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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I read on a website this statement: ”The glorious halo destined in heaven to virgins can never be obtained by spouses or by those who, outside of marriage, will have consumed a carnal act…”

What does this mean? Is that an inaccurate statement?

Thank you again

Lorenzo

The Priest’s reply

Dear Lorenzo,

1. in the bliss that is felt in heaven, theologians distinguish an essential bliss from an accidental bliss.

Such bliss is also called glory.

Well, the essential glory consists in the possession of God.

The accidental bliss or glory consists in the possession of other goods that are not God.

2. The so-called “accidental” properties include halos.

Saint Thomas speaks of these halos in the Supplement to the Summa Theologica.

To tell the truth, Saint Thomas did not write the Supplement, because he died before concluding the Summa Teologica, but his secretaries compiled it taking from what Saint Thomas had written on these topics especially in the Commentary on the Sentences.

3. That’s where these halos come from.

In the book of Exodus 25,25 God says to Moses: “And you shall make around it a frame a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the frame”.

The molding of gold around the frame would be the halo.

4. Saint Thomas writes: “For where there is greater difficulty in the work, a greater reward is due. […] Wherefore since by virginity a person wins a signal victory over the flesh,  etc. (Gal. 5:17), against which a continuous battle is waged: “The flesh lusteth against the spirit…” , a special crown called the aureole is due to virginity. 

This indeed is the common opinion of all” (Summa Theologiae, Supplement, 96,5).

5.  He had previously spoken of the consistency of this halo when he wrote:

“I answer that, Man’s essential reward, which is his beatitude, consists in the perfect union of the soul with God, inasmuch as it enjoys God perfectly as seen and loved perfectly. Now this reward is called a “crown” or “aurea” metaphorically, both with reference to merit which is gained by a kind of conflict—since “the life of man upon earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1)—and with reference to the reward whereby in a way man is called to “share the divine nature”(2Pt 1:4) and consequently endowed with regal power: “Thou hast made us to our God a kingdom,”  (Apoc. 5:10); for a crown is the proper sign of regal power.

In like manner the accidental reward which is added to the essential one has the character of a crown. […]

Since, however, nothing can be added to the essential, but what is less than it, the additional reward is called an “aureole”  (Summa Theologiae, Supplement, 96,1).

6. Further specifying the consistency of this halo, he says: “Accordingly it must be said that an “aureole” denotes something added to the “aurea,” a kind of joy, to wit, in the works one has done, in that they have the character of a signal victory: for this joy is distinct from the joy in being united to God, which is called the “aurea” (Ibid.).

7. And again: “He who keeps the counsels and the commandments always merits more than he who keeps the commandments only, if we gather the notion of merit in works from the very genus of those works; but not always if we gauge the merit from its root, charity: since sometimes a man keeps the commandments alone out of greater charity than one who keeps both commandments and counsels. […].

Wherefore it is not the more excellent essential reward that is called an aureole, but that which is added to the essential reward” (Ibid. ad 2)

8. And here we are at the halo of virginity.

It is not a halo for virginity in the physical sense, but for spiritual union with the Lord.

Saint Thomas first reports the common feeling about that halo of which we read in Ex 25,25: “This crown denotes the new hymn which the virgins sing in the presence of the Lamb, those, to wit, who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” 

“Therefore the reward due to virginity is called an aureole”.

9. And here is the motivation: “Where there is a notable kind of victory, a special crown is due. Wherefore since by virginity a person wins a signal victory over the flesh, against which a continuous battle is waged: “The flesh lusteth against the spirit,” etc. (Gal. 5:17), a special crown called the aureole is due to virginity. This indeed is the common opinion of all”.

And “the aureole is due to those virgins alone, who had the purpose of observing perpetual virginity, whether or no they have confirmed this purpose by vow —and this I say with reference to the aureole in its proper signification of a reward due to merit—although this purpose may at some time have been interrupted, integrity of the flesh remaining withal, provided it be found at the end of life, because virginity of the mind may be restored, although virginity of the flesh cannot” (cf. Ibid.)

10. And he also says that “If a virgin is violated, she does not forfeit the aureole, provided she retains unfailingly the purpose of observing perpetual virginity, and nowise consent to the act.

 Nor does she forfeit virginity thereby; and be this said, whether she be violated for the faith, or for any other cause whatever.

 But if she suffers this for the faith, this will count to her for merit, and will be a kind of martyrdom: wherefore Lucy said: “If thou causest me to be violated against my will, my chastity will receive a double crown” [*Office of S. Lucy; lect. vi of Dominican Breviary, December 13th]; not that she has two aureoles of virginity, but that she will receive a double reward, one for observing virginity, the other for the outrage she has suffered.

Even supposing that one thus violated should conceive, she would not for that reason forfeit her virginity: nor would she be equal to Christ’s mother, in whom there was integrity of the flesh together with integrity of the mind” (Ibid. ad 4).

This doctrine is the common thought of the great doctors of the Church, but it is not a dogma of faith.

In itself it has nothing to do with the disesteem of marriage because it is not a matter of premarital virginity or of children virginity, but of virginity for the Kingdom of heaven, as to be united to the Lord without distractions or deviations (1 Cor 7:35) and to be holy in body and spirit (1 Cor 7:34).

Nonetheless in Heaven there are married persons who have a greater degree of essential glory than many consecrated persons because of their greater charity.

Yet the thought of a halo of virgins, like that of martyrs and doctors, has fascinated many believers and certainly helps them to persevere in offering themselves completely in order to give a greater glory to God.

I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo