De Institutione Virginis Et Sanctae Mariae Virginitate Perpetua

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, On the Training of a Virgin and the Perpetual Virginity of St. Mary, to Eusebius. A Single Book. Chapter One. Parents rightly have greater concern for a consecrated virgin than for the rest of their offspring. How excellent is that consecration: especially concerning silence, which commends the modesty of virginity no less than the Church, whose whole glory is within, and which it is fitting to imitate in prayer. You commend to me your pledge, which is equally mine, Ambrosia, consecrated to the Lord; and with pious affection you claim for yourself a greater solicitude for her than for the rest of your children. And indeed it is so in a faithful mind; for you train the others so that you may send them from home and join them to strangers, but this one you will always have with you: in the others you enjoy the bond of paternal affection; in this one you go beyond a father, and advance in vow and zeal that she may please God. Since this is the more excellent cause of vows, yet she alone may discharge whatever you owe for herself and for all your children.

This is the sacrifice which Abel offered from the first offspring of his sheep (Gen. 4:4). This also the Apostle praises above others, saying to the Corinthians: "For he who has set in his heart firmly, and has judged in his heart to keep his virgin, does well. Therefore, both he who joins his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not join her does better" (1 Cor. 7:37-38). Hence, beautifully, David, after he had described the grace of the Church, whose entire glory is within, not without (for in good thoughts, and in the immaculate affection of chastity, and in the sincere purpose of conscience lies the highest praise), subjoined, saying: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her" (Ps. 44:15-16). And turning to the Lord Father: "Her neighbor," he says, "shall be brought to you: they shall be brought in joy and exultation, they shall be led into the temple of the king." Who is the neighbor, if not she who draws near to Christ, to whom the Word says: "Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove; for behold, winter has passed" (Song 2:10-11)? Before she received the Word of God, it was winter, dishonorable, without fruit: when she received the Word of God, and the world was crucified for her, it became summer. Finally, breathed upon by the fervor of the Holy Spirit, she began to be a flower, and to breathe forth the odor of faith, the fragrance of chastity, the sweetness of grace.

Hence elsewhere he adds: "Your eyes are doves beyond your silence" (Song of Songs 4:1), because she is entirely spiritual and simple as a dove, in whose form the Holy Spirit was seen by John to descend, so that she sees spiritual things and knows how to keep silent the mysteries she has seen. For it is no small virtue to be silent; for there is a time for silence, just as there is a time for speaking, as it is written: "The Lord gives me a tongue of learning, that I may know when it is fitting to speak a word" (Isaiah 50:4). Therefore, modesty is a certain dowry of virginity, which is commended by silence. Hence the glory of the Church is within, not indeed in much speaking, but in the senses or in the inner chambers of the sacraments, as she herself says to the Bridegroom: "Who will give you to me as a brother nursing at my mother's breasts? I will find you outside, I will kiss you, and indeed you will not spurn me. I will take you and lead you into my mother's house, and into the secret place of her who conceived me" (Song of Songs 8:1-2). And above she says: "The king brought me into his chamber" (Song of Songs 1:4).

Outside, the Church kisses Christ, and is led by him into the bridal chamber. He kissed her outside, when, as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, he rejoiced like a giant to run the course (Psalm 18:6). As a giant he is outside, because, not deeming it a robbery to be equal to God, he took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). Therefore, he who was within became outside. See him within when you read that he is in the bosom of the Father: recognize him outside when he seeks us, to redeem us. He became outside for himself, that he might be within for me, and become the mediator between us. Let us therefore be where Christ is the mediator, rooted and fixed in our hearts. And so, as he himself commands: "When you pray, go into your room" (Matthew 6:6), and pour out your soul over yourself; your room is your inner secret, your room is your conscience. Finally, Ecclesiastes says to you: "And do not curse the king in your conscience, and in the inner chambers of your rooms do not curse the rich man with a curse" (Ecclesiastes 10:20). Therefore pray there and pray in secret, so that he who hears in secret may hear you: and pray without anger and dispute, having renounced the hidden shame (1 Timothy 2:8): for the just man fears not the betrayal of a crime, but the contagion.

CHAPTER II. That prayer ought to begin with the praises of God, and after setting forth our petitions, to conclude with acts of thanksgiving. It is commended by the same peace and tranquility; on which occasion the Gospel passage is explained as clearly as possible, which virgins are commanded to observe. How good is prayer with mercy! Good prayer is that which keeps order, so that we begin first with divine praises. For if, when we deal with a man, we wish to make the judge well-disposed, how much more when we entreat our Lord! First, therefore, let us offer to God the sacrifice of praise; whence also the Apostle says: "I beseech, therefore, first of all, that prayers, supplications, petitions, and thanksgivings be made" (1 Timothy 2:1). Let the eighth Davidic psalm teach this, which began with the praises of God: "Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name in the whole earth! For your magnificence is raised above the heavens. From the mouths of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise" (Psalm 8 and following). Thus far is prayer: then follows supplication, that the enemy be destroyed: petition, that he may see the moon and stars; the moon being the Church, the stars the children of the Church, shining with the light of heavenly grace: and what he asks, he promises with prophetic spirit that he will see: thanksgiving, that the Lord protects man, and confirms this lowliest of our bodies by divine visitation; or that he has subjected all kinds of living things to man.

Similarly, the Lord’s Prayer contains everything, which it is not necessary to set forth in common speech. But you who read, recognize how you ought to distinguish; especially, however, as I have said, prayer is to be commended, as I have premised, with placidity of mind and tranquility; so that each person may be consistent and harmonious with himself, and that which is written may come to pass: If two of you agree upon the earth, concerning any matter whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done by the shining Father, who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst (Matt. 18:19, 20). Who are these two, if not the soul and the body? Whence also Paul chastised his flesh and reduced it to servitude (1 Cor. 9:27); so that the flesh might be subject to the soul as to an empress, and obey the commands of the mind; lest there be in one man dissension, and he wage war within himself, and the law of the body resist the law of the mind. Therefore, he joined these two diverse things by a certain reason and peace, according to what he himself asserted, saying: Because Christ is our peace, who made both one, and dissolved the middle wall of the hedge, the enmities in his flesh (Eph. 2:14); so that it would not do what it did not wish, and would not do what it hated. These, then, are the two, the soul and the flesh. Whence also David says: I will not fear what the flesh may do to me (Ps. 55:5), knowing it to be the adversary of his soul.

These two, however, to express more clearly, are not only two, but also two men, one interior, the other exterior. If these two concur with equality of purpose, so that thoughts agree with deeds and deeds with thoughts, the wheel of our life will turn without any offense, as it is written: "Let the voice of your thunder be in the wheel" (Ps. 76:19). Therefore these two are one; and not only one, but one man. Whence also the Apostle says: That he might unite the two in one man, making peace and reconciling both in one body, to God, by the cross slaying the enmities within himself... so that in both we may have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2 and following). There are also two men, the old and the new. The old one, liable to sin and worn out, and like an old garment rubbed and torn, whom we nail to the cross in baptism. Whence the Apostle says: "That our old man was nailed to the cross at the same time, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we no longer serve sin" (Rom. 6:6). Therefore the old is nailed, so that it may die to sin; so that the new may rise, who is renewed by grace. We have spoken of the two.

