a recent example of that kind, so that you may understand that the Apostle is the teacher not of one but of all. ### Extrabiblical texts - Acts Paul 3–4 (Acts of Paul): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The story of Thecla is told in the Acts of Paul and Thecla (Acts of Paul 3–4). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.3 (PL 16:211c–211b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-3). ## On Virgins 2.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-4 - Source: PL 16:211b–215b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: A virgin of Antioch, sentenced to a brothel for refusing to sacrifice, escaped by exchanging clothes with a Christian soldier; when he was condemned in her place, she returned, and the two contended to die for each other and were both martyred. ### Latin text Antiochiæ nuper virgo quædam fuit fugitans publici visus: sed quo magis virorum evitabat oculos, eo amplius incendebat. Pulchritudo enim audita nec visa plus desideratur, duobus stimulis cupiditatum, amoris et cognitionis: dum et nihil occurrit quod minus placeat, et plus putatur esse quod placeat, quod non judex oculus explorat, sed animus amator exoptat. Itaque sancta virgo, ne diutius alerentur potiendi spe cupiditates, integritatem pudoris professa, sic restinxit improborum faces, ut non jam amaretur, sed proderetur. Ecce persecutio. Puella fugere nescia, certe pavida, ne incideret insidiatores pudoris, animum ad virtutem paravit: tam religiosa, ut mortem non timeret: tam pudica, ut exspectaret. Venit coronæ dies. Maxima omnium exspectatio. Producitur puella, duplex professa certamen, et castitatis, et religionis. Sed ubi viderunt constantiam professionis, metum pudoris, paratam ad cruciatus, erubescentem ad aspectus, excogitare cœperunt quemadmodum specie castitatis religionem tollerent; ut cum id abstulissent quod erat amplius, etiam id eriperent quod reliquerant. Aut sacrificare virginem, aut lupanari prostitui jubent. Quomodo deos suos colunt, qui sic vindicant: aut quemadmodum ipsi vivunt, qui ita judicant? Hic puella non quod de religione ambigeret; sed de pudore trepidaret, ipsa secum: Quid agimus? Hodie aut martyr, aut virgo: altera in nobis invidetur corona. Sed nec virginis nomen agnoscitur, ubi virginitatis auctor negatur. Nam quemadmodum virgo, si meretricem colas: quemadmodum virgo, si adulteros diligas, quemadmodum virgo, si amorem petas? Tolerabilius est mentem virginem quam carnem habere. Utrumque bonum, si liceat: si non liceat, saltem non homini castae, sed Deo simus. Et Rahab meretrix fuit, sed postquam Deo credidit, salutem invenit (Josue II, 9 et seq.). Et Judith se, ut adultero placeret, ornavit (Judith IX, 1 et seq.); quæ tamen quia hoc religione, non amore faciebat, nemo eam adulteram judicavit. Bene successit exemplum. Nam si illa quæ se commisit religioni, et pudorem servavit et patriam; fortassis et nos servando religionem, servabimus etiam castitatem. Quod si Judith pudicitiam religioni praeferre voluisset, perdita patria, etiam pudicitiam perdidisset. Itaque talibus informata exemplis, simul animo tenens verba Domini, quibus ait: Quicumque perdiderit animam suam propter me, inveniet eam; flevit, tacuit, ne eam vel loquentem adulter audiret: nec pudoris elegit injuriam, sed Christi recusavit. Æstimate utrum adulterare potuerit corpus, quae nec vocem adulteravit. Jamdudum verecundatur oratio mea, et quasi adire gestorum seriem criminosam atque explanare formidat. Claudite aurem, virgines. Ducitur puella Dei ad lupanar. Sed aperite aurem, vir­ gines. Christi virgo prostitui potest, adulterari non potest. Ubicumque virgo Dei est, templum Dei est: nec lupanaria infamant castitatem, sed castitas etiam loci abolet infamiam. Fit ingens petulantium concursus ad fornicem. Discite martyrum miracula, sanctæ virgines, dediscite locorum vocabula. Clauditur intus columba, strepunt accipitres foris: certant singuli, quis prædam primus invadat. At illa manibus ad coelum levatis, quasi ad domum venisset orationis, non ad libidinis diversorium: Christe, inquit, qui domuisti Danieli virgini feros leones, potes etiam domare hominum feras mentes. Chaldaeis roravit ignis, Judaeis se unda suspendit, misericordia tua, non natura sua. Susanna ad supplicium genu fixit, et de adulteris triumphavit: aruit dextera quae templi tui dona violavit: nunc templum ipsum attrectatur tuum; ne patiaris incestum sacrilegii, qui non passus es furtum. Benedicatur et nunc nomen tuum; ut quæ ad adulterium veni, virgo discedam. Vix compleverat precem, et ecce vir militis specie terribilis irrupit. Quemadmodum eum virgo tremuit, cui populus tremens cessit? Sed non illa immemor lectionis: Et Daniel, inquit, supplicium Susannae spectaturus advenerat: et quam populus damnavit, unus absolvit. Potest et in hoc lupi habitu ovis latere. Habet et Christus milites suos, qui etiam legiones habet. Aut fortasse percussor intravit. Ne verearis, anima, talis solet martyres facere. O virgo, fides tua te salvam fecit! Cui miles: Ne, quæso, paveas, soror. Frater huc veni salvare animam, non perdere. Serva me, ipsa serveris. Quasi adulter ingressus, si vis, martyr egrediar. Vestimenta mutemus; conveniunt mihi tua, et mea tibi: sed utraque Christo. Tua vestis me verum militem faciet, mea te virginem. Bene tu vestieris, ego melius exuar, ut me persecutor agnoscat. Sume habitum, qui abscondat feminam: trade, qui consecret martyrem. Induere chlamidem quae occultet membra virginis, servetque pudorem. Sume pileum quod tegat crines, abscondat ora. Solent erubescere qui lupanar intraverit. Sane cum egressa fueris, ne respicias retro, memor uxoris Loth quæ naturam suam, quia impudicos licet castis oculis respexit, amisit. Nec vereare ne quid pereat sacrificio. Ego pro te hostiam Deo reddo, tu pro me militem Christo. Habes bonam militiam castitatis, quae stipendiis militat sempiternis: loricam justitiae, quae spiritali munimine corpus includat: scutum fidei, quo vulnus repellas: galeam salutis; ibi enim est præsidium nostrae salutis, ubi Christus: quoniam mulieris caput vir, virginis Christus. Et inter haec verba chlamydem exuit. Suspectus tamen adhuc habitus et persecutoris et adulteri. Virgo cervicem, chlamydem miles offerre. Quæ pompa illa, quae gratia, cum in lupanari de martyrio certarent! Addantur personae, miles et virgo, hoc est, dissimiles inter se natura, sed Dei miseratione consimiles; ut compleatur oraculum: Tunc lupi et agni simul pascentur (Esai. LXV, 25). Ecce agna et lupus non solum pascuntur simul, sed etiam immolantur. Quid plura? Mutato habitu, evolat puella de laqueo, jam non suis alis, utpote quæ spiritalibus ferebatur: et (quod nulla umquam viderunt sæcula) egreditur de lupanari virgo, sed Christi. At illi qui videbant oculis, et non videbant, ceu raptores ad agnam, ceu lupi fremere ad prædam. Unus qui erat immodestior, introivit. Sed ubi hausit oculis rei contextum: Quid hoc, inquit, est? Puella ingressa est, vir videtur. Ecce non fabulosum illud cerva pro virgine, sed quod verum est, miles ex virgine. At etiam audieram et non credideram, quod aquam Christus in vinum convertit (Joan. II, 9): jam mutare coepit et sexus. Recedamus hinc, dum adhuc qui fuimus, sumus. Numquid et ipse mutatus sum, qui aliud cerno, quam credo? Ad lupanar veni, cerno vadimonium: et tamen mutatus egrediar, pudicus exibo, qui adulter intravi. Indicio rei, quia debebatur tanto corona victori, damnatus est pro virgine, qui pro virgine comprehensus est. Ita de lupanari non solum virgo, sed etiam martyres exierunt. Fertur puella ad locum supplicii cucurrisse, certasse ambos de nece, cum ille diceret: Ego sum jussus occidi, te absolvit sententia, quando me tenuit. At illa clamare coepit: Non ego te mortis vadem elegi, sed prædem pudoris optavi. Si pudor quæritur, manet sexus: si sanguis exposcitur, fidejussorem non desidero, habeo unde dissolvam. In me lata ista sententia, quae pro me lata est. Certe si pecuniæ te fidejussorem dedissem, et absente me, judex tuum censum feneratori adjudicasset; eadem me sententia convenires, meo patrimonio solverem tuos nexus. Si recusarem, quis me indignam indigna morte censeret? Quanto major est capitis hujus usura! Moriar innocens, ne moriar nocens. Nihil hic medium est: hodie aut rea ero tui sanguinis, aut martyr mei. Si cito redii, quis me audet excludere? Si moram feci, quis audet absolvere? Plus legibus debeo, rea non solum fugæ meæ, sed etiam caedis alienæ. Sufficiunt membra morti, quæ non sufficiebant injuriæ. Est in virgine vulneri locus, qui non erat contumeliæ. Ego opprobrium declinavi, non martyrium. Tibi cessi vestem, non professionem mutavi. Quod si mihi praeripis mortem, non redemisti me, sed circumvenisti. Cave, quæso, ne contendas, cave ne contradicere audeas. Noli eripere beneficium, quod dedisti. Dum mihi hanc sententiam negas, illam restituis superiorem. Sententia enim sententia superiore mutatur. Si posterior me non tenet, tenet superior. Possumus uterque satisfacere sententiae, si me prius patiaris occidi. In te non habent aliam quam exerceant, pœnam: in virgine obnoxius pudor est. Itaque gloriosior eris, si videaris de adultera martyrem fecisse, quam de martyre adulteram reddidisse. Quid exspectatis? Duo contenderunt, et ambo vicerunt: nec divisa est corona, sed addita. Ita sancti martyres invicem sibi beneficia conferentes, altera principium martyrio dedit, alter effectum. ### English translation (Claude) At Antioch there was lately a certain virgin who shunned being seen in public; but the more she avoided the eyes of men, the more she inflamed them. For beauty heard of but not seen is desired the more, by the two spurs of desire, love and curiosity: nothing presents itself that might please less, and what pleases is thought to be greater, since no judging eye examines it but a loving mind longs for it. So the holy virgin, so that desires might no longer be fed by the hope of possessing her, professed the integrity of her chastity, and so quenched the torches of the wicked that she was no longer loved but betrayed. Then came persecution. The girl, not knowing how to flee, and certainly fearful of falling into the hands of those who lay in wait for her chastity, prepared her mind for virtue: so devout that she did not fear death, so chaste that she awaited it. The day of her crowning came. Everyone was in the greatest expectation. The girl was brought forward, professing a twofold contest, of chastity and of religion. But when they saw the constancy of her profession, her fear for her modesty, her readiness for torments, her blushing at being looked at, they began to devise how they might take away her religion by means of her chastity, so that, when they had taken away what was greater, they might snatch away also what they had left. They order the virgin either to sacrifice or to be prostituted in a brothel. How do they worship their gods who avenge them in this way? Or how do they themselves live who judge in this way? Here the girl, not because she wavered about religion but because she trembled for her modesty, said to herself: “What are we to do? Today either martyr or virgin: one of the two crowns is begrudged us. But the name of virgin is not even recognized where the author of virginity is denied. For how can you be a virgin if you worship a harlot? How a virgin if you love adulterers? How a virgin if you seek after love? It is more tolerable to have a virgin mind than virgin flesh. Both are good, if it is possible; if it is not, let us at least be chaste not to man but to God. Rahab was a harlot, but after she believed God she found salvation. And Judith adorned herself to please an adulterer; yet because she did this from religion and not from love, no one judged her an adulteress. The example turned out well. For if she who entrusted herself to religion preserved both her chastity and her country, perhaps we too, by preserving religion, shall preserve our chastity also. But if Judith had chosen to put chastity before religion, having lost her country she would have lost her chastity too.” So, formed by such examples, and keeping in mind the words of the Lord, in which he says, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” she wept and was silent, so that the adulterer might not even hear her speak; and she did not choose the injury to her modesty but refused the injury to Christ. Judge whether she could have defiled her body who did not defile even her voice. For some time now my speech has been ashamed, and is afraid, as it were, to approach and unfold the shameful sequence of events. Close your ears, virgins. The girl of God is led to the brothel. But open your ears, virgins. A virgin of Christ can be prostituted; she cannot be defiled. Wherever there is a virgin of God, there is a temple of God; brothels do not defame chastity, but chastity abolishes even the infamy of the place. A great crowd of the lewd rushes to the place of shame. Learn the miracles of the martyrs, holy virgins; unlearn the names of such places. The dove is shut up inside; the hawks clamor outside; each strives to be the first to seize the prey. But she, raising her hands to heaven as though she had come to a house of prayer and not a lodging of lust, said: “Christ, who tamed the fierce lions for the virgin Daniel, you can also tame the fierce minds of men. The fire was as dew for those in Chaldea; the water stood up for the Jews, by your mercy, not by its own nature. Susanna knelt for execution and triumphed over the adulterers. The right hand withered that violated the gifts of your temple; now your temple itself is being laid hands on: do not allow the incest of sacrilege, you who did not allow theft. May your name be blessed now too, that I who came to adultery may depart a virgin.” She had scarcely finished her prayer, and behold, a man of fearsome soldierly appearance burst in. How the virgin trembled at him before whom the trembling people gave way! But she did not forget what she had read. “Daniel too,” she said, “had come to watch the execution of Susanna; and her whom the people condemned, one man acquitted. In this wolf’s clothing too a sheep can be hidden. Christ also has his soldiers, he who has even legions. Or perhaps an executioner has come in. Do not fear, my soul; such men make martyrs. O virgin, your faith has saved you!” The soldier said to her: “Do not be afraid, I beg you, sister. I have come here as a brother, to save your soul, not to destroy it. Save me, and you yourself will be saved. I came in as an adulterer; if you will, I shall go out a martyr. Let us change clothes: yours fit me and mine fit you, but both fit Christ. Your clothing will make me a true soldier, mine will make you a virgin. You will be well clothed, I shall be better stripped, so that the persecutor may know me. Take a garment that will hide a woman; give up one that will consecrate a martyr. Put on the cloak to conceal a virgin’s limbs and preserve her modesty. Take the cap to cover your hair and hide your face. Those who have gone into a brothel usually blush. Indeed, when you have gone out, do not look back; remember Lot’s wife, who lost her nature because she looked back, though with chaste eyes, on the unchaste. And do not fear that anything will be lost to the sacrifice. I render a victim to God in your place; you render a soldier to Christ in mine. You have the good warfare of chastity, which serves for everlasting pay; the breastplate of righteousness, to enclose the body with spiritual defense; the shield of faith, to ward off the wound; the helmet of salvation; for where Christ is, there is the protection of our salvation, since the man is the head of the woman, and Christ of the virgin.” And with these words he took off his cloak. Yet the garment was still suspect, as that of both persecutor and adulterer. The virgin offered her neck, the soldier his cloak. What a procession that was, what grace, when they contended for martyrdom in a brothel! Add the persons, a soldier and a virgin, that is, unlike each other by nature but made alike by God’s compassion, so that the oracle may be fulfilled: “Then wolves and lambs will feed together.” See, the lamb and the wolf not only feed together but are sacrificed together. What more? With her clothing changed, the girl flies from the snare, now not on her own wings, since she was borne on spiritual ones; and, what no age had ever seen, a virgin goes out of a brothel, but a virgin of Christ. But those who saw with their eyes and did not see raged at the prey like robbers at a lamb, like wolves. One, more shameless than the rest, went in. But when he had taken in with his eyes how things stood, he said: “What is this? A girl went in; a man is seen. Here is not the fable of a hind in place of a virgin, but the truth: a soldier out of a virgin. I had heard and not believed that Christ changed water into wine; now he has begun to change sexes too. Let us get away from here while we are still what we were. Am I changed too, who see something other than I believe? I came to a brothel, I see a pledge; and yet I shall go out changed: I shall leave chaste who came in an adulterer.” When the thing became known, because so great a victor was owed a crown, he who had been seized in place of the virgin was condemned in place of the virgin. So out of a brothel came not only a virgin but martyrs. The girl is said to have run to the place of execution, and both contended for death, he saying: “It is I who was ordered to be killed; the sentence acquitted you when it took hold of me.” But she began to cry out: “I did not choose you as surety for my death, but wanted you as surety for my modesty. If it is modesty that is sought, my sex remains; if blood is demanded, I want no guarantor; I have the means to pay. That sentence was passed on me which was passed for me. Surely, if I had given you as guarantor for money, and in my absence the judge had made over your property to the creditor, you would hold me to the same sentence, and I would pay off your bonds from my patrimony. If I refused, who would not judge me worthy of an unworthy end? How much greater is the interest on this capital! Let me die innocent, lest I die guilty. There is no middle course here: today I shall be either guilty of your blood or a martyr of my own. If I have come back quickly, who dares shut me out? If I have delayed, who dares acquit me? I owe more to the laws, guilty not only of my own flight but also of another’s death. My limbs suffice for death that did not suffice for outrage. In a virgin there is room for a wound, where there was none for insult. I declined disgrace, not martyrdom. I gave up my garment to you; I did not change my profession. If you snatch death from me, you have not redeemed me but cheated me. Take care, I beg you, not to contend; take care not to dare to contradict me. Do not take away the benefit you have given. When you deny me this sentence, you restore the former one; for a sentence is changed by a later sentence. If the later does not hold me, the former does. We can both satisfy the sentence if you let me be killed first. They have no other punishment to inflict on you; in a virgin, modesty is exposed to it. So you will be more glorious if you are seen to have made a martyr out of an adulteress than an adulteress out of a martyr.” What do you expect? The two contended, and both conquered; nor was the crown divided, but added. So the holy martyrs conferred benefits on each other in turn: she gave martyrdom its beginning, he its completion. ### Scripture references - Josh 2:1: allusion, high confidence - Heb 11:31: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 10:39: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 3:16: allusion, high confidence - Dan 6:22: allusion, high confidence - Exod 14:22: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 13:4: allusion, high confidence - Ps 113:2 (112:2 Vulg.): allusion, medium confidence - Matt 7:15: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:53: allusion, high confidence - Matt 9:22: quotation, high confidence - Gen 19:26: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 1:18: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 6:14: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:16: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:17: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 11:3: allusion, high confidence - Isa 65:25: quotation, high confidence - Matt 13:13: allusion, high confidence - John 2:9: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Jdt 10:3–4 (Judith): allusion, high confidence - Pr Azar 27 (Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men): allusion, high confidence - Sus 34–62 (Susanna): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, and includes Migne’s reference to Gratian’s Decretum (32, q. 5, “Tolerabilius”), which quotes the sentence that follows; both removed by logged corrections. “A harlot” whom a pagan virgin would worship is Venus. “The fable of a hind in place of a virgin” refers to the story of Iphigenia, for whom a hind was substituted at the sacrifice. “The fire was as dew” follows the Greek additions to Daniel (Prayer of Azariah 27, Dan 3:50 LXX). The hand that withered refers to Jeroboam (1 Kgs 13:4), as in 2.5. Quotations and allusions: Josh 2:1–21 (Heb 11:31); Jdt 10:3–4; Matt 10:39; 1 Cor 3:16; Dan 6:22; Exod 14:21–22; Sus 34–62; 1 Kgs 13:4; Ps 113:2; Matt 7:15; Matt 26:53; Matt 9:22; Gen 19:26; 1 Tim 1:18; Eph 6:14–17; 1 Cor 11:3; Isa 65:25; Matt 13:13; John 2:9. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.4 (PL 16:211b–215b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-4). ## On Virgins 2.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-5 - Source: PL 16:215b–217c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The Christian virgin and soldier surpass the famous friends Damon and Pythias; the tyrant who admired those friends mocked his own helpless gods, whereas the true God punished and pardoned Jeroboam. ### Latin text At etiam philosophorum gymnasia Damonem et Pythiam Pythagoreos in cœlum ferunt, quorum unus cum esset morti adjudicatus, commendandorum suorum tempus poposcit: tyrannus autem astutissimus, quod reperiri non posse existimaret, petivit ut sponsorem daret, qui pro se feriretur, si ipse faceret moram. Quid de duobus præclarius, nescio. Utrumque præclarum. Alter mortis vadem invenit, alter se obtulit. Itaque dum reus moram supplicio faceret, fidejussor vultu sereno mortem non recusavit. Cum duceretur, amicus revertitur, cervicem substituit, colla subjecit. Tunc admiratus tyrannus chariorem philosophis amicitiam quam vitam fuisse; petivit ut ipse ab his quos damnaverat, in amicitiam reciperetur. Tantam virtutis esse gratiam, ut et tyrannum inclinaret. Digna laude, sed minora nostris. Nam illic ambo viri; hic una virgo, quæ primo etiam sexum vinceret: illi amici, isti incogniti: illi tyranno uni se obtulerunt, isti tyrannis pluribus, hoc etiam crudelioribus, quod ille pepercit, isti occiderunt: inter illos in uno obnoxia necessitas, in his amborum voluntas libera. Hoc quoque isti prudentiores, quod illis studii sui finis amicitiae gratia, istis corona martyrii; illi enim certaverunt hominibus, isti Deo. Et quoniam rei istius fecimus mentionem, par est contexere quid de diis suis senserit, quo magis infirmos judicetis, quos irrident sui. Namque is cum venisset in templum Jovis, amictum aureum quo operiebatur simulacrum ejus, detrahi jussit, imponi laneum, dicens aurum hyeme frigidum, æstate onerosum esse. Sic deum irrisit suum, ut nec onus ferre posse, nec frigus putaret. Idem cum Æsculapii barbam vidisset auream, tolli imperavit, incongruum esse appellans ut filius barbam haberet, patre non habente. Idem simulacris tenentibus aureas pateras ademit, allegans accipere se debere, quod dii darent: Quoniam haec sunt vota, inquit, hominum, ut a diis quæ bona sunt, adipiscantur: nihil autem auro melius: quod tamen si malum est, habere deos non debere: si bonum est, habere magis homines debere, qui uti scirent. Ita ludibrio habiti sunt, ut neque Jupiter vestem suam defendere potuerit, nec barbam Æsculapius, nec Apollo pubescere adhuc cœperit, neque omnes qui dicuntur dii, retrahere potuerint pateras quas tenebant: non tam furti reatum timentes, quam sensum non habentes. Quis igitur eos colat, qui nec defendere se