In the Catholic Church, a consecrated virgin, Lat. virgo consecrata, is a woman who has been consecrated by the church to a life of perpetual virginity as a bride of Christ. Consecrated virgins are consecrated by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite and to the service of the church.
Consecrated virgins spend their time in works of penance and mercy, in apostolic activity and in prayer, according to their state of life and spiritual gifts. A consecrated virgin may live either as a nun in a monastic order or in the world under the authority of her bishop.
The rite of consecration of virgins for women living in the world was reintroduced in 1970, under Pope Paul VI, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.Ordo Consecrationis Virginum (31 May 1970), AAS 62 (1970) 650 = EDIL 2082-2092 = DOL 294 no. 3352. English translation: The Rites of the Catholic Church 2 (n. 29, p. 81), 132-164, DOL 395 nos. 3253-3262. The Rite of consecration of virgins who belonged to monastic communities without their own proper Rite was revised and published as the variant of the Rite of consecration to a life of virginity in the 1970 Roman Pontifical. See also: It is based on the template of the practice of the going back to the Apostolic era, especially the early virgin martyrs. The consecration of virgins for nuns who made their final profession of vows outlasted times in various forms and without discontinuation in bestowal.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law and the 1996 Apostolic Exhortation by Pope John Paul II speak of the reflourishing Order of Virgins (), the members of which represent an image of the church as the Bride of Christ. Estimates on the number of consecrated virgins derived from diocesan records range at around 5,000 consecrated virgins living in the world .Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL), September 2015 survey. "A September 2015 survey sent to the 114 episcopal conferences around the world indicated that there are around 4,000 consecrated virgins in the Catholic Church, living in at least 78 countries. (It is worth noting that less than half— 42%— of the countries known to have consecrated virgins responded to the survey, so the actual numbers are likely higher.)" A Consecrated Virgin, July 2017 )Bernadette Mary Reis, "Church reproposes Order of Virgins 50 years after its restoration", Vatican News, 4 July 2018.
In view of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the reintroduction, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued the instruction in July 2018.
History Origins
Chastity is one of the Seven Virtues in Christian tradition, listed by Gregory the Great at the end of the 6th century. Praise of chastity or celibacy as a religious virtue is already present in the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians, in which Paul the Apostle suggests a special role for virgins or unmarried women () as more suitable for "the things of the Lord" ().1 Corinthians 7:34 "There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband." (KJV). In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul alludes to the metaphor of the Church as Bride of Christ by addressing the congregation: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ".
In Christian hagiography, there are numerous accounts of pre-Nicaean virgin martyrs, such as Margaret of Antioch, Agnes of Rome, Euphemia of Chalcedon and Lucia of Syracuse.
In the theology of the Church Fathers, the prototype of the sacred virgin is the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated by the Holy Spirit at Annunciation. Although not stated in the gospels, the perpetual virginity of Mary was widely upheld as a dogma by the Church Fathers from the 4th century. The tradition of a ritual form of the consecration also dates to the 4th century, but it is widely held that a more informal consecration was imparted to consecrate women by their bishops dating from the time of the Apostles.
The first known formal rite of consecration is that of Saint Marcellina, dated AD 353, mentioned in by her brother, Saint Ambrose. Another early consecrated virgin is Saint Genevieve (). The earliest copies of the rite are from some of the earliest sacramentaries, like the 7th-century Leonine sacramentary.
During the medieval period, the rite of consecration was maintained by nuns in monastic orders, such as the Benedictines and Carthusians. This consecration could be done either concurrently with or some time after the profession of solemn vows. Among Carthusian nuns, there was the unique practice of these virgins being entitled to hand apart from a crown a stole, and a maniple, vestments otherwise reserved to clergy.
In the High Middle Ages, the Consecratio Virginum is known for Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries, it is mentioned in the Rule of Saint Clare of Assisi and its optional bestowing is also provided for in the constitutions of the first Dominican nuns.Marianne Schlosser, Alt – aber nicht veraltet, Die Jungfrauenweihe als Weg der Christusnachfolge, in Ordenskorrespondenz Köln p. 27, 1992
Modern history The modern revival of the rite of the consecration of virgins in the Catholic Church for women living outside of religious communities is associated with Anne Leflaive (1899–1987). The consecration of virgins after the fashion of the ancient Church was supported by certain French bishops in the early 20th century. Leflaive was directed towards this vocation by François de Rovérié de Cabrières, the bishop of Montpellier. She received the consecration in the chapel of Carmel at Paray-le-Monial on 6 January 1924, on her 25th birthday, by the bishop of Autun, Hyacinthe-Jean Chassagnon.