Perhaps someone may say: What do you say about three, since Scripture has it thus: "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst" (Matt. 18:20)? Here too the reason is manifest; because the same Apostle says: "But may the God of peace sanctify you through and through, so that your whole spirit and soul and body may be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23). Therefore, where these three are whole, there Christ is in their midst: He who governs and rules these three within, and composes them in faithful peace. Therefore, the virgin should above all keep these three things whole within herself, so that she gives no complaint against sacred virginity, and is unoffending, without wrinkle, without stain. Concerning which, although we have spoken in more frequent books, nevertheless, because of the pledge we remember, we have judged that this book should be written to you. CHAPTER III. That the female body is not to be blamed, since so many gifts were conferred upon it by God: For God did not approve man immediately at the moment he was created, both because his dignity consists not in the body but in the soul and in the divine image, and because man is to be praised only in the whole work at its end, and finally because woman, who was formed from him, had not yet been created, who together with him was to express the figure of a great mystery; from which she herself is declared to have received her name.

Good is virginity, which not only absolves both sexes from sin but also provokes them to grace. Yet we often accuse the female sex of having introduced the cause of error, and we do not consider how much more justly the reproach is turned back upon us. For if we go back to the beginning and question the origins of things, we shall investigate how much was granted to her, and how, in the miserable fragility of the human condition, the woman nevertheless found grace. For when God had praised all his works—heaven, earth, seas, night and day—that one had advanced for the use of labor, the other for the fruit of rest, and he had praised the wild beasts; when it came to man, he alone seems not to have been praised, for whose sake all things were generated (Gen. 1 and following). What then is the cause, unless perhaps it is this: that other things are in their species, but man is in the hidden? In beasts you find nothing more than what is seen; in man there is nothing lower than what is seen; for since he consists of soul and body, that which is seen serves in him, while that which is not seen rules in him.

Rightly, therefore, are other things praised at the outset, but praise of this one is not brought forth but reserved; because the grace of others is external, but of this one it is internal: of others in birth, of this one in the heart. For what is so high and so deep as the mind of a man, which is covered and hidden as if by some covering of the body, so that one can hardly look into and examine it? Therefore, a man is not praised beforehand, because he is not to be judged by his outward skin, but by the inner man, and thus is to be proclaimed: whom the apostle Peter beautifully delineated, saying that the man of the heart is hidden in the incorruption of a quiet and modest spirit, who is rich before God (1 Pet. 3:4). Rightly, therefore, is it deferred, so that its praise may follow with interest: whose delay is not a loss, but an increase. Therefore, let no one despise himself as if base, nor judge himself by the sight of the body. For even if holy Job said: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked I shall go hence" (Job 1:21), he nevertheless had something by which he was found rich not only among men, but also before God.

What, moreover, is richer than that which is in the image and likeness of God? But it is the inner man that is in the image, not this outer one: that man who is estimated by sense, not comprehended by the eyes. That man, therefore, is to be regarded by us, who is investigated more seriously. For this reason God did not think the construction of man was to be praised, because the greater portion of him lies in virtue. The appearance is indeed splendid, and more excellent than that of other living beings; but irrational things are judged by bodily appearance; those, however, which are full of reason should set aside common praise. Therefore, let man be admired and excel for me not so much by his face as by his disposition, so that he is praised in those things in which even God is praised by prophetic judgment, concerning whom it is written: "Terrible in his counsels over the sons of men" (Ps. 65:5): whose works shine before God, who weaves together good deeds with constant works; and therefore his praise is not at the beginning, but at the end: for no one is crowned unless he has legitimately contended. Therefore the Wise Man says to you: "Do not praise any man before his death" (Ecclus. 11:30). For what reason he said this, he explained in the preceding verses, saying: "Because at the end of a man his works are laid bare" (ibid., 29). 12. Let us consider the third point, in which God manifested his judgment; for when he had made man and placed him in paradise to work and to guard, he said that it was not good for man to be alone. "Let us make," he says, "a helper for him, like himself" (Gen. 2:18).

Without woman, therefore, man has no praise; in woman he is praised. For when it says that it is not good for man to be alone, it certainly confirms that the human race is good, if the female sex joins the male sex. 13. At the same time, consider this: that he was made from earth and mud, she from man. And flesh is indeed mud; but he is still unformed, she is formed. Let us now summon that illustrious Apostolic example, which we have written: that a man will leave his father and mother, and will cleave to his wife, and they will be two in one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I say in Christ and in the Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). We therefore note that through woman that ecclesial mystery was fulfilled, that grace was figured in her, on account of which Christ descended, and that eternal work of human redemption was accomplished. Whence also Adam called the name of his woman Life (Genesis 2:23); for among peoples, through woman the series and propagation of human succession is spread, and through the Church eternal life is conferred.

CHAPTER IV That the sin of the woman was lighter than that of the man is proved by the disparity of sex, the nature of the temptation, the divine sentence, and the responses of both. After this, remedies against the temptations of women are prescribed for men, especially the imitation of their fasting. We certainly cannot deny that the woman erred. Yet why be surprised if the weaker sex erred and fell, when even the stronger fell? The woman has an excuse in her sin; the man does not. She, as Scripture asserts, was deceived by the most wise of all serpents; you, by a woman. That is, a superior creature deceived her; an inferior one deceived you. For a woman deceived you; an evil angel, though still an angel, deceived her. If you could not resist an inferior, how could she resist a superior? Your fault absolves her. If you doubt the merit of the fault, let us ask the sentence. To her it was said: "In sadness you will bear children, and your conversion is to your husband, and he himself will rule over you" (Gen. 3:16). To the man, however, it is said: "You are earth, and to earth you will go" (Gen. 3:19). And truly it is a just sentence, since if Adam could not keep what he had heard from the Lord God, how could the woman keep what she heard from her husband? If the voice of God did not confirm him, how could a human voice confirm her?

Finally, when Adam was confronted, because he had tasted contrary to the divine precepts which he had heard in his presence, he had nothing to say except that the woman had given to him and he had eaten; but the woman said, "The serpent led me astray, and I ate" (Gen. 3:13). How much greater is the woman's exoneration! He is accused, she is questioned. Add to this that she also confesses her fault first; for she who says she was led astray testifies to error. Therefore, confession is the remedy for error. In the judgment itself, how much more merciful the woman is than the man! He accused his wife; she accused the serpent, that is, though not accused, she did not hurl back the crime: but she preferred, if possible, to absolve her own accuser rather than to bind him. Thus you have both the absolution of guilt in confession, and of the sentence in its execution. "In sadness," it says, "you will bear children." She acknowledges the weight of her condemnation, she carries out the duty of her penal condition. For you, woman, she fights with her pains, and finds reward from punishment; so that through the children by whom she is afflicted, she is freed. Grace has thus been made from injury, salvation from infirmity; for it is written: "Because she will be saved through the generation of children" (1 Tim. 2:15). Therefore, she gives birth with salvation to those whom she brought forth in sadness: and she raises to praise those whom she bore with pain.

But you say, O man, that woman was a temptation for man. That is true. Yet if she is beautiful, behold another temptation. Nevertheless, for Abraham descending into Egypt, his wife’s beauty did not harm him; rather, it benefited him, for he was honored through his wife, not held in mockery on account of her (Gen. 12:16). Why, then, do you seek beauty of face in a wife more than character? Let a wife please by honesty more than by beauty. Let her be chosen who resembles Sarah in character. It is not the woman’s fault to be what she is born; but it is the man’s fault to seek in a wife that by which he is often tempted; in which, if he is weaker, the woman herself may slip; if stronger, the man is endangered. We cannot reproach the work of the divine craftsman; but if bodily beauty delights one, let that beauty delight him much more which is within, in the image of God, not more adorned outwardly. If, therefore, a wife is a temptation, be more cautious; seek a remedy against the danger of temptation: “Watch,” he says, “and pray, that you do not enter into temptation” (Matt. 16:13). The Lord said this; the man heard; the woman fulfilled it. Daily women fast, and they offer fasts not commanded; they acknowledge sin, they summon a remedy. Once the woman ate from the forbidden fruit, and daily she is released from fasting. You who followed the one who erred, follow the one who corrects. Both of you ate; why does she alone fast? That is, both of you sinned; why does she alone seek a remedy for the error?

CHAPTER V. The sentence of condemnation upon Eve is seen to be dissolved in Sarah, but much more so in Mary, who, with her virginity intact, gave birth to God, and also bore the sign of that same virtue. How shamelessly the heretics have denied that the Virgin herself persevered, whose arguments, drawn from the Gospels, are refuted. 31. Come, Eve, now sober; come, Eve, although once intemperate in you, yet now fasting in your offspring. Come, Eve, now such that you are not excluded from paradise, but are snatched up to heaven. Come, Eve, now Sarah, who bears sons not in sadness, but in exultation: not in grief, but with a laugh. Isaac will be born to you many times. Come again, Eve, now Sarah, of whom it is said to her husband: Listen to your wife Sarai (Gen. 21:12). Although you are subject to your husband, as is fitting for you, yet you have quickly dissolved the sentence, so that the husband is commanded to listen to you. Thus the type of Christ, that woman who is to bear him, deserves to be heard by her husband, so much does the sex profit which gave birth to Christ, yet with virginity preserved! Come therefore, Eve, now Mary, who brought us not only the incentive of virginity, but also brought God. Hence, joyful and exulting in so great a gift, Isaiah says: Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb, and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14), which is interpreted, God with us (Matt. 1:23). Whence this gift? Not from the earth, surely, but from heaven, this vessel through which Christ would descend, he chose and consecrated a temple of modesty.

Through one woman came the fall, but many were called. Hence Mary also found this special name of the Lord, which signifies: God from my lineage. Many Marys were named before her: for even Mary, the sister of Aaron, was so called (Exod. 15:20, 23); but that Mary was called bitterness of the sea. Therefore the Lord came into the bitterness of human frailty, so that the bitterness of the condition might become sweet, tempered by the sweetness and grace of the heavenly Word. This was signified by the spring at Marah sweetened by wood; because the people of the nations, bitter before with sins, or our flesh, by the tempering of the Lord's passion, would be changed to other uses. Mary is therefore distinguished, who bore the sign of sacred virginity and raised the pious standard of undefiled integrity for Christ. And yet, although all are summoned by Mary's example to the cultivation of holy virginity, there were those who denied that she had persevered as a virgin. We have long preferred to pass over this great sacrilege in silence; but because the case has been brought into the open, so that even a bishop was accused of this lapse, we think it should not be left uncondemned; and especially because we read that she was called a woman, as in Cana of Galilee the Lord himself said to the one who said to him: "They have no wine, son," he replied: "What is that to me and to you, woman?" (John 2:3, 5). And elsewhere we read that Matthew said of Joseph and Mary: "She was found before they came together, having in her womb from the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 1:18). And below: "He did not know her until she gave birth" (Ibid., 19).

And again concerning Joseph: He did not wish to bring her forward (Matt. 1:19). And the brothers of the Lord seem to indicate that they were conceived from Mary. And the Apostle says: "After the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made from a woman, made under the law" (Gal. 4:4). Each of these points must be unraveled by us, so that whoever reads this may not be bound by such a chain of discourse. Let us therefore respond in order. What do we find troubling about the word "woman"? It refers to sex; for it is not a term of corruption, but of sex. The common usage of the people does not prejudice the truth. Indeed, virginity first received this name; for when God had taken one of Adam's ribs and filled the flesh in its place, it says: "He built it into a woman" (Gen. 2:22). Certainly she had not yet known a man, and yet she was already called woman. Nor has Scripture concealed the reason for this name, saying: Because Adam said: "Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man" (Gen. 2:23). Because she was taken, it says, from her man, not because she had experienced a man. Thus, as long as she was in paradise, she was called woman, and she had not been known by a man; but when she was cast out of paradise, then it is read that Adam knew his wife Eve, and then she conceived and bore a son (Gen. 4:1). Thus the first knot is untied.

The second question: because it is written, "Before they came together, she was found to be with child" (Matt. 1:18). But the custom of divine Scripture is to affirm the cause which has been undertaken, and to defer an incidental one. 3R. This also solves the third question, by which it was said: "He did not know her until she bore the Son" (Ibid., 49). What then? Did he know her afterward? Not at all. Finally, you have it written: "I am God, and until you grow old, I am" (Isa. 46:4). Did God, then, after those to whom "until" was said had grown old, cease to be? Likewise, in the prophecy of David we read: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet" (Ps. 110:1). Did the Son, after the subjection of the peoples of the nations, who previously seemed enemies, who denied the author of salvation and served idols, cease to sit at the right hand of the Father, or will he not sit forever? 39. But what prejudice does it cause to Mary, if Joseph did not understand the mystery of the heavenly counsel, and thought the virgin was not a virgin, whom he saw pregnant? The angels were ignorant of his resurrection, which the verses signify: "Lift up the gates, you princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the King of Glory will enter. Who is this King of Glory?" (Ps. 24:7, 8). They ask as if they do not know; and others answer: "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, he is the King of Glory.

And the Prophet repeated the same verses, and yet they, as if ignorant, questioned again; for thus it is written: "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be raised up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory will enter. Who is this King of glory?" (Ibid. 9, 10). How, then, could a man know the divine secret, which the angels did not know? And in the book of Isaiah you have: "Who is this who comes from Edom; the redness of his garments from Bosor?" (Isa. 63:1). And certainly it was a lesser thing for a man to have risen from the dead than for a virgin to have given birth. For indeed, by the prayers of Elijah and the supplications of Elisha, the dead had risen again (1 Kings 17:22): but never before, never after, did a virgin give birth (2 Kings 4:17). Now he supposed that he would betray her as if she were a team, before she was warned by the angel (Matt. 1:20): but afterwards, as a faithful man and not doubting her virginity, he preserved the oracle.

CHAPTER VI. Other objections concerning the same matter having been resolved, the absurdity is added that would have ensued if Christ had chosen a mother who would not persevere in virginity, or had denied her the most excellent gifts of virginity. Nor should that statement disturb you: "Because Joseph took his wife and set out for Egypt" (Matthew 1:24); for a woman betrothed to a husband receives the name of wife. For when a marriage is initiated, the name of marriage is then assumed; for it is not the deflowering of virginity that makes a marriage, but the marriage pact. Indeed, when a girl is joined [in marriage], it is a marriage, not when she is known by carnal union. But that she was betrothed in marriage—although we have spoken more fully elsewhere—it is now sufficient to touch upon the reason for the heavenly mystery: so that those who saw Mary with a heavy womb might believe the birth to be legitimate from a betrothed woman, not an adultery of virginity. For the Lord preferred that some doubt concerning his own generation rather than concerning his mother's modesty.

But the Lord himself teaches that brothers of race, of lineage, and also the fellowship of a people are called such, when he says: "I will tell your name to my brothers; in the midst of the Church I will praise you" (Psalm 21:23). Paul also says: "I wished to be anathema for my brothers" (Romans 9:3). However, they could have been brothers from Joseph, but not from Mary. If someone were to pursue this more diligently, he would find it so. We did not think it necessary to pursue these matters, since it is clear that the name "brother" is common to many. Would the Lord Jesus then choose for himself a mother who could defile the celestial chamber with a man's seed, as if it were impossible for her to keep the guard of virginal modesty? She by whose example we are urged to the pursuit of integrity, would she herself deviate from that office which would have been set before others? And she, for whom would the Lord set a greater merit, reserve a greater reward than for a mother? For he assigned no richer gifts than to virginity, as Scripture teaches us. For thus the Lord spoke through Isaiah: "Let the eunuch not say that I am a dry tree. Thus says the Lord to eunuchs: Whoever keep my commandments, and choose what I want, and embrace my testament, I will give them in my house and in my wall a place named after me, and I will give them the eternal name of sons and daughters, and they will not fail" (Isaiah 56 and following). He promises others that they will not fail: was he allowing his own mother to fail?

But Mary did not fail, the teacher of virginity did not fail; nor could it be brought about that she who had borne God would judge that a man was to be borne: nor would Joseph, a just man, have burst forth into such shamelessness as to be joined in bodily union with the mother of the Lord. CHAPTER VII. Where it is proven that Mary persevered in virginal integrity, from the fact that she was given as a mother to the disciple; it is confirmed that the resolve of virginity could not have been changed by her, whose such constancy in the passion of her Son, and such great virtue in the exultation of the Baptist, shone forth. But nevertheless, let Mary be defended by her own, not by others' customs. She did not fail, as I have said. The Son of God himself is witness, who, when he was on the cross, commended the disciple to his mother as a son; he entrusted him to the disciple as a mother (John 19:26-27). John taught this, who wrote more of the mystical things; for the other Evangelists wrote that at the Lord's passion the earth trembled, the sun fled, pardon was sought for the persecutors: this beloved of the Lord, who had drawn from his breast the secrets of wisdom and the hidden things of pious will, passing over those things said by others (Matthew 27 and following), pursued this more diligently, to confirm by his own judgment the perseverance of maternal virginity (John 13:23); as a son solicitous about his mother's modesty, lest anyone besmirch her with such a reproach of violated integrity.

It was indeed fitting that he who granted pardon to the thief should absolve his mother from the shame of doubt. For he says to his mother: "Woman, behold your son." And he says to the disciple: "Behold your mother" (Luke 23:43). This is the disciple to whom the mother is commended. How could he take a wife from her husband, if Mary had been joined in marriage or had known the use of the marriage bed? Close your mouths, impious ones; open your ears, pious ones: hear what Christ says. The Lord Jesus testifies from the cross (John 19:26), and briefly postpones the public salvation, lest he leave his mother dishonored. John is inscribed in Christ's testament. Read the defense of modesty for the mother, the testimony of integrity; read also the custody of the mother for the disciple, the grace of piety. And from that time the disciple took her into his own (ibid. 27). Certainly Christ was not making a divorce, nor was Mary leaving a husband. But with whom ought a virgin to dwell, if not with him whom she knew to be the heir of her son and the guardian of her integrity?

The mother stood before the cross, and while men fled, she stood undaunted. See whether the mother of Jesus could have changed her modesty, when she did not change her spirit. She gazed with pious eyes upon the wounds of her son, through whom she knew redemption was to come for all. The mother of noble birth stood before the spectacle, she who did not fear the executioner. The son hung upon the cross, the mother offered herself to the persecutors. If this were the only thing, that she prostrated herself before her son, the affection of piety would be praiseworthy, because she did not wish to survive her son; but if indeed she wished to die with her son, she yearned to rise again with him, not ignorant of the mystery that she had given birth to the one who would rise again; at the same time, knowing that her son’s death was expended for the public good, she waited to see if perhaps even her own death might add something to the public service. But the passion of Christ had no need of assistance, just as the Lord himself long before foretold: “And I looked, and there was no helper: and I paid attention, and no one was receiving; and I will free them with my arm” (Isa. 63:5).

How, then, could the integrity of Mary be wrested away, when, while the apostles fled, she did not fear punishments, but offered herself to dangers? Her grace was so great that she not only preserved the grace of virginity in herself, but also conferred the mark of integrity upon those she visited. She visited John the Baptist, and in his mother’s womb, before he was born, he leaped (Luke 1:41). At Mary’s voice the infant exulted, anointed before he was begotten. And not undeservedly did he remain whole in body, whom the Lord’s mother exercised for three months with a certain oil of her presence and the ointment of her integrity. And the same Mary was later entrusted to John the Evangelist, who knew no marriage. Hence I do not wonder that he spoke divine mysteries above the rest, for the court of heavenly sacraments was at hand to him. CHAPTER VIII. Testimonies of Ezekiel, and especially that which he has concerning the gate not to be opened, to be applied to Mary; inasmuch as through it, not unbarred, only Christ passed, and thus strengthened her, that afterwards it was not opened even to Joseph.

Now let those who sow this question tell me what it is that the Lord says through the prophet: "Now I will recall the captivity of Jacob, and I will yet have mercy on the house of Israel" (Ezek. 39:25). And further on: "I will gather them from among the nations," he says, "and I will gather them from the regions of the peoples, and I will be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations: and they will know that I am the Lord their God, when I appear to them among the nations; and I will no longer turn my face away from them, because I have poured out my wrath upon the house of Israel," says the Lord (ibid., and following). And further on the prophet says he saw on a very high mountain the building of a city (Ezek. 40, and following), whose many gates are indicated; yet one is described as closed, concerning which he says thus: "And I turned myself toward the way of the outer gate of the saints, which looks to the East, and this was closed. And the Lord said to me: This gate will be closed, and it will not be opened, and no one will pass through it; because the Lord God of Israel will pass through it. And it will be closed, because this leader will sit in it, to eat bread in the sight of the Lord. By the way of the porch of the gate he will enter, and by his way he will go out" (Ezek. 44:1 and following). What is this gate, if not Mary? Therefore closed, because she is a virgin? Mary, then, is the gate through which Christ entered this world, when he was poured forth in virginal birth, and he did not undo the locks of virginal chastity.

