unsullied bridal-chambers, by the prayers of Her Who bore Him, while She was and

remained a Virgin […] Amen”1.

Virginity is a very great virtue. It does not concern only the body but

also the mind, the senses and the nous (the most important power of the soul

and, according to the Holy Fathers, the “eyes” of the soul). “The Holy Scripture

and the Word of God”, observes Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios, “absolutely accept

virginity in Prophet Elijah, Saint John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and Panagia.

No other person… Saint Basil the Great, most stern and ascetic… says: ‘Women I

know not, and yet a virgin I am not!’”2 The Saints had the deepest awareness of

sin and of the stain that it causes. “Please read”, urges Fr. Athanasios, “the

poems of Saint Symeon the New Theologian… ‘Lord’, he says, ‘I am a debauchee, an

adulterer, a sodomite…’. And yet Symeon the New Theologian met Christ from an

early age and he is a Saint! He is the third theologian of our Church. He was aware of

his own inadequacy. ‘Yes, Lord, I did not commit an action of adultery or sodomy,

but I am this and that. So, there is a lot of work I must do’”3.

The supremacy of Virginity

Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite, interpreting the Apostolic saying: “It is

good for a man not to touch a woman” 4, teaches: “The first and most supreme

good for any man, both the layman and the future priest –and not solely for

the future priest as is wrongly thought (he talks about the above Apostolic

saying)–, I say the first and most supreme (highest and most

1
Saint Gregory Palamas, Ομιλία 5η Εἰς τήν Ὑπαπαντήν τοῦ Κυρίου [Homily V, On the Meeting of our
Lord] in ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ ΠΑΤΕΡΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣ [GREEK FATHERS OF THE CHURCH] (Thessaloniki: Gregory
Palamas Publications), Vol. 9, pp. 159-166, PG 151: 72A-76B.
2
Ginis Pantelis, Συλλογή αναφορών γέροντος Αθανασίου Μυτιληναίου (1927-2006) για τα σαρκικά
αμαρτήματα [Collection of references by Father Athanasios Mitilinaios (1927-2006) to carnal sin], On
the passions, Homily 20, http://iskiriaki.com/wordpress/archives/7068.
3
Ginis Pantelis, Συλλογή αναφορών γέροντος Αθανασίου Μυτιληναίου (1927-2006) για τα σαρκικά
αμαρτήματα [Collection of references by Father Athanasios Mitilinaios (1927-2006) to carnal sin], 2nd
Series, Homily 322a, http://iskiriaki.com/wordpress/archives/7068.
4 st
1 Cor 7, 1 «…καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι»