Blessing of Virgins

BLESSING OF VIRGINS. - An ancient and solemn ceremony of the Latin-Roman rite, for blessing and consecrating religious women who live in perpetual virginity.

It is reserved to the bishop and is performed on the feasts of the Epiphany, of Easter and within its octave, on the feasts of the Apostles and on Sundays (except those of Advent and Lent), within the solemn sung Mass, with proper orations (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion) to be inserted under the same conclusion, after those of the day. Toward the end of the Middle Ages it fell into disuse; the religious women of the Mendicant Orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, etc.) and the Cistercians did not use it, while the Benedictines, the Carthusians and those of St. Norbert retained it faithfully. Today it is in use in the Benedictine Congregations of Brazil, of England, of Solesmes, of Beuron, and in the monastic Orders of St. Bruno and of St. Norbert. The modern Congregations too make their profession on the model of the b. of v. [blessing of virgins].

The first traces of a particular solemnity in use for virgins are found in Tertullian, who speaks of a special covering of the head, called "mitra" and "mitrella," to be worn by virgins in likeness to that of widows, but without giving a ceremony of its imposition. Tertullian and St. Cyprian allude to a special vow of virgins, which was made publicly, to preserve virginity. In Rome in the 3rd century hands were not imposed on virgins, as in the Traditio apostolica of Hippolytus; the vow alone made the virgin; only the dress was changed. The sister of St. Ambrose, Marcellina, solemnly received the veil from Pope Liberius (325-66) in St. Peter's. This veil became the classic garment of virgins, called by St. Jerome (Ep. ad Demet.: PL 22, 1108) "flammeum virginale," the sign of their consecration or rather of their espousal to Christ. The most ancient formulas of consecration occur in the Sacramentarium and in the Missale Francorum; those of the Supplementum Gregorianum present themselves in a more abbreviated form. The Gelasianum contains, besides the preface or consecratory formula, the blessing of the vestments. The rite was later enriched with other elements: the Pontificale Germanicum and the Ordo Romanus vulgatus add, amid chants for solo voice (of the bishop, of the virgin) and of the choir, blessings and handings-over, not only of the veil but also of the ring and the crown. The Carthusian nuns also receive the maniple and the stole; rites which, through the Pontificale of Durandus, later entered the Pontificale romanum. The rite unfolds in the following manner:

1) the virgins, in secular bridal dress, always accompanied by two paramele and called by the archpriest, are presented to the bishop for consecration. To the bishop's threefold invitation "Venite" they respond "Et nunc sequimur" and manifest their vow of virginity. 2) The consecration begins with the litany of the saints and with the Veni Creator, a very recent addition; the bishop blesses the monastic vestments together with the veil, the ring and the crown. There follows (the virgins having meanwhile changed their secular dress for the monastic habit) the preface of consecration. 3) The espousal unfolds with the handing over of the veil, the ring and the crown, always accompanied by appropriate antiphons sung by the virgin; at the end the so-called oration of the apostle Matthew Deus plasmatos is recited. The rite ends with the handing over of the Breviary, with the singing of the Te Deum and with the entrusting of the newly consecrated virgin to the abbess.

Pietro Siffrin

ARCHAEOLOGY

The investiture of a v. has been recognized by most in the scene painted on the back wall on the left of that cubiculum of the cemetery of Priscilla (v.) commonly called the "cubiculum of the veiled woman" (Wilpert, Pitture, pls. 79-80 and the color plate at the entry PRISCILLA). It would therefore be a virgo Dei according to the expression of Tertullian (De velandis virginibus, 3). A consecrated v. appears in the inscription "Adeodatae dignae et meritae Virgini et quiescit hic in pace iubente XPO eius" (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 2nd series, 4 [1873], pp. 77; see also ibid., 4th series, 5 [1887], p. 10). St. Jerome calls Lea "ancilla Christi, monasterii princeps, mater virginum" (Ep. 23 ad Marcellam: PL 22, 426). An ancilla Christi who died in 324 is attested by an African inscription (CIL, VIII, 20302); a "religiosa magna ancilla Dei Pretiosa," who died in 401, is called ancilla Dei et Christi (G. B. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., I, Rome 1861, no. 497); a virgo Dei who died in Rome in 409 is known (id., in Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 68). Of an abbess (v.) the term Deo sacrata is also used. Near St. Paul's there was a women's monastery (Nuovo Bull. arch. crist., 10 [1904], pp. 190-91): there six inscriptions bear the formula "virgo Dei," one with the date of 447 (G. B. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., no. 739).

In Gaul, for the sacred v. one finds "puella" followed by the formulas: "sacra Deo" (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrét. de la Gaule, Paris 1856, pp. 188, 392); "sacrata Deo" (id., op. cit., pp. 44, 204); "Deo placita quae virginales actus omni honestate custodiens," of the year 491 (id., op. cit., p. 388); "sanctimonialis" (id., op. cit., p. 259); in Spain there is "puella Christi" in an epitaph of 465. At Thabraca in Africa is the well-known mosaic inscription: "Castula puella... properans castitatis sumere praemia dignam meruit immarcibilem coronam" (CIL, VIII, 17348). Damasus had a sister Irene "Sacrata Deo"; she "voverat haec sese Christo" (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Vatican City 1942, no. 11). Later the same formula of "virgo sacrata Deo" is found at Milan (CIL, V, 6240) or "Dei" at Gemona in the year 524 (CIL, V, 1822), "sacrata Devota XTO" at Rome (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., II, 1, Rome 1888, p. 104);

VERGINI, BENEDIZIONE delle "La Consacratio Sacrarum Virginum del Pontificale di Sens (2nd half of the 14th century)" - Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 882, f. 34°.

"sacrata Domino" in 471 at Vercelli (L. Bruzza, Iscrizioni antiche vercellesi, Rome 1874, p. 268); "virgo sacrata" in Africa (Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des inscr. et belles lettres, 9111, p. 569); in Spain in 588 there is a "virgo XPI" (E. Hübner, Inscr. Hispaniae Christ., Berlin 1871, no. 21).

Christian epigraphy has handed down several other inscriptions of sacred v., those which the bishop of Carthage defines as: "Flos est ille ecclesiastici germinis... illustrior gregis Christi" (De habita virginum, 3: CSEL, III, 1, p. 189).

At Rome, among others, there are known a "Praetextata virgo sacra" (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 73); an "Alexandra virgo sacra" d. in 449 (id., Inscr. christ., I, p. 325, no. 745); a Lavinia "virgo Dei," also buried at St. Lawrence outside the Walls, is called "virgo Dei inimitabilis" (id., Bull. arch. christ., 1 [1863], pp. 68 and 72). In the Lateran Christian Museum there is a "Nigella virgo Dei" (O. Marucchi, Monumenti del Museo crist. Pio Later., Milan 1910, pl. 54, 1); Aurelia Agapetilla was "virgo Dei" as is read on her sarcophagus (Wilpert, Die gottgew. [v. bibl.], pl. IV, 1), of a Juliana of the 4th or 5th century it is said: "hanc dum corporei premerent vicinis leti / sponsa diu nubit per sacra vela Deo" (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., II, 1, pp. 63, 92). At Aquileia an "Anicia Ulpina" is called "virgo devota Deo" (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 74).

From 431 is Leucadia "Deo sacrata Puella" (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, I, op. cit., no. 44, p. 89); at Trier of a Hilaritas "puella Dei" it is said that "omnibus diebus vitae suae Deum coluit et omni actu Salvatoris Domini praecepta servavit" (id., loc. cit., p. 366, no. 258). At Vercelli of a Maria it was written: "aeternos sortita thoros XPI que petivit" (CIL, V, 6734). In the hypogeum of St. Satyrus in St. Ambrose's at Milan was laid "Manlia Daedalia clara genus censu pollens et mater egentium virgo sacrata Deo" (CIL, V, 6240).

The commemoration of Christian v. is sometimes accompanied by the memory of the Gospel parable of the wise and foolish virgins, a representation of which is found in two cemetery frescoes of the 4th century, one in the major cemetery of the Via Nomentana (J. Wilpert, Die gottgeweihten, pl. 2, 5), the other in that of S. Lorenzo al Verano (id., Pitture, pl. 241), as well as in the purple Evangeliary of Rossano (Wilpert, Mosaiken, fig. 385, pp. 833-834). An allusion is in Damasus, in the carmen composed for his sister Irene: «nunc veniente Deo nostri reminiscere virgo ut tua per Damasum praestet mihi facula lumen» (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, n. 11); also in the inscription of Eusebia «Sacra Deo puella» the same allusion is found «cuius probabilis vita instar sapientium puellarum sponsum emeruit habere XPM, cum resurget» (CIL, XIII, 2408); another allusion in the inscription of Celsa, of the year 518: «non impar decem sapientibus puellis accenso ulivo sponsum praestolata XPM» (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes trouvées à Vienne, in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1894, pp. 63-65).

On the tomb of an abbess at Jouarre one reads: «Cenubii huius mater sacratas Do virtutes oleum cum lampadibus prudentes filias occurrere XPM (E. Le Blant, Inscr. chrét. de la Gaule, I, Paris 1856, n. 199).

A fabric with the said scene was offered by Pope Paschal I (817-24) for the altar of the basilica of S. Prassede which he rebuilt (Lib. Pont., II, p. 55). Bishop Chrodegang of Metz had the scene of the wise v. painted in the church of Gorze (Alcuin, Carmina, 117, 1). In later times the scene was painted in the apse of the chapel of the castle of Appiano in Alto Adige (J. Gerber, Die romanische Wandmalerei Tirols, Vienna 1922) and in the grotto of S. Tommaso in Anagni; in relief it is on the exterior of the cathedral of Strasbourg.

Enrico Josi