The barrier of modesty remained untouched, and the seals of integrity endured inviolate, when He came forth from the Virgin, whose height the world could not sustain. "This gate," He says, "will be closed, and it will not be opened." A good gate is Mary, which was closed and was not opened. Christ passed through her, but He did not open it. And to teach us that every man has a gate through which Christ enters: "Take up," He says, "your gates, O princes, and raise yourselves up, eternal gates, and the King of Glory will enter" (Ps. 23:7). How much more, then, was there a gate in Mary, in which Christ sat and came forth? For there is also a gate of the womb. Whence the holy Job says: "Let the stars of that night grow dark," he says, "because it did not close the gates of my mother's womb" (Job 3:9, 10). There is, therefore, also a gate of the womb, but not always closed: yet one alone was able to remain closed, through which the birth of the virgin came forth without loss to the genital barriers. Therefore the prophet says (Ezek. 44:2): "This gate will be closed: it will not be opened, and no one will pass through it," that is, no man; "because," he says, "the Lord God of Israel will pass through it." And it will be closed, that is, before and after the Lord's passage it will be closed: and it will not be opened by anyone, nor was it opened; because it always had its own door, Christ, who said: "I am the door" (John 10:7), whom no one could tear away from it.

This gate faced east, because she who gave birth to the East and bore the Sun of Justice poured forth the true light. Let the imprudent therefore hear: "This gate," He says, "will be closed, which alone receives the God of Israel." Could He, of whom it was said to the Church, "For you have strengthened the bolts of your gates" (Ps. 147:13), not strengthen His own gate? But indeed He strengthened it and kept it intact. Finally, it was not opened. Let them therefore hear the prophet saying: "It will not be opened, and it will be closed," that is, it will not be opened by the one to whom she will be betrothed; for it will not be permitted that the gate through which the Lord will pass be opened. And after Him, it implies, it will be closed, that is, Joseph will not open it; for it will be said to him: "Do not fear to take Mary as your wife; for what will be born from her is from the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 1:20). CHAPTER IX. How virginity is signified by various symbols, and what sacred virgins ought to learn from each of them?

Therefore, the closed gate is virginity: the enclosed garden is virginity: and the sealed spring is virginity. Listen, maiden, with ears more open, and with modesty closed, open your hands so that the poor may recognize you: close the door, lest a violator creep in: open your mind, keep the seal. Also, the rod from the root is virginity, for it is written: "A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from its root" (Isaiah 11:4). This rod is not hollow, but solid. Let no one, therefore, scorch your rod, so that you may guard your flower. Maiden, O virgin, do not bend, do not bow down to the ground, so that the flower of the paternal root may ascend in you. Go. You are an enclosed garden, virgin; guard your fruits: let not thorns rise in you, but the vine: let your flowers flourish. You are an enclosed garden, daughter; let no one remove the hedge of your modesty: because it is written: "And the serpent will bite the one who destroys the hedge" (Ecclesiastes 10:8). But let only that one remove it of whom it is said: "Why is the hedge cut down?" (Genesis 38:29). Let no one destroy your wall, lest you be trampled upon. You are a paradise, virgin; beware of Eve.

You are a sealed spring, virgin; let no one pollute your water, let no one disturb it, so that you may always gaze upon your own image in your spring. You are a closed gate, virgin; let no one open your door, which the Holy and True One once closed, who holds the key of David, who opens, and no one closes; who closes, and no one opens (Rev. 3:7). He opened the Scriptures for you; let no one close them: he closed your modesty; let no one open it. CHAPTER X. It is intimated that virginity is a crown in the hand of the Lord, whom the Scriptures reveal as one, not a second, just as the Father and the Spirit. Heretics object to this the text of the Gospel, but when that is resolved by other testimonies, the Catholic faith concerning the Trinity is confirmed. 3. "I come quickly," he says, "hold what you have: let no one take your crown" (Rev. 3:11). What is your crown, if not that of which it was said: "And you will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord" (Isa. 72:3)? 4. Who says this, if not he of whom Ecclesiastes said: "There is one and there is no second" (Eccles. 4:8)? Who is this, if not he of whom it was said: "Your master is one, Christ" (Matt. 23:10)? He is one, because he is the only-begotten Son of the Father; because he is alone, as it is written: "Because he alone spreads out the sky, and walks as on land upon the sea" (Job 9:8). Therefore he is not a second, because he is first: he is not a second, because he is one: One God the Father, from whom are all things, and we in him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor. 8:6).

One God the Father, and one God the Son, and one Holy Spirit, as it is written: But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills (1 Cor. 12:11). "One," he says, because there is one God. There is no second; for he does what he wills, not what is commanded. Therefore, one God the Father, and one Son of God. One and one, because they are not two gods. One Son, because he is one with the Father, as he himself said: I and the Father are one (John 10:29). And one Spirit, because the unity of the Trinity is not distinguished by order, nor by time. But they say it is read: Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19); and they object that he named the Father first, the Son second, the Holy Spirit third. Does it therefore, because the Gospel says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (John 1:1), signify that the Father is inferior, because he first mentioned the Word of God as always being and having been in the beginning? Or when the Apostle said: In the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:5), did he make an order? Or when the Lord Jesus himself says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me, sent me to preach to the poor, to proclaim remission to captives (Luke 4:18), did he testify that the Spirit is more eminent than the Son of God?

Observe, virgin, how these things are resolved. Open your ears to these matters, close your mouth. Open your ears, that you may hear the faith; close your mouth, that you may preserve modesty. Then they read that he said: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and they do not understand that he prefaced it with: In the name, he says. He signified three persons indeed, but he asserted one name of the Trinity. Therefore, one God, one name, one divinity, one majesty. Hence there is no second: because the beginning of all things is the Trinity, and the primacy of the Trinity is over all things. Therefore, one, and there is no second. He is one who has no second; because he alone is without sin, alone without help, who said: I looked, and there was no helper (Isaiah 63:5). CHAPTER XI. Since Christ has labored so greatly for us, it is fitting that we labor for him alone. He himself is not according to a second being; except only insofar as he is a man, in which sense he is also called the last. And here the passage from Ecclesiastes and the example of Elisha are adapted.

There is no end to his labor (Eccles. 4:8); because he is our advocate before the Father for all, he has taken up our infirmities, and for us he grieves, for us he grows weak, as it says: I was sick, and you did not visit me (Matt. 25:43). Whose eye is not sated with riches (Ibid.); because he himself is the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, in whom are the treasuries of the celestial mysteries. Why, then, do we labor rather for the world, and defraud our soul of the loss of such great goodness, we who ought to serve no other Lord but this one? 7t. Therefore this one is not second. I certainly bear this testimony: I read that he is first, I read that he is not second. Let those who say he is second teach by the reading. 7i. But someone says that it is written: The first man from earth is earthly, the second man from heaven is heavenly (1 Cor. 15:47). But attend to what he says. Second, he says, man; as if he said man according to the second. And I say that he is first according to divinity, before whom there is none; but second according to the flesh, because after Adam.

I say more: not only am I according to man, but also the last. For thus you have it written: "The first man Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit" (ibid., 45). See the mercy of Christ: he is the first and the last. He who was first made himself last for our sake. First, because through him are all things; last, because through him is the resurrection. For he descended and cast himself down, making himself below all so that he might raise up all who lay prostrate. 74. Hence Ecclesiastes says: "For if one falls, another will lift up his companion; and woe to that one when he falls and there is no second to lift him up. And indeed if two sleep, they have warmth; but one, how will he be warmed?" (Eccles. 9:4, 10, 11). That is, he who has Christ with him, even if he falls, will rise again; even if he dies, he will come back to life; because he is present who came to send fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). Finally, Elisha, when he revived the boy, breathed into him (2 Kings 4:34), so as to infuse the warmth of life. Therefore, keep this fire in your breast, which will revive you, lest the cold of perpetual death creep in.

