VIRGINITY. - Virginity, insofar as it is a virtue, consists of two elements: material and formal. Understood in the material sense, it is immunity from every complete sexual satisfaction; in the formal sense, however, it is the firm resolve never to consent to these satisfactions (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 152, a. 1).
Understood in this way, virginity is distinguished from, and adds something more perfect to, ordinary and common chastity; its characteristic, in fact, is to attain a singular and unique degree of perfection and excellence in its field, because it renounces in an absolute manner and in the manner of an unbreakable vow the aforementioned satisfactions, whereas common chastity simply avoids everything that, in the pursuit of such satisfactions, may be disordered according to the state of life in which the person finds himself, whether of celibacy, marriage, or widowhood.
Consequently, the virtue of virginity is not realized in the absolute perfection of its twofold material and formal element, except in those who have bound themselves stably to abstain forever from the pleasures inherent in the use of the senses in the order of the things of marriage and have never in fact yielded (ibid., a. 1, ad 4a). For those, on the other hand, who in fact have not kept the resolve, yielding deliberately to temptation, virginity is no longer recoverable in its material element, but only in its formal element, through repentance for the fault and the renewal of the resolve.
V. AND MARRIAGE
The virginal state thus understood is without doubt in itself superior in excellence to the married state, as appears clearly, besides from the very example of Jesus, also from his declaration to the disciples (Mt. 19:12) and from the words of St. Paul: "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel... So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better" (I Cor. 7:25 and 35). This explains how virginity has been held in the greatest honor since Christian antiquity and how the holy Fathers consecrated particular works and praises to it, for example: St. Cyprian, De habitu virginum (PL 4, 451-58); St. Augustine, De sancta virginitate (PL 40, 397-428); St. Basil, De vera virginitatis integritate (PG 30, 781-84); St. Jerome, Contra Jovinianum (L. I, n. 12: PL 23, 226-48); and above all St. Ambrose, De virginibus (PL 16, 198-244) and De virginitate (ibid., coll. 279-316).
The reason is that the state of virginity better favors the higher goods of the soul, especially in the contemplative life, than does the married state, which is directed more toward the pursuit of the goods of the body and the active life. However, this superiority of one state over the other does not necessarily entail superiority of holiness or perfection in the persons who practice it, since a married person can very well be more perfect and holier than a person who lives in the virginal state (ibid., a. 4 ad 2).
So much honor attributed to virginity degenerated even into the tendency to consider the state of virginity obligatory for anyone who wished to be and to show himself a true Christian, thereby depreciating the married state, which had nonetheless been instituted by God from the very beginnings of the human race. This tendency, which arose under the name of "encratism" (v. ENCRATIATI), was opposed by the holy Fathers (cf. Irenaeus, Adv. haer., I, 28: PG 7, 690-91; St. Epiphanius, Haer., XLVI-XLVII: PG 41, 839-53) as heretical and gravely dangerous for the Church and society. On the other hand, against the opposing Lutheran doctrines, the Council of Trent anathematized those who taught that the married state was to be preferred to the state of virginity and celibacy and that it was not a better and more blessed thing to remain in virginity and celibacy than to contract marriage (sess. XXIV, De reform. matrim., can. 10).