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Consecrated virgin

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The Coronation of the Virgin by Neri di Bicci, c. 1470

In the Catholic Church, a consecrated virgin has been consecrated by the church to a life of perpetual virginity as an exclusive spouse of Christ. Consecrated virgins are consecrated by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite. The Consecrated virgins are to spend their time in works of penance and mercy, in apostolic activity and in prayer, according to their state of life and spiritual gifts.

The rite of consecration of virgins living in the world was reintroduced in 1970, under Pope Paul VI, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.[1] It is based on the template of vows of virginity going back to the Apostolic era, especially the early virgin martyrs. Ceremonies of consecration were added to such vows of virginity from the 4th century onward, but the institution was absorbed into the solemn vows of enclosed religious orders during the flourishing of Christian monasticism in the high medieval period. The 1983 Code of Canon Law and the 1996 Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata by John Paul II speak of a reflourishing "Order of Virgins" (Ordo Virginum), the members of which represent an image of the church as heavenly Bride.

The number of consecrated virgins ranges in the thousands. While the Holy See does not keep official statistics, estimates derived from diocesane records range at around 5,000 consecrated virgins living in the world as of 2018.[2][3] In view of growing interest in the vocation, and of the upcoming 50th anniversary of its formal institution, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued the instruction Ecclesia Sponsae imago in July 2018.[4]

While consecrated virginity resembles monastic life, a consecrated virgin does not necessarily belong to a monastic community, but may continue to be a part of her local parish, under the authority of her bishop, in service to her home diocese.[5] Consecrated virgins should not be confused with consecrated anchorites or hermits, who have a different vocation.

History

Origins

Further information: Virgin (title), Chastity, Celibacy § Christianity, and Bridal theology
Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine (Barna da Siena, c. 1340)
Triumph of Chastity: an allegory of the virtue of Chastity is standing on a wagon drawn by two unicorns; her train of virgin is led by one holding a banner bearing the emblem of the the white weasel or ermine, symbol of chastity in medieval tradition (Master of the Paris Entries, c. 1500–1520).

The Christian concept has a precedent in the Vestal Virgins of ancient Roman religion. Chastity is one of the Seven Virtues in Christian tradition, listed by Gregory the Great at the end of the 6th century. Praise of chastity or celibacy, both male and female, as a religious virtue is already present in the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians, where Saint Paul suggests a special role for virgins or unmarried women (ἡ γυνὴ καὶ ἡ παρθένος ἡ ἄγαμος) as more suitable for "the things of the Lord" (μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου).[6] In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Pheaul alludes to the metaphor of the Church as Bride of Christ by addressing the congregation "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ".

In Christian hagiography, there are numerous accounts of pre-Nicaean virgin martyrs, such as Margaret of Antioch, Agnes of Rome, Euphemia of Chalcedon and Lucia of Syracuse.

In the theology of the Church Fathers, the prototype of the sacred virgin is Mary, the mother of Jesus, consecrated by the Holy Spirit at Annunciation.[7] Although not stated in the gospels, the perpetual virginity of Mary was widely upheld as a dogma by the Church Fathers from the 4th century. The tradition of the rite of consecration also dates to the 4th century. The first known formal consecration is that of Saint Marcellina, dated AD 353, mentioned in De Virginibus by her brother, Saint Ambrose. Another early consecrated virgin is Saint Genevieve (c. 422 – c. 512).

During the medieval period, the rite of consecration was maintained by nuns in monastic orders, such as the Benedictines and Carthusians. This consecration could be done either concurrently with or some time after the profession of solemn vows. Among Carthusian nuns, there is[year needed] the unique practice of these virgins being entitled to wear a stole, a vestment otherwise reserved to clergy. It has been speculated by scholars that this is a vestige of the Order of deacon.[citation needed] Saint Belina (d. 1153) is a medieval virgin martyr, canonized in 1203. Saint Margaret of Hungary (1242–1270) is a special case insofar as she received a separate consecration as a virgin in spite of already having taken monastic vows; this was done in order to dissuade her father, king Béla IV of Hungary, from trying to have her vows rescinded by the pope for the purposes of a political marriage.

Hali Meiðhad is a Middle English sermon directed at anchoresses or recluses, written ca. 1190 in the West Midlands of England, praising the virtues of virginity over worldly marriage. The anchoresses of the high and late medieval period were sometimes, but not necessarily, virgins; anchoresses could also be widows retiring from the world.[8]

In the later medieval period, the vocation as a spiritual "Bride of Christ" became very popular, although not officially sanctioned by the Church. In 12th and 13th western Europe, the Beguines were a popular movement of female Christian mystics focussed on the contemplation of mystic marriage with Jesus, the Heart of Jesus and baby Jesus. These women lived in communities called beguinages and were not sanctioned by the church They prefigure the modern order of consecrated virgins inasmuch as they "lived in the world" and pursued a chaste life contemplating mystical marriage with Jesus; like the anchoresses, they were not necessarily virgins, did not take vows, and could return to a secular life at a later point.[9] The Church attempted to regulate the popular movement, and rules for beguines were written in the mid 13th century. The beguines were dedicated to chastity, but as many of them were widows, they were not, collectively, dedicated to virginity. They were nevertheless referred to as "virgins" for their chastity, e.g. by Pope Gregory IX in his 1233 bull Gloriam virginalem, which formally placed under papal protection the "chaste virgins in Teutonia". Following this sanction, the Beguine movement became extremely popular in Germany. In the late medieval period, the Church tended to attempt to incorporate the beguines into existing monastic orders, with many beguines adopting the rule of the Franciscan Order. The official Church viewed with misgivings as the depiction of the mystic union with Christ was increasingly described in overtly sexual metaphors. At the Council of Vienne iof 1311/2, communities of lay religious women were banned, as part of the larger move towards the suppression of antinomianist mysticism (Heresy of the Free Spirit). Marguerite Porete was burned as a heretic in Paris in 1310 after she refused to recant her antinomianist descriptions of the extatic union of the soul with Christ in her The Mirror of Simple Souls.[10]

Catherine of Siena (c. 1347–1380, canonized in 1461), who at the age of twenty-one (c. 1368) experienced what she described in her letters as a "mystical marriage with Jesus". The artistic representation of the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine, extant in reference to Catherine of Alexandria in Catherine of Siena's lifetime, became an popular topic in religious art with reference to Catherine of Siena in the early modern period.

Modern history

The modern revival of the rite of the consecration of virgins in the Catholic Church is associated with Anne Leflaive (1899–1987). The consecration of virgins was still rarely practiced in France, and Leflaive was directed towards this vocation François de Rovérié de Cabrières, the bishop of Montpellier. She received the consecration in the chapel of Carmel at Paray-le-Monial on 6 January 1924, on her 25th birthday, by the bishop of Autun, Hyacinthe-Jean Chassagnon. In 1927, a decree by Pope Pius XI forbade this type of consecration, wishing to encourage candidates to join one of the sanctioned monastic orders. It was significantly due to Anne Leflaive's efforts over the following decades that the rite of consecration was re-instated in 1970. In 1939, Leflaive founded the secular Missionaries of Catholic Action, an institute of celibate women or widows living in the world, which was, however, suppressed in 1946. Beginning in the 1940s, Leflaive was in contact with Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII and with Giovanni Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, who were receptive to her ideas. During the 1950s, Leflaive visited Rome once a year in order to lobby at the Vatican for the re-instatement of the rite of consecration of virgins. Leflaive published Study of the Consecrations of Virgins in the Roman Pontifical in 1934, re-edited as Espouse du Christ in 1956, and as La Femme et l'Eglise in 1968. At a time where the Reformed confessions began to introduce the ordination of women, Leflaive strictly rejected such a possibility, arguing that "Christ and His Church offer to the woman a gift of great plentitude" in the form of the Consecration of Virgins, already inscribed in the Roman Pontifical.[11]

In 1950, Pius XII issued Sponsa Christi, an Apostolic Constitution addressing the vocation of consecrated women and their mystical engagement with Christ.

"Because of their consecration by the diocesan Bishop, they acquire a special bond with the Church, to which they devote their service, even if they remain in the world. Alone or in community they represent a special eschatological image of the heavenly bride and the future life, when the church will finally live the love of her bridegroom Christ in abundance."

In 1954, Pius cited Sponsa Christi his encyclical Sacra Virginitas as showing the importance of the office consecrated men and women fulfill in the Church.[12]

"This then is the primary purpose, this the central idea of Christian virginity: to aim only at the divine, to turn thereto the whole mind and soul; to want to please God in everything, to think of Him continually, to consecrate body and soul completely to Him."[13]

In 1963 the Second Vatican Council requested a revision of the rite of the consecration of virgins that was found in the Roman Pontifical.[14] The revised Rite was approved by Pope Paul VI and published in 1970.[15] This consecration could be bestowed either on women in monastic orders or on women living in the world, which revived the form of life that had been found in the early Church.[16]

The 1970 Ordo Consecrationis Virginum states the following requirements for women living in the world to receive the consecration: "that they have never married or lived in open violation of chastity; that, by their prudence and universally approved character, they give assurance of perseverance in a life of chastity dedicated to the service of the church and of their neighbor; that they be admitted to this Consecration by the Bishop who is the local Ordinary."[1]

Consecrated virgins living in the world belong to the consecrated life. They are not supported financially by their bishop, but must provide for their own upkeep. These women work in professions ranging from teachers and attorneys to that of firefighter.[17] Some lead lives of contemplation as hermits.

In 1972 Elizabeth Bailey became the first virgin to be consecrated under the new rite in England, and the first known consecrated virgin in Britain since the 3rd century. [18]

The number of consecrated virgins under the 1970 rite of consecration has grown into the thousands over the course of four decades. As of 2008, the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins (USACV) gave an "educated guess" of a total number of 3,000 consecrated virgins in 42 countries.[19] In a 2015 survey, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) established an estimated number of 4,000 consecrated virgins in 78 countries, with a growing tendency, with a projected increase to about 5,000 by 2020.[2]

The 1970 decree states as a requirement that candidates "have never married or lived in open violation of chastity", not the technical fact of virginity (which would for example exclude rape victims from the consecration). While the lack of a strict requirement of virginity was only implied by omission in the 1970 document, the Vatican on 4 July 2018 released a clarifying statement, explicitly conceding that

"to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practised the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible."

The statement was published in reaction to bishops requesting clarification due to the growing number of women showing interest in the vocation. The new clause leaves it to the "good judgement and insight" of the bishop to discern the suitability of a candidate to her vocation.[4] The US Association of Consecrated Virgins released a statement calling the new guidance "shocking" and "deeply disappointing" as well as "intentionally convoluted and confusing",

"The entire tradition of the Church has firmly upheld that a woman must have received the gift of virginity – that is, both material and formal (physical and spiritual) – in order to receive the consecration of virgins"[20]

Rite of consecration

By the rite of consecration the diocesan bishop sets the virgin apart as a sacred person.[21] The virgin who receives the consecration is elevated to the consecrated state, which she shares with religious and diocesan hermits. She becomes a member of the Order of Virgins, just as deacons belong to the Order of Deacons. The consecration of virgins living in the world is reserved to bishops alone because bishops represent Christ the bridegroom and it is to their care virgins are entrusted, who are the images of the church.

The approved liturgical rite whereby the bishop consecrates the candidate is by the solemn rite of Consecratio Virginium (Consecration of Virgins). The usual minister of the rite of consecration is the bishop who is the local ordinary. The consecrated virgin is committed to perpetual virginity and to leading a life of prayer and service, and is "strongly advised" to observe the Liturgy of the Hours.[1] The legislation outlining this, as it appears in the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church, says:[22]

Canon 604

§1. Similar to these forms of consecrated life is the order of virgins, who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church.
§2. In order to observe their commitment more faithfully and to perform by mutual support service to the Church which is in harmony with their state these virgins can form themselves into associations.

Notable consecrated virgins

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Ordo Consecrationis Virginum (31 May 1970), AAS 62 (1970) 650 = EDIL 2082-2092 = DOL 294 no. 3352. English translation: The Rites of the Catholic Church 2 (n. 29, p. 81), 132-164, DOL 395 nos. 3253-3262. See also: "Ordo Virginum-The Order of Virgins". Office for Religious- Archdiocese of Dublin. 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  2. ^ a b Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL), September 2015 survey. "A September 2015 survey sent by the to the 114 episcopal conferences around the world indicated that there are around 4,000 consecrated virgins in the Catholic Church, living in at least 78 countries. (It is worth noting that less than half— 42%— of the countries known to have consecrated virgins responded to the survey, so the actual numbers are likely higher.)" A Consecrated Virgin, July 2017)
  3. ^ Bernadette Mary Reis, "Church reproposes Order of Virgins 50 years after its restoration", Vatican News, 4 July 2018.
  4. ^ a b João Braz de Aviz, José Rodríguez Carballo, Instruction “Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago” on the “Ordo virginum”, published 4 July 2018, dated 8 June 2018 ("Approved by the Holy Father in an audience on June 8, 2018"). Paragraph 88: "In vocational guidance and when there is need to describe the characteristics of this vocation and the requirements for admission to consecration, the condition of virginity will be presented starting with the rich symbolism of its biblical foundations, within the framework of an anthropological vision solidly based on Christian revelation. On this basis the different dimensions, physical, psychological and spiritual, are integrated and considered in their dynamic connection to the lived history of the person and in openness to the unceasing action of divine grace that directs, guides and invigorates her on the path of holiness. As a treasure of inestimable value that God pours into clay vessels (cf. 2 Cor 4:7), this vocation is truly an undeserved gift. It encounters the person in her actual humanity, always in need of redemption and yearning for the full meaning of her existence. It finds its origin and dynamic centre in the grace of God, who unceasingly acts with the tenderness and the strength of his merciful love in the often complex and sometimes contradictory events of human life, helping the person to grasp her uniqueness and the unity of her being, enabling her to make a total gift of self. In this context it should be kept in mind that the call to give witness to the Church’s virginal, spousal and fruitful love for Christ is not reducible to the symbol of physical integrity. Thus to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practised the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible. The discernment therefore requires good judgement and insight, and it must be carried out individually. Each aspirant and candidate is called to examine her own vocation with regard to her own personal history, in honesty and authenticity before God, and with the help of spiritual accompaniment."
  5. ^ "Consecrated Virgins", Diocese of Ogdensburg
  6. ^ 1 Corinthians 7:34 "There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband." (KJV).
  7. ^ Pope Benedict XVI. "Address to the Participants in the International Congress of the Ordo Virginum", May 15, 2008, Libreria Editrice Vaticana
  8. ^ Mulder-Bakker gives five examples of the type of "free urban anchoresses" of 12th to 13th century northwestern Europe. Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, translated by Myra Heerspink Scholz, Lives of the Anchoresses. The Rise of the Urban Recluse in Medieval Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press (2005)
  9. ^ Labels and Libels: Naming Beguines in Northern Medieval Europe (Brepols, 2014)
  10. ^ “What’s in a Name? Clerical Tanya Stabler Miller, Representations of Parisian Beguines (1200-1328).” Journal of Medieval History 33, no. 1 (2007): 60-86.
  11. ^ Roux, Jacqueline, Anne Leflaive: Une vie pour la renaissance d’une vocation oubliée (2004), English summary: consecratedvirgins.org.
  12. ^ Pope Pius XII. Sacra Virginitas, §3, March 25, 1954, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
  13. ^ Pope Pius XII, Sacra Virginitatis, §15, March 25, 1954
  14. ^ Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, n. 80 Archived February 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, Decree promulgating the new rite for the consecration of a virgin, 31 May 1970, AAS 62 (1970) p. 650.
  16. ^ "It is a source of joy and hope to witness in our time a new flowering of the ancient Order of Virgins, known in Christian communities ever since apostolic times. Consecrated by the diocesan bishop, these women acquire a particular link with the Church, which they are committed to serve while remaining in the world. Either alone or in association with others, they constitute a special eschatological image of the Heavenly Bride and of the life to come when the Church will at last fully live her love for Christ the Bridegroom." Vita Consecrata, Apostolic Exhortation by Pope John Paul, 25 March 1996.
  17. ^ "Who are consecrated virgins? | United States Association of Consecrated Virgins". Consecratedvirgins.org. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  18. ^ Ann Treneman (1996-11-05). "The Vatican's virgin soldier | Lifestyle". The Independent. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  19. ^ "Who are consecrated virgins?", USACV website
  20. ^ Olivia Rudgard, "Consecrated virgins need not be virgins, says Vatican", The Telegraph, 16 July 2018.
  21. ^ "Consecrated Virgins", Diocese of La Crosse
  22. ^ sec1 tit1 CIC II.I De Christefidelibus, Can. 604 § 1. Hisce vitae consecratae formis accedit ordo virginum quae, sanctum propositum emittentes Christum pressius sequendi, ab Episcopo dioecesano iuxte probatum ritum liturgicum Deo consecrantur, Christo Dei Filio mystice desponsantur et Ecclesiae servitio dedicantur. § 2. Ad suum propositum fidelius servandum et ad servitium Ecclesiae, proprio statui consonum, mutuo adiutorio perficiendum, virgines consociari possunt.
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