Here then is the young man who cast himself down, who came through Mary, and was pouring the warmth of life into the breasts of those who heard. Whence they say in the Gospel: "Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). CHAPTER XII. That Christ is designated by the name of the second young man in Ecclesiastes, understood both from other places and from the continuation of this very passage: since it is described that he is the one who both passed through the gate and, sitting in it, ate. This is the second young man, as Ecclesiastes says: "I saw all who live, who walk under the sun with the second young man; who will rise up for him?" (Eccles. 4:15). For who will rise up for Christ, since he has risen for all, and in him all have risen, when they have received the hope of resurrection? But that it is said concerning Christ is clear, when you notice that this passage agrees with the blessing or prophecy of Jacob, who says of Judah: "Who will rouse him?" (Gen. 49:9). Not, of course, another; because he roused himself, just as he himself says: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will revive it" (John 2:19). Now he was saying this about the temple of his body.

This also truly befits Christ alone, that he added: "It is not finished for all his people" (Eccles. 4:16); because Christ's innumerable people have no end, for whom the faith of eternal resurrection and everlasting life acquires eternity. According to the flesh, therefore, it is not doubtful that he is called both a young man and to fall or to rise again. Finally, he also appended this: because the best boy is poor and wise (Ibid. 13): for he became poor, though he was rich. Therefore the king of Israel himself passed through this gate, the leader himself sat in it; when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), as a king sitting in the royal hall of the virginal womb, or in a boiling pot, as it is written: "the hall of my hope, or the pot of my hope" (Ps. 59:10). For both are found in different manuscripts. The royal hall is the virgin, who is subject not to a man, but to God alone. And the pot is the womb of Mary, which, with the boiling Spirit that came upon her, filled the whole world when she gave birth to the Savior.

He who ate sitting at the gate (Ezek. 44:5), indeed that food of which he says: "My food is to do the will of my Father who is in heaven" (John 4:34). CHAPTER XIII. That Mary's virginity is beautifully signified by a pot and a light cloud: that the rain of this cloud, prefigured in many types in a venerable covenant, is to be gathered by virgins, no less than the most efficacious ointment of that pot is to be received; and that poverty is to be pleaded by no one, but preparation is to be applied. O the riches of Marian virginity! Like a pot it boiled, and like a cloud it rained down upon the lands the grace of Christ; for it is written of her: "Behold the Lord comes sitting upon a light cloud" (Isa. 19:1). Truly light, which knew not the burdens of marriage: truly light, which lifted this burden from the heavy debt of sins. She was light, who bore the remission of sins in her womb. Finally, she lifted up John while he was in the womb, who at her voice leaped, and as an infant rejoiced in gladness, animated by the sense of devotion before the infusion of the vital spirit (Luke 1:41).

Receive, therefore, receive, sacred virgins, the spiritual rain of this cloud, the tempering of the body, so that you may extinguish all the ardors of the body and the inner recesses of your mind may grow moist. The fathers of ours announced to us the future salvation of the world by the rain of this consecrated cloud (Ps. 71:6). They signified that this rain was to come by the drops falling upon the earth, which Hierobaal asked for and obtained. Follow the good cloud, which gave birth within itself to the spring by which it watered the orb of the earth (Judg. 6:36ff.). Receive, therefore, the voluntary rain, the rain of blessing, which the Lord poured out upon his inheritance. Receive the water, and let it not flow away from you, because it is a cloud; let it wash you, and bathe you with sacred moisture; because it is a pot, let it steam with eternal spirit. Receive, therefore, from this Moabitess pot the ointment of heavenly grace, and do not fear that it will fail: what is emptied out overflows the more, because its fragrance has gone out into every land (Ps. 119:10), as it is written: "Your name is like emptied ointment; therefore the young women loved you" (Song 1:2). Let that ointment descend into the depths of the heart and the secrets of the inward parts, by which holy Mary did not smell of the perfumes of delights, but of the breaths of divine grace.

This rain extinguished the appetite of Eve; this ointment wiped away the stench of hereditary error; this ointment Mary, the sister of Lazarus, poured upon the feet of the Lord, and the whole house was fragrant, filled with a pious odor (John 12:3). Let no one think herself poor, let no one consider herself needy, let no one fear that she cannot buy this precious ointment, or suppose that this fountain is for sale. "He who thirsts," it says, "go to the water: and whoever has no silver, go and buy, and drink without silver" (Isaiah 55:1). And above it says: "You have been sold for grace, and you will be redeemed without silver" (Isaiah 52:3). Therefore the Lord became poor, though he was rich, so that all might buy him, and he especially enriches the needy with his poverty. Prepare, therefore, the vessels of the Lord, so that you may receive this fountain of living water, this fountain of virginity, this ointment of integrity, this odor of faith, and the grace of sweet mercy, rich with fragrance. Put on the innocence of his lamb, who, when he was cursed, did not curse back; when he was struck, did not strike back (1 Peter 2:23).

CHAPTER XIV Wherein virgins are more sharply urged to imitate Mary, it is shown that many things spoken mystically of the Church also rightly belong to the same Virgin Mother of God. You imitate in vain, daughters, she to whom that which was prophesied of the Church fittingly applies: "Your steps have become beautiful in your sandals, daughter of Aminadab" (Song of Songs 7:4), because the Church advanced beautifully through the preaching of the Gospel. The soul advances beautifully which uses the body as a sandal, so that it may carry its own footstep wherever it wishes without any hindrance. In this sandal Mary advanced beautifully, who without any mixture of bodily custom gave birth as a Virgin to the Author of salvation. Whence John says excellently: "I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals" (John 1:27), that is, I am not worthy to comprehend the mystery of the Incarnation within the narrow confines of the human mind, nor to set it forth in the poverty of speech. Whence also Isaiah says: "Who will recount his generation?" (Isaiah 53:8). Therefore the steps of Mary, or of the Church, are beautiful; because the feet of those who evangelize are beautiful.

How beautiful also are those things which were prophesied of Mary in the figure of the Church, if you consider not the members of the body, but the mysteries of her generation. For it is said to her: The curves of your thighs are like necklaces, the work of skilled hands. Your navel is a turned bowl, never lacking a mixture. Your belly is like a heap of wheat fortified among linden trees (Song of Songs 7:1ff.); because the birth of Christ from the Virgin, containing everything in itself, like victors in secular battles honor the necks of brave men with bestowed necklaces, so it lifted our yoke, that it might crown the necks of the faithful with the insignia of virtue. Truly, that womb of Mary is a turned bowl, in which was Wisdom, who mixed her wine in the bowl, supplying the inexhaustible grace of knowledge from the fullness of her divinity (Proverbs 9:2). In that virgin’s womb, at the same time, a heap of wheat and the grace of a lily flower were sprouting; for she was generating both a grain of wheat and a lily. A grain of wheat according to what is written: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground has died, it remains alone (John 12:24). But because from one grain of wheat a heap was made, that prophetic saying is fulfilled: And the valleys will abound with grain (Psalm 64:14), because that dead grain brought forth much fruit.

