point — Vermeersch, On Chastity
II. On the Aureole of Virgins
On the passage of Apocalypse 14:3-5.
158. - You will ask first what use can be made of Apocalypse 14:3-5 to demonstrate the aureole of virgins.
These are the words: "And they sang as it were a new canticle before the throne and before the four living creatures and the ancients; and no man could say the canticle but those hundred forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb; and in their mouth there was found no lie: for they are without spot before the throne of God."
Several holy Fathers 1 and more recent interpreters understood these words of virgins properly so called.
1 St. Cyprian, De habitu virginum, chapter 4 (M. 4, 44); St. Jerome, Epistle 22 to Eustochium, no. 41 (M. 22, 424-425), and book 1 Contra Iovinianum, no. 40 (M. 23, 269); St. Augustine, De sancta virginitate, chapter 27 (M. 40, 410).
Nevertheless, the tropological interpretation seems to be preferred. For the very men there are called virgins; and they are said to be those who have not been defiled with women: one would hardly say that anyone is defiled by the use of marriage, and this would be entirely foreign to the manner of speaking of the Sacred Scriptures. Therefore, by the name of virgins are here designated all who have preserved themselves immune from the contagion of the world, especially from impure love. But since idolatry is often called by the name of adultery, or impure love, those properly seem to be virgins who have been proved faithful to Christ, so that in their mouth no lie of apostasy has been found, and who have remained removed from the worship and corruption of idols.
Yet this difficult passage does not for that reason become useless to us. For in it a virgin is named as a type of purity and of fidelity preserved toward Christ. Furthermore, an accidental reward added to the essential reward is described both by that canticle which not all sing, even in heaven; then by that inseparable fellowship with Christ, whom the privileged can follow whithersoever He goes; and finally by the quality by which they are choice firstfruits to God and Christ.
It is established that the virginal aureole is to be admitted.
The demonstration of the virginal aureole is rather to be sought from the evangelical commendation of continence, from the persuasion of the Fathers and theologians, and from the liturgical usage by which the Church applies the cited words of the Apocalypse to virgins.
Conditions of the aureole.
159. - When God, the most wise provider and the most just appraiser of things, wills to allure men to a praiseworthy work by proposing a reward, He necessarily chooses a work which of itself is placed in our will, with His grace assisting, lest He seem to invite us in vain; which work then requires that it actually be done, and that from a formally good intention: for He crowns the human act. But a new condition would be added gratuitously, without a positive indication. For the work to which God has joined a reward, if it is done with a right intention, stands as worthy of its reward.
Further, from the first point, a defect of physical integrity cannot impede the virginal aureole.
From the second point, it is required that, insofar as it lies within our power, integrity of the flesh itself be present morally; that is, that no complete venereal pleasure have been voluntarily admitted. For, as we have seen, this immunity is the material element in virginity considered morally. Compare no. 140.
Is a vow necessary?
From the third point, it is required that this integrity be present not accidentally, but of itself, from an intention which is praiseworthy.
Therefore, integrity of the flesh joined to the purpose of perpetual virginity, or to integrity of mind, contains the necessary and sufficient conditions of the aureole.
Theologians agree concerning these conditions, except that some furthermore introduce the necessity of a vow. This necessity is thereby excluded, because this vow is extrinsic to the rationale of virginity.
Thus, while perpetual integrity of the body is required, it is sufficient that integrity of mind be recovered at the hour of death, since the purpose, as we have seen, can be restored. But does an intention of virginity then first conceived give a right to the aureole, when, all hope being lost, the hour is at hand in which, pressed by necessity itself, all the faithful, as someone used to say 2, make a religious profession? This seems to us very uncertain, and rather to be denied.
2 Most Illustrious D'Hulst. Compare his life written by Most Illustrious Baudrillart.
What must be said concerning infants who have died immaculate, without struggle? Will they obtain the aureole? This comes into controversy, which, arguments being deficient, cannot be resolved.
Loss of the aureole.
160. - Come now: all who even once have satiated the venereal appetite, or all who have lost virginity in an irreparable manner, are cast down from virginal dignity and deprived of the hope of the aureole. Compare what was said above, no. 142.
The detriments which a virgin suffers from first intercourse.
161. - Thus, in first intercourse, a virgin suffers a threefold corruption: one is bodily only, from the enclosures of modesty being broken; another, spiritual and bodily, from the pleasure which is generated in sense; and the third, finally, merely spiritual, from the fact that reason subjects itself to this pleasure. Compare St. Thomas, on book 4 of the Sentences, distinction 35, q. 3, art. 1.