Marian Dogmas & Doctrine — Part 2: Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

02-09-2025Weekly ReflectionJen Arnold, M.A.

This week, we'll take a closer look at the second Marian Dogma declared by the Magisterium, which is Mary's perpetual virginity, also called her "three-fold" virginity. This dogma was confirmed at the Second Council of Constantinople in AD 553 and later pronounced by Pope Martin I at the First Lateran Council in AD 640. The term "three-fold virginity" means that Mary was a virgin before the birth of Jesus, during the birth of Jesus, and after the birth of Jesus. Let's look at what each of these terms means in more detail, as well as clarify some common questions about its teaching.

To start, Mary was a virgin before she conceived and bore Jesus. This is something on which all Christian religions agree and is not hard to understand. We look to Tradition as our first source of authority on this matter. The Apostles' Creed, developed in the very early days of the Church, proclaims that we believe in Jesus "…who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…" This shows that even the earliest Christians understood the Savior to be born of a virgin. We can also look to Scripture for the foundations of this belief. Isaiah 7:14 tells us, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Then, after the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to tell her she will conceive and bear a son, her response is, "How will this be, since I do not know man?" (Luke 1:34). Here, she is alluding to her virginity. She does not doubt the angel's word, but is merely asking how it will come about since it will not be natural. Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will descend upon her for the conception to occur. So, between both Tradition and Scripture, it is easy for Christians to agree on Mary's virginity before the birth of Christ.

The second way the Church defines Mary's virginity is that it was preserved during the birth of Jesus. This is a point that may sound odd. When we talk about virginity in this sense, we are not talking about anything related to the sexual act. What we mean is that her physical, virginal integrity was kept intact during the birth of Jesus. Last week, we discussed how the truths we proclaim about Mary protect what is true about Jesus. In this case, Jesus is God, and it is contrary to the nature of God to corrupt or defile anything. St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Augustine in his Tertia, saying, "It is not right that he who came to heal corruption, should by his coming violate integrity. Jesus was born by divine power without physical violation of Mary's virginity." Think about any other scenario where God enters something or someone. Does he corrupt it, or does he sanctify it? For example, when God breathed life into Adam, he did not corrupt him. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost, they were not corrupted. When the Eucharist enters your body, you are not corrupted, but elevated. Clearly, this truth about Mary protects the divine nature of Jesus Christ. The real challenge for us is understanding how Jesus was born without corrupting Mary's virginal integrity. The early Church fathers — including St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Ambrose, and St. Epiphanius — describe the birth as miraculous, using the image of light passing through glass without harming the glass. We won't fully understand how the birth of Jesus occurred until we get to heaven, but for now, we can have faith in the God of miracles, trusting that he did not corrupt Mary's virginal integrity.

Finally, we have the third part of Mary's perpetual virginity, which is that she remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. This is the aspect of Mary's virginity that some Christians, even Catholic Christians, have trouble easily accepting. Catholic Bible scholars advocate that Mary took a vow of virginity, which was not necessarily uncommon at the time. Joseph would have known this and agreed to it before the marriage. When Mary says, "I do not know man," she is actually talking about a permanent state of being for herself. As a young woman, Mary would have known how babies were conceived. When Gabriel told her she would conceive a son, he did not say when the event would occur. A betrothed woman who had not taken a vow of virginity would have been far less surprised by this announcement, understanding she would soon consummate her marriage with her husband and that children were to be expected. Her response — "How can this be?" — indicates that she had no intention of conceiving children in the natural way and hence had likely taken a vow of virginity.

Using Tradition to support this claim, we also have early Church fathers defending her perpetual virginity, including Ephraim, Origen, and St. Augustine. Remember that her virginity was sanctified by God, not destroyed, so she would want to preserve it. This does not imply that intercourse between two married people is some form of corruption. Still, instead, it made her virginity even more special, elevated, and worthy of preservation. By preserving her virginal state, she is saying that she values her sexual and bodily nature and that she gives it back to the Lord as a gift. This is such a hard concept for many today due to our culture's distortion of what sex should be, but it was not unfamiliar to Mary in her culture and her time.

Of course, there are some of objections to Mary's perpetual virginity, which are worth
discussing. In Matthew 1:25, it is written that Joseph "knew her not until she had borne a son…" The word "until" in this quote does not mean that relations happened after Christ's birth. We have other scriptures that support this understanding. In 2 Samuel verse 23, we read, "And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death." Are we to assume Michal had a child after her death? No, the word "until" only establishes what had not occurred up to that point. The second common objections to Mary's perpetual virginity are found in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, in which Jesus is described as having brothers. The original Greek word in the text was adelphos, which was actually used more broadly to describe not only brothers, but also cousins, near relatives, and kinsmen. It does not necessarily indicate a blood brother. Again, we see in other places in Scripture where the word adelphos is used in reference to someone who is not a blood brother. In Genesis 13:8, Lot is called Abraham's adelphos in Greek, but you will probably see kinsman in your translation. In Genesis 29:10, Jacob is referred to as the adelphos of Laban, which again is not a blood brother, but rather more like a cousin. Remember, we also call fellow Christians our brothers and sisters in Christ!

The final common objection to Mary's perpetual virginity is the idea that it negates the marriage of Mary and Joseph because the marriage was never consummated. The objection is rooted in a misunderstanding of marriage to imply that sex is a necessary component. While it is a beautiful gift to be enjoyed in marriage, it is not required for a marriage to exist. Marriage is, ultimately, uniting two wills with Christ in an unconditional gift of self "until death do us part." Think of it this way: after a wedding ceremony, when the priest pronounces the bride and groom as husband and wife, are they not truly married because the union has not yet been consummated? Of course not. They are already bound to one another for the rest of their lives. Yes, a marriage can be annulled when it has not been consummated, but that is more of an indication that their wills and hearts were not really united in the first place.

Hopefully, you now have a deeper understanding of Mary's virginity. The Church teaches this because it protects our understanding of who God is by highlighting how he goes beyond just avoiding corrupting that which is good, but instead, he sanctifies, elevates, and glorifies it. Meditate on this dogma and take note of how it moves or inspires you.