There was an increasing demand for such consecrations in the 1920s, and bishops requested clarification from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life. The reply given on 25 March 1927 was in the negative.AAS 19, 15 March 1927. The Congregation forbade the revival of this type of consecration. The 1927 decree argued that the consecration of virgins living in the world () had long fallen out of use, and was in contradiction to the then current Canon Law of 1917. It was also argued that the official sanction of a vow of virginity in a "very imposing ceremony" might risk to lead the women so consecrated to judge their status as superior to those of nuns, whose solemn vows are not accompanied by similar ceremonies, and even to divert some women who would otherwise have chosen a monastic vocation."Maroto ritiene che l'antico uso di conferire la Consecratio Virginum a donne in saeculo viventes sia stato o espressamente abolito da leggi ecclesiastici o caduto in disuso da molto tempo; inoltre, rileva che il Codice di diritto canonico all'epoca vigente non contiene alcuna norma a questo proposito, per cui la disciplina applicabile è solo quella desumibile dal Pontificale, anzi l'antica disciplina della Consecratio Virginum risulta essere inconciliabile con le norme giuridiche allora vigenti: innanzitutto, per il CIC/1917 solo lo stato religioso, con la professione dei tre consigli evangelici e la vita in comune, può dare un riconoscimento canonico pubblico; inoltre, solo il voto solenne di castità costituisce un impedimento matrimoniale dirimente e solo i membri di Ordini religiosi approvati possono emettere questo voto, per cui l'impegno di una vergine consacrata in saeculo viventes è equivalente a un voto semplice, privo di efficacia irritante di eventuali nozze, pur non essendo un voto privato e segreto.
Jombart, pur ammettendo il valore della scelta verginale anche fuori del contesto della vita religiosa, sostiene che essa non può procurare tutti i mezzi di perfezione che si trovano invece nella clausura, nella vita in comune, nelle costituzioni e nella paterna vigilanza dei superiori; inoltre, il ricevere la consacrazione in una cerimonia molto imponente, può indurre le consacrate che vivono nel mondo a giudicare il loro stato superiore a quello delle religiose, distogliendo anche qualche donna dall'entrare in monastero." Katiuscia Scarpone, L'Ordine Delle Vergini, Sviluppo Storico e Profilo Canonico, Pontificia Università Lateranense, Instituto Teolotico Marchigiano (2003/4), 31f., citing F. Maroto, Sacra Congregatio de religiosis. De consecratione virginum in saeculo degentibus, CRM (1927), 160f.; E. Bolchi, La consacrazione nell'Ordo Virginum. Forma di vita e disciplina canonica, Pontificia Università Gregoriana (2002), 32–34.
It was significantly due to Anne Leflaive's efforts over the following decades this ban was eventually rescinded in 1970. In 1939, Leflaive founded the secular missionaries of Catholic Action, an institute of celibate women or widows living in the world, which was, however, suppressed in 1946. Beginning in the 1940s, Leflaive was in contact with Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, and with Giovanni Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, who were receptive to her ideas. During the 1950s, Leflaive visited Rome once a year in order to lobby at the Vatican for the re-instatement of the rite of consecration of virgins. Leflaive published Study of the Consecrations of Virgins in the Roman Pontifical in 1934, re-edited as in 1956, and as in 1968. At a time when the Reformed confessions began to introduce the ordination of women, Leflaive strictly rejected such a possibility, arguing that "Christ and His Church offer to the woman a gift of great plentitude [sic]" in the form of the Consecration of Virgins, already inscribed in the Roman Pontifical.Roux, Jacqueline, Anne Leflaive: Une vie pour la renaissance d’une vocation oubliée (2004), English summary: consecratedvirgins.org.
In 1950, Pius XII issued Sponsa Christi, an apostolic constitution addressing the vocation of nuns and their role in preserving the separate patrimony of the early virgins. This revived interest in the consecration of virgins. In his apostolic constitution, Pius XII decreed that only nuns living in enclosure were permitted to receive the liturgical consecration of virgins. In 1954, Pius cited in his encyclical as showing the importance of the office of those "who had vowed their chastity to God".Pope Pius XII. Sacra Virginitas, §3, March 25, 1954, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
In 1962, the rite De Benedictione et Consecratione Virginum ("On the Blessing and Consecration of Virgins") was revised, the first such revision made since 1595. The Second Vatican Council called for a further revision.
In 1963, the Second Vatican Council requested a revision of the rite of the consecration of virgins that was found in the Roman Pontifical. The revised rite was approved by Pope Paul VI and published in 1970.Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, Decree promulgating the new rite for the consecration of a virgin, 31 May 1970, AAS 62 (1970) p. 650. This consecration could be bestowed either on nuns in monastic orders or on women living in the world,Consecration to a life of virginity – introduction, No. III 3 the form of life that had been found in the early Church."It is a source of joy and hope to witness in our time a new flowering of the ancient Order of Virgins, known in Christian communities ever since apostolic times. Consecrated by the diocesan bishop, these women acquire a particular link with the Church, which they are committed to serve while remaining in the world. Either alone or in association with others, they constitute a special eschatological image of the Heavenly Bride and of the life to come when the Church will at last fully live her love for Christ the Bridegroom." Vita Consecrata, Apostolic Exhortation by Pope John Paul II, 25 March 1996.