On Holy Virginity 38–55

I do not send you, devout and chaste soul—you who have not relaxed carnal appetite even as far as permitted marriage, who have not indulged your body, which will pass away, even by propagating a successor, who have lifted your earthly, unsteady members to the habit of heaven—I do not send you, to learn humility, to the tax collectors and sinners, who nevertheless go before the proud into the kingdom of heaven. I do not send you to these, for those who have been set free from the abyss of uncleanness are not worthy that untouched virginity should be sent to imitate them. I send you to the King of heaven, to him through whom human beings were created and who was created among human beings for the sake of human beings; to him who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men and despised by the sons of men for the sake of the sons of men; to him who, ruling immortal angels, did not disdain to serve mortals. Surely not iniquity but love made him humble—love, which is not jealous, is not puffed up, does not seek its own; for Christ too did not please himself, but, as it is written of him, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Go, come to him and learn that he is meek and humble of heart. You will not go to him who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven under the burden of iniquity, but to him who came down from heaven by the weight of love; you will not go to her who watered her Lord's feet with tears, seeking pardon for grave sins, but to him who, while he gave pardon for all sins, washed the feet of his servants. I know the dignity of your virginity: I do not set before you for imitation the tax collector humbly accusing his offenses, but I fear for you the Pharisee proudly boasting of his merits. I do not say, “Be like her of whom it was said, ‘Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much,’” but I fear lest, thinking that little is forgiven you, you love little.

I fear greatly for you, I say, lest, while you glory that you will follow the Lamb wherever he goes, you may be unable to follow him through narrow ways because of the swelling of pride. It is good for you, O virgin soul, that, being a virgin as you are—keeping wholly in heart what you have been reborn, keeping in flesh what you were born—you should nevertheless conceive from the fear of the Lord and bring forth the spirit of salvation. There is indeed no fear in love, but perfect love, as it is written, casts out fear—but fear of men, not of God; fear of temporal evils, not of the divine judgment at the end. Do not be high-minded, but fear; love the goodness of God, fear his severity: neither will let you be proud. For in loving you fear to offend gravely the one you love and who loves you. For what graver offense than to displease by pride him who for your sake displeased the proud? And where ought that chaste fear which endures for ever and ever to be more than in you, who do not think about the things of the world, how you may please a spouse, but about the things of the Lord, how you may please the Lord? That other fear is not in love; but this chaste fear does not depart from love. If you do not love, fear lest you perish; if you love, fear lest you displease. That fear love casts out; with this one it runs in. The apostle Paul too says: “For we did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear, but we received the spirit of adoption as sons, in which we cry, Abba, Father.” I believe he means that fear which was given in the old covenant, the fear of losing the temporal goods which God had promised to those who were not yet sons under grace but still slaves under the law. There is also the fear of eternal fire; to serve God in order to avoid it is certainly not yet perfect love. For desire of reward is one thing, dread of punishment another. There are some voices: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? And where shall I flee from your face?” And there are other voices: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord and be protected by his temple,” and, “Do not turn your face from me,” and, “My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord.” Let those first voices belong to him who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven, and to her who watered his feet with tears to obtain pardon for grave sins; but you, have these others, you who are anxious about the things of the Lord, that you may be holy both in body and in spirit. With those voices goes the fear that has torment, which perfect love casts out; with these goes the chaste fear of the Lord that endures for ever and ever. And to both kinds it must be said, “Do not be high-minded, but fear,” so that a man may exalt himself neither in defending his sins nor in presuming on his righteousness. For Paul himself, who said, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again in fear,” yet, with fear as the companion of love, says, “I was with you in fear and much trembling”; and he himself used the saying I mentioned—lest the grafted wild olive become proud against the broken branches of the olive—saying, “Do not be high-minded, but fear”; and he himself, admonishing all the members of Christ generally, says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good will”—lest what is written, “Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice to him with trembling,” seem to belong only to the old covenant.

And which members of the holy body, which is the church, ought to take more care that the Holy Spirit may rest upon them than those who profess virginal holiness? But how does he rest where he does not find his place? And what is that place but a humbled heart, which he may fill, not one from which he rebounds; which he may raise up, not which may press him down? For it has been said most plainly: “On whom will my Spirit rest? On the humble and quiet one who trembles at my words.” You already live righteously, you already live devoutly, chastely, holily, with virginal chastity; yet you still live here, and are you not humbled by hearing, “Is not human life on earth a trial?” Does not “Woe to the world because of scandals” beat you back from overconfident exaltation? Do you not tremble lest you be counted among the many whose love grows cold because iniquity abounds? Do you not strike your breast when you hear, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall”? Amid these divine warnings and human dangers, do we still labor so hard to persuade holy virgins of humility?

