Most Catholics could tell you more about the Vestal virgins than the Order of Virgins. Indeed, the majority might assume that this ancient form of consecrated life is a thing of the past like desert monks or stylites.

In her new book Espoused to Christ: A Theology of Consecrated Virginity, Canadian author Erin Kinsella has undertaken the much-needed task of providing a readable explication of a vocation that is both ancient and new.

Kinsella was consecrated in 2019. In the years when she was discerning her vocation, most of the materials provided to her were taken from those used in communal religious life. It was only in 2018 that the Vatican issued instruction specific to the Ordo Virginum, the document Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago.

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In Espoused to Christ, Kinsella has delivered a valuable sourcebook, useful for those women who are already consecrated virgins as well as for those discerning whether they are called to the order. In it, she puts the theological meat on the bones of Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago.

The Order of Virgins is the oldest precursor to religious consecrated life as we know it today. There is evidence of a rite of consecration presided by a diocesan bishop from the fourth century. With the development of religious communities for women, the specific vocation of a consecrated woman who continues to live in the world fell into obscurity.

Interest in the Ordo was renewed after the Second Vatican Council. Brief mention of the vocation was made in the 1963 document Sacrosanctum Concilium and in 1970 a Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Women Living in the World was made available

There has been an upsurge in interest in the vocation and there are now approximately 5,000 consecrated virgins worldwide but knowledge and understanding of the Ordo is still lacking

As Jenna Cooper, consecrated in 2009, writes in her introduction to Espoused to Christ, “we are still growing in our understanding of how this vocation should look in all its practical manifestations in daily life.”

In the English-speaking world, most dioceses are still developing formation programs and policies. Some bishops are still largely unaware of the vocation or the role they are required to play in relation to the women under their care.

Kinsella conceived the book after she had prepared and delivered a week-long retreat in Calgary for candidates to the Ordo. In an interview with The Catholic Register, Kinsella said when she returned to Ottawa, she “realized that the amount of material was twice the length of my master's thesis.”

After shaping that material into book form, Kinsella sent off an email to a few publishers.

“Not even a proposal for a book, but just with an email saying, ‘Hey, I wrote this book on consecrated virginity. It's for a very niche audience probably; would you even consider publishing it?’ ”

Sophia Institute Press got back to Kinsella “fairly quickly.” The publishers told her that they happened to have a staff member who was a consecrated virgin. That woman had read it, liked it and Sophia Press was interested in publishing it.

“It was very clear from how it all came together, even from when I was writing the talks, that the Lord was bringing something to fruition,” said Kinsella.

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Drawing on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers, popes and saints, Kinsella gives the reader a history of consecrated virginity and unpacks the ecclesiological, eschatological and Marian dimensions of the vocation. Each chapter concludes with recommended Scripture readings and questions for discussion, pointing to role Kinsella hopes her book will play in discernment.

Kinsella explicates the charism of consecrated virgins as having a very unique role in a society that is experiencing both a crisis of commitment and profound confusion around sexual differences.

She writes, “There is a general sense of unease in people, because, as a culture that is moving to become post-Christian, it is being built on constantly shifting sand, where trust is placed in things that cannot fulfill their promises and nothing of self-gift is demanded of the human person; the means of attaining true freedom and happiness are being buried.”

Embracing a life of perpetual virginity is considered an eccentricity bordering on the pathological in our society, but Kinsella points out this is nothing new. In Greek and Roman cultures, perpetual virginity was also “largely seen as something undesirable.” As in ancient times, consecrated virgins today stand as a sign of contradiction. The vocation emerges as both a radical and rational response to faith in Jesus Christ.

Consecrated virgins are not singles who have chosen such a life by default, rather the Church teaches they have been specially chosen by Christ Himself to live espoused to Him.

In his 2008 address to the International Congress-Pilgrimage of the Ordo Virginum, Pope Benedict XVI told the participants their charism became “institutionalized little by little until it became a true and proper solemn, public consecration, conferred by the bishop in an evocative liturgical rite which made the consecrated woman the sponsa Christi, an image of the Church as Bride.”

An important feature of the Ordo is the relationship consecrated virgins have with their bishop. Despite this, it is not uncommon for women who are discerning a call to meet with ignorance in their bishop. Kinsella has encountered stories of women who moved dioceses because either their bishop didn't know how to proceed or because it was just taking so long to have any kind of progress towards consecration.

Kinsella hopes her book will be a guide not only for the women she calls her “dear sisters,” but also for the bishops tasked with the formation and support of consecrated virgins in their individual dioceses.

She has been “greatly encouraged” by how bishops across the country have welcomed the book. Though her publisher did not insist, it was important to Kinsella to obtain a nihil obstat and imprimatur from the bishops of her own diocese, Ottawa-Cornwall Archbishop Marcel Damphousse and Bishop Yvan Mathieu.

“I know that it makes a difference when a bishop knows that brother bishops have read and see something as a useful resource. I wanted to make things easy for the bishops, because there's so much on their plate.”

Kinsella said Mathieu took a very hands-on approach to the book. He had the eye of an editor and spotted empty spaces and typos.

“He would read a chapter, and then he would give me a call and say, ‘Okay, so no major theological things here, but you should change this, or you should probably clarify that.”

Throughout the book, Kinsella describes in a way both deeply theological and deeply personal, the life of the consecrated virgin is one of radical self-giving and profound joy.

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“At the hands of the bishop and the imposition of consecration, a heart is bound to the heart of Christ. A heart that was given for Christ anyways, is now a bride for all of eternity, which is such a beautiful thing for me.”

Espoused to Christ: A Theology of Consecrated Virginity is published by Sophia Institute Press on May 20.