quasi dii, nec abscondere quasi homines possunt? At in templo Dei nostri cum Jeroboam, rex sceleratissimus, dona quae pater ejus posuerat, auferret, ac super sanctum altare libaret idolis; nonne dextera ejus quam tetendit, aruit, nec sua ei quae invocabat, idola profuerunt? Deinde conversus ad Dominum, rogavit veniam, statimque manus ejus quae aruerat sacrilegio, sanata est religione (III Reg. XIII, 1 et seq.). Tam maturum in uno et misericordiæ divinæ et indignationis exemplum exstitit, ut sacrificanti subito dextera adimeretur, pœnitenti venia daretur. ### English translation (Claude) But even the schools of the philosophers have praised to the skies Damon and Pythias, the Pythagoreans. One of them, condemned to death, asked for time to settle his affairs; and the tyrant, a very cunning man, thinking that none could be found, asked him to give a surety who would be struck in his place if he himself delayed. Which of the two was more glorious I do not know; both were glorious. The one found a surety for his death, the other offered himself. So while the accused delayed his punishment, the surety with a calm face did not refuse death. As he was being led out, his friend returned, put his own head in place, and bowed his neck. Then the tyrant, marveling that friendship had been dearer to the philosophers than life, asked to be received into friendship himself by those he had condemned. So great is the grace of virtue that it bent even a tyrant. Worthy of praise; but less than ours. For there both were men; here one was a virgin, who had first to overcome even her sex. They were friends; these were strangers. They offered themselves to one tyrant; these to many tyrants, and crueler ones, since he spared and they killed. Among the former one was bound by necessity; among the latter the will of both was free. In this too the latter were wiser: for the former the goal of their effort was the favor of friendship, for the latter the crown of martyrdom; for those contended for men, these for God. And since we have mentioned that story, it is fitting to add what that tyrant thought of his gods, so that you may judge them the weaker, whom their own people mock. For when he had come into the temple of Jupiter, he ordered the golden robe in which his image was clothed to be taken off and a woolen one put on, saying that gold was cold in winter and heavy in summer. So he mocked his god, as one who could bear neither weight nor cold. The same man, when he saw the golden beard of Aesculapius, ordered it taken away, calling it unfitting for the son to have a beard when his father had none. He also took away from the images the golden bowls they held, alleging that he ought to accept what the gods gave. “For these are the prayers of men,” he said, “that they may obtain good things from the gods; and nothing is better than gold. But if gold is evil, the gods ought not to have it; if it is good, men ought rather to have it, who know how to use it.” So they were made a laughingstock: Jupiter could not defend his robe, nor Aesculapius his beard, Apollo not yet having begun to grow one, nor could all those who are called gods take back the bowls they held, not so much because they feared a charge of theft as because they had no sense. Who, then, would worship those who can neither defend themselves as gods nor hide as men? But in the temple of our God, when Jeroboam, a most wicked king, was carrying off the gifts that his father had placed there and pouring offerings to idols on the holy altar, did not the right hand he stretched out wither, and did the idols he invoked help him at all? Then, turning to the Lord, he asked pardon, and at once his hand, which had withered through sacrilege, was healed through devotion. So swift an example of both divine mercy and divine wrath appeared in one man, that his hand was suddenly taken from him as he sacrificed, and pardon given him as he repented. ### Scripture references - 1 Kgs 13:4: allusion, high confidence - 1 Kgs 13:6: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero, Nat. d. 3.83–84 (Cicero): allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. The tyrant is Dionysius of Syracuse; the stories of his robbing Jupiter, Aesculapius, and the gods’ bowls are told by Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.83–84. In 1 Kgs 13:1–6 Jeroboam’s hand withers when he stretches it out against the prophet at the altar of Bethel; the details of the temple gifts and of “his father” are Ambrose’s own, possibly conflating other kings. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.5 (PL 16:215b–217c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-5). ## On Virgins 2.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-6 - Source: PL 16:217d–219b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose, not yet three years a bishop, says his book only portrays the virgins’ own virtues; he has used gentle encouragement before stricter precepts, as the Song of Songs moves from kisses to towers. ### Latin text Hæc ego vobis, sanctæ virgines, nondum triennalis sacerdos munuscula paravi, licet usu inductus, sed vestris edoctus moribus. Quantus etenim adolescere usus potuit tam parva initiatæ religionis ætate? Si quos hic flores cernitis, de vestrae vitæ collectos legite sinu. Non sunt hæc præcepta virginibus, sed de virginibus exempla. Vestræ virtutis effigiem nostra depinxit oratio, vestrae gravitatis imaginem quasi in speculo quodam sermonis istius cernitis refulgere. Vos si quam nostro gratiam inhalastis ingenio, vestrum est quidquid iste redolet liber. Et quoniam quot homines, tot sententiæ: si quid defæcatum est in sermone nostro, omnes legant: si quid decoctum, maturiores probent: si quid modestum, pectoribus inhæreat, genas pingat: si quid florulentum, ætas florulenta non improbet. Debuimus sponsae excitare amorem; scriptum est enim: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum. Debuimus in nuptiis calamistris quibusdam crines saltem orationis ornare; scriptum est enim: Plaude manu, et percute pede. Debuimus perpetuos spargere thalamos rosis. Etiam in his conjugiis temporalibus nubenti prius plauditur, quam imperatur; ne ante dura offendant imperia, quam blanditiis amor fotus inolescat. Equorum vis plausæ sonitum discit amare cervicis, ne recuset jugum. Denique prius assuescitur verbo lasciviæ, quam verbere disciplinæ. Ast ubi colla subdiderit jugo; et habena constringit, et stimulus urget, et compares trahunt, et jugalis invitat. Sic etiam virgo nostra debuit prius amore pio ludere, aurea thori coelestis fulcra mirari in ipso vestibulo nuptiarum, et postes frondium sertis cernere coronatos, et chori strepentis interius haurire delicias; ne se prius Dominico jugo timefacta subduceret, quam vocata inclinaret. Veni igitur huc a Libano, Sponsa, veni huc a Libano, transibis et pertransibis. Sæpius enim nobis iste versiculus recantandus est; ut vel Dominicis vocata verbis, sequatur, si qua non credit humanis. Hoc nos magisterium non invenimus, sed accepimus; sic instituit mystici carminis doctrina cœlestis: Osculetur me ab osculis oris sui, quia ubera tua super vinum, et odor unguentorum tuorum super omnia aromata. Unguentum exinanitum est nomen tuum (Cant. I, 1, 2). Totus iste deliciarum locus ludum sonat, plausum excitat, amorem provocat. Ideo, inquit, adolescentulæ dilexerunt, et attraxerunt te: retro odorem unguentorum tuorum curremus: Induxit me Rex in tabernaculum suum. Ab osculis coepit, ut ad tabernaculum perveniret. At illa tam patiens duri laboris, exercitatæque virtutis, ut aperiat manu claustra, in agrum exeat, in castellis maneat; in principio tamen retro odorem currit unguenti: mox cum in tabernaculum venerit unguentum mutatur a castellis. Denique quo vadit, vide: Si murus, inquit, est, ædificemus super eum turres argenteas. Quæ ludebit osculis, jam turres erigit; ut pretiosis sanctorum turrita fastigiis, non solum hostiles frustretur incursus, verum etiam bonorum propugnacula struat tuta meritorum. ### English translation (Claude) These little gifts I have prepared for you, holy virgins, I, a priest of not yet three years, not trained by experience but taught by your ways. For how much experience could grow in so short a time of a religious office begun? If you see any flowers here, read them as gathered from the bosom of your life. These are not precepts for virgins but examples taken from virgins. Our speech has painted the likeness of your virtue; you see the image of your seriousness shining as in a kind of mirror of this discourse. If you have breathed any grace into our talent, whatever fragrance this book has is yours. And since there are as many opinions as there are people: if there is anything refined in our discourse, let all read it; if anything mellowed, let the older approve it; if anything modest, let it cling to the heart and color the cheeks; if anything flowery, let flowering youth not disapprove of it. We had to stir up the bride’s love, for it is written: “You shall love the Lord your God.” We had, at the wedding, to adorn the tresses of our speech at least with a kind of curling iron, for it is written: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot.” We had to strew the everlasting bridal chambers with roses. Even in these temporal marriages the bride is applauded before she is commanded, lest harsh commands should give offense before love, cherished by caresses, takes root. The spirited horse learns to love the sound of a patted neck, so that it does not refuse the yoke. In short, it is first accustomed to a playful word before the lash of discipline. But when it has bowed its neck to the yoke, the rein restrains it, the spur urges it, its fellows draw it along, its yoke-mate invites it. So our virgin too had first to play with holy love, to admire the golden supports of the heavenly bed at the very entrance of the wedding, to see the doorposts crowned with garlands of leaves, and to drink in the delights of the choir resounding within, lest she should submit to the Lord’s yoke made afraid before she bowed to it when called. “Come, then, hither from Lebanon, bride, come hither from Lebanon; you will pass and pass through.” For this little verse must be sung over to us often, so that any who does not believe human words may follow when called by the Lord’s words. This method of teaching we did not invent but received; so the heavenly teaching of the mystical song established it: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. Your name is ointment poured out.” This whole passage of delights sounds of play, stirs applause, calls forth love. “Therefore,” it says, “the maidens have loved you and drawn you; we will run after the fragrance of your ointments. The King has brought me into his chamber.” She began from kisses so as to come to the chamber. But she is so patient of hard labor and of trained virtue that she opens the bars with her hand, goes out into the field, stays in the villages; yet at the beginning she runs after the fragrance of ointment; soon, when she has come into the chamber, the ointment is exchanged for strongholds. Indeed, see where she is going: “If she is a wall,” he says, “let us build upon it silver towers.” She who will play with kisses now raises towers, so that, towered with the precious battlements of the saints, she may not only frustrate the enemy’s attacks but also build safe ramparts of good merits. ### Scripture references - Deut 6:5: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 6:11: quotation, high confidence - Song 4:8: quotation, high confidence - Song 1:2 (1:1 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 1:3 (1:2 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 1:4 (1:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Song 5:5: allusion, medium confidence - Song 7:11: allusion, high confidence - Song 8:9: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “A priest” renders sacerdos; Ambrose was bishop of Milan (from 374), so the work dates from about 377. “To play with holy love” reads amore pio for the printed autore pio. Quotations and allusions: Deut 6:5; Ezek 6:11; Song 4:8; Song 1:2–4 (LXX and Vulg 1:1–3); Song 5:5; Song 7:11; Song 8:9. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 2.6 (PL 16:217d–219b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/2-1/#p-2-6). ## On Virgins 3.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-1 - Source: PL 16:219b–221b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose recalls the address of Liberius, bishop of Rome, when Marcellina received the virgin’s veil at St Peter’s on Christmas Day: Christ, the eternal Son equal to the Father, is her bridegroom, to be loved and honored as the Father loves and honors him. ### Latin text Quoniam quae habuimus superioribus duobus libris digessimus, tempus est, soror sancta, ea quæ mecum conferre soles, beatæ memoriæ Liberii praecepta revolvere; ut quo vir sanctior, eo sermo accedat gratior. Namque is, cum Salvatoris natali ad apostolum Petrum virginitatis professionem vestis quoque mutatione signares (quo enim melius die, quam quo virgo posteritatem acquisivit?) astantibus etiam puellis Dei compluribus quae certarent invicem de tua societate: Bonas, inquit, filia, nuptias desiderasti. Vides quantus ad natalem Sponsi tui populus convenerit, ut nemo impastus recedat? Hic est qui rogatus ad nuptias aquam in vina convertit. In te quoque sincerum sacramentum conferet virginitatis, quae prius eras obnoxia vilibus naturae materialis elementis. Hic est qui quinque panibus et duobus piscibus quatuor millia populi in deserto pavit (Luc. IX, 13 et seq.). Plures potuit, si plures jam tunc qui pascerentur, fuissent. Denique ad tuas nuptias plures vocavit: sed jam non panis ex hordeo, sed corpus ministratur e caelo. Hodie quidem secundum hominem homo natus ex virgine, sed ante omnia generatus ex Patre: qui matrem corpore, virtute referat patrem. Unigenitus in terris, unigenitus in caelo: Deus ex Deo, partus ex virgine: justitia de Patre, virtus de potente, lumen ex lumine: non impar generantis, non potestate discretus: non Verbi extensione, aut prolatione confusus, ut cum Patre mixtus, sed ut a Patre generationis jure distinctus sit: ipse est fraternus tuus, sine quo nec coelestia, nec marina, nec terrestria, consistunt (Cant. V, 10). Verbum Patris bonum, quod erat, inquit, in principio: habes ejus æternitatem. Et erat, inquit, apud Patrem (Joan. I, 1 et seq.): habes indiscretam a Patre, inseparabilemque virtutem. Et Deus erat Verbum: habes ingenitam ejus divinitatem; de compendio enim tibi fides est haurienda. Hunc, filia, dilige, quia bonus est: Nemo enim bonus nisi unus Deus (Luc. XVIII, 19). Si enim non dubitatur quia Deus Filius, Deus autem bonus est: utique non dubitatur, quia Deus bonus Filius. Hunc, inquam, dilige. Ipse est quem Pater genuit ante Luciferum, ut æternum: ex utero generavit, ut Filium: ex corde eructavit (Psal. XLIV, 2 ), ut Verbum. Ipse est in quo complacuit Pater: ipse est Patris brachium, quia creator est omnium: Patris sapientia, quia ex Dei ore processit: Patris virtus (I Cor. I, 24), quia divinitatis in eo corporaliter habitat plenitudo. Quem Pater ita diligit, ut in sinu portet, ad dexteram locet, ut sapientiam discas, virtutem noveris. Si igitur virtus Dei Christus, numquid aliquando sine virtute Deus? Numquid aliquando sine Filio Pater? Si semper utique Pater, utique semper et Filius. Perfecti ergo patris perfectus est Filius. Nam qui virtuti derogat; ei derogat, cujus est virtus. Inæqualitatem non recipit perfecta divinitas. Dilige igitur, quem Pater diligit: honorifica, quem honorificat Pater: Qui enim non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem. Et qui negat Filium, nec Patrem habet. Haec quantum ad fidem. ### English translation (Claude) Since in the two preceding books we have set out what we had to say, it is time, holy sister, to go over the precepts of Liberius of blessed memory, which you often discuss with me, so that the holier the man, the more welcome his words may be. For when, on the Savior’s birthday, at the church of the apostle Peter, you were marking your profession of virginity by a change of dress as well (and on what day better than that on which the Virgin gained offspring?), while many girls of God also stood by, vying with one another for your companionship, he said: “Daughter, you have desired a good marriage. You see how great a people has gathered for the birthday of your Bridegroom, and no one goes away unfed? This is he who, invited to a wedding, turned water into wine. On you too he will confer the pure sacrament of virginity, you who before were subject to the base elements of material nature. This is he who fed four thousand people in the desert with five loaves and two fishes. He could have fed more, if there had been more there to be fed. Indeed, he has called more to your wedding; but now it is not barley bread but a body from heaven that is served. Today, as man, he was born a man of a virgin; but he was begotten of the Father before all things; he resembles his mother in body, his Father in power. Only-begotten on earth, only-begotten in heaven: God from God, offspring of a virgin; righteousness from the Father, power from the Mighty, light from light; not unequal to the one who begot him, not separate in power; not confused by an extension or utterance of the Word, as though mingled with the Father, but distinct from the Father by right of generation. He is your kinsman, without whom neither things in heaven nor in the sea nor on earth subsist. The Father’s good Word, which ‘was,’ it says, ‘in the beginning’: there you have his eternity. ‘And was,’ it says, ‘with the Father’: there you have his power, undivided and inseparable from the Father. ‘And the Word was God’: there you have his innate divinity; for in this summary you must draw your faith. Love him, daughter, because he is good: ‘for no one is good but God alone.’ For if there is no doubt that the Son is God, and God is good, then surely there is no doubt that the Son is the good God. Love him, I say. He is the one whom the Father begot before the daystar, as eternal; begot from the womb, as Son; uttered from his heart, as Word. He is the one in whom the Father is well pleased; he is the Father’s arm, because he is the creator of all; the Father’s wisdom, because he came forth from the mouth of God; the Father’s power, because in him the fullness of the divinity dwells bodily. The Father so loves him that he carries him in his bosom and places him at his right hand, that you may learn his wisdom and know his power. If, then, Christ is the power of God, was God ever without power? Was the Father ever without the Son? If he was always Father, then surely he was always Son as well. Of a perfect Father, then, the Son is perfect. For he who detracts from the power detracts from him whose power it is. Perfect divinity does not admit inequality. Love, then, him whom the Father loves; honor him whom the Father honors; ‘for he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father’; and he who denies the Son does not have the Father either.” So much for faith. ### Scripture references - John 2:9: allusion, high confidence - Luke 9:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 15:38: allusion, medium confidence - John 6:9: allusion, high confidence - John 6:51: allusion, medium confidence - John 1:1: quotation, high confidence - Luke 18:19: quotation, high confidence - Ps 110:3 (109:3 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Ps 45:1 (44:2 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Matt 3:17: allusion, high confidence - Isa 53:1: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 1:24: allusion, high confidence - Col 2:9: allusion, high confidence - John 1:18: allusion, high confidence - John 5:23: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 2:23: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Liberius was bishop of Rome 352–366; Marcellina’s veiling is usually dated to Christmas 353. Liberius’s words are given as Ambrose reports them. “Four thousand … with five loaves and two fishes” combines the two feeding miracles (Matt 15:38; Luke 9:13–14). “Innate divinity” renders ingenitam. Quotations and allusions: John 2:1–11; Luke 9:13; John 6:9; John 6:51; Song 5:10; John 1:1; Luke 18:19; Ps 110:3 (LXX 109:3); Ps 45:1 (LXX 44:2); Matt 3:17; Isa 53:1; 1 Cor 1:24; Col 2:9; John 1:18; John 5:23; 1 John 2:23. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.1 (PL 16:219b–221b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-1). ## On Virgins 3.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-2 - Source: PL 16:221b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Youth must be restrained by moderate wine, fasting, and sparing food; Ambrose mocks the pagan fable of Hippolytus, Diana, Neptune, and Aesculapius, and warns virgins against heating foods, banquets, and social calls. ### Latin text Sed interdum etiam cum fides tuta sit, juventus suspecta est. Modico itaque vina utere, ne infirmitatem corporis augeas, non ut voluptatem excites; incendunt enim pariter duo, vinum et adolescentia. Infrenent etiam teneram ætatem jejunia, et parcimonia cibi retinaculis quibusdam indomitas cohibeat cupiditates. Ratio revocet, mitiget spes, restringat metus. Nam qui moderari nescit cupiditatibus, is sicut equis raptatus indomitis, volvitur, obteritur, laniatur, affligitur. Quod aliquando juvenem ob amorem Dianae contigisse proditur. Sed poeticis mendaciis coloratur fabula, ut Neptunus prælati rivalis dolore incitatus, equis dicatur furorem immisisse, quo ejus magna potentia praedicetur, quod juvenem non virtute vicit, sed fraude decepit. Unde etiam sacrificium quotannis instaurant Dianæ, ut equus ad ejus immoletur aras. Quam virginem dicunt, quae ( id quod etiam meretrices erubescere solent) amare potuit non amantem. Sed habeant per me licet fabulæ suae auctoritatem; quia licet scelestum utrumque, minus tamen sit juvenem amore adulteræ sic flagrasse ut periret, quam duos, ut ipsi dicunt, deos de adulterio certasse: Jovem autem dolorem scortantis filiæ in medicum vindicasse adulteri, quod ejus curarit vulnera, qui Dianam in silvis adulteraverit, venatricem sane optimam non ferarum, sed libidinum, sed ferarum etiam, ut nuda venaretur. Dent igitur Neptuno dominatum furoris, ut astruant crimen incesti amoris. Dent Dianæ regnum in silvis quas incolebat, ut confirment adulterium quod gerebat. Dent Æsculapio quod mortuum reformaverit, dummodo profiteantur quod fulminatus ipse non evaserit. Dent etiam Jovi fulmina quæ non habuit, ut testificentur quae habuit opprobria. Sed a fabulis ad propositum revertamur. Escis quoque omnibus quae gignant membris calorem, parce utendum puto; carnes enim etiam aquilas volantes deponunt. In vobis quoque ales interior illa, de qua legimus: Renovabitur sicut aquila juventus tua (Psal. CII, 5), sublime tenens, virgineo præpes volatu, superfluæ carnis nesciat appetentiam. Conviviorum devitandae celebritates, fugiendæ salutationes. ### English translation (Claude) But sometimes, even when faith is safe, youth is suspect. Use wine, then, in moderation, lest you increase the weakness of the body, not so as to stir up pleasure; for two things alike inflame, wine and youth. Let fasts too bridle tender age, and let sparing food restrain untamed desires as with reins. Let reason call them back, hope soften them, fear check them. For he who does not know how to govern his desires is like one dragged by untamed horses: he is rolled over, crushed, torn, and battered. This is said to have happened once to a young man because of his love for Diana. But the fable is colored with the lies of poets: Neptune, stirred by resentment at a preferred rival, is said to have sent madness into the horses, so that his great power may be proclaimed, in that he overcame the youth not by strength but deceived him by fraud. Hence they even renew a sacrifice to Diana every year, in which a horse is offered at her altars. And they call her a virgin, who could love one who did not love her, a thing that even harlots are usually ashamed of. But let their fables keep their authority, for all I care; for though both are wicked, it is less that a young man should have burned with love for an adulteress so as to perish, than that two gods, as they themselves say, should have contended over adultery; and that Jupiter should have avenged on the physician the grief of his whoring daughter, because he had healed the wounds of the man who had committed adultery with Diana in the woods: a fine huntress, not of beasts but of lusts, or of beasts too, since she hunted naked. Let them grant Neptune, then, lordship over madness, so as to establish the crime of an incestuous love. Let them grant Diana dominion in the woods where she dwelt, so as to confirm the adultery she committed there. Let them grant Aesculapius that he restored a dead man, provided they confess that he himself, struck by lightning, did not escape. Let them grant Jupiter too the thunderbolts he did not have, so that they may bear witness to the disgraces he did have. But let us return from fables to our purpose. I think one should also make sparing use of all foods that produce heat in the limbs; for meat brings down even eagles in flight. In you too let that inner bird of which we read, “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle’s,” keeping to the heights, swift in virginal flight, know no craving for superfluous flesh. Crowded banquets are to be avoided, social calls shunned. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 5:23: allusion, high confidence - Ps 103:5 (102:5 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, which names the fable of Hippolytus, removed by a logged correction. The “young man” is Hippolytus, dragged to death by his horses and, in the legend, raised by Aesculapius, whom Jupiter then struck with a thunderbolt; Ambrose’s version (Neptune as Diana’s rival, Diana’s love) is his own polemical retelling. Quotations and allusions: 1 Tim 5:23; Ps 103:5 (LXX 102:5). ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.2 (PL 16:221b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-2). ## On Virgins 3.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-3 - Source: PL 16:221b–223a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Virgins should seldom pay visits and should speak little, especially in church; Ambrose cites Rebecca, Rachel, and Mary, a pagan boy who endured a burn in silence during Alexander’s sacrifice, and frogs that fell silent at a bishop’s command. ### Latin text Ipsas visitationes in junioribus esse parciores volo, si forte deferendum sit parentibus aut æqualibus. Teritur enim officiis pudor, audacia emicat, risus subrepit, modestia solvitur, dum affectatur urbanitas: interroganti non respondere, infantia: respondere, fabula est. Deesse igitur sermonem virgini, quam superesse malim. Nam si mulieres etiam de rebus divinis in Ecclesia jubentur tacere, domi viros suos interrogare: de virginibus quid cautum putamus, in quibus pudor ornat ætatem, taciturnitas commendat pudorem? An vero mediocre pudoris exemplum est, quod Rebecca cum veniret ad nuptias, et sponsum vidisset, velamen accepit; ne prius videretur, quam jungeretur? Et utique pulchra virgo non decori timuit, sed pudori. Quid Rachel; quemadmodum extorto osculo, flevit et gemuit: nec flere desisset, nisi proximum cognovisset? Ita et pudoris servavit officium, et pietatis non omisit affectum. Quod si viro dicitur: Virginem ne consideres, ne quando scandalizet te; quid dicendum est sacrate virgini, quae si amet, animo peccat, si amatur, et facto? Maxima est virtus tacendi, præsertim in Ecclesia. Nulla te divinarum sententia fugiet lectionum, si aurem admoveas, vocem premas. Nullum ex ore verbum quod revocare velis, proferas: sed parcior loquendi fiducia sit. Copiosum quippe in multiloquio peccatum. Homicidæ dictum est: Peccasti, quiesce, ne peccaret amplius: sed virgini dicendum est: Quiesce, ne pecces. Conservabat enim Maria, ut legimus, omnia in corde suo quæ de Filio dicebantur ( Luc. II, 19): et tu cum legitur aliquid quo Christus aut venturus annuntiatur, aut venisse ostenditur; noli fabulando obstrepere, sed mentem admove, An quidquam est indignius, quam oracula divina circumstrepi, ne audiantur, ne credantur, ne revelentur: circumsonare sacramenta confusis vocibus, ut impediatur oratio pro salute deprompta omnium? Gentiles idolis suis reverentiam tacendo deferunt. Unde illud exemplum proditur: Alexandro sacrificante Macedonum rege, puerulum barbarum qui ei lumen accenderet, excepisse ignem brachio, atque adusto corpore, mansisse immobilem, nec dolorem prodidisse gemitu, nec tacito paenam indicasse fletu. Tanta in puero barbaro fuit disciplina reverentiæ, ut natura vinceretur. Atque ille non deos, qui nulli erant, sed regem timebat. Quid enim timeret eos, quos si idem ignis contigisset, arsissent? Quanto melius quod quidam in convivio patris adolescens jubetur ne meretricios amores indiciis insolentibus prodat? Et tu in mysterio, Dei virgo, gemitus, screatus, tussis, risus abstine. Quod ille in convivio potest, tu in mysterio non potes? Voce virginitas prima signetur, claudat ora pudor, debilitatem excludat religio, instituat consuetudo naturam. Virginem mihi prius gravitas sua nuntiet, pudore obvio, gradu sobrio, vultu modesto; et prænuntia integritatis anteeant signa virtutis. Non satis probabilis virgo est quae requiritur, cum videtur. Frequens sermo est, cum plurima ranarum murmura religiosæ auribus plebis obstreperent, sacerdotem Dei praecepisse ut conticescerent, ac reverentiam sacræ deferrent orationi; tunc subito circumfusos strepitus quievisse. Silent igitur paludes, homines non silebunt? Et irrationabile animal per reverentiam recognoscit, quod per naturam ignorat: hominum tanta est immodestia, ut plerique deferre nesciant mentium religioni, quod deferunt aurium voluptati? ### English translation (Claude) I want even visits to be rarer for the younger, if they must perhaps be paid to parents or companions. For modesty is worn away by courtesies, boldness shows itself, laughter creeps in, restraint is loosened, while refinement is affected. Not to answer a question is childish; to answer is to gossip. I would rather, then, that a virgin lack words than have them to spare. For if women are commanded to keep silent even about divine things in church and to ask their husbands at home, what caution do we think is required of virgins, in whom modesty adorns their age and silence commends their modesty? Or is it a slight example of modesty that Rebecca, when she was coming to her marriage and saw her bridegroom, took her veil, so as not to be seen before she was joined to him? And surely the beautiful virgin did not fear for her beauty but for her modesty. What of Rachel, how she wept and groaned at a kiss snatched from her, and would not have stopped weeping had she not recognized her kinsman? So she both kept the duty of modesty and did not neglect the affection of kinship. And if it is said to a man, “Do not look at a virgin, lest she make you stumble,” what must be said to a consecrated virgin, who, if she loves, sins in mind, and if she is loved, in deed as well? The greatest virtue is that of keeping silent, especially in church. No sentence of the divine readings will escape you, if you apply your ear and hold back your voice. Utter no word from your mouth that you would wish to recall, but let your boldness in speaking be rather sparing. For in much speaking there is abundant sin. To the murderer it was said, “You have sinned; be quiet,” so that he might not sin more; but to the virgin it must be said, “Be quiet, lest you sin.” For Mary, as we read, kept in her heart all the things that were said about her Son; and you, when something is read in which Christ is announced as coming or shown to have come, do not drown it with chatter, but apply your mind. Or is there anything more unworthy than that the divine oracles should be drowned in noise, so that they are not heard, not believed, not revealed; that the sacraments should be surrounded by confused voices, so that the prayer offered for the salvation of all is hindered? The Gentiles show reverence to their idols by keeping silent. Hence this example is told: when Alexander, king of the Macedonians, was sacrificing, a barbarian boy who was holding the light for him caught the fire on his arm, and, though his body was burned, remained motionless, and betrayed his pain neither by a groan nor by a silent tear. So great was the discipline of reverence in a barbarian boy that nature was overcome. And he did not fear the gods, who were nothing, but the king. For why should he fear those who, had the same fire touched them, would have burned? How much better is it that a certain youth at his father’s banquet is bidden not to betray amorous intrigues by insolent signs! And you, virgin of God, at the mysteries refrain from sighs, clearing your throat, coughing, laughing. What he can do at a banquet, can you not do at the mysteries? Let a virgin be marked first by her voice; let modesty close her lips, let religion shut out weakness, let habit train nature. Let her gravity announce the virgin to me first, with modesty meeting the eye, a sober step, a modest face; and let the signs of virtue go before, heralding her integrity. She is not a virgin sufficiently approved about whom one must ask when she is seen. It is often told that when the croaking of a great many frogs was drowning out the hearing of a devout people, a priest of God commanded them to be silent and show reverence to the holy prayer; and at once the din around them ceased. Shall the marshes, then, be silent, and men not be silent? An irrational animal acknowledges by reverence what it does not know by nature; and is the immodesty of men so great that very many do not know how to give to the devotion of their minds what they give to the pleasure of their ears? ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 14:34: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 14:35: allusion, high confidence - Gen 24:65: allusion, high confidence - Gen 29:11: allusion, high confidence - Gen 29:12: allusion, high confidence - Prov 10:19: quotation, high confidence - Gen 4:7: quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:19: quotation, high confidence - Luke 2:51: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 9:5 (Sirach): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “You have sinned; be quiet” is the Latin (from the Greek) of Gen 4:7 addressed to Cain. The story of the boy at Alexander’s sacrifice is told by Valerius Maximus 3.3 ext. 1. The source of the youth “bidden not to betray amorous intrigues” at his father’s banquet (Migne’s summary calls it a saying of a pagan poet) is not identified here. Quotations and allusions: 1 Cor 14:34–35; Gen 24:64–65; Gen 29:11–12; Sir 9:5; Prov 10:19; Gen 4:7 (LXX); Luke 2:19, 51. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.3 (PL 16:221b–223a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-3). ## On Virgins 3.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-4 - Source: PL 16:223a–225d - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Marcellina has surpassed Liberius’s precepts in fasting; Ambrose urges her, now older, to moderate her austerities like a good farmer varying his crops, to pray at set times and in bed, and to recite the Creed daily before dawn. ### Latin text Hæc tecum sanctæ memoriæ Liberius: quæ apud alios majora veris, apud te minora exemplis; ita omnem disciplinam non solum virtute adæquasti, sed etiam æmulatione vicisti. Namque jejunium in præceptis habemus, sed singulorum dierum: tu autem multiplicatis noctibus ac diebus, innumera tempora sine cibo transigis; et siquando rogaris ut cibum sumas, paulisper deponas codicem, respondes illico: Non in pane solo vivit homo, sed in omni verbo Dei. Ipse epularum usus cibis obviis; ut edendi fastidio jejunium desideretur: potus e fonte, fletus in prece, somnus in codice. Haec junioribus convenere annis, donec mens aevi matura canesceret: ast ubi domiti trophæum corporis virgo sustulerit, moderandum labori, ut magistra suppari servetur ætati. Cito fecundis onerata palmitibus emeritae ætatis vitis crepat, nisi aliquando reprimatur. Eadem tamen donec adolescit, exuberet, et inveterata putetur; ne silvescat sarmentis, aut fetu nimio exanimata moriatur. Bonus agricola optimam vitem et fotu terræ cohibet, et defendit a frigore, et ne meridiano sole uratur, explorat. Agrum quoque vicibus exercet: vel si non patitur otiosum, diversa alternat semina, mutatis ut fetibus arva requiescant. Tu quoque, virgo veterana, pectoris tui colles diversis saltem seminibus sere, nunc alimoniis mediocribus, nunc jejuniis parcioribus, lectione, opere, prece; ut mutatio laboris induciæ sint quietis. Non totus messem generat ager. Hinc de collibus vineta consurgunt, illic purpurascentes cernas olivas, hic olentes rosas. Saepe etiam relictis aratris, ipse validus agricola digito solum scalpit, ut florum deponat radices: et asperis manibus quibus luctantes inter vineta nectit juvencos, molliter ovium pressat ubera. Eo quippe melior ager est, quo numerosior fructus. Ergo et tu boni agricolae exemplum secuta, non perennibus jejuniis tamquam depressis vomeribus humum tuam findas. Floreat in hortis tuis rosa pudoris, lilium mentis, et irriguum sacri sanguinis violaria bibant fontem. Vulgo hoc ferunt: Quod velis prolixe facere, aliquando ne feceris. Debet esse aliquid, quod Quadragesimae diebus addatur: sed ita, ut nihil ostentationis causa fiat, sed religionis. Oratio quoque nos Deo crebra commendet. Si enim propheta dicit: Septies in die laudem dixi tibi, qui regni erat necessitatibus occupatus; quid nos facere oportet, qui legimus: Vigilate et orate, ne intretis in tentationem? Certe solemnes orationes cum gratiarum actione sunt deferendae, cum e somno surgimus, cum prodimus, cum cibum paramus sumere, cum sumpserimus, et hora incensi, cum denique cubitum pergimus. Sed etiam in ipso cubiti volo psalmos cum oratione Dominica frequenti contexas vice, vel cum evigilaveris, vel antequam corpus sopor irriget; ut te in ipso quietis exordio rerum sæcularium cura liberam, divina meditantem somnus inveniat. Denique etiam qui primus philosophiæ ipsius nomen invenit, quotidie priusquam cubitum iret, tibicinem jubebat molliora canere, ut anxia curis sæcularibus corda mulceret. Sed ille, sicut is qui laterem lavat, sæcularia sæcularibus frustra cupiebat abolere; magis enim se oblinibat luto, qui remedium a voluptate quærebat: nos autem terrenorum vitiorum colluvione detersa, ab omni inquinamento carnis men­ tium interna mundemus. Symbolum quoque specialiter debemus tamquam nostri signaculum cordis antelucanis horis quotidie recensere: quo etiam cum horremus ali­ quid, animo recurrendum est. Quando enim sine militiæ sacramento, miles in tentorio, bellator in prælio? ### English translation (Claude) These things holy Liberius of blessed memory said to you; and while with others they go beyond the reality, with you they fall short of your example; so fully have you not only matched every discipline by virtue but surpassed it by emulation. For we have fasting among the precepts, but of single days; you, however, with nights and days multiplied, pass countless times without food; and if ever you are asked to take food and lay aside your book for a little, you answer at once: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Your very use of meals is with whatever food comes to hand, so that through distaste for eating fasting may be desired: drink from the spring, weeping in prayer, sleep over a book. These things suited your younger years, until your mind, ripe with age, grew grey; but when a virgin has raised the trophy of a conquered body, labor must be moderated, so that the teacher may be preserved for the generation that follows. A vine of long service, loaded with fruitful branches, soon cracks, unless it is sometimes checked. Yet while it is growing, let it run free, and when it is old let it be pruned, lest it grow wild with shoots or die exhausted by too much fruit. A good farmer keeps his best vine warm with earth, protects it from the cold, and watches lest it be scorched by the midday sun. He also works his field by turns; or if he does not let it lie idle, he alternates different seeds, so that the fields may rest by a change of crops. You too, veteran virgin, sow the hills of your heart at least with different seeds: now with moderate meals, now with less severe fasts, with reading, work, prayer; so that change of labor may be a truce of rest. The whole field does not bear harvest. Here vineyards rise from the hills, there you may see purple olives, here fragrant roses. Often too the sturdy farmer, leaving the plow, scrapes the soil with his finger to set the roots of the flowers; and with the rough hands with which he yokes the struggling bullocks among the vineyards he gently presses the udders of the sheep. For a field is the better, the more various its fruit. So you too, following the example of the good farmer, do not split your ground with unending fasts as with deep-pressed plowshares. Let the rose of modesty flourish in your gardens, the lily of the mind, and let the violet beds drink the stream of the sacred blood. People commonly say: “What you wish to do for long, sometimes do not do.” Something should be added in the days of Lent; but so that nothing is done for display, but all for religion. Let frequent prayer also commend us to God. For if the prophet, who was occupied with the necessities of a kingdom, says, “Seven times a day I have praised you,” what ought we to do, who read, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation”? Certainly solemn prayers with thanksgiving are to be offered when we rise from sleep, when we go out, when we are about to take food, when we have taken it, and at the hour of incense, and finally when we go to bed. But even in bed I want you to weave psalms together with the Lord’s Prayer in frequent turn, either when you wake or before sleep bedews your body, so that at the very beginning of rest sleep may find you free from the care of worldly things and meditating on divine ones. Indeed, even he who first devised the name of philosophy used to have a piper play softer music every day before he went to bed, to soothe hearts anxious with worldly cares. But he, like one who washes a brick, tried in vain to wipe out worldly things with worldly things; for he who sought a remedy from pleasure only smeared himself the more with mud. But let us, having wiped away the filth of earthly vices, cleanse the inner parts of our minds from all defilement of the flesh. The Creed too we ought especially to recite every day before dawn, as the seal of our heart; and to it we must return in mind whenever we are afraid of anything. For when is a soldier in his tent, a warrior in battle, without his military oath? ### Scripture references - Matt 4:4: quotation, high confidence - Deut 8:3: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 119:164 (118:164 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Matt 26:41: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:10: allusion, medium confidence - 2 Cor 7:1: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - “He who first devised the name of philosophy” is Pythagoras. “To wash a brick” is a proverb for wasted effort (Terence, Phormio 186). “The Creed” renders Symbolum. Quotations and allusions: Matt 4:4 (Deut 8:3); Ps 119:164 (LXX 118:164); Matt 26:41; Luke 1:10; 2 Cor 7:1. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.4 (PL 16:223a–225d; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-4). ## On Virgins 3.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-5 - Source: PL 16:225d–227c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose reads the bed watered with tears (Ps 6) both literally and of the body, explains the Lord’s “bed of pain,” urges that all be done in Christ’s name, and warns virgins against dancing, which cost John the Baptist his life. ### Latin text Jam illud quis non ad nostram institutionem dictum intelligat, quod ait sanctus Propheta: Lavabo per singulas noctes lectum meum, lacrymis meis stratum meum rigabo? Nam sive lectum juxta litteram intelligas, tantam ubertatem ostendit profundi oportere lacrymarum; ut lavetur lectus, stratum rigetur fletibus obsecrantis; fletus enim præsentium, merces est futurorum; quoniam beati qui fletis, ipsi enim ridebitis: sive pro corpore accipiamus propheticum dictum, delicta corporis poenitentiae lacrymis abluamus. Fecit enim sibi lectum Salomon ex lignis Libani, columnæ ejus erant argenteæ, acclinatorium ejus aureum, dorsum ejus gemmatum stratum. Quis est iste lectus, nisi nostri corporis species? Namque in gemmis aerii species fulgoris ostenditur, in auro ignis, aqua in argento, terra per lignum: ex quibus corpus humanum quatuor constat elementis, in quo nostra recubat anima; ut non aspero montium, non humi arido expers quietis existat, sed sublimis a vitiis, ligno fulta requiescat. Unde etiam David dicit: Dominus opem ferat illi super lectum doloris ejus. Nam lectus doloris esse qui potest, cum dolere non possit, qui non habeat sensum? Corpus autem doloris sicut corpus est mortis. Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? Et quoniam versiculum induximus, in quo Dominici corporis fecimus mentionem; ne quem forte perturbet legentem quod Dominus corpus suscepit doloris, recordetur quia Lazari mortem et doluit et flevit, et in passione est vulneratus, atque ex vulnere sanguis et aqua exivit, spiritumque exhalavit. Aqua ad lavacrum, sanguis ad potum, spiritus ad resurrectionem. Unus enim Christus est nobis spes, fides, charitas: spes in resurrectione, fides in lavacro, charitas in sacramento. Tamen ut corpus suscepit doloris, ita etiam stratum in infirmitate versavit (Psal. XL, 4); quia convertit in commodum carnis humanæ. Nam passione infirmitas est soluta, mors resurrectione. Et tamen moerere pro sæculo, gaudere debetis in Do­ mino: tristes ad pœnitentiam, alacres ad gratiam; licet et flere cum flentibus, et gaudere cum gaudentibus oportere gentium Doctor salutari praeceptione præscripserit (Rom. XII, 15). Verum qui penitus enodare cicatricem omnem desiderat quæstionis, ad eumdem confugiat Apostolum: Omne, inquit, quodcumque facitis in verbo aut in facto in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, gratias agentes Deo Patri per ipsum (Coloss. III, 17). Omnia ergo dicta nostra factaque referamus ad Christum, qui vitam fecit ex morte, et lucem creavit ex tenebris. Namque ut corpus ægrotum nunc calidioribus fovetur, nunc frigidioribus temperatur; remediorumque mutatio, si juxta præceptum fiat medici, salutaria est: si contra mandatum usurpetur, languoris augmentum est; ita medico nostro quidquid penditur Christo, remedium est: quidquid usurpatur, incommodum. Debet igitur bene consciæ mentis esse lætitia, non inconditis comessationibus, non nuptialibus excitata symphoniis; ibi enim tuta verecundia, illecebra suspecta est, ubi comes deliciarum est extrema saltatio. Ab hac virgines Dei procul esse desidero. Nemo enim, ut dixit quidam saecularium doctor, saltat sobrius, nisi insanit. Quod si juxta sapientiam sæcularem, saltationis aut temulentia auctor est, aut amentia; quid divinarum Scripturarum cautum putamus exemplis cum Joannes praenuntius Christi, saltatricis optione jugulatus, exemplo sit plus nocuisse saltationis illecebram, quam sacrilegi furoris amentiam? ### English translation (Claude) Now who would not understand that it was said for our instruction, when the holy prophet says: “Every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears”? For if you take “bed” literally, he shows that so great an abundance of tears ought to be poured out that the bed is washed and the couch watered by the weeping of one who entreats; for weeping belongs to the present, reward to the future, since “blessed are you who weep, for you will laugh.” Or if we take the prophet’s saying of the body, let us wash away the sins of the body with tears of repentance. For Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon; its pillars were of silver, its back of gold, its seat set with gems. What is this bed but the form of our body? For in gems the appearance of airy brightness is shown, in gold fire, water in silver, earth in wood; and of these four elements the human body consists, in which our soul reclines, so that it may not be without rest on rough mountains or on the dry ground, but may rest raised above vices, supported by the wood. Hence David also says: “May the Lord bring him help upon his bed of pain.” For how can a bed be one of pain, when a thing that has no sense cannot feel pain? But a body of pain, as a body of death: “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” And since we have brought in a verse in which we have mentioned the Lord’s body, lest it perhaps disturb some reader that the Lord took up a body of pain, let him remember that he both grieved and wept at the death of Lazarus, that in his passion he was wounded, and that from the wound came out blood and water, and he breathed out his spirit. The water for washing, the blood for drinking, the spirit for resurrection. For the one Christ is our hope, faith, and love: hope in the resurrection, faith in the washing, love in the sacrament. Yet as he took up a body of pain, so too he turned over his couch in sickness, because he turned it to the profit of human flesh. For by his passion weakness was undone, and death by his resurrection. And yet you ought to mourn for the world and rejoice in the Lord: sorrowful to repentance, glad to grace; though the Teacher of the Gentiles has laid down in a salutary precept that we should both weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. But whoever wishes to untie completely every knot of the question, let him take refuge in the same Apostle: “Whatever you do,” he says, “in word or in deed, do it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Let us, then, refer all our words and deeds to Christ, who made life out of death and created light out of darkness. For as a sick body is now warmed with warmer things, now cooled with cooler, and a change of remedies, if made according to the physician’s instruction, brings health, but if taken against his order, increases the sickness; so whatever is paid to Christ our physician is a remedy, whatever is taken without him, a harm. The joy, then, should be that of a good conscience, not stirred up by disorderly revelry or by wedding music; for there modesty is unsafe and allurement suspect, where extravagant dancing is the companion of delights. From this I want the virgins of God to be far away. For no one, as a certain teacher of worldly learning said, dances sober, unless he is mad. And if, according to worldly wisdom, the cause of dancing is either drunkenness or madness, what caution do we think the examples of the divine Scriptures give, when John, the forerunner of Christ, slain at the choice of a dancing girl, is an example that the allurement of dancing did more harm than the madness of sacrilegious fury? ### Scripture references - Ps 6:6 (6:7 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Luke 6:21: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:9: quotation, high confidence - Song 3:10: quotation, high confidence - Ps 41:3 (40:4 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Rom 7:24: quotation, high confidence - John 11:35: allusion, high confidence - John 19:34: allusion, high confidence - John 19:30: allusion, high confidence - Rom 12:15: allusion, high confidence - Col 3:17: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 4:6: allusion, medium confidence - Mark 6:22: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Cicero, Mur. 13 (Cicero): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “Supported by the wood” (ligno fulta) probably alludes to the cross. “No one dances sober, unless he is mad” is from Cicero, For Murena 13. “Untie every knot” renders enodare cicatricem (literally “smooth out every scar”). Quotations and allusions: Ps 6:6 (LXX 6:7); Luke 6:21; Song 3:9–10; Ps 41:3 (LXX 40:4); Rom 7:24; John 11:35; John 19:34, 30; Rom 12:15; Col 3:17; 2 Cor 4:6; Mark 6:22–28. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.5 (PL 16:225d–227c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-5). ## On Virgins 3.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-6 - Source: PL 16:227c–229b - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Ambrose dwells on the death of John the Baptist at Herod’s birthday banquet, the reward of a dancing girl, to warn mothers against teaching their daughters to dance and men against the banquets of the wicked. ### Latin text Et quoniam talis viri non strictim prætereunda est recordatio, interest ut quis, et a quibus, et quam ob causam, quomodo, et quo tempore sit occisus, advertere debeamus. Ab adulteris justus occiditur, et a reis in judicem capitalis sceleris pœna convertitur. Deinde præmium saltatricis mors est prophetæ. Postremo (quod etiam omnes barbari horrere consueverunt) inter epulas atque convivia consummandae crudelitatis profertur edictum: et a convivio ad carcerem, de carcere ad convivium feralis flagitii circumfertur obsequium. Quanta in uno facinore sunt crimina! Extruitur regifico luxu ferale convivium, et explorato quando major solito turba convenerit, reginæ filia intimis mandata secretis, in conspectu virorum saltatura producitur. Quid enim potuit de adultera discere, nisi damnum pudoris? An quidquam est tam pronum ad libidines, quam inconditis motibus ea quae vel natura abscondit, vel disciplina velavit, membrorum operta nudare, ludere oculis, rotare cervicem, comam spargere? Merito inde in injuriam divinitatis proceditur. Quid enim ibi verecundiae potest esse, ubi saltatur, strepitur, concrepatur? Tunc rex, inquit, delectatus, dixit puellæ, ut peteret a rege quod vellet. Deinde juravit quod vel dimidium regni, si peteret, concederet. Vide quemadmodum sæculares ipsi de sæcularibus suis judicant potestatibus, ut pro saltatione etiam regna donentur. Puella autem admonita a matre sua, poposcit afferri sibi in disco caput Joannis. Quod dicit: Rex contristatus est; non pœnitentia regis, sed confessio iniquitatis est: quam divinae habet consuetudo sententiae, ut qui gesserunt impia, ipsi propria confessione se damnent. Sed propter discumbentes, inquit, Quid indignius quam ut homicidium fieri juberet, ne discumbentibus displiceret? Et propter jus, inquit, jurandum. O religionem novam! Tolerabilius pejerasset. Unde non immerito Dominus in Evangelio jubet non esse jurandum, ne sit causa perjurii; ne sit necessitas delinquendi. Itaque ne jusjurandum violaretur, perimitur innocens. Quid prius horrescam nescio. Tolerabiliora perjuria, quam sacramenta sunt tyrannorum. Quis non cum e convivio ad carcerem cursare videret, putaret prophetam jussum esse dimitti? Quis, inquam, cum audisset natalem esse Herodis, solemne convivium, puellae optionem eligendi quod vellet datam, missam ad Joannis absolutionem non arbitraretur? Quid crudelitati cum deliciis? quid cum funeribus voluptati? Rapitur ad poenam propheta convivali tempore, convivali præcepto, quo non cuperet vel absolvi: perimitur gladio, caput ejus affertur in disco ( Marc. VI, 27 et seq. ). Hoc crudelitati ferculum debebatur, quo insatiata epulis feritas vesceretur. Intuere, rex acerbissime, tuo spectacula digna convivio. Porrige dexteram, ne quid sævitiæ tuæ desit; ut inter digitos tuos rivi defluant sancti cruoris. Et quoniam non exsaturari epulis fames, non restingui poculis potuit inauditæ sævitiæ sitis; bibe sanguinem scaturientibus adhuc venis exsecti capitis profluentem. Cerne oculos in ipsa morte sceleris tui testes, adversantes conspectum deliciarum. Clauduntur lumina non tam mortis necessitate, quam horrore luxuriae. Os aureum illud exsangue, cujus sententiam ferre non poteras, conticescit, et adhuc times. Lingua tamen, quæ solet etiam post mortem officium servare viventis, palpitante licet motu, damnabat incestum. Portatur hoc caput ad Herodiadem: lætatur, exsultat, quasi crimen evaserit; quia judicem trucidavit. Quid dicitis vos, sanctæ feminæ? Videtis quid docere, quid etiam dedocere filias debeatis? Saltet, sed adulteræ filia. Quæ vero pudica, quae casta est, filias suas religionem doceat, non saltationem. Vos autem, graves et prudentes viri, discite detestabilium hominum epulas vitare. Si talia sunt convivia, qualia judicia perfidorum? ### English translation (Claude) And since the memory of such a man must not be passed over cursorily, it is important that we should notice who was killed, by whom, for what cause, how, and at what time. A righteous man is killed by adulterers, and the penalty of a capital crime is turned by the guilty upon the judge. Then, the reward of a dancing girl is the death of a prophet. Lastly (a thing that even all barbarians are accustomed to abhor), amid feasts and banquets the edict to complete the cruelty is issued, and from the banquet to the prison, from the prison to the banquet, the errand of a deadly crime is carried about. How many crimes in one deed! A deadly banquet is spread with royal luxury, and when it has been ascertained that a larger crowd than usual has gathered, the queen’s daughter, sent for from the inmost private rooms, is brought out to dance in the sight of men. For what could she learn from an adulteress but the loss of modesty? Or is anything so inclined to lust as, with disorderly movements, to uncover the hidden parts of the limbs that either nature has hidden or discipline has veiled, to play with the eyes, to roll the neck, to toss the hair? Rightly, then, it goes on to an outrage against God. For what modesty can there be where there is dancing, noise, and clapping? “Then the king,” it says, “being delighted, told the girl to ask of the king whatever she wished.” Then he swore that he would grant her even half his kingdom if she asked. See how worldly men themselves judge of their own worldly powers, that even kingdoms are given away for a dance. “But the girl, prompted by her mother, asked that the head of John be brought to her on a dish.” As for the words “The king was grieved,” this is not the king’s repentance but the confession of his wickedness; for it is the custom of the divine sentence that those who have done impious things condemn themselves by their own confession. “But because of those reclining at table,” it says. What more shameful than to order a murder lest he displease those at table? “And because of the oath,” it says. O new kind of religion! It would have been more tolerable to break his oath. Hence not without reason the Lord in the Gospel commands that we should not swear, lest there be a cause of perjury, lest there be a necessity of sinning. So, lest an oath be violated, an innocent man is killed. I do not know what I should shudder at first. Perjuries are more tolerable than the oaths of tyrants. Who, seeing them run from the banquet to the prison, would not have thought that the prophet had been ordered to be released? Who, I say, having heard that it was Herod’s birthday, a solemn banquet, that the girl had been given the choice of whatever she wished, would not have thought that she had been sent for John’s release? What has cruelty to do with delights? What has pleasure to do with funerals? The prophet is hurried to punishment at banquet time, by a banquet order, by which he would not even have wished to be released; he is slain with the sword; his head is brought on a dish. This was the dish owed to cruelty, on which a ferocity not sated by feasting might feed. Behold, most cruel king, a spectacle worthy of your banquet. Stretch out your right hand, so that nothing may be lacking to your savagery, so that streams of holy blood may flow between your fingers. And since the hunger of unheard-of savagery could not be sated by feasts, nor its thirst quenched by cups, drink the blood flowing from the still gushing veins of the severed head. See the eyes, witnesses of your crime even in death, turning from the sight of your delights. They are closed not so much by the necessity of death as by horror at the luxury. That golden mouth, now bloodless, whose sentence you could not bear, falls silent, and still you fear. Yet the tongue, which often keeps the function of the living even after death, with a quivering movement still condemned the incest. This head is carried to Herodias; she rejoices, exults, as though she had escaped the charge, because she has slaughtered the judge. What do you say, holy women? Do you see what you ought to teach your daughters, and what you ought to make them unlearn? Let her dance, but let her be the daughter of an adulteress. But let her who is modest, who is chaste, teach her daughters religion, not dancing. And you, grave and prudent men, learn to avoid the banquets of detestable men. If such are the banquets of the faithless, what are their judgments? ### Scripture references - Mark 6:18: allusion, high confidence - Mark 6:21: allusion, high confidence - Mark 6:22: quotation, high confidence - Mark 6:23: allusion, high confidence - Mark 6:24: allusion, high confidence - Matt 14:8: quotation, high confidence - Mark 6:26: quotation, high confidence - Matt 14:9: quotation, high confidence - Mark 6:27: allusion, high confidence - Mark 6:28: allusion, high confidence - Matt 5:34: allusion, high confidence - Lev 18:16: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The digital text begins this section with the end of Migne’s chapter summary, removed by a logged correction. “The incest”: Herod had married Herodias, his brother’s wife (Lev 18:16), which John condemned (Mark 6:18). Quotations and allusions: Mark 6:17–28 (Matt 14:3–11); Matt 5:34. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.6 (PL 16:227c–229b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-6). ## On Virgins 3.7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-7 - Source: PL 16:229b–231c - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Asked about virgins who took their own lives to escape persecutors, Ambrose answers with the example of Pelagia of Antioch, who threw herself from a height, and of her mother and sisters, who drowned themselves together; he ends with Marcellina’s ancestor, the martyr Soteris. ### Latin text Jam ad finem orationis vela pandenti bene suggeris, soror sancta, quid de earum meritis existimandum sit, quæ se præcipitavere ex alto, vel in fluvium demerserunt, ne persecutorum inciderent manus; cum Scriptura divina vim sibi Christianam prohibeat inferre. Et quidem de virginibus in necessitate custodiæ constitutis enodem habemus assertionem, cum martyrii exstet exemplum. Sancta Pelagia apud Antiochiam quondam fuit, annorum fere quindecim, soror virginum, et ipsa virgo. Hæc primo domi classico persecutionis inclusa, cum se a prædonibus fidei vel pudoris circumsideri videret, absente matre et sororibus, vacua præsidio, sed Deo plenior: Quid agimus, inquit, nisi prospicias, captiva virginitatis? Et votum est, et metus est mori; quia mors non excipitur, sed adsciscitur. Moriamur si licet, vel si nolunt licere, moriamur. Deus remedio non offenditur, et facinus fides abolet. Certe si vim ipsam nominis cogitemus, quæ vis voluntaria? Illa magis est vis, mori velle, nec posse. Nec difficultatem veremur. Quis enim est qui vult mori, et non possit; cum sint ad mortem tam proclives viæ? Jam enim sacrilegas aras præcipitata subvertam, et accensos focos cruore restinguam. Non timeo ne dextera deficiens non peragat ictum, ne pectus se dolore subducat. Nullum peccatum carni relinquam. Non verebor, ne desit gladius. Possumus mori nostris armis, possumus mori sine carnificis beneficio matris in gremio. Fertur ornasse caput, nuptialem induisse vestem; ut non ad mortem ire diceres, sed ad sponsum. Ast ubi detestandi persecutores ereptam sibi viderunt praedam pudoris, matrem et sorores cœperunt quærere. Verum illæ spiritali volatu jam campum castitatis tenebant, cum subito hinc persecutoribus imminentibus, inde torrente fluvio exclusæ a fuga, inclusæ ad coronam: Quid veremur, inquiunt? Ecce aqua, quis nos baptizari prohibet ( Act. VIII, 36 )? Et hoc baptisma est, quo peccata donantur, regna quæruntur. Et hoc baptisma est, post quod nemo delinquit. Excipiat nos aqua, quæ regenerare consuevit. Excipiat nos aqua, quae virgines facit. Excipiat nos aqua, quae cœlum aperit, infirmos tegit, mortem abscondit, martyres reddit. Te, rerum conditor, precamur, Deus, ne exanimata spiritu corpora vel unda dispergat; ne mors separet funera, quarum vitam non separavit affectus: sed sit una constantia, una mors, una etiam sepultura. Hæc effatæ, et suspenso paululum cinctu sinu, quo pudorem tegerent, nec gressum impedirent, consertis manibus tamquam choros ducerent, in medium progrediuntur alveum; ubi unda torrentior, ubi profundum abruptius, illo vestigium. dirigentes. Nulla pedem retulit, nulla suspendit incessum, nulla tentavit ubi gressum figeret: anxiæ cum terra occurreret, offensæ vado, lætæ profundo. Videres piam matrem stringentem nodo manus, gaudere de pignore, timere de casu, ne sibi filias vel fluctus auferret. Has tibi, inquit, hostias, Christe, immolo praesules castitatis, duces itineris, comites passionis. Sed quis jure miretur tantam viventibus fuisse constantiam, cum etiam defunctae immobilem stationem corporum vindicaverint? Non cadaver unda nudavit, non rapidi cursus fluminis volutarunt. Quin etiam sancta mater licet sensu carens, pietatis tamen adhuc servabat amplexum: et religiosum quem strinxerat, nodum nec in morte laxabat; ut quae religioni debitum solverat, pietate hærede moreretur. Nam quas ad martyrium junxerat, usque ad tumulum vindicabat. Sed quid alienigenis apud te, soror, utor exemplis, quam hæreditariæ castitatis inspirata successio parentis infusione martyris erudivit? Unde enim didicisti, quae non habuisti unde disceres, constituta in agro, nulla socia virgine, nullo informata doctore? Non ergo discipulam, quod fieri sine magisterio non potest, sed haeredem virtutis egisti. Qui enim fieri posset ut sancta Sotheris tibi non esset mentis auctor, cui auctor est generis? Quae persecutionis ætate, servilibus quoque contumeliis ad fastigium passionis evecta, etiam vultum ipsum qui inter cruciatus totius corporis liber esse consuevit injuriae, et spectare potius tormenta quam perpeti, carnifici dedit: tam fortis et patiens, ut cum teneras pœnæ offerret genas, prius carnifex caedendo defecerit, quam martyr injuriæ cederet. Non vultum inflexit, non ora convertit: non gemitum, non lacrymam dedit. Denique cum caetera poenarum genera vicisset, gladium quem quaerebat, invenit. ### English translation (Claude) As I now spread my sails toward the end of this discourse, you do well, holy sister, to suggest what we should think of the merits of those women who have thrown themselves from a height or plunged into a river so as not to fall into the hands of persecutors, since divine Scripture forbids a Christian to lay violent hands on herself. And indeed, regarding virgins placed under the necessity of guarding their chastity, we have a plain answer, since there is an example of martyrdom. There was once at Antioch a holy Pelagia, about fifteen years old, a sister of virgins and herself a virgin. When first she was shut in at home by the trumpet of persecution, and saw herself surrounded by robbers of her faith or her chastity, with her mother and sisters absent, without protection but the fuller of God, she said: “What are we to do, unless you look ahead, captive of virginity? There is both the wish to die and the fear of it; for death is not being received but sought. Let us die, if it is permitted; or, if they will not permit it, let us die. God is not offended by a remedy, and faith removes the crime. Certainly, if we consider the very meaning of the word, what violence is voluntary? This rather is violence, to wish to die and not be able. Nor do we fear the difficulty. For who is there who wishes to die and cannot, when the ways to death are so ready to hand? I will now throw myself headlong and overturn the sacrilegious altars and put out the lighted fires with my blood. I do not fear that my right hand will fail and not finish the blow, or that my breast will shrink from the pain. I will leave no sin to the flesh. I will not fear that a sword may be lacking. We can die by our own weapons; we can die without the executioner’s service, in our mother’s bosom.” She is said to have adorned her head and put on bridal dress, so that you would say she was going not to death but to her bridegroom. But when the detestable persecutors saw that the prey of chastity had been snatched from them, they began to search for her mother and sisters. But they, on spiritual flight, already held the field of chastity, when suddenly, with the persecutors pressing on them on one side and a raging river on the other, shut off from flight, shut in for the crown, they said: “What do we fear? See, here is water; who prevents us from being baptized? This too is a baptism, by which sins are forgiven and kingdoms sought. This too is a baptism, after which no one sins. Let the water receive us, which is wont to regenerate. Let the water receive us, which makes virgins. Let the water receive us, which opens heaven, covers the weak, hides death, makes martyrs. We pray you, God, Creator of all things, that the wave may not scatter our bodies when the breath has left them, that death may not part the remains of those whose life affection did not part; but let there be one constancy, one death, and one burial too.” Having said this, and tucking up their garments a little with a girdle so as to cover their modesty and not hinder their steps, joining hands as though leading a dance, they go forward into the middle of the channel, directing their steps where the water was more torrential, where the depth fell away more steeply. None drew back her foot, none checked her step, none felt for a place to set her foot; anxious when the ground met them, vexed at a shallow, glad at the deep. You might have seen the devout mother, clasping their hands tight in a knot, rejoicing in her children, fearing a mishap, lest the current carry her daughters away from her. “These victims, Christ,” she said, “I offer to you, leaders in chastity, guides on the way, companions in the passion.” But who would rightly wonder that the living had such constancy, when even in death they kept their bodies in an unmoved position? The water did not lay bare a body; the rapid course of the river did not roll them about. Indeed, the holy mother, though without sense, still kept her loving embrace, and did not loosen even in death the devout knot she had tied; so that she who had paid what was due to religion died with love as her heir. For those whom she had joined for martyrdom she held fast even to the tomb. But why, sister, do I use foreign examples with you, whom the inspired succession of an inherited chastity, poured in from a martyr parent, has taught? For where did you learn it, who had no one from whom to learn, living in the country, with no virgin companion, formed by no teacher? You were not, then, a disciple, which cannot be without a teacher, but an heir of virtue. For how could it be that holy Soteris was not the author of your mind, when she is the author of your family? In the time of persecution, raised to the height of suffering even through the insults fit for slaves, she gave up to the executioner even her face, which amid the torture of the whole body is usually free from outrage and looks on torments rather than suffers them: so brave and patient that, when she offered her tender cheeks to punishment, the executioner gave out from striking before the martyr gave way to the outrage. She did not bend her face, did not turn her mouth away, gave no groan, no tear. Finally, having overcome every other kind of punishment, she found the sword she was seeking. ### Scripture references - Acts 8:36: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.12.3–4 (Church History): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Ambrose approves these deaths as martyrdom, though he notes that Scripture forbids a Christian to kill herself; his judgment, translated as written. Pelagia of Antioch is also the subject of a homily of John Chrysostom; Eusebius tells of a mother and two daughters of Antioch who drowned themselves (Church History 8.12.3–4). Soteris, a virgin martyr of Rome (probably under Diocletian), is called the “author of your family,” that is, an ancestor of Ambrose and Marcellina. Quotations and allusions: Acts 8:36. ### Citation (SBL) Ambrose, Virg. 3.7 (PL 16:229b–231c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ambrose-virginibus/3-1/#p-3-7).