Mary and St. Joseph vowed to virginity?

[sirach2v4]

This is a follow-up to this question, about valid marriage:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=10821840#post10821840

I’ve been reading Fr. Luigi Gambero’s books (Mary and the Early Church Fathers, Mary in the Middle Ages) which are books about the development of Marian doctrines by theologians over the centuries.

Regarding the marriage of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Joseph: it is said that it was a true marriage, even though each supposedly had taken a vow of perpetual virginity.

I read the other thread about requirements for marriage, particularly about being “open to having children.” It doesn’t seem to me that the BVM and St. Joseph were “open” to having children, certainly in the usual sense.

Inasmuch as we’re supposed to imitate the BVM and St. Joseph, why do couples generally have to be open to having children, when they weren’t so, when they became espoused?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear friend,

What father wrote is speculation. We don’t really know that much about the details of their life that are not contained in Scripture.

The purpose of marriage is two-fold now and was very much so for the Jews of the time: the fulfilling union of the couple and the procreation of children.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.