“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
No practicing Christian at any point can deny the Incarnation. This is when through the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived Jesus in her womb. However, there have been many arguments and speculations to Mary’s virginity throughout her life.
What does the Church teach about her virginity? The Catholic Church teaches that Mary’s perpetual virginity is a Dogma of the Catholic Church. Not one Church Father disputes this Dogma. The Catechism states, “...Christ’s birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.’ And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as the ‘Ever-virgin.’” [1] The Catechism goes on to say, “Mary ‘remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin’ with her whole being she is ‘the handmaid of the Lord’ ” [2]
How could her virginity be preserved before, during and after birth? The Catechism of the Council of Trent states, “This was the work of the Holy Ghost, who, at the conception and birth of the Son, so favored the Virgin Mother as to impart to her fecundity [fertility, fruitfulness], and yet preserve inviolate her perpetual virginity.” [3]
Even the protestant reformers believed in the perpetual virginity. Martin Luther wrote, “It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a virgin. ... Christ, we believe, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact.”[4]
Likewise, the Swiss reformer Zwingli, who besides Luther, was one of the most famous of the people who left the Church wrote, “I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.” [5]
Why does it even matter if she was a virgin forever? As Fr. Vincent Serpa so eloquently puts it, “Besides the fact that the Church has taught that Mary was always a virgin from its earliest days before the New Testament was even written, it continues to do so today because of what this fact says about Jesus. From the cross Jesus shared his Mother with us all. But her womb was a tabernacle for him alone. We wouldn’t think of using the tabernacles in our churches to house anything but the Eucharist because it is the sacred body of Christ; so too with Mary’s womb. It’s all about who Jesus is. Mary is special because of how much more he is special. She is all about him!“ [6] Mary was consecrated, set aside. Just as a chalice at Mass is set aside, consecrated to hold only the precious Blood of Jesus, so to Mary was set aside to hold Jesus and her womb would never hold anything else before or after. It would be sacrilegious to put Kool-Aid or any other drink in a chalice that is set aside and consecrated. “The Virgin’s womb swells, but the door of chastity remains shut.” [7]
Doesn’t scripture say in Matthew 13:55 Jesus had brothers and sisters? The Greek origin of “brother” has a very wide range of meaning. Yes, it could mean brother, but it could also mean uncles, nephews, friends and/or cousins. We also know the names mentioned in this scripture verse were sons of another Mary who was also a disciple of Christ. [8] In Matthew 23:8, Jesus tells all of us to call each other “brothers”. It is also thought that St. Joseph may have been a widower, and may have had other children in a previous marriage. In any case, the Church’s position on this passage is that the “brothers” did not come from the womb of Mary.
The clip from the scene of Boromir's death, where Boromir refers to Aragorn as his brother. Both lessons have portions about Jesus having brothers and sisters and this clips helps to give an example of when brother doesn't necessarily refer to blood relation.
How could Mary and Joseph be married, but not have sex? Wouldn’t that make their marriage invalid? For any Sacrament to be valid, two things are necessary: matter and form. In the case of marriage, the matter is the man and the woman, the form is the consent, the vows. A Catholic is bond to consent according the rite of the Catholic Church or there is a lack of form and the marriage is invalid. Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews and were bond to the form given them by the Jewish faith. They were obedient to the laws of their faith. Whether Catholic, Jewish or even pagan, if the consent is given in the proper form, the marriage is valid. A marriage is said to be valid when consent is given in the proper form, a marriage becomes indissoluble when it has been consummated. [9] Thus, Mary and Joseph had a valid marriage throughout their life even though they did not consummate it.
It may seem very odd, that although married Joseph and Mary, would not have consummated the marriage by engaging sexual intercourse. There is what is called a Josephite Marriage. This is a marriage in which two people mutually choose to abstain from the marital act. Although this choice of total abstinence on the part of a couple is not allowed by the discipline of the Church at this time, there was a time in history that the Church did allow Jospehite Marriages. For example, Saint Henry II, the Holy Roman Empire and his wife had a Josephite Marriage.
The marriage of Joseph and Mary is in a different realm with a different set of circumstances that no other married couple has ever had to face nor every will have to face. The marriage did not seem “weird” to them because of their extreme humility and faith in God, who had blessed them with “the greatest of His works: the Incarnation of the Word.” [10] It was not the marriage of Mary and Joseph that was unusual, but rather the extraordinary task asked of this married couple. In the Divine Praises we say, “Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.” This praise of Saint Joseph expresses his unity with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Joseph is one with his spouse Mary and shares in the virtue of her chastity.
Was Mary a consecrated virgin? If so, why would Joseph marry her? Though consecrated virgins were rare during the time of Mary and Joseph, the practice did exist. There is a document, The Protoevangelium of James, that was written around 120 A.D., this document is proof that there were virgins consecrated to God and given over to a life of service in the temple. The Protoevangelium of James is not in the cannon of the Bible, so therefore it is not considered Sacred Scripture, but it does shed like on a historical fact.
The Protoevangelium states when Mary’s birth was prophesied, her mother, St. Anne, intended to dedicate Mary to service in the Temple. Therefore after Mary’s birth, St. Anne dedicated her daughter to the temple and it was there that Mary was to be raised. St. Anne vowed her daughter Mary to the service of God and a life of perpetual virginity. The rules of ceremonial cleanliness stated that around the age of first menstruation, a girl was to have a guardian or protector. However, according to the customs, the man, if not a family member, could not live under the same roof without being wed. Thus, Joseph wed Mary. Typically a guardian was older than the girl and a widower. This would fall in line with the belief that Joseph was much older, may have had other children before wedding Mary, and died before Jesus reached the age of adulthood. Joseph’s primary role was to regard Mary’s vow of virginity with great respect.
With all of this being said, the firm teaching of the matter is Mary was a virgin every moment of her life; before, during and after the marriage to St. Joseph, and remained a virgin before, during, and after the Incarnation.
[1] CCC 499
[2] CCC 510
[3] pg.. 40-41
[4] Weimer's The Works of Luther, English translation by Pelikan, Concordia, St. Louis, v. 11, pp. 319-320; v. 6. p. 510.
[5] Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Berlin, 1905, v. 1, p. 424.
[6] http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/quickquestions/keyword/virginity
[7] Saint Ambrose
[8] Bechtel, F. (1907). The Brethren of the Lord. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved November 25, 2010 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02767a.htm
[9] cf http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0007sbs.asp
[10] Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, OCD; Divine Intimacy pg. 84