Male Consecrated Virgins?

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I have only ever heard of female consecrated virginity. Are males able to become consecrated virgins?
 
Could they be the Eunuchs who are castrated that we read about.
 
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What, like monks? Because they take a vow of celibacy (and most have never been married and/or are virgins).
 
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I am referring to the form of consecrated virginity in which a person remains single and not connected to a religious community.



 
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I don’t think so, no. Consecrated virginity is a woman consecrating herself to Christ and taking Him as her spouse. As priests are to be like Christ, consecrated virgins are to be like the Church. While there are aspects of a man’s relationship with Christ that emulate spousal ones, this is a vocation soley for women as they are the only ones who can emulate the bridal relationship of the Church with Christ.
 
I have heard of some consecrated virgin males who were consecrated by their individual bishops. However, this is a great exception, and not the rule. I am also wanting to say that these consecrations took place in Italy.
 
Monks and friars are vowed to celibacy, and indeed you can make private vows as a male pretty sure.
 
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Canon law doesn’t provide for private vows. One can always develop a Personal Prayer Rule, even to the point of designing their own habit (catechism says each person is a charism – gift to the world), and receive a letter of recognition as a lay contemplative by their local bishop. As part of that Personal Prayer Rule, they could make a consecration of their virginity to God, if they are male.
 
It doesn’t? It doesn’t change the canonical status of the individual, but I do believe they are allowed. Is this wrong?
 
They’d be allowed, but just between God, the person, and their spiritual director. Why would they be making private vows anyway? What’s the motivation? Have they been rejected by religious orders, and this is the only thing left? There’s a lot more information that’s needed, but if speaking canonically, no there is no provision for private vows.
 
Fauken said:
I don’t think so, no. Consecrated virginity is a woman consecrating herself to Christ and taking Him as her spouse. As priests are to be like Christ, consecrated virgins are to be like the Church. While there are aspects of a man’s relationship with Christ that emulate spousal ones, this is a vocation soley for women as they are the only ones who can emulate the bridal relationship of the Church with Christ.
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I see what you mean. At the same time, the Church is the bride of Christ, and as men are a part of the Church, it would seem like in that sense, men could become consecrated virgins.
 
Etymologically, the term “virgin” only applies to women. Thus a male cannot be consecrated as one.

This is not mere word play, but careful selection of terminology to unique graces inherent to womanhood.

There are other forms of consecrated single life for men, however.
 
Cloisters said:
Canon law doesn’t provide for private vows. One can always develop a Personal Prayer Rule, even to the point of designing their own habit (catechism says each person is a charism – gift to the world), and receive a letter of recognition as a lay contemplative by their local bishop. As part of that Personal Prayer Rule, they could make a consecration of their virginity to God, if they are male.
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This is simply correct at all:
Can. 1191 §1. A vow, that is, a deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good, must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion.

§2. Unless they are prohibited by law, all who possess suitable use of reason are capable of making a vow.

§3. A vow made out of grave and unjust fear or malice is null by the law itself.

Can. 1192 §1. A vow is public if a legitimate superior accepts it in the name of the Church; otherwise, it is private.
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As for the consecration of virginity, one does not make it…one receives it. The rite itself is clear that it is a rite conferred upon a woman…not a man.
  1. On a day scheduled close to the day of the rite of consecration, or at least on the day before the consecration, the candidates are presented to the bishop, so that the father of the diocese may begin a pastoral dialogue with his spiritual daughters.
  2. It is at the discretion of the bishop and by his authority that women living in the world are admitted to this consecration, and often they take part in the good works of the diocese. It is therefore fitting that the rite of consecration should take place in the cathedral, unless local circumstances or custom suggest otherwise.
  3. In addition to what is needed for the celebration of Mass, there should be ready: a) the Roman Pontifical; b) veils, rings, or other insignia of bridal consecration to be presented in accordance with local rules or approved customs
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From Pope Benedict XVI’s address to an international gathering of Consecrated Virgins at the Vatican in 2008:
Very Dear Sisters,

I greet and welcome with joy each one of you, consecrated with the "solemn consecration as a bride of our Lord Jesus Christ " (Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Women Living in the World [RCV], n. 17), on the occasion of the International Pilgrimage and Congress of the Ordo Virginum, for which you are gathered in Rome during these days. In particular, I greet and thank Cardinal Franc Rodé for his cordial greeting and his dedication to this initiative, while I address my heartfelt thanks to the Organizing Committee. In choosing the theme for these days you were inspired by one of my affirmations which sums up what I have already had the opportunity to say concerning your state as women who live consecrated virginity in the world: A gift in the Church and for the Church. In this light I would like to strengthen you in your vocation and invite you to develop, from day to day, your understanding of a charism that is as luminous and fruitful in the eyes of the faith as it is obscure and futile in those of the world.

“Imitate the Mother of God; desire to be called and to be handmaids of the Lord” (RCV, n. 16). The Order of Virgins is a special expression of consecrated life that blossomed anew in the Church after the Second Vatican Council (cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, n. 7). Its roots, however, are ancient; they date back to the dawn of apostolic times when, with unheard of daring, certain women began to open their hearts to the desire for consecrated virginity, in other words, to the desire to give the whole of their being to God, which had had its first extraordinary fulfilment in the Virgin of Nazareth and her “yes”. In the thought of the Fathers Mary was the prototype of Christian virgins and their perception highlighted the newness of this new state of life, to which a free choice of love gave access.

“They have chosen you [Lord] above all things; may they find all things in possessing you” (cf. RCV, n. 24). Your charism must reflect the intensity but also the freshness of its origins. It is founded on the simple Gospel invitation: “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it” (Mt 19: 12), and on St Paul’s recommendations of virginity for the Kingdom (I Cor 7: 25-35). Yet the whole of the Christian mystery shines out in it. When your charism came into being it did not take shape in accordance with specific ways of life. Rather, it was 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.
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https://w2.vatican.va/content/bened...ts/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080515_ordo-virginum.html
 
Thanks, DR, for posting that.

Hence the reason for the Consecrates of St. John the Beloved to be a New Movement. While the guys acknowledge all that’s been said about the consecration of female virgins – and that they are not eligible for the same – they still have a right to associate and develop a consecration very similar to that of the women.

And who am I to stand in their way? The charism came to me after I had read online that some men were desirous of being consecrated virgins. In today’s world, “virgin” is either a “dirty word” or the name of an island chain that’s made one man very rich.

As for private vows, there is no canonical protection for a person who makes private vows. I think that’s the actual point that’s being made. If that is incorrect, then please show otherwise.
 
Cloisters said:
there is no canonical protection for a person who makes private vows
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I have no idea what “there is no canonical protection for a person who makes private vows” is trying to say.They are governed by canon law.
 
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Cloisters said:
they still have a right to associate and develop a consecration very similar to that of the women
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I would hope this would be addressed quickly by the Congregation, since it has no basis and is at variance to the theology of this form of consecrated life.
 
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