Two-fold Triumph

Today is the feast of St. Agatha, one of the most well-known virgin marytrs in the Church.

The virgin martyrs have both fascinated and bothered me for awhile. Why is their virginity lauded as much as their martyrdom? That virgin-comma-martyr tag seemed to be downplaying their martyrdom in order to magnify their virginity. While chastity is certainly something to be lauded, Jesus accepts all believers, regardless of sexual past.

The skeptical part of me thinks it’s because the patriarchy sees a young martyr and marks her as more important because she is “pure.” Yet Jesus ate with sinners. Non-virgins are welcome in the kingdom of heaven. And plenty of virgins have entered the kingdom without their virginity being such a noted attribute.

On the feast day of St. Lucy, the priest at my parish commented that we were celebrating the “two-fold triumph of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr.” And since then I’ve been thinking, is virginity really a triumph?

Virginity is not something that can be obtained. Once it is gone, it is gone. But can be guarded and preserved. Maintaining it through the trials of natural desires, tempting relationships, and years of watching others nonchalantly give in, does feel like a feat, but nothing comparable to martyrdom. Admirable, not triumphant.

Then, on the feast day of St. Agnes, I read this fascinating passage that made me look more at the context of why the virgin martyrs were, well, virgin martyrs:

     “In the story of St. Agnes the opposition is not between sex and virginity. The conflict is between a young woman’s power in Christ to define her own identity versus a patriarchal culture’s claim to identify her in terms of her sexuality. According to the view shared by her ‘suitors’ and the state, if she would not be one man’s wife, she might as well be every man’s whore. Failing these options, she might as well be dead. Agnes did not choose death. She chose not to worship the gods of her culture. The God she worshipped sets an altogether different value on her body, her identity, and her human worth. Espoused to God, she was beyond the power of any man to ‘have her way with her.’ ‘Virgin’ in this case is another way to say Free Woman.” (from “All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time” by Robert Ellsberg)

Usually in these cases, young, unmarried women refused marriage on the grounds of their Christianity. They claimed their bodies as their own, to offer to Christ. At a time when women were pretty much property, claiming such autonomy was radical. They wanted to belong to no man but Christ, to move about the world as unmarried and untouched women, making their own choices. In Christ, there is no male or female; women have just as much agency as men in working out their salvation. Being a virgin was a strong, feminist statement, with its end always focused on following Christ. They sought liberation so that they could freely serve God.

Virginity is not something they gained, but it is something they won, when they rejected the culture of pagan gods and arranged marriages and demanded a life of choosing to devote oneself fully to Christ. Virginity was a triumph, one that led to their martyrdom.