Or is it to be believed that God permits many men and women who are going to fall to be mixed in the number of your profession for any other reason than that, as they fall, your fear may be increased and your pride suppressed? Pride God so hates that against it alone the Most High humbled himself so greatly. Unless perhaps you will indeed fear less and be more puffed up, so as to love little him who loved you so much that he handed himself over for you, because he has forgiven you little—you who, of course, have lived from childhood devoutly, chastely, in devout chastity, in untouched virginity. As though you ought not to love far more ardently him who, whatever he forgave the shameful who turned to him, did not allow you to fall into these things! Or was that Pharisee, who loved little because he thought little was forgiven him, blinded by this error for any other reason than that, not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish his own, he was not subject to the righteousness of God? But you, a chosen race, and more chosen among the chosen, virgin choirs following the Lamb, you too have been saved by grace through faith; and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone be lifted up. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them. Will you, then, love him the less, the more you are adorned with his gifts? May he himself turn away such dreadful madness! Therefore, since the Truth spoke truly that he to whom little is forgiven loves little, so that you may love most ardently him for whose love you are free from the bonds of marriage, reckon as wholly forgiven you whatever evil has not been committed by you because he ruled you. For your eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck your feet out of the snare; and, “Unless the Lord guards the city, he who guards it has watched in vain.” And speaking of continence itself, the apostle says: “But I would that all men were as I myself am; but each has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that.” Who, then, gives these gifts? Who distributes to each his own as he wills? God, surely, with whom there is no iniquity. And so by what equity he makes some in this way, others in that, it is impossible, or altogether difficult, for man to know; yet that he does it with equity it is not right to doubt. What, then, do you have that you did not receive? Or by what perversity do you love less him from whom you have received more?

So let this be the first thought for putting on humility: that the virgin of God should not think that she is what she is from herself, but rather that this best gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of turning. For so she will not think that little has been forgiven her, so as to love little, and, not knowing the righteousness of God and wishing to establish her own, fail to submit to the righteousness of God. In this fault was that Simon whom the woman surpassed, whose many sins were forgiven because she loved much. But she will think more cautiously and more truly that all sins from committing which God keeps her are to be reckoned as though forgiven. Witnesses are the words of devout supplications in the holy Scriptures, by which it is shown that the very things commanded by God are not done except by the gift and help of him who commanded them. For they are asked for falsely if we could do them without the help of his grace. What is commanded so generally and so emphatically as obedience, by which the commandments of God are kept? And yet we find it prayed for. “You,” it says, “have commanded that your commandments be kept exceedingly.” Then follows: “O that my ways may be directed to keep your statutes; then I shall not be put to shame, while I look into all your commandments.” What he set down above that God commanded, he prayed might be fulfilled by himself. This is done so that there may be no sin; but if there has been sin, repentance is commanded, lest he who did it perish through pride by defending and excusing the sin, while unwilling that what he did should perish through repentance. This too is asked of God, so that it may be understood that it is not done except by the gift of him from whom it is asked. “Set, O Lord,” it says, “a guard on my mouth and a door of continence around my lips. Do not incline my heart to evil words, to make excuses in sins with men who work iniquity.” If, then, both obedience, by which we keep his commandments, and repentance, by which we do not excuse but accuse our sins, are desired and asked for, it is plain that when they come about, they are had by his gift and completed by his help. It is said still more plainly concerning obedience: “By the Lord a man's steps are directed, and he will will his way”; and concerning repentance the apostle says: “in case God may give them repentance.”

Concerning continence itself, too, has it not been said most plainly: “And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it—and this very thing was part of wisdom, to know whose gift this was”? But perhaps continence is the gift of God, while wisdom, by which he knows that that gift is not his own but God's, man provides for himself? On the contrary: “The Lord makes the blind wise,” and, “The testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones,” and, “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and does not reproach, and it will be given him.” It befits virgins to be wise, lest their lamps go out. How wise, unless not high-minded, but agreeing with the lowly? For Wisdom itself has said to man: “Behold, piety is wisdom.” If, then, you have nothing that you did not receive, do not be high-minded, but fear; and do not love little, as one to whom little has been forgiven, but rather love much him by whom much has been given you. For if he loves to whom it was granted that he need not repay, how much more ought she to love to whom it was granted that she should have! For whoever remains chaste from the beginning is ruled by him; whoever becomes chaste from unchaste is corrected by him; and whoever is unchaste to the end is abandoned by him. This he can do by a hidden judgment; by an unjust one he cannot. And perhaps it is hidden so that he may be feared more and pride may be less.

Next, a person who now knows that he is what he is by the grace of God must not fall into another snare of pride, so that by exalting himself over the grace of God itself he despises the rest. By this fault that other one, the Pharisee, both gave thanks to God for the goods he had and yet exalted himself over the tax collector who confessed his sins. What, then, should a virgin do, what should she think, so as not to exalt herself over the men or women who lack so great a gift? For she ought not to feign humility but to show it; for feigned humility is greater pride. That is why Scripture, wishing to show that humility must be truthful, having said, “The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things,” at once added, “and you will find grace before God”—before whom, certainly, one could not humble oneself deceitfully.

What, then, shall we say? Is there anything a virgin of God may truthfully think, by which she will not dare to prefer herself to a believing woman, not only a widow but even a married woman? I am not speaking of a reprobate woman; for who does not know that an obedient woman is to be set above a disobedient virgin? But when both are obedient to God's commands, will she then hesitate to prefer holy virginity even to chaste marriage, and continence to wedlock, the hundredfold fruit to the thirtyfold? No indeed, let her not hesitate to set the one thing above the other. Yet let this or that virgin, obedient and fearing God, not dare to set herself above this or that woman who is obedient and fears God; otherwise she will not be humble, and God resists the proud. What, then, will she think? The hidden gifts of God, which only the questioning of temptation makes known to each, even in himself. To say nothing of other things, how does a virgin know—though she is anxious about the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord—whether perhaps, because of some weakness of mind unknown to her, she is not yet ripe for martyrdom, while that woman, over whom she was eager to prefer herself, can already drink the cup of the Lord's humility, which he set before his disciples, lovers of loftiness, to be drunk first? How, I say, does she know whether perhaps she is not yet a Thecla, while that woman is already a Crispina? Certainly, unless temptation is present, there is no proof of this gift.

This gift is so great that some understand it to be the hundredfold fruit. For the authority of the church bears most illustrious witness to it, in which the faithful know at what place the martyrs, and at what place deceased consecrated women, are named at the sacraments of the altar. But what that difference in fruitfulness signifies, let those consider who understand these things better than we: whether the virginal life is in the hundredfold fruit, the widowed in the sixtyfold, and the married in the thirtyfold; or whether hundredfold fertility is rather to be ascribed to martyrdom, sixtyfold to continence, thirtyfold to marriage; or whether virginity, with martyrdom added, fills up the hundredfold fruit, but alone is in the sixtyfold, while the married, bearing thirtyfold, reach sixtyfold if they become martyrs; or whether—which seems more probable to me—since the gifts of divine grace are many, and one is greater and better than another (whence the apostle says, “But imitate the better gifts”), we should understand that there are more of them than can be distributed into three differences. First, so that we neither place widowed continence in no fruit at all, nor lower it to the merit of conjugal chastity, nor make it equal to virginal glory, nor think that the crown of martyrdom—whether it lies in the disposition of the mind, even if the test of temptation is lacking, or in the actual experience of suffering—is added to any of those three kinds of chastity without any increase of fertility. Next, where do we put the fact that many men and women keep virginal continence in such a way that they do not do what the Lord says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me,” and do not dare to join the common life of those among whom no one calls anything his own, but they have all things in common? Do we think that no fruitfulness is added to the virgins of God when they do this? Or that the virgins of God are without any fruit even if they do not do it? There are, then, many gifts, and some brighter and higher than others, each in each. And sometimes one person is fruitful with fewer but more excellent gifts, another with lesser but more numerous ones. And how they are made equal or distinguished among themselves in receiving eternal honors, what human being would dare to judge? Only let it be settled that these differences are many, and that the better ones profit not for the present time but for eternity. But I think the Lord wished to mention three differences of fruitfulness and left the rest to those who understand. For another evangelist mentioned only the hundredfold. Is he therefore to be thought to have disapproved of or not known the other two, and not rather to have left them to be understood?

But, as I had begun to say, whether the hundredfold fruit is virginity devoted to God, or that difference of fertility is to be understood in some other way, whether one we have mentioned or one we have not, still no one, I think, would dare to prefer virginity to martyrdom, and no one would doubt that this gift is hidden if the testing of temptation is absent. So a virgin has something to think about that will help her keep humility, lest she violate that love which surpasses all gifts, without which whatever else she has, few or many, great or small, is nothing. She has, I say, something to think about, so that she may not be puffed up, may not be jealous: namely, that she should profess the virginal good to be far greater and better than the conjugal good, yet not know whether this or that married woman can already suffer for Christ while she herself cannot yet, and is spared in this because her weakness is not questioned by temptation. For “God is faithful,” says the apostle, “who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way out, so that you may be able to endure.” Perhaps, then, this or that man or woman, keeping in married life the measure praiseworthy in its kind, can already fight against an enemy who compels to iniquity, even with the tearing of the flesh and the shedding of blood; while this or that man or woman, continent from childhood and castrating themselves for the kingdom of heaven, may not yet be strong enough to endure such things either for righteousness or for chastity itself. For it is one thing, for the sake of truth and a holy purpose, not to consent to one who persuades and flatters, and another not to yield even to one who tortures and strikes. These things lie hidden in the capacities and strengths of souls; when tested they are laid open, by experience they are made public. So that no one may be puffed up by what he sees he can do, let him humbly think that there may be something more excellent, unknown to him, that he cannot do, while some who neither have nor profess that for which he is gloriously known to himself can do what he cannot. So one will be kept by humility not deceitful but truthful: “outdoing one another in honor,” and, “each thinking the other better than himself.”

What shall I now say about the caution and vigilance itself against sinning? Who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sin? Holy virginity, indeed, is intact from the mother's womb; but, it says, “no one is clean in your sight, not even an infant whose life on earth is one day.” There is kept also, in inviolate faith, a certain virginal chastity, by which the church is fitted as a chaste virgin to one husband; but that one husband taught not only the faithful who are virgins in mind and body, but absolutely all Christians, from the spiritual to the carnal, from the apostles to the last of the penitents, as from the heights of the heavens to their ends, to pray, and admonished them to say in that very prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”; and by what we ask there he showed also what we should remember we are. For he did not command us to pray, saying, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,” for those debts of our whole past life which we trust have been forgiven us in baptism through his peace; otherwise it is catechumens rather who ought to pray this prayer, up to baptism. But since the baptized pray it, leaders and peoples, shepherds and flocks, it is shown clearly enough that in this life, which is all temptation, no one ought to boast as though free from all sins.

So the virgins of God too follow the Lamb wherever he goes, blameless indeed, both with the cleansing of sins completed and with virginity preserved, which, once lost, would not return. But since that same Apocalypse, where such people were revealed to such a man, praises them also for this, that no lie was found in their mouth, let them remember to be truthful in this too, and not dare to say that they have no sin. For the same John who saw that said this: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” This is certainly said not to these or those, but to all Christians, among whom virgins too ought to recognize themselves. For so they will be without a lie, such as they appeared in the Apocalypse. And so, as long as perfection is not yet present in the heavenly height, confession in humility makes them blameless.

But again, lest anyone, taking occasion from this statement, should sin with deadly security and let himself be drawn along, as though his sins were soon to be wiped out by easy confession, he at once added: “My little children, I have written these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.” So let no one depart from sin as one who will return to it, nor bind himself to iniquity by a kind of partnership agreement, so that it delights him more to confess it than to beware of it. But since even in those who strive and watch not to sin, sins creep in somehow from human frailty—small, few, but not none—these very sins become great and grave if pride adds growth and weight to them; but if they are destroyed by devout humility, they are purged with complete happiness by the priest whom we have in heaven.

But I do not argue with those who assert that a man can live in this life without any sin; I do not argue, I do not contradict. For perhaps we measure the great by our own misery, and, comparing ourselves with ourselves, we do not understand. One thing I know: that these great ones—such as we are not, such as we have not yet experienced—the greater they are, the more they humble themselves in all things, so that they may find grace before God. For however great they may be, the servant is not greater than his master, nor the disciple than his teacher. And certainly he is the Lord who says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father,” and he is the teacher who says, “Come to me, all who labor, and learn from me.” And yet what do we learn? “That I am meek,” he says, “and humble of heart.”

