THE VIRGINS OF GOD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 209, 6 April 1877, Page 13

THE VIRGINS OF GOD.

Frfoji the very beginning of Christianity there were women whose piety and zeal led them to imitate the Blessed Mother of God by a public profession of virginity. It is a sound tradition in the Church that St. Peter who consecrated the virginity of St. Petronilla, and tat St. Thecla— who was also the first martyr of her sex— proi jsed this holier state at the persuasion of St. Paul. The Roman M ..rtyrology, which is one of the most venerable documents ot ecclesiastical antiquity in existence, informs us, under date of the 21st of September, that St. Iphigenia, virgin, received baptism from St. Matthew, and by him was consecrated to &od; and in the Acts of the Apostles we read of Philip's four daughters, who lived in holy virginity and were favored with the gift of prophecy. Pope St. Clement, who lived in the first age of the Church, gave the consecrated veil with his own hands to the virgin Flavia Domitilla, who was niece of the illustrious Consul Flavius Clemens, and belonged to the " household of Csesar," as a near relative to the Emperor Domitian.

Not one of the fathers of the first three centuries but alludes to this holy state ; and from their writings, and especially from those of Tertullian and SS. Cyprian and Ignatius, it is clear that rfc was entered by a public profession and solemn consecration The famous martyr and celebrated Bishop of Carthage whom we have mentioned composed a treatise " On the Dress of Virgins" "Be Sahitu Virginum" — in which he calls them "the flowers of the Church's family, and the noblest portion of the flock of Christ." In how great esteem even some heathens held those who lived this life is recorded by a pagan historian, Ammianus Marcellinus (xviii. 10), who says that daring the war which was carried on about the middle of the third century between the Romans and Persians some Christian virgins having been captured and brought before King Sapor, he commanded that all should respect them, and permitted them to practise the religious exercises of their state. At this early period, when Christiana were harassed by almost continual persecutions, these holy women lived in their own houses, but apart from the world and carefully avoiding all secular conversation; and if their private means were not sufficient for a decent support, they were allotted a part of the oblations of the faithful.

In the fourth cantury, after peace had descended on the people of God, the number of virgins was greatly increased. From a homily of St. John Chrysostom (67 in Matt.), we learn that there were one thousand in the city of Constantinople alone. Now, also, monasteries and convents in which a life of community was followed' were established both in the East and West. St. Anthony, abbot, opened such a house for religious women in Egypt, over whom he placed his sister ; and several similar institutions were founded by St. Basil in Pontus and Cappadocia. In the fifth century, convents for women were immensely multiplied in the East; and with regard to the number of their inmates, Theodoret says in his "Ecclesiastical History" that he knew of one in which two hundred and fifty virgins lived together. °

In the West, also, there were numerous houses of this kind ; and sush saints as Jerome, Athanasius, Eusebius of Vercelli' Augustine, and Ambrose were very solicitous to encourage the good resolutions of those who wished to devote themselves°to the service of God in the state of virginity and in obedience to a rule The last-named father erected a convent in Milan— amono- whose subjects was his sister Marcellina — which soon became so renowned for the virtue of its inmates and the sanctity of its founder that postulants came from every quarter of Italy, and even from Mauritania in Africa, to be professed therein and take the veil from that great bishop himself. Wherever such a community of religious women was established prayer, fasting, and manual labor were among the regulations ; a brown habit and woollen girdle were worn; the canonical hours' or office, which consisted principally of hymns and selections from the Psalms, was recited in common, and it was obligatory to o- 0 in a body to the church on Sundays and feast-days to assist at the Holy Sacrifice.^ A part of the sacred edifice was reserved exclusively for them. They were always under the supervision of the bishop — Aye Maria. L