On Virgins

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.8 · 1.9–1.12 · 2.1–2.6 · 3.1–3.7

1. 1.1Ambrose explains why he writes on virginity despite his lack of eloquence: he must not bury the talent entrusted to him, and God, who made a donkey speak and spoke from a thornbush, can speak through him.
2. 1.2Ambrose begins on the feast of the virgin martyr Agnes, who at twelve years old refused suitors, faced the executioner without fear, and won a twofold martyrdom of chastity and faith.
3. 1.3Virginity, which makes martyrs, is a heavenly life brought to earth: it seeks its bridegroom, the Word, in the Father’s bosom, and though foreshadowed in Elijah and Miriam, it spread through the world only after the incarnation.
4. 1.4Pagan virginity (the Vestals, the priestesses of Pallas, Phrygian and Bacchic rites, a Pythagorean woman who bit off her tongue) is temporary, hired, or failed; Christian virgins such as Agnes conquer even unseen powers.
5. 1.5Virginity’s homeland is heaven and its author is Christ, born of the Father and of a Virgin; the Church is the virgin mother watered by the Trinity; Paul had no command about virgins, because virginity can be desired but not commanded.
6. 1.6Marriage is not condemned, but virginity is better: Ambrose sets the troubles of married women (childbirth, servitude, cosmetics) against the lasting beauty and spiritual fruitfulness of virgins, and the virgin Church, mother of many.
7. 1.7Ambrose urges parents to dedicate daughters as virgins; he does not condemn marriage (those who do condemn their own birth), but praises virginity, whose bridegroom is the King of Ps 45 and the Song of Songs.
8. 1.8The virgin should be like the bee, chaste and industrious, feeding on the dew of God’s word, guarding her speech, and gathering riches for the poor; Christ is the lily among thorns.
9. 1.9Ambrose urges the virgin to seek Christ, the flower found in enclosed gardens, using verses of the Song of Songs; Christ, white and ruddy, divine and human, seals the virgin, angels guard her, and her sober life keeps her from the causes of sin.
10. 1.10Virgins are spared greed and the burdens of brides, who load themselves with jewels like chains and are auctioned to suitors like slaves.
11. 1.11Ambrose answers the complaint that he praises virginity in vain: virgins come to Milan from Placentia, Bononia, and Mauritania, while mothers at home hinder their daughters; the virgins of Bononia live together and win others to their life.
12. 1.12Virginity is best when chosen even against parents, whose resistance is a training ground; Ambrose tells of a noble girl who fled to the altar to escape marriage and whose kinsman died after challenging her.
13. 2.1Ambrose explains that in this book he will instruct virgins by examples rather than precepts, and that he writes at their request so that those absent may have his words.
14. 2.2Mary’s life is the pattern of virginity: humble, modest, sparing, studious, seldom abroad, devoted to her kin; she will lead virgins to Christ, who will commend them to the Father, and their minds are altars on which Christ is offered.
15. 2.3Thecla, condemned to the beasts for refusing marriage, was honored by the lion that licked her feet; Ambrose promises a recent example to show that Paul teaches all.
16. 2.4A virgin of Antioch, sentenced to a brothel for refusing to sacrifice, escaped by exchanging clothes with a Christian soldier; when he was condemned in her place, she returned, and the two contended to die for each other and were both martyred.
17. 2.5The Christian virgin and soldier surpass the famous friends Damon and Pythias; the tyrant who admired those friends mocked his own helpless gods, whereas the true God punished and pardoned Jeroboam.
18. 2.6Ambrose, not yet three years a bishop, says his book only portrays the virgins’ own virtues; he has used gentle encouragement before stricter precepts, as the Song of Songs moves from kisses to towers.
19. 3.1Ambrose recalls the address of Liberius, bishop of Rome, when Marcellina received the virgin’s veil at St Peter’s on Christmas Day: Christ, the eternal Son equal to the Father, is her bridegroom, to be loved and honored as the Father loves and honors him.
20. 3.2Youth must be restrained by moderate wine, fasting, and sparing food; Ambrose mocks the pagan fable of Hippolytus, Diana, Neptune, and Aesculapius, and warns virgins against heating foods, banquets, and social calls.
21. 3.3Virgins should seldom pay visits and should speak little, especially in church; Ambrose cites Rebecca, Rachel, and Mary, a pagan boy who endured a burn in silence during Alexander’s sacrifice, and frogs that fell silent at a bishop’s command.
22. 3.4Marcellina has surpassed Liberius’s precepts in fasting; Ambrose urges her, now older, to moderate her austerities like a good farmer varying his crops, to pray at set times and in bed, and to recite the Creed daily before dawn.
23. 3.5Ambrose reads the bed watered with tears (Ps 6) both literally and of the body, explains the Lord’s “bed of pain,” urges that all be done in Christ’s name, and warns virgins against dancing, which cost John the Baptist his life.
24. 3.6Ambrose dwells on the death of John the Baptist at Herod’s birthday banquet, the reward of a dancing girl, to warn mothers against teaching their daughters to dance and men against the banquets of the wicked.
25. 3.7Asked about virgins who took their own lives to escape persecutors, Ambrose answers with the example of Pelagia of Antioch, who threw herself from a height, and of her mother and sisters, who drowned themselves together; he ends with Marcellina’s ancestor, the martyr Soteris.