On Virginity (De Virginitate): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

On Virginity (De Virginitate), credited to Saint Ambrose, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of On Virginity (De Virginitate) by Saint Ambrose. (Translated by Albany J. Christie.) Read in English by Geremia One favorite topic of his was the excellence of virginity, and so successful was he in persuading maidens to adopt the religious profession that many a mother refused to permit her daughters to listen to his words. The saint was forced to refute the charge that he was depopulating the empire, by quaintly appealing to the young men as to whether any of them experienced any difficulty in finding wives. He contends, and the experience of ages sustains his contention (De Virg., vii) that the population increases in direct proportion to the esteem in which virginity is held. ( Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). St. Ambrose. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.)

Recording facts

• Recording title: On Virginity (De Virginitate)
• Author credits: Saint Ambrose
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 20
• Listed recording duration: 1:52:11

Catalogue topics

• virginity -- religious aspects -- christianity -- early works to 1800.
• virginity -- religious aspects -- christianity.

Track guide

1. 01 - The Objectors really worldly and tempters — 3:07
2. 02 - Of vows in general; they are scriptural and binding when made for holy purposes. — 3:50
3. 03 - Of the particular vow of Chastity — 3:31
4. 04 - Bodily Chastity without faith and inward purity unprofitable — 4:42
5. 05 - The fewness of those who possess this grace — 1:41
6. 06 - Holy Virginity neither blameworthy nor unscriptural — 5:33
7. 07 - Nor yet inexpedient; doubtfullness is no bar to it. — 4:19
8. 08 - When and where the Virgin must seek for Christ — 5:55
9. 09 - From whom the Virgin must seek Christ—what she must be that He may seek her — 4:16
10. 10 - The Virgin must put off the flesh that He may seek her. — 4:09
11. 11 - Then will He annoint her with incorruption — 6:51
12. 12 - The Virgin must watch and wait for Christ. — 11:10
13. 13 - The Virgin must watch her heart, her eye, her ear, her tongue. — 7:23
14. 14 - Angels will watch over the Virgin. — 7:44
15. 15 - Her Lord shall guide the affections of the Virgin's soul. — 3:22
16. 16 - Modesty and confidence needful for the Virgin. — 8:47
17. 17 - As the Virgin must shun arrogance, so must she still rise above the world in holiness. — 4:55
18. 18 - The four Virtues which make harmony in the Virgin's soul — 8:36
19. 19 - The Virgin must in the Communion of St. Peter and the Church, be ready to give up all for Christ. — 7:26
20. 20 - An earnest desire that God's Priests may gather many Virgins into the Church's fold — 4:54

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.