Here someone will say: This is no longer writing about virginity but about humility. As though we had undertaken to proclaim virginity of any kind, and not that which is according to God. The greater I see this good to be, the more I fear pride for it in the future, lest it perish. No one, then, guards the virginal good but God himself, who gave it; and God is love. The guardian of virginity, then, is love; and the place of this guardian is humility. For there dwells he who said that his Spirit rests on the humble and quiet one who trembles at his words. What, then, have I done that is foreign to my subject if, wishing the good I have praised to be guarded more safely, I have also taken care to prepare a place for the guardian? For I say confidently, and I do not fear that those will be angry with me whom I anxiously warn to fear for themselves with me: humble married people follow the Lamb more easily—even if not wherever he goes, at least as far as they can—than proud virgins. For how does one follow him to whom one will not draw near? Or how does one draw near to him to whom one does not come to learn that he is meek and humble of heart? So the Lamb leads wherever he goes those followers in whom he has first found where to lay his head. For a certain proud and deceitful man had said to him, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” He answered him: “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” By the name of foxes he rebuked crafty deceit, and by the name of birds windy self-exaltation, in which he found no devout humility where he might rest. And so he did not follow the Lord anywhere at all, he who had promised to follow him not to some point of progress but absolutely wherever he went.

Therefore do this, virgins of God, do this: follow the Lamb wherever he goes. But first come to him whom you are to follow, and learn that he is meek and humble of heart. Come humbly to the humble one, if you love him, and do not depart from him, lest you fall. For he who fears to depart from him asks and says, “Let not the foot of pride come to me.” Go on the way of loftiness with the foot of humility. He himself exalts those who follow humbly, he who did not disdain to come down to those who lay fallen. Entrust his gifts to him to be kept; keep your strength for him. Whatever evil you do not commit because he guards you, reckon as forgiven by him, lest, thinking that little is forgiven you, you love little and with ruinous boasting despise the tax collectors who beat their breasts. Concerning your strength that has been tested, beware lest, because you have been able to bear something, you be puffed up; concerning what is untested, pray that you may not be tempted beyond what you can bear. Consider some to be superior in secret to whom you are better in the open. When the goods of others, perhaps unknown to you, are kindly believed by you, your own, known to you, are not diminished by comparison but strengthened by love; and what perhaps is still lacking is given the more easily the more humbly it is desired. Let those who persevere in your number give you an example; let those who fall increase your fear. Love the one so as to imitate it; mourn the other so as not to be puffed up. Do not establish your own righteousness; submit yourselves to God who justifies you. Grant pardon to the sins of others; pray for your own; avoid future sins by watching, blot out past ones by confessing.

See, you are now such that in the rest of your conduct too you are in harmony with the virginity you have professed and kept. See, you now abstain not only from murders, devilish sacrifices and abominations, thefts, robberies, frauds, perjuries, drunkenness and all luxury and greed, pretenses, jealousies, impieties, and cruelties; but even the things that are, or are thought to be, lighter are not found and do not arise in you: no shameless face, no wandering eyes, no unbridled tongue, no wanton laughter, no scurrilous joke, no unseemly dress, no swaggering or mincing gait. You no longer return evil for evil nor curse for curse; you now, finally, fulfill that measure of love by which you lay down your lives for your brothers. See, you are now such, because you ought to be such. These things, added to virginity, show human beings the life of angels and show the earth the ways of heaven. But the greater you are, all of you who are so great, the more humble yourselves in all things, so that you may find grace before God, lest he resist you as proud, lest he humble you as exalting yourselves, lest he not bring you through the narrow ways as puffed up—though concern that humility may be lacking where love is fervent is superfluous.

If, then, you have despised marriage with the sons of men, from which you would beget sons of men, love with your whole heart him who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. You have leisure for it; your heart is free from the bonds of marriage. Look at the beauty of your lover: think of him equal to the Father, subject also to his mother, ruling even in heaven and serving on earth, creating all things, created among all things. Look how beautiful is that very thing in him at which the proud mock; look with inner eyes at the wounds of the one hanging, the scars of the one rising, the blood of the one dying, the price of the believer, the exchange of the Redeemer. Consider how much these are worth, weigh these in the scale of love, and whatever love you had to spend on your marriage, pay it back to him.