Holy Virgin of Virgins

One of the well known and most revered titles of Our Lady is the Virgin. She is the Virgin Mother - a true paradox and a logical impossibility that prompted the teenage peasant girl from Palestine to ask, "How can this be, since I know not man?". At Annunciation, the angel replied "The Holy Spirit will come upon you". Her fiancé, Joseph, had the same doubt and was thinking about secretly leaving her. But an angel told him in a dream, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit". So today people all over the world lovingly call Mary - the Virgin Mother. And every time she is called the Virgin, people are praising God for the magnificent gift He bestowed upon humanity - His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 

From the first formulation of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Mother Mary's perpetual virginity (Aeiparthenos) is a doctrine of the Church and an essential part of the catholic faith. In doing so, the Church professes that she remained a virgin while conceiving her Son; her physical virginity was not disturbed by her giving birth to Jesus; and she maintained her virginity all throughout her life, despite being married to St. Joseph. This doctrine has been criticized and even ridiculed by many, including non-catholic Christians. So why does the Church feel so obligated about preaching the physical virginity of Our Lady, why can't it be just virginity in a spiritual sense? 

The Church's teachings about the glorious virginity of Our Lady, like every other Marian teaching, has very little to do with her and has everything to do with the Word Incarnate Himself. When the Church teaches that Mary is truly the Mother of God, it professes that Christ is true man. And by proclaiming Mary as the ever Virgin, even in delivering the Divine Child, the Church affirms that her Son, Jesus Christ, is true God. The perpetual virginity of Our Lady points to the fact that her Son has no biological father - His Father is the Father in Heaven. 

Unfortunately, though, many Christian Protestant denominations have attacked the doctrine of perpetual virginity on the grounds that the Bible talks about Jesus' brothers and sisters on several occasions. But, Jews at the time of Christ didn't have a word specifically to refer cousins, they used the same word for brothers and cousins. Also, the significant proof that Jesus had no other siblings came just before His death on the Cross. By entrusting His mother to His beloved disciple, John, Jesus was telling the whole world that there was nobody else to look after her after His death. 

Martin Luther, who started the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, believed and taught that Mary did not have other children and did not have any marital relations with Joseph. The perpetual virginity of Mary was Luther's lifelong belief, even after he rejected all the other Marian doctrines. John Calvin was less clear-cut than Luther, but undoubtedly favored the perpetual virginity of Mary. The Anglican reformers of the 16th and 17th century also supported the perpetual virginity on the basis of ancient Christian authority. Today most Protestants are unaware of the these teachings of their fathers of faith.

During the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas fashioned detailed theological arguments in defense of the perpetual virginity of Our Lady and stated that any denial of this doctrine would be derogatory to the perfection of Christ, an insult to the Holy Spirit, and an affront to the dignity of the Mother of God. Mary's virginity manifests God's absolute initiative in the Incarnation. By proclaiming it while reciting the Litany, we are praising God the Father for the love He has shown to the fallen creation, by sending Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to deliver us from our sins and to reconcile us with our Creator.