WIDOWHOOD
It is the condition of a woman who has lost her husband.
Among the Hebrews, widowhood was a state of desolation and entailed particular prohibitions (cf. Gen. 38:14, 19; Judt. 10:2; 16:9; 2 Kings 20:3; Lev. 21:14). Thus the widow is an individual who commends herself to pity on her own account (cf. Ex. 22:22; Deut. 24:17; 19:21; 14:29; 26:12-13; 16:11, 14; 10:18; 27:19; 22:24); very often, having no close relatives to defend her, she is at the mercy of the violent (cf. Job 22:9; 34:3, 21; Ps. 95:6; Wis. 2:10; Isa. 1:23; 10:2; Jer. 7:6; Ezek. 22:7, 25; Mal. 3:5, etc.); she is consoled and aided only by the charitable man (cf. Job 29:13; 31:16; Jer. 22:3; Zech. 7:10; Isa. 1:17; etc.). A woman was always the property of a man: as a maiden, she belonged to her father; as a wife, to her husband; as a widow, to the heirs of her husband (cf. 2 Kings 3:7; 16:22; 3 Kings 2:13-18). The personal property of the widow was limited to what she had brought with her at marriage and what her husband had given her. If she remarried, she did not take with her the goods of her deceased husband (cf. 1 Kings 25:42); if she did not remarry, she could return to her father (cf. Lev. 22:13) or remain with one of her sons (cf. 2 Kings 4:1-7).
In the New Testament, widowhood is not forbidden to widows (cf. 1 Tim. 5:3-16), nor are second and further marriages prohibited to the widow (v. MARRIAGE, IV. Law and Moral Theology, Second Marriages). Solemn blessing is not to be imparted to a widow who remarries after having already received it in her first marriage (can. 1143). The widow is obviously bound to observe imperfect chastity, known as widowhood. The poverty of a widow burdened with many and needy children constitutes grounds for a matrimonial dispensation. The widow may acquire, in addition to quasi-domicile, her own domicile (can. 93; cf., for citizenship, arts. 10-11 of the law of 13 June 1912, no. 555). “The wife, during the state of widowhood, retains the surname of her husband” (art. 149 of the Italian Civil Code). Where legitimate custom has been introduced, the widow, in the first days after her husband’s death, is excused from the precept of attending festive Mass.
According to Roman law, the interest and fruits of the dowry, in the event of the husband’s death, did not accrue to the wife’s benefit until a year had elapsed from the husband’s death (cf. Papinian, in D., de soluto matrimonio, 24:3). The Napoleonic Code, at art. 1570, the Albertine Code at art. 1561, and the current Italian Civil Code at art. 1415 adopt a different system. For them, in all cases, the interest of the dowry is owed to the widow *iure proprio*, but she is granted the faculty of preferring to such interest an alimentary pension during the year of mourning. If the widow had brought no dowry at the time of marriage, she has no right of reservation (cf. arts. 132, 133, 156 of the Italian Civil Code). For patrimonial relations between spouses, see arts. 159-220 of the Italian Civil Code and the entry SPOUSES; for gifts, arts. 781; for legal and testamentary succession, cf. arts. 581-85, 542-54, 595, etc. and the entry HEREDITARY SUCCESSION.
The oppression of widows (as of orphans and the poor), inasmuch as they are placed in a state of inferiority, is one of the sins that cry vengeance before God: “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you do afflict them, they will cry out to me, and I will surely hear their cry” (Exod. 22:22).
Angelo Criscito
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ARCHAEOLOGY
Damasus recalls that his mother, who lived to about one hundred years, “lived dedicated to God after her first marriage” (*Enc. Catt.*, IV, col. 1136).
Magnificent is the praise bestowed by her son Obas upon his mother Turtura, depicted in widow’s garb in the celebrated painting of Commodilla, with the two protecting saints Felix and Adautus; the latter presents the widow to the Blessed Virgin enthroned with the Child. Obas attests that “after the death of her husband you preserved chaste fidelity to your father’s marriage for thirty-six years, thus performing the duty of both father and mother to your child…” (*ibid.*, IV, col. 65). In the Lateran Christian Museum there is an “Octavia matrona vidua Dei” (O. Marucchi, *Monumenti del Museo Crist. Pio Later.*, Milan 1910, pl. 54, no. 2); in Milan a Diogenia “who, widowed of her husband, lived as a friend of God” (*CIL*, V, p. 618, no. 10); at Verona (*CIL*, V, 3419); at Trier (*CIL*, XII, 3916); at Tabarka “a praise of widowhood and modesty, an example of chastity and piety” (*Bull. archéol. du Comité*, 1911, p. 172). Among Greek sepulchral inscriptions may be recalled those of a ΦΑΑΒΙΑ ΧΗΡΑ who lived 85 years, buried in the Priscilla catacomb (G. B. De Rossi, *Bull. arch. crist.*, 1886, p. 902, no. 130); of a ΒΙΚΤΩΡΙΑ ΧΗΡΑ in the Catacomb of Callistus (G. Wilpert, *La cripta dei Papi e la Cappella di S. Cecilia*, Rome 1910, p. 70).
Widowhood — *La chattelé dans le veuvage*. Letter of St. Jerome to Madame Furia, daughter of a Roman senator… translated into French by Charles Bonin, priest (ms. of the 15th century). The miniature depicts St. Jerome delivering the letter (Ep. 54: *PL* 22, 550-60) and the widow Furia receiving II.
From ancient civilizations onward, it was forbidden for a widow to enter into another marriage before a certain period had elapsed since her husband’s death. Roman law, with a constitution of the year 381 (cf. 1, 2, *C.* de secundis nuptiis, 5:9), raised to a year the ten-month term established by a law that tradition traces back to Numa. The prohibition had a twofold motive: that of propriety and decency, and that of the danger of *turbatio sanguinis* and uncertainty regarding the paternity of offspring (cf. 1, 11, § 3, *D.* de his qui not. inf., 3:2). This system continued to be applied even during the period of Roman-barbarian laws and has passed into many modern legal systems, including the Italian one.
According to art. 89 of the Italian Civil Code, the ten-month prohibition period ceases from the day on which the woman has given birth, and does not apply in the case of a marriage declared null due to impotence. The aforementioned article and the law of 27 May 1929, no. 847, art. 2, provide for the possibility of a dispensation.
The law of the Church “to avoid the danger of incontinence, has removed the necessity of the year of mourning” (P. Gasparri, *Tractatus canonicus de matrimonio*, II, Rome 1932, p. 168 and following). However, under the concordat regime for Italy, art. 26 of the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Sacraments of 8 July 1929, while stipulating that “authorization for the marriage of a widow before the expiration of ten months from widowhood is left to the prudent judgment of the Ordinary,” nevertheless specifies that “the Ordinary should not grant permission to the widow before the expiration of ten months unless he has sufficient certainty that those inconveniences which the legislator intends to avert are excluded.” Therefore, according to the teaching of the Church, although a chaste widowhood is preferable (1 Cor.
In some rare pagan inscriptions, but more frequently in Jewish and Christian ones, the term *univirus* or its Greek equivalent μόνανθρος is sometimes found to praise a woman who had only one husband and, having become a widow, did not remarry. In Christian inscriptions, one sometimes finds periphrases such as *«uni devota marito»* (G. B. De Rossi, *Iuscr. chr.*, II, Rome 1888, p. 447, no. 200) or *«unius viri consortio coniuncta»* (id., op. cit., I, ibid. 1861, no. 882). The term is used by Christian writers (Tertullian, *Ad uxorem*, I, 7; PL 1, 1286; *De velandis virginibus*, 9; PL 2, 982; *De exhortatione castitatis*, 13; PL 2, 928 sq.; *De monogamia*, 17; PL 2, 952 sqq.; *De iunius*, 8; PL 2, 963; the same author uses *«univiratus»*: *De exhort. castit.*, 13; PL 2, 929; *Ad uxorem*, I, 9; PL 1, 1289; St. Jerome, *Adversus Jovinianum*, I, 11; PL 23, 225); Minucius Felix contrasts *univirus* with *«multivirus»* (*Octavius*, 24; PL 3, 315); St. Augustine contrasts it with *«bivirus»*, *«septivirus»* (*De bono viduitatis*, 12; PL 40, 439 sq.).
Noteworthy is the inscription of Regina: *«matri viduae quae sedit annos LX et ecclesiam nunquam gravavit unibravae vixit annos LXXX mens. V dies XXII»*, now in the Lateran Museum; examples are also found in the Catacomb of Callistus both in Greek μόνανθρος (G. B. De Rossi, *Roma sotterranea*, III, Rome 1877, p. 145) and in Latin (G. Wilpert, *La cripta dei papi e la cappella di S. Cecilia nel cimitero di Callisto*, Rome 1910, p. 79); and also outside Rome (O. Marucchi, *Scoperta di un antico cimitero cristiano al miglio 36 della via Prenestina*, in *Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana*, 1914, p. 133 n. 10). The expression *«ecclesiam nunquam gravavit»* in Regina’s inscription also appears in that of *«Dafne vidua»*, who *«cum vixit ecclesiam nihil gravavit»* (Marucchi, *Monumenta del Museo Lateranense*, tav. 54, 2). The expression *«vidua sedit»* is found in inscriptions from Ferentino (CIL, X, 5902) and Cagliari (CIL, X, 7787). The representation of the parable of the widow’s mite (Mk 12:41-44; Lk 21:1-4) is in the mosaic cycle of St. Martin’s *«in caelo aureo»* in Ravenna, now St. Apollinare Nuovo; the scene was also depicted in the basilica of St. Martin in Tours, completed by Bishop Perpetuus in 470; this representation was illustrated with verses by St. Paulinus of Périgueux (PL 61, 1071): *«non quae multa dedit, sed quae sibi nulla reliquit / laudari meruit iudicis ore Dei»*. It is also found in one of the miniatures of the Paris codex (Greek στο) of the *Homilies* of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (ed. H. Omont, *Miniatures des plus anciens manuscrits grecs de la Bibliothèque nationale du VIe au XIVe siècle*, Paris 1929, tav. 46) and in the cycle of St. Angelo *in Formis*.
