I. On the Genuine Rationale of Catholic Virginity

139. - Virginity, by the consent of all, designates the vigor of uncorrupted flesh, or flesh immune from libidinous contact.

This virginity can be understood physically or morally, that is, in moral estimation. The latter can be divided into natural and moral.

1. Virginity accepted physically designates, in a broader sense, the integrity of the bodily member which, according to St. Thomas, has an accidental relation to virginity morally understood ¹. But since in the male there is no sign of integrity of this kind, virginity physically understood, in the stricter sense, is something proper to the female sex; and it designates that apparent integrity of the body which consists in the seal or virginal enclosure being preserved.

¹ St. Thomas, Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 152, art. 1.

But what is the virginal enclosure itself? Many, especially the more ancient authors, place it in the hymen, that is, in a sufficiently elastic membrane, regularly resembling a half-moon, by which the vagina of a virgin is generally almost entirely closed ²: this membrane, when preserved, proves of itself abstinence from carnal intercourse. But the hymen can be absent from birth, and can be broken from other causes; and, conversely, it is not always broken in the first acts of intercourse. Wherefore others place that enclosure in a certain contraction and compression by which the parts of the vaginal opening are constricted until they have been dilated by carnal intercourse.

² Compare Antonelli, Medicina pastoralis, I, 199.

This notion of virginity has no use in moral theology. Care must only be taken lest, deceived by the rationale of the enclosure, you rashly pronounce that a marriage has or has not been consummated.

2. We must now explain briefly how one arrives at the other notion, or virginity understood morally.

In the estimation of all, intercourse is the very defloration of a virgin by which bodily integrity is lost. In each sex, however, there are solitary acts or acts procured through the cooperation of another which, of themselves, signify the same operation in each individual and subjectively bring the same pleasure, but differ from intercourse in this respect: intercourse is the venereal use according to nature, which is rendered honorable in the conjugal state, while those other acts, exercised apart from intercourse, add malice against nature and are intrinsically evil.

Therefore, in moral estimation, integrity must be corrupted by acts of this kind in the same manner and for a stronger reason, although physically it may remain in the other sex.

Wherefore, in estimating virginity, regard is had for satiative pleasure more than for intercourse itself, and virginity understood morally is defined as: immunity from satiative pleasure.

Indeed, it is not repugnant that an unwitting girl be made pregnant even without intercourse, as, according to the testimony of a most reputable physician, happened to a seventeen-year-old daughter who, when she had used for washing the vagina water which her mother had previously used, became pregnant without fault and without pleasure. The water contained physiological serum, which is favorable both to mucous membranes and to the more prolonged life of spermatozoa. St. Thomas knows of such things. Compare Quodlibet 6, q. 10.

140. - Further, this virginity of the latter rationale is natural ³ or moral.

³ Compare Eschbach, Disputationes physiologico-theologicae, c. 2, art. 1.

Natural designates that immunity from satiative pleasure with which we are born and which, possessed without merit, we lose without fault through involuntary pollution.

Moral virginity, however, is the condition of one who has not yet admitted voluntary intercourse or pollution, and does not will to admit it, at least unless that person should marry. It is called moral because a moral act "is not considered of itself except according to those things which belong to the soul" ⁴.

⁴ St. Thomas, Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 152, art. 1.

This moral condition of virginity is referred to virginity as its material part, while the purpose of abstaining perpetually from satiative pleasure formally completes virginity ⁵. For this purpose presupposes stability.

⁵ St. Thomas, ibid.

141. - Virginity itself cannot be virtuous unless it acknowledges every obligation of chastity as binding upon itself.

Complete virginity, therefore, which is extolled with so many praises in the Church, presupposes and connotes moral integrity of the body, and a perpetual purpose of preserving this integrity and of not sinning lustfully against chastity ⁶.

⁶ We speak thus because one can also sin against chastity without any venereal pleasure. Take, for example, a man who, hired for money, persuades a woman to sin with another. But only culpable pleasure touches virginity.

142. - Once satiative intercourse or its pleasure has been admitted, both the purpose of virginity and, at least morally, the integrity of the flesh itself perish. This latter cannot be repaired. Hence the sayings of the Fathers: "I shall speak boldly: although God can do all things, He cannot raise up a virgin after her fall" ⁷. "If you lose this patrimony of most intact chastity, although you should do all those things which I have said, and should traverse heaven and earth, the seas and abysses and the immense air, by no means will you ever be able to recover it. For in what manner will that which has once been corrupted become incorrupt? By what rationale will she who has known a man be reckoned as though she had not known him?" ⁸.

⁷ St. Jerome, Epistle 22 to Eustochium, no. 5 (M. 22, 397). Compare also On Amos, book 2, chapter 5 (M. 25, 1036-1037).

⁸ Basil of Ancyra, De vera virginitatis integritate, no. 59 (M.P.G. 30, 787-788).

When imperfect lust has been committed, however, the chastity of the mind, or the formal element of the virtue, is indeed taken away. But, while the integrity of the flesh remains, the formal element of the virtue can be restored through penance.

Thus virginity can perish in an irreparable manner and in a reparable manner.

It is lost in an irreparable manner through every voluntary act of intercourse and through every voluntary pollution: whether it be voluntary in itself and therefore have been brought about by an exterior or interior act, or be imputed in a culpable cause which of itself is naturally apt to have this effect.

But what if a lustful contact is admitted from which pollution would have arisen unless something had accidentally prevented it? The moral malice of pollution is then contracted; nevertheless, because the integrity of the flesh has accidentally been preserved, we judge that the loss of virginity has occurred accidentally, but not in an irreparable manner.

It is lost in a reparable manner through the revocation of the purpose of virginity, for example, through the intention of celebrating matrimony according to the customary laws; through every merely interior sin of lust, or even an exterior but of itself incomplete sin, although pollution should have followed accidentally and beyond the intention; through complacency in a past pollution of which you were not the cause; indeed, unless we are mistaken, in a present pollution which is not imputable to you ⁹.

⁹ Eschbach thinks differently, d. 48, c. 2, no. 4.

It is not lost, however, through the lust of another which is imputed to you because of counsel or permission. For although you have thus sinned against chastity, nevertheless in itself you have conceded nothing to lust ¹⁰.

¹⁰ Illustrious Waffelaert, no. 123, nevertheless holds the contrary.

What if someone, before puberty, should commit lust completed in its own manner?

Cajetan ¹¹ denies that virginity has been lost in an irreparable manner, because the boy is incapable of inseminating; Lessius rather affirms it, provided that the boy enjoys the full use of reason. We would prefer to employ a distinction: to adhere to Lessius if the prepubescent person was capable of intercourse, although sterile, but to Cajetan if he was incapable of performing intercourse.

¹¹ On Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 152, art. 1.

143. - There formerly existed monasteries reserved for virgins who were solemnly consecrated to God. Compare the most beautiful rite in the Roman Pontifical (Part I, after the blessing of an abbess). This consecration is a sacramental reserved to the bishop.

Every woman who had retained the seal of virginity could be veiled, even if perhaps she had indulged in solitary lust: in the eyes of the Church she remained a virgin. But by no means was it permitted to veil a woman who had admitted voluntary intercourse, nor even one who had indeed been violated unwillingly, unless perhaps the matter had remained hidden. This matter is disputed.