On Feminism

To n. 680 bis. ON FEMINISM

1. The nobility of woman appears even from her first production. For in the first institution of things she was formed by God from man. Namely, this was done, as the Angelic Doctor says (1 p., q. 92, a. 2), "so that man would love woman more, and adhere to her more inseparably, when he knew her to have been produced from himself. Whence it is said in Gen. 2, 23 [printed: Gen. 9, 23]: She was taken from man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall adhere to his wife." The aforesaid nobility also appears from the end to which woman was ordered by God, namely as a help for man, as Scripture says, not indeed as a help for some other work, as certain men have said, since for any other work whatever man can more fittingly be helped by another man than by woman, but as a help for generation. S. Th. 1 p., q. 92, a. 1. Therefore the condition of woman is most noble when she furnishes help to man for completing human nature, and for constituting with him one principle of propagating and conserving the human race.

2. But woman, produced immediately by God, just as man was produced immediately by God, so that together they might be the principle of the human species, was in the direct intention of God, just as man himself was. Whence again appears the nobility and dignity of woman, destined from the intention of universal nature to the aforesaid propagation of the human race. "But the intention," says St. Thomas, "of universal nature depends on God, who is the universal author of nature; and therefore, in instituting nature, He produced not only the male but also the female." S. Th., 1 p., q. 92, a. 1.

3. Adam moreover, as the same St. Thomas has it, 1 p., q. 102, a. 4, was made outside paradise, then by the grace of God was transferred into it, to be transferred thence, after animal life, into heaven. But woman was made in paradise, on account of the dignity of the principle from which her body was formed. For it was formed from the rib of man. The Lord God built the rib, which He had taken from Adam, into a woman. Gen. 2, 22.

4. "It must be said," says St. Thomas, 1 p., q. 92, a. 3, "that it was fitting for woman to be formed from the rib of man. First indeed to signify that between man and woman there ought to be a social conjunction; for neither ought woman to dominate over man, and therefore she was not formed from the head; nor ought she to be despised by man, as though servilely subject; and therefore she was not formed from the feet. Secondly, on account of the sacrament; because from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross flowed the sacraments, that is, blood and water, by which the Church was instituted.... But that rib was of the perfection of Adam, not insofar as he was a certain individual, but insofar as he was the principle of the species."

5. Therefore it is clear that woman is not the handmaid and servant of man by the ordination of nature, but his associate; and therefore she leads domestic life with him. Nor indeed is it a valid objection that subjection was afterward introduced from sin, and that after sin it was said to woman: "You shall be under the power of man." Gen. 3, 16. For "subjection is twofold. One is servile, according to which the one presiding uses the subject for his own utility; and such subjection was introduced after sin. But there is another subjection, economic or civil, according to which the one presiding uses the subjects for their utility and good; and this subjection would have existed even before sin. For the good of order in the human multitude would have been lacking, if some had not been governed through others wiser than themselves. And thus from such subjection woman is naturally subject to man; because naturally discretion of reason abounds more in man. Nor is the inequality of men excluded by the state of innocence." 1 p., q. 92, a. 1 ad 2, q. 96, a. 4.

6. But this discretion of reason, more abundant in man, weaker in woman, certainly is not from a diversity of species between man and woman. Diversity of species is from form; and the form in man and woman is the human soul. Now the human soul of man and woman is the same in species. For one human soul does not differ from another except by reason of the diverse disposition of the body. Hence it is that one understands better than another, according to St. Thomas, 1 p., q. 85, a. 7. And hence also, according to the same St. Thomas, is the distinction of the sexes, male and female. 1 p., q. 99, a. 2.

7. The aforesaid subjection of woman under man is confirmed from the very fact of all centuries, as is evident from the history of the human race. It is also asserted and declared by Sacred Scripture. In Genesis 3, 16, at the beginning of the human race, it is said to woman: "You shall be under the power of man, and he shall rule over you." And St. Peter repeats the same, 1 Ep. 3, 16: "Let women be subject to their husbands ... just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord."

8. But since dominion of this sort of man over wife ought not to be despotic and tyrannical, but economic, as regards domestic matters, man at the same time is commanded both to love and to honor his own wife. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church." Thus St. Paul to Eph. 5, 25. And St. Peter, 1 Ep. 3, 7, says: "Husbands, likewise dwelling together according to knowledge, giving honor as to the weaker feminine vessel, as also to coheirs of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." As the authority of man is moderated by that love, so the subjection of woman is ennobled by this honor.

9. As regards domestic matters there is the dominion of the man; for, as regards the conjugal matter, husband and wife are of equal right. Whence it is clear, more than sufficiently, with how great reverence a man ought to treat his wife.

10. From this dominion of the man woman can withdraw herself, choosing virginity before marriage, and virginity is indeed more excellent than that marriage. Yet, although she is then constituted in this most excellent state of virginity, nevertheless she is far from becoming superior to man; indeed she does not even attain equality with man, but always remains in the natural condition of her inferiority. The matter concerns, as is clear, woman and man; not such a woman, such a man.

11. And here it must be noted that those women who, from religious devotion, do not wish to remain unmarried and to consecrate their virginity to God, regularly speaking, are destined by God to marriage; otherwise they would be exposed to several dangers as regards the eternal salvation of their own soul. St. Paul in 1 Tim. 4, 11 ff. asserts concerning younger widows that they think of nothing else except entering a new marriage, and therefore that marriage is to be entered by them. "For when," he says, "they have grown wanton in Christ, they wish to marry: having condemnation, because they have made void their first faith. At the same time also, being idle, they learn to go about houses: not only idle, but also talkative and curious, speaking things which they ought not. Therefore I will the younger to marry, to procreate children, to be mothers of families, to give no occasion to the adversary for the sake of reproach." And concerning woman generally the same Apostle says in chapter 2, 15: "But she shall be saved through the generation of children, if she shall have remained in faith, and love, and sanctification with sobriety."

12. Now then, if in the natural order man exercises dominion, and woman is subject in domestic society, man also is the one who in civil society, by the natural order, exercises rule and command. For civil society arises from domestic society, by the natural evolution and extension of this society. Likewise man, on account of the natural excellence of his talent and the greater strength of bodily powers, is destined by nature itself to exercise greater offices in civil society. It is indeed impossible to restrict the subjection of woman to the family. For man, in the very first creation of things, was constituted by God to preside over the whole earth, Gen. 1, 27, not woman, who did not yet exist; and when she had been made, she was constituted by God simply under the power of man, Gen. 3, 16. Hence the Apostle, in 1 Cor. 11, 7, says that man ... is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. And afterward the same Apostle deduces the inferiority of woman in the Church. And indeed the inferiority of woman in the family follows her into every other society that arises, because, as we have heard from the Angelic Doctor, naturally discretion of reason abounds more in man. Cases that can be objected to the contrary, especially of royal families, are altogether particular cases, which in no way can weaken the general doctrine. And thus the Abbesses of the place of Fontevrault, in France, who often were from the royal family, governed priories of men and women at the same time. Likewise there are various cases in which a female succeeds in a fief. Feuds, l. 4, tit. 104. But the general rule is altogether different. And it appears in all laws. In all laws of more recent right the condition of women is worse. And this is also expressly affirmed in Roman law. In L. 9, de Statu hominum, it is said: "In many articles of our law the condition of women is worse than that of males." And in L. 3, de Muneribus et honoribus, § 3, it is said: "Bodily munera are denied to women by sex itself."

13. But since woman is not without her own capacity of intellect, and also bodily power, she can well and usefully exercise several arts and businesses for which woman also has a special aptitude. In Eccli. 36, 27 it is said: "Where there is no woman, the sick man groans." "There are indeed many works," says Cajetan on S. Th. 1 p., q. 92, a. 1, "which are performed better by a woman than by a man, by reason of affection, greater custom, instruction, etc." And Aristotle, book 1, chapter 3, n. 4 of the Economics, says that some works are proper to the man, and others to the wife in the house; and in book 8 of the Ethics, chapter 12, n. 7, he says: "male and female are joined in human beings not only on account of the necessity of generation, as in other animals, but also on account of domestic life, in which there are different works of man and woman, and in which man is the head of woman." S. Th. 1 p., q. 92, a. 2.

14. Truly, although human nature and person is substantially the same in man and in woman, nevertheless there are several accidental differences, as regards the intellectual, moral, physical order, between man and woman, since their organization is not evolved in the same way in them, nor operates in the same way. Hence the disposition of man and woman is regularly diverse. The former undertakes laborious and dangerous things; he handles grave, difficult, and involved businesses. The latter sustains adversities with greater patience, and dispatches lighter and easier businesses with greater care and diligence. Hence it naturally follows that just as woman is under the protection and guardianship of man, so also she is under his subjection, and, speaking per se, woman cannot insert herself into those works which are proper to men. Nevertheless she can well exercise the arts and offices suitable to herself, which do not impede the office of mother of a family. And indeed this is not only lawful, but altogether praiseworthy, and also now necessary, with attention to the condition of present society. Surely all those women would be praiseworthy who, for promoting the due education of children and procuring the sustenance of the family, bring assistance by their own labor to their husbands; if, when their husbands have ceased from labor by sickness, old age, or another cause, they alone sustain the whole family by their own industry. The same, as is clear, will be much more necessary for those women who do not marry; nor can all marry, since women are more numerous than men, which happens on account of various and continuous causes, although almost as many men are born as women. They themselves are bound to provide for the necessities of their own life, when they lack family goods, and very many are destitute of the goods of fortune.

15. Wherefore the education and instruction of women can well exceed the limits of domestic things, whether as regards lower arts to be exercised outside the home, or as regards learning the more humane letters, so that they may exercise teaching, or even as regards completing higher studies, so that they may exercise some office of greater importance. Women can well be employed in hospitals for caring for sick women, in the institution and government of boarding schools for the education and instruction of girls, in secondary and lesser offices of private businesses, or even of public administrations. But primary and greater offices, such as public munera which regard the government of the state, the handling of political affairs, the administration of justice, are altogether foreign to women. "Women," says Ulpian, L. 2 de Regulis Iuris, "are removed from all civil or public offices, and therefore they can neither be judges, nor bear magistracy, nor plead, nor intervene for another, nor exist as procurators." In this rule civil and public offices are openly distinguished, and rightly: for public offices are also civil; not, conversely, are all civil offices public. But offices are called public not by reason of the end or place, but by reason of authority, namely those which are exercised with public authority; two examples of this sort are recalled in the aforesaid rule: to be a judge, and to bear magistracy with jurisdiction and command, from the discharge of which women are prohibited. But civil offices are those which are carried out in the sight of citizens and exceed the mode of domestic care; three examples of this sort are recalled in the same rule: to plead or advocate, to intercede for another, namely by a certain judicial work, and to exist as a procurator, from the discharge of which women also are prohibited.

16. The question in particular is made concerning the office of advocate publicly exercised. But that this does not befit a woman is clear from the highest difficulty of natural and positive law, and from the still greater difficulty of applying laws to particular cases; and also from the natural distraction which the pleading of a woman, especially if she were ingenious, would cause in the mind of the judges. Hence in L. 18 de Procuratoribus C. it is openly said: "To undertake the defense of another is a manly office, and it is established to be beyond the feminine sex."

17. Hence also the office of public procurator or fiscal is a manly office. But nothing can prevent a woman also from acting for others from charity or from piety. And thus L. 41 de Procuratoribus ff. establishes thus: "Women are sometimes permitted to act for parents, the cause having been known, if perhaps sickness or age impedes the parents, and they have no one who may act." Similarly the office of arbiter is a manly office, and much more that of judge. In L. Fin. Cod. de Receptis arbitris it is said: "We decree that women, mindful of their own modesty and of the works which nature has permitted to them, and from which it has commanded them to abstain, even if they have been constituted of the highest and best reputation, if they have undertaken arbitration in themselves, or if they have been patronesses, even if they have interposed their hearing between their freedwomen, are to be separated from every judicial company, so that from their election no penalty, no exception for the party, may be had against their just contemners."

18. Much less also do those offices suit women which are not exercised without public struggles, without a thousand artifices, and are not rightly exercised without most ample knowledge of public affairs and international affairs. The gentle disposition of women, the weakness of their talent, their domestic life, abhors these political offices, as also military offices. "Women," says St. Thomas (on 1 Cor. c. 14, lect. 7), "are subject, and do not preside, because they are defective in reason, which is especially necessary for one presiding. And therefore the Philosopher says, Politics 1, 4, c. 11, that corruption of government exists when government comes to women."

19. But the office of physician, unless it concerns exercising the art of obstetrics and perhaps curing diseases of women, certainly does not befit woman's modesty, and the fragility of her body and soul; "nor," as Albert the Great says, "would she honestly run about from town to town." Albert. Magn., In Evang. Matth. 1-21, Works, vol. 20, p. 52, ed. Paris, 1893.

20. If it is shameful, as is had in Deut. 25, 5, for a woman to be clothed in male dress, it is more shameful for a woman to exercise male offices. It is certainly most shameful for a woman that she wishes to be a man, as for a man that he wishes to be a woman. The Imperial Constitution of Leo 48, That Women Should Not Furnish Testimony in Contracts, has these things among others: "A frequent coming before the eyes of men is a dishonor to a woman, but a modest and honorable woman brings about the avoidance of the same thing.... To what end would the testimony of women go forth into public businesses? And indeed how, apart from immense absurdity, does this not also contain a confusion of the boundaries of nature by which the male and female sex are determined?... For what else will this be except an insult, and indeed a very grave one, if the female sex also should proceed to those things, the handling of which is especially proper to men?"

21. The office which seems especially to suit women is the office of instructress of boys and girls. This office, if at the same time it joins both the teaching of letters and, for girls, also domestic and feminine labors, is exercised by women with the greatest utility. It is their proper office; for it closely approaches the office of mother of a family and assists and supplies it. And woman, as was already said at the beginning, from the general intention of nature was destined for the help of man in the procreation and education of children.

22. Therefore opportunity is to be given to women, so that those who are strong in talent and fitness can apply themselves not only to domestic but also to extradomestic cultivation, whether as regards undertaking higher studies of letters and sciences, or as regards learning lower arts. Wherefore, both for protecting the natural modesty of women and for averting dangers against religion and good morals, which would be had from common association with males, special schools and academies for their instruction, and special workshops, should be instituted, which in reality is already done in some places. And for this same reason they themselves afterward should always perform labors and offices in places separated from men, as far as can be done. But they should never be burdened with excessive labor, nor, because they are women, should they be defrauded of a just wage; in this matter it belongs to civil law to protect them.

23. Before we pass to other things, it is worthwhile to confirm by the authority of St. John Chrysostom the things that have been set forth thus far. For in the Homily: Praise of Maximus, and What Sort of Wives Are to Be Taken, par. 4, the holy Doctor most accurately reviews the proper offices of man and woman, as though he were writing today concerning the arisen question of feminism: "Woman," he says, "has one office, to guard what has been acquired, to preserve revenues and care for the domestic matter; for on this account God gave her, that in this matter and in the others she may be a help to us. For since this life of ours consists of two things, private matters and public matters, God assigned to each its own part: to the feminine sex indeed the care of the domestic matter, but to men public businesses, forensic affairs, senatorial judgments, military affairs, and finally all the rest. A woman cannot whirl a spear or hurl a dart; but she can take the distaff, and weave cloth, and splendidly undertake the other businesses. She cannot pronounce an opinion in the senate; but she can pass judgment concerning the family matter, and often she has looked after domestic matters better than the husband. She cannot administer public matters; but she can beautifully educate children, which indeed is the principal possession: she can detect the misdeeds of maidservants, and keep the household in its duty, furnish other securities to her husband, and free him from solicitude, while she herself cares at home for the pantry, the work of wool, the kitchen, the beauty of garments, and the other things neither becoming to males nor easy, if they should wish to usurp them for themselves. For this also is of divine providence, that he who is useful in greater businesses is found worse in lesser ones, so that the work of women is necessary. For if in both things the man excelled, the feminine sex would easily be despised; on the contrary, if in the more excellent things there were greater use of women, they would be full of insolence. Wherefore He did not commit both to one, lest the condition of the other sex become worse, as superfluous; nor nevertheless did He distribute offices equally, lest among those equal in honor a contention over primacy arise, with wives not deigning to yield prerogative to men. But so that He might provide both for concord and for becomingness, He distributed in order to each sex its own functions, so that the more useful and more necessary part should fall to the man, but the lesser and inferior to the woman; and he indeed, on account of his principal use, would become honorable; but she, on account of the lower ministries, would not rise up against her husband." And in Homily 61, otherwise 60, Migne, vol. 8, col. 419 ff., the same holy Doctor teaches: "that the man, in the middle of the forum and before the tribunal, is agitated by external things, as by waves; but the woman ... sits at home ... enjoys perpetual tranquility ... and calms and restrains the husband arriving disturbed.... Certainly nothing is stronger than a pious and prudent woman for forming a man, and instructing his soul as she wishes. He will not bear friends, not teachers, not princes, in the same way as a wife admonishing and giving counsel. For such admonition is joined with a certain pleasure, because she is much loved."

24. And these things thus far concerning the natural order. Let us now make a step to the supernatural order. From civil society let us pass to the Church, from earth to heaven.

25. Man indeed glories in Jesus Christ, our Lord, eternal King and Savior of the world. Woman glories in the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady, Queen of heaven, and Mediatrix before God. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven in soul and body. The Blessed Virgin Mary also was assumed into heaven in soul and body.

How great indeed is the dignity and nobility of some family, if in its offspring some greatest Prince, King, Emperor is numbered. Hence the supreme honor done to the human race by God is easily clear: hypostatically assuming to Himself human nature in the Person of the Only-begotten Son of the Father. And the Word was made flesh. John 1, 14. Now, if the Son of God assumed man, whence man is from this most honored, the same Son of God was born of a woman; whence woman also is in great honor. All generations shall call me blessed. Luke.

26. Christ died for women equally as for men. And if St. John stood beside the Cross of the Lord, beside the same Cross of the Lord stood also the Blessed Virgin Mary and other pious women. And Christ, rising from the dead, manifested Himself to women equally as to men, and first appeared to His Most Blessed Mother and to Mary Magdalen. If the Apostles, if the Disciples followed Christ teaching, most pious women also heard Him teaching with docility, solicitously ministered to Him, and followed Him all the way to burial. And even after the death and burial of Our Lord Jesus Christ, women are those who appear with the greatest honor, bearing before themselves no slight love and fortitude of soul.

27. And after Christ's Ascension into heaven, the Apostles of Christ themselves "were persevering unanimously in prayer with the women and with Mary His mother and His brethren." Acts 1, 14. To the Samaritan woman, for the first time, Christ explicitly asserted that He was the promised Messiah: "I am He, who speak with you." John 4, 26. Likewise the first miracle performed by Christ was at the wedding of Cana of Galilee, "and He manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him." John 2. But Christ most greatly extols the condition of woman, not only by His presence at the wedding, but by elevating marriage to the supernatural dignity of a sacrament, and, with divorce and polygamy abrogated, establishing the unity and indissolubility of marriage.

28. But in the course of the centuries, as very many men shine with distinguished sanctity, very many women also gleam with most excellent sanctity. In the Canon of the Mass, male martyrs are celebrated; women martyrs also are commemorated with no lesser praise. Also in the Litanies of the Saints, holy men and holy women are invoked.

29. In the Church, however, women are indeed in an inferior condition. They are altogether excluded from the hierarchy of the Church. Just as they lack the sacred power of order, so also they lack ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and are kept away from the sacred ministry of the apostolate. The solemn edict of the Apostle is: "Let a woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I do not permit a woman to teach ... but to be in silence." 1 Tim. 2, 11, 12. And again: "Let women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak, but to be subject, as the law also says." 1 Cor. 14, 34. "But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church." Ib. v. seq. But several women also have been chosen by God, so that by their work both the glory of God and the salvation of souls in the Church might be promoted. St. Bridget, St. Clare, St. Teresa, St. Gertrude, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, and very many other most holy and most zealous women, in a wonderful way cooperated by their prayers and by their works for procuring the salvation of souls, and for the prosperity and increase of the Church. Several men indeed founded religious orders of men for the assistance of the Church; but several women also founded religious orders of women, to the great adornment of the Church. How many and how great works of pious beneficence and Christian charity do the more recent Institutes of women exercise, which tend only to the good of souls and to propagating the Name of Jesus Christ! Religious Sisters, who have truly maternal care of the aged, who furnish diligent assistance even to the sick with contagious diseases, who receive into hospices orphan girls destitute of every human help, who impart women's labors and literary and religious instruction to young women of the common people as well as to noble young women, who move about among the soldiers themselves in the fields of war, rivaling and surpassing the fortitude of soldiers: are they not rightly and deservedly the most worthy helpers of the priests themselves and of apostolic missionaries? Certainly they are heroic virgins, associates of heroic men, whose lamps shine day and night, lit and gleaming with the flames of distinguished charity.

30. Formerly there were also deaconesses in the Church, who were consecrated not only for preserving chastity, but also for undertaking certain ecclesiastical offices. These offices were exercised concerning women and were analogous to the offices of deacons concerning men. They were instituted by the Apostle himself, who in the First Epistle to Timothy, chapters three and five, teaches the qualities and requisites of deaconesses, corresponding to the qualities and requisites of deacons, and in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter sixteen, commends "Phoebe our sister, who is in the ministry of the church, which is in Cenchreae," that is, who was a deaconess, a deacon of the Church. And immediately the Apostle adds: "That you receive her in the Lord worthily of the saints; and assist her in whatever business she shall need of you: for she also has assisted many, and me myself." Therefore the Apostle commends Phoebe not only because she is our sister, that is, on account of the communion of faith and Religion, but also on account of her ministry, with the Church, that is, the congregation of Christian faithful; nor only because she is holy, but also because she brought help to many Christians, and to Paul himself. Moreover, in the same Epistle and the same chapter, besides several other men, he also salutes distinguished women, on account of their distinguished labor and conspicuous works: "Salute Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ, who for my life laid down their own necks." Prisca and Aquila, wife and husband, were helpers of Paul in announcing the Gospel, because they devoted their work to propagating the faith. Nor this only, but they exposed themselves to danger of death for saving the life of Paul. Likewise Paul salutes "Mary, who labored much," namely toward the Romans in introducing the Gospel, and had studied much and was inclined toward procuring their spiritual salvation.

He likewise salutes "Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord ... Persis the most dear, who labored much in the Lord." And he adds: "Salute Rufus, elect in the Lord, and his mother and mine." This labor in the Lord is work which is furnished by the faithful for the Gospel of Christ, and which these women had excellently furnished. Moreover he calls the mother of Rufus also his own, because he had received benefits from her, and because she was a help to Paul as to her own son according to the flesh.

31. Therefore, as regards procuring one's own sanctity and obtaining eternal glory, there is indeed no distinction between man and woman. In Christ "there is neither male nor female. For all are one in Christ." Gal. 3, 28. The destination of man and woman to faith, to grace, to glory, is the same. Each, man and woman, can acquire the filiation of God and can take possession of the inheritance of eternal life. Each, man and woman, can aspire and come both to common sanctity and to Christian perfection. Whence the offices and rights of both as regards procuring the salvation of their own soul are the same. Both man and woman have their place among the Angels in the kingdom of heaven. And then "they shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven." Therefore the true nobility and dignity of woman is to be derived from the doctrine of the Church, and by no means from the erroneous tenets of more recent materialism and epicureanism. It was indeed the Christian Religion which restored, I would say, a human condition to all human beings, defended and propagated the true civilization of cities, and against the monstrous servitude of men always labored as much as it could, by word and deed. And the defense especially of women, and the guardianship and increase of their dignity, is indeed chiefly owed to the Church. For, as the diligent guardian of the doctrine of its founder, who teaches that all, both men and women, have been created from the same origin, redeemed by the same price, and all called to the same eternal beatitude, it has always undertaken also to defend the cause of women. If woman in past ages was oppressed and treated as a handmaid, and almost as a thing, and only as an instrument of pleasure, nevertheless the Church always held her in honor, and always defended her honor, with polygamy destroyed, purely civil marriage proscribed, and the sanctity of marriage constantly preached. By the unceasing zeal of the Church the pious works of Religion and Christian charity have always grown and do grow for the assistance of girls, widows, and all women, for their religious education and instruction in letters and arts, and also for protecting their modesty and for passing life honorably. All women ought to celebrate the Church; they ought always to praise and exalt it with those words of the Jewish people directed to Judith: You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you are the honor of our people. From you is our glorious name, from you our joyful life, from you the highest honor is born to us. "And the daughters of Judah rejoiced." Ps. 96, 9.