Was Mary a physical virgin after the birth of Christ?

[bavangorp]

I had a student ask if Mary remained a physical virgin after the physical process of giving birth (with the breaking of the hymen). I gave the answer clearly defined in the catechism and the student understood it, but he wanted to know the physicallity of her virginity not the fact that she didn’t know man.

 

[Peggy_Frye]

The dogma reads as follows: “Mary bore her Son without any violation of her virginal integrity”. As Catholics we are bound to believe only that statement. Dr. Ludwin Ott in *Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma *says that “the dogma merely asserts the fact of the continuance of Mary’s physical virginity without determining more closely how this is to be physiologically explained” (The *Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma *pg. 205).

But while many of the Church Fathers (few exceptions) did hold to the belief that “Mary gave birth in miraculous fashion without opening of the womb and injury to the hymen, and consequently experienced no pain” (Ibid, pg. 205), that is not part of the dogma and, thus, there is no obligation to believe it.

For more information on this subject I recommend the following books:
Stanley Jaki’s booklet, The Virgin Birth and the Birth of Science
Father Stefano Manelli’s book *All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed *