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 Epiphany, Easter and its octave, the feasts of the Apostles, and Sundays (except those of Advent and Lent), during a solemn sung Mass, with proper prayers (Collect, Secret, Postcommunion) to be inserted under the same conclusion, after those of the day. By the late Middle Ages it had fallen into disuse; the religious of the mendicant orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, etc.) and the Cistercians did not observe it, while the Benedictines, Carthusians, and those of St Norbert retained it faithfully. Today it is in use in the Benedictine Congregations of Brazil, England, Solesmes, Beuron, and in the monastic Orders of St Bruno and St Norbert. Modern Congregations also make their profession in the manner of the blessing of virgins.
The earliest traces of a particular solemnity in use for virgins are found in Tertullian, who speaks of a special covering of the head, called a “mitre” or “mitrella,” to be worn by virgins in imitation of that of widows, though without a ceremony of imposition. Tertullian and St Cyprian refer to a public vow of virginity taken by virgins. In Rome in the 3rd century, as in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, hands were not imposed on virgins; only the vow was made by the virgin; her clothing alone was changed. The sister of St Ambrose, Marcellina, received the veil solemnly from Pope Liberius (352–66) in St Peter’s. This veil became the classic garment of virgins, described by St Jerome (Ep. ad Demet.: PL 22, 1108) as the “flammum virginale,” a sign of their consecration or rather espousal to Christ. The oldest formulas of consecration occur in the Sacramentary and in the Missale Francorum; those of the Gregorian Supplement appear 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 German Pontifical and the Ordo Romanus vulgatus add, besides the veil, the blessing and imposition of the ring and crown, with solo chants (of the bishop, of the virgin) and chants of the choir. The Carthusian nuns also receive the maniple and stole; these rites, through the Pontifical of Durandus, later entered the Roman Pontifical. The rite proceeds as follows:
1) The virgins, in secular bridal attire, always accompanied by two attendants and summoned by the archpriest, are presented to the bishop for consecration. To the bishop’s triple invitation “Venite,” they reply “Et nunc sequimur” and declare their vow of virginity.
2) The consecration begins with the Litany of the Saints and the Veni Creator, a very recent addition; the bishop blesses the monastic vestments together with the veil, ring, and crown. This is followed (the virgins having meanwhile changed from secular to monastic dress) by the preface of consecration.
3) The rite continues with the imposition of the veil, ring, and crown, always accompanied by appropriate antiphons sung by the virgin; at the end the so-called prayer of the Apostle Matthew, Deus plasmator, is recited. The rite concludes with the presentation of the Breviary, the singing of the Te Deum, and the handing over of the newly consecrated virgin to the abbess.
Archaeology
The clothing of a virgin has been recognized by most scholars in the painted scene on the left back wall of the cubicle in the Priscilla cemetery (v.) commonly called the “cubicle of the veil” (Wilpert, Pitture, tavv. 79–80 and color plate at the entry PRISCILLA). It would thus depict a *virgo Dei* in the words of Tertullian (De velandis virginibus, 3). A consecrated virgin appears in the inscription “Adeodatae dignae et merita Virgini et quiescit hic in pace iubente XPO eius” (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 2a serie, 4 [1873], pp. 77; see also ibid., 4a serie, 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 recorded in an African inscription (CIL VIII, 20302); a “religiosa magna ancilla Dei Pretiosa,” who died in 401, is styled *ancilla Dei et Christi* (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., I, Rome 1861, no. 407); a *virgo Dei* who died in Rome in 409 is likewise attested (id., in Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 68). A *deo sacrata* is also said of a widow. Near St Paul’s there was a women’s monastery (Nuovo Bull. arch. crist., 10 [1904], pp. 190–91): six inscriptions there bear the formula “virgo Dei,” one dated 447 (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., no. 739).
In Gaul, for the sacred virgin one finds “puella” followed by the formulas: “sacra Deo” (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrét. de la Gaule, Paris 1856, pp. 188, 302); “sacra Deo” (id., op. cit., pp. 44, 204); “Deo placita quae virginales actus omni honestate custodient” (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 immarcibile coronam” (CIL VIII, 17348). Pope 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 “virgo sacrata Deo” appears at Milan (CIL V, 6240) or “Dei” at Gemona in 524 (CIL V, 1822), “sacrata Devota XTO” at Rome (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., II, Rome 1888, p. 104); “sacra Deo” in 471 at Vercelli (L. Bruzza, Iscrizioni antiche vercellesi, Rome 1874, p. 268); “virgo sacra” in Africa (Comptes rendus de l’Acad. des inscr. et belles-lettres, 911, p. 569); in Spain in 588 there is a “virgo XPI” (E. Hübner, Inscr. Hispaniae Christ., Berlin 1871, no. 21).
Christian epigraphy has preserved numerous other inscriptions of sacred virgins, those whom the bishop of Carthage calls: “Flos est ille ecclesiastici germinis... illustrior gregis Christi” (De habitu virginum, 3; CSEL III, 1, p. 189).
In Rome, among others, are attested a “Pratextata virgo sacra” (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1863], p. 73); an “Alexandria virgo sacra” in no. 441 (id., Inscr. Christ., 1, p. 325, no. 745); a Lavinia “virgo Dei,” buried at St Lawrence outside the Walls, is styled “virgo Dei inimitatibus” (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, tav. 54, 1); Aurelia Agapetilla is called “virgo Dei” as read on her sarcophagus (Wilpert, Die gottgeweihte Jungfrau [V. BIBLICA.], tav. IV, 1). Of a Juliana of the 4th century it is said: “hanc dum corporei premerent vicinia leti / sponsa diu nubit per sacra vela Deo” (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., II, 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., n. 44, p. 89); at Trier a Hilariata is called “puglia Dei” and it is said of her that “omnibus diebus vitae suae Deum coluit et omni actu Salvatoris Domini praecepta servavit” (id., loc. cit., p. 366, n. 258). At Vercelli a Maria is inscribed: “aeternos sortita thoros XPI que petivit” (CIL, V, 6734). In the hypogeum of St Satiro in St Ambrose at Milan was laid to rest “Manlia Daedalia clara genus censu pollens et mater egentium virgo sacrata Deo” (CIL, V, 6240).
Vergini — V. S. with their lamps lit (phot. Alinari) mosaic (13th cent.) on the façade of the basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere — Rome.
The memory of Christian virgins is sometimes joined to the recollection of the Gospel parable of the wise and foolish virgins, of which a representation is found in two 4th-century cemetery frescoes, one in the cemetery on the Via Nomentana (J. Wilpert, *Die gottgeweihten*, pl. 2, 5) and the other in that of St Lawrence at the Verano (id., *Pitture*, pl. 241), as well as in the Rossano Gospels (Wilpert, *Mosaiken*, fig. 385, pp. 833–834). A reference occurs in Damasus, in the poem composed for his sister Irene: “nunc veniente Deo nostri reminiscere virgo ut tua per Damasum praestet mihi facula lumen” (A. Ferrara, *Epigrammata Damasiana*, n. 11); likewise in the inscription of Eusebia “Sacra Deo puella” the same reference is found: “cuius probabili vita instar sapientium puellarum sponsum emeruit habere XPM, cum resurget” (CIL, XIII, 2408); another reference is in the inscription of Celsa, from the year 518: “non impar decem sapientibus puellis accensu ulivo sponsum praestolata XPM” (E. Le Blant, *Inscriptiones chrétiennes trouvées à Vienne*, in *Bull. archéol. du Comité*, 1894, pp. 63–65).
On the tomb of an abbess at Jouarre is read: “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 cloth with the said scene was offered by Pope Paschal I (817–24) for the altar of the basilica of St Prassede, which he had rebuilt (Lib. Pont., II, p. 55). Bishop Crodengango of Metz had the scene of the wise virgins painted in the church of Gorze (Alcuin, *Carmina*, 117, 1). In a later age the scene was painted in the apse of the chapel of Appiano Castle in Alto Adige (J. Gerber, *Die romanische Wandmalerei Tirols*, Vienna 1922) and in the grotto of St Thomas at Anagni; in relief it appears on the exterior of Strasbourg cathedral.