Tea at Trianon: In Defense of Virgin Martyrs

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

In Defense of Virgin Martyrs

I recently came upon an article and had a debate on Facebook with fellow Catholics, all ladies of deep faith. I think there are major misunderstandings about why the Church has from the earliest times held up virgin martyrs for our veneration. From Our Sunday Visitor:

It’s worth repeating: It is not a sin to be raped, but the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints continues to behave as if it is....If women who die at the hands of a would-be rapist are martyrs, why are we only celebrating the ones who died “intact”?...If we keep holding these assault victims up as models of chastity rather than victims of crimes, we impress upon faithful young women that keeping the Sixth Commandment is fundamentally about keeping men from breaking it....The girls who answered “yes” to the CDC survey are in our pews, in our confirmation classes and in our own homes. They are listening to how we talk about Maria Goretti and Isabel Cristina and all those who came between. They deserve better than to be told their value lies in their virginity. They deserve better than the suggestion that they would be better off dead. (Read more.)

True, girls and young women, virgins or not, from a human point of view, are definitely better off alive. Similarly, those Christians who were tortured to death because they refused to offer incense to pagan gods, would have been better off alive. St. Joan of Arc would have been better off staying home and embroidering with her mother than being burned alive at the stake. St. Isaac Jogues would have been better off teaching theology at the Sorbonne rather than being scalded alive and sodomized by the Iroquois. But sometimes, people need to take a stand, especially when called to do so for the love of God. Because martyrdom is a gift.

I think many young women today surrender their virginity not to a rapist but to a boyfriend or lover, out of infatuation or out of peer pressure. It was that way during the Roman Empire and it is that way now. Even in Roman times, they were not always threatened with rape; their attackers could have raped them at any time. Rather, the attackers wanted them to happily go along with it; they wanted to seduce them. The fact that some women have preferred death to giving into seduction and the ways of the world is a charismatic gift. Martyrdom is a gift. Virgin martyrdom is a gift. Just being a perpetual virgin, or a celibate of any kind, is a gift. Not everyone is called to it but when someone is, they know it is beyond their strength and a gift from God. When someone is called by God to be a martyr it means they refuse to cooperate with evil on any level, even to save themselves. They are saying to the evil person: you may kill me, you may rape me, you may kill and rape me, but you are not getting even a moment of my cooperation. We all have moments when our safety or well-being is secondary, when someone or something more precious than our lives is in danger. That is where grace builds on nature. But only God can give someone the grace to give up their lives for Him. It is a charismatic gift.

The article criticizes the Dicastery's mention of the intact hymens of St. Maria and another modern virgin martyr Blessed Isabel Cristina, insisting that the hymen should not even come into the investigation. Such intimate examination has long been a part of police procedure when a woman or girl is murdered, to see if the perpetrator should be charged with rape as well as with murder. When the Dicastery records the physical virginity of a victim it is as possible proof that the person lived a chaste lifestyle. It is certainly not complete proof since a pure and innocent girl might lose her virginity through being molested or even in an accident, through no fault of her own. Also, someone with an intact hymen might have impure habits and a filthy mind and not be holy at all. But along with the accumulated evidence of the young lady's piety, such as witness testimonies of her outward acts of faith, hope and charity, evidence of physical virginity plays a part in proving the sanctity of the victim. However, the value of the virgin martyr is not on the hymen but on a soul saying "no" and taking a stand against evil no matter what the consequences. To do so requires supernatural strength. But yes, the Church has canonized saints who were slaves and who were probably raped such as St Felicity and St Josephine Bahkita. In the great Roman persecutions, it was against Roman law to put a virgin to death. Young Christian girls were regularly raped before being executed. We do not know how many of the virgin-martyrs had to suffer such brutality before being martyred. The surviving historical records do not tell us.

Someone said to me that St. Maria Goretti resisted her attacker because she knew if she was raped that she would be "trash" in her town. Well, sorry, but St. Maria was already regarded as "trash" in her community, which is why Alessandro saw her as an easy target. Some people theorize he may already have have been molesting her in some way. After all, they lived in the same house. We know he was making lewd suggestions. After her First Communion St. Maria was determined to say no. Because Alessandro did not just went to rape her. If he wanted to rape her he could have done so at any time, but he never did. He never did, even when she was lying there helpless. What Alessandro wanted was a cooperative little plaything. He wanted someone to willingly act out his favorite porn images which he had upstairs in this room. That is where his rage and frustration came from. If Maria had capitulated, we know she would have been acting out of terror. But that brave little girl, who had nothing and was nothing in her community, refused to comply with his demands. She asserted her personhood and her dignity over Alessandro's dehumanizing lust. Maria knew that through her baptism she was a child of God; she had been bound to Christ through the Sacraments of the Church, including Confession and the Holy Eucharist. Those sacraments meant everything to her, more than fear of death.

So ultimately, it was not about resisting rape. It was resisting being his long term sex toy which is what Alessandro really wanted. Maria knew if she gave in once there would be no end to it. He wanted her cooperation, like the master of anyone in sexual servitude. Alessandro wanted her complete submission and willing participation. She did not give it. Looking back, we can say it would not have been a sin for her, since she was a frightened child, and would have been acting under duress. But Maria refused to cooperate, even when threatened. Because in Maria's mind she would have been committing a sin, as she said after it happened: "He did it because I would not sin." That is why she is a martyr.