This grain, therefore, has sated all men with the perpetual nourishment of heavenly gifts; and that utterance of the prophetic mouth has been fulfilled, the same David saying: He fed them from the fat of the grain, and from the rock he sated them with honey (Ps. 80:17). In this grain divine oracles also attest that the lily exists; because it is written: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys: as the lily among thorns (Song 2:1). Christ was the lily among thorns, when he was among the Jews. CHAPTER XV. That virgins can in a certain singular way be called lilies of Christ; that Christ himself is rightly adumbrated by a heap of wheat surrounded by lilies; inasmuch as he has both fertilized the Church and brought back the crowns of diverse contests. Hear, virgin, what he says: Christ, he says, is the lily of the valleys, that is, of humble and gentle souls. Be therefore meek, humble, and gentle, so that Christ may sprout in you like a lily. Concerning whom you also have elsewhere: His lips are lilies dripping with prime myrrh (Song 5:13); that is, those who speak of Christ's passion and celebrate it with their mouth, and bear his mortification in their own body, are the lilies of Christ; especially sacred virgins, whose virginity is splendid and immaculate. Whence many understand that the Church seems to say: I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys: which in this valley of the world exhales the grace of good odor, by diligent confession of piety.

Elsewhere he also says: My brother went down into his garden, into the vials of spice, to pasture in the gardens and to gather lilies. I to my brother, and my brother to me, who pastures among the lilies (Song of Songs 6:1-2). From that womb of Mary, therefore, a heap of grain fortified among lilies spread forth into this world, when Christ was born from her, to whom the prophet David says: You will bless the crown of the year of your kindness, and your fields will be filled with abundance. The ends of the desert will grow fat, and the hills will be girded with exultation. The rams of the sheep are clothed, and the valleys abound with grain; for they will cry out and sing a hymn (Psalm 64 and following). What is the year of the Lord’s goodness, if not that of which it is said: At the acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you (Isaiah 49:8), when the Church abounded with the faith of the peoples, and clothed the priests with righteousness? Whence also the Apostle says: Behold now the acceptable time, behold now the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2); when the Lord came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution, as he himself recalled in his Gospel, saying: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me, etc. (Luke 4:18).

Then, therefore, the Lord crowned the time of His advent with His works, glory, and honor; for that entire year of His sojourn in this world contained various struggles of passions. As a child He conquered Herod (Matthew 2:16), from whose persecution of the infants He triumphed. He hungered, He thirsted, He was beaten for us, He endured unworthy insults for us, He ascended the cross, He died for us. CHAPTER XVI. That virgins must go forth to meet Christ, and in what manner. That He was indeed crowned by His mother; but nevertheless there is no doubt about His divinity. Therefore, perfect faith is to be taken, as prefigured in that meal which Jacob prepared, and in the robe which the prudent woman wove; so that the virgin, having obtained blessings from Christ, may see God in man, or rather put on Christ, and at the same time all the ornaments of the virtues. You see how many struggles! But yet He is not a greedy exactor of reward, for whom one celestial crown of virtue sufficed. Hence, go forth, daughters of Jerusalem, as the divine Scripture exhorts you in the Song of Songs: Go forth and see King Solomon in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his betrothal, and on the day of the joy of his heart (Song of Songs).

III, 11); because, it says, He made for Himself a love from the daughters of Jerusalem, that is: Come forth from these narrow confines and bodily anxieties, come forth from this carnal delight, and journey out of the body, so that you may be present to the Lord; for those who are in the flesh cannot please their Lord. Therefore it is said to you that you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit (Rom. VIII, 8, 9), if you can comprehend the love of that true peaceful Solomon, which He made for Himself; and therefore He received a crown from His mother. Blessed mother Jerusalem, blessed also the womb of Mary, which crowned so great a Lord. She crowned Him when she formed Him: she crowned Him when she gave birth to Him; for although she formed Him without any operation of her own (because the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin; whence He Himself says: Your eyes have seen my unworked form), nevertheless by this very fact that she conceived and bore Him for the salvation of all, she placed a crown of eternal piety upon His head; so that through the faith of believers Christ might become the head of every man. Therefore the flesh of Christ is also unworked, which the virgin Mary conceived in a certain unusual and new mystery of the Incarnation, without any admixture of male seed, by the divine grace of the dispensation, she assumed from the Virgin what was of flesh, and in her formed the limbs of the immaculate man of the new Adam.

You hear "man," but understand something above man; for it is written: "You shall not cook a lamb in its mother's milk" (Exod. 34:26). And elsewhere you read: "And he is a man, and who will know him?" (Jer. 17:9). Therefore you must not estimate that Lamb, in whom the fullness of divinity dwells corporeally (Col. 2:9), by the strength of human condition, nor confine the majesty of incomprehensible power by the weakness of degenerate understanding. For Jacob did not cook that food of perfect faith in the milk with which his father Isaac was so delighted that he conferred upon him the entire prerogative of prophetic blessing with soberness (Gen. 27:25). And therefore the Apostle wrote that the juice of milk is the slender food of doctrine, saying: "For everyone who is nourished by milk is without experience of the words of righteousness" (Heb. 5:13); for he is a little one, but solid food is for the perfect. And so you, daughter, take up that garment of a woman woven with pious labor, who opens her hands to the poor, and whose lamp is not extinguished throughout the whole night (Prov. 31:19 ff.): and clothe yourself, and bring such feasts to your father, so that he may say: "What is it that you have found so quickly, daughter?" (Gen. 47:3 ff.), praising prudence in one still tender in age, and the affection of pious devotion.

And she says to you: "Come to me, daughter"; and having smelled the scent of your garments, she blesses you, saying: "Behold, the scent of my daughter, like the scent of a full field which the Lord has blessed; and may God give you dew from heaven above, and abundance from the fertility of the earth." And to this she adds: "Whoever curses you will be cursed; and whoever blesses you will be blessed." Clothed in this stole, Jacob saw a man, and from him as from the Lord God he sought a blessing, and he called the place "Vision of God" (Gen. 32:30ff.). Clothed in this stole, he saw that stole of Christ, concerning which it is said: "He will wash his stole in wine" (Gen. 49:11). And he also blessed Joseph, saying: "My son Joseph is increased, my son is increased, my younger son is envied, return to me" (ibid., 22), signifying the emblem of the Lord's resurrection. And he added: "The blessing of your father and your mother has prevailed over the blessings of the enduring mountains and the desires of the eternal hills" (ibid., 26), that is, over the king of grace.

Take this garment, so that you may put on Christ, and be renewed in the knowledge of him. Therefore put on, as a chosen one of God, the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, patience, modesty, charity, which is the bond of unity (Coloss. 3 and following); so that you owe nothing to anyone, except that you love your sister in turn: nor envy her grace, but the more approved you see her, the more you imitate her; so that the peace of Christ and grace may be in you, and the word of God may dwell in your heart, and drive out the thoughts of this world. Once dead to the world, do not, I beg you, touch or handle those things which are of this age: but always in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, withdraw yourself from the conversation of this world, singing not to man, but to God (Coloss. 2 and following). And as holy Mary did (Luke 2:19), ponder in your heart. Like a good little ewe, ruminate in your mouth the divine precepts, so that you too may say: "I will exercise myself in your wonders" (Psalm 118). And let your soul neither slumber nor drip with weariness. For drippings drive a man from his house in wintertime: but a soul that is upright does not drip, in which there is no crack of graver sin; but it remains in its house, and rejoices and delights in the novelty of an unoffending habitation. But if something has perhaps wavered, say: "Confirm me in your words" (Psalm 118:28).

CHAPTER XVII. Thanks are given to God because the life of angels, once lost in paradise, now shines forth in virgins; and because virginity was a sign for the world to bring forth Christ, and for the Hebrews to be led through the sea. After this, Ambrose himself commends and offers the virgin to God, so that he may protect his gift in her, and join her in spiritual births through a celestial marriage, bestowing virtues in place of dowry and ornaments, by whose benefit she may deserve to hold her Spouse. Finally, Christ is entreated to receive his handmaid gladly. Now, having run through everything, I turn my prayers to you, O Father of grace, to whose piety we offer countless thanks, because in sacred virgins we see the life of angels on earth, which we once lost in paradise. For what could you have contributed more to the imitation of virgins' pursuits, the strengthening of virtue, or the celebration of the glory of virginity, than that God should be born of a virgin? Our fault has profited us more than it harmed us; in this, our redemption found a divine gift.

But your only-begotten Son Himself, about to come to earth to take up what had been lost, could find no purer generation for His own flesh than to dedicate the celestial hall of a virgin to His own dwelling; in which there would be both a sanctuary of immaculate chastity and a temple of God. Why should I add that, by your divine gift, with the holy Moses and Aaron (Exod. 15:20), the virgin Mary led the army of the Hebrews on foot through the waves? I leave aside ancient things, I do not seek private matters: this nobility of the virgin family is enough. I beseech you to protect this handmaid of yours, who has presumed to serve you, to dedicate her soul to you, and to devote the pursuit of her integrity to you. I offer her with a priestly office, I commend her with a fatherly affection; so that, as a propitious protector, you may confer upon her the grace by which, while lingering in the inner sanctuaries of the celestial bridal chambers, she may shake off the Bridegroom, be worthy to see him, and be led into the chamber of her God and king: may she be worthy to hear him saying to her: "Come here from Lebanon, Bride, come here from Lebanon; you will cross and pass through from the beginning of faith" (Song 4:8); so that she may pass through the world, and pass through to those eternal things.

Attend, therefore, O Father, to your gift, for whose sanctification you sought no one's counsel; but to her, without any suitor or arbiter, you bestowed so great a grace, such as no one could have believed before the divine oracles, that a virgin might bear God in her womb. By the prerogative of this gift, the zeal for virginity and examples of sacred integrity are stirred to increase. By these, this handmaid of yours, challenged to the grace of such virtue, stands at your altars, not bearing a golden lock of reddened hair dedicated by a nuptial veil, but that lock with which that holy woman Mary of the Gospel wiped the feet of Christ with devoted piety, and filled the whole house with ointment, offering it in a sacred veil to be consecrated. The maiden advances, whom the festivities of marriage, the rewards, the burden of the pregnant womb, the votive pain of childbirth do not entice; but she demands for herself the immaculate births of faith and piety, so that she may receive in the womb from the Holy Spirit, and, pregnant with the spirit of salvation, give birth to God. But so that the grace of merits may proceed for her, you, God the Father Almighty, add the support of commendation; for the dowry of the chaste is not solitary.

Let sacred virginity gird her brow with modesty, sobriety, and continence; so that, girt with the retinue of virtues, veiled with the purple veil of the Lord’s blood, she may bear within her the mortification of the Lord Jesus Christ; for these are the better veils, which are the garments of the virtues, by which fault is covered and innocence is revealed. Therefore clothe your handmaid in these garments, which are clean at all times; for whatever no intervening fault has stained remains clean, so that it may rightly be said to her: “Because your deeds have pleased God” (Eccl. 9:7–8). Let your garments be white at all times, and let oil not be lacking on your head, with which she may kindle her mystic torches; so that, when the Bridegroom comes, she may be counted worthy among those wise virgins (Matt. 25:10) for the celestial bridal chamber, and may illuminate the gift of her sacred profession with the light of her devotion, faith, and gravity.

Protect therefore your handmaid, Father of love and glory, so that, as if in an enclosed garden and a sealed spring, she may keep the barriers of modesty, the seals of truth. Let her know how to cultivate her field, which holy Jacob cultivated; and from it let her reap sixtyfold and hundredfold fruits. In the virtues and strengths of this field, awaken in her grace, and revive love. Let her find whom she has loved, hold him, and not let him go, until she receives those good wounds of love which are preferred to kisses. Always prepared, let her keep watch night and day with the whole spirit of her mind (Song of Songs 5:7), lest the Word ever find her sleeping. And since her beloved wishes to be sought often, to test her affection, let her follow him as he withdraws; let her faith and soul go forth into your word, let her journey from the body, so as to be present to God; let her heart watch, let her flesh sleep, lest it begin to watch wickedly for sins. And you, Lord, add other ornaments of sacred virginity, add diligent pious devotions; let her know how to possess her vessel, let her know how to humble herself; let her hold love, the coin of truth, the hedge of modesty. Let not pines overcome her veil, let not cypresses overcome her modesty, let not turtledoves overcome her simplicity, let not doves overcome her.

Let simplicity be in her heart, moderation in her words, modesty toward all, piety toward her kin, mercy toward the needy and the poor. Let her hold fast to what is good, abstain from every evil appearance. May the blessing of the dying come upon her, and the mouth of the widow bless her (Job 29:15). Place your word as a seal upon her heart, as a seal upon her arm (Song 8:6), so that in all her senses and works Christ may shine forth, that she may gaze upon Christ, speak of Christ. Let not much water extinguish her charity, nor the sword of persecution, nor danger; but, confirmed in every good work and word, let her put on your glory and dwell in your grace in this world. Sanctify her in truth, strengthen her in virtue, touch her in charity, and lead her to the celestial glory of modesty and integrity, to the unblemished and immaculate crown by your divine favor, so that there she may follow the footsteps of the Lamb, and feed at midday, remain at midday, and not walk in the company of companions; but, mingled with your lambs, she may dwell without offense as a companion of virgins, a follower of Marys (Rev. 14:1; Song 1:1).

Go forth, therefore, O Lord Jesus, on the day of your betrothal; receive her who has long been devoted to you in spirit, and now also by profession; fill her with knowledge of your will; take her up from the beginning for salvation, in the sanctification of the Spirit and the truth of faith, so that your handmaid may say: You held my right hand, and led me by your will, and took me up into glory (Ps. 72:24). Open your hand, and fill her soul with blessing (Ps. 144:16); that you may save her who hopes in you (Ps. 85:2), and that she may become a vessel sanctified for honor, useful to the Lord, approved for every good work: through that eternal cross, through that venerable glory of the Trinity, to which is honor, glory, perpetuity, to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, from eternity, and now, and always, and unto all ages of ages, Amen.