St. Francis de Sales declaring that St. Joseph was perpetually a virgin as well
1 min • Digitized on March 3, 2022
From The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, in file "The Life and Glories of St. Joseph", page 144
By Edward Healy Thompson, M.A.
Let us listen to the great Bishop of Geneva on the subject of Joseph’s virginity.
In what degree, (he says,) may we suppose that Joseph possessed holy virginity, a virtue which assimilates us to the angels, if the Blessed Virgin was, not only the most perfectly pure and spotless Virgin, but, as the Church sings, Virginity itself, Sancta et Immaculata Virginitas!
How highly exalted in this virtue must he have been whom the Eternal Father chose as the guardian of her virginity, or, rather I might say, as its companion; how great, I repeat, must he have been in this virtue!
Both had made a vow to preserve virginity during their whole lives, and behold! God wills that they should be joined in the bands of a holy marriage, not that they might unsay their vow or repent of it, but to confirm them in it, and that they might be a mutual support in carrying out their holy enterprise; for this reason they now renewed their vow to live together as virgins for the remainder of their lives. [Entretien, xix.]