Dist. 3, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 3
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/3/q/bon-sent-III-d3-p1-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the Blessed Virgin was sanctified before her birth.*

Thirdly it is asked whether the Blessed Virgin was sanctified before her birth. And that she was, it seems.

1. Bernard, to the people of Lyons: « She who was the Mother of God was beyond doubt holy before she was born ».

2. Likewise, Bernard: « What is acknowledged to have been granted to few mortals, it is surely not right to believe was denied to so great a Virgin »; but John and Jeremiah were sanctified in the womb, according to what is had in Jeremiah, chapter one: *Before you came forth* etc.; and in Luke, chapter one: *He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb*: therefore it seems much more strongly that the Virgin Mary was sanctified in the womb.

3. Likewise, the Church celebrates and solemnizes the Virgin's birth; but a solemnity is not owed to a condition under sin: therefore it seems that she was sanctified at the hour of her birth.

4. Likewise, if any person was to share in the fullness of grace of the Son of the Blessed Virgin, His Mother most of all ought to have been made a partaker: therefore, since she was then most fit that grace should be increased with her and in her, when she carried Him within her womb, it seems that she would have been filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit in that very womb.

**On the contrary:** 1. To the Romans, chapter eight: *That He might be the firstborn*; the Gloss: « Because He was the first born without sin and the first to rise impassible »: therefore it seems that the Blessed Virgin was not born without sin, since she was born before Christ: therefore she was not sanctified before she was born.

2. Likewise, Augustine, to Dardanus: « That grace, by which we are each made the temple of God, belongs only to the reborn, which only those who are born can be »: therefore, since by sanctification the Blessed Virgin was made the temple of God, she was not holy before she was born.

3. Likewise, no property is destroyed so long as it has continuity with its cause; but the soul contracts original [sin] from its parents: therefore, so long as the offspring is joined to the mother, it does not seem that it can be cleansed from original sin: therefore neither can it be sanctified.

4. Likewise, *ordered being* presupposes *distinct being*; but the grace of sanctification presupposes distinct being: therefore it can be conferred on none except one having discrete being: therefore, so long as the offspring is joined to the mother, it does not seem able to be sanctified.

5. Likewise, to be sanctified in the womb is an effect known to God alone, therefore it is to be asserted of no Saint that he was sanctified in the womb, except of one of whom it is expressly read in Scripture handed down by the Holy Spirit; but this is not read of the Virgin: therefore etc.

6. In connection with this it is asked: why is the sanctification of Jeremiah and John the Baptist expressed in Scripture rather than that of some other Saint? — And if you say that they alone were sanctified; then it is a question whence this is, since there were many Saints both in the new and in the old Testament, and of very eminent holiness.

### Conclusio

> The Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb and before her birth.

**I respond:** It must be said that the Church holds this as beyond doubt, namely that the Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb. And this is clear from this, that the whole Church celebrates her birth, which it would not do unless she had been sanctified.

But if it is asked on what day or at what hour she was sanctified, this is unknown; yet it is probably believed that soon after the infusion of the soul the infusion of grace took place. — Yet whatever may be the case regarding the hour, it must be held for certain that she was sanctified before her birth. For although this is not expressly had in Scripture, it can nonetheless be had from those things which are read in Scripture. For in Scripture it is not read, because, since the Gospels begin from John, who was the consummation of the Prophets and the beginning of the new Law; and the Blessed Virgin was born and conceived before John; therefore nothing is had concerning her birth or sanctification in the Gospels. — It is had, nonetheless, in the new, or in the old Testament, whence her sanctification can be drawn out. In the new there is found the sanctification of John, in the old the sanctification of Jeremiah; both of whom are read to have been sanctified in the womb. And from this it is gathered as it were *from the lesser* that this was granted to the Blessed Virgin; because, as Bernard says, « what is read to have been conferred on others is not to be believed to have been denied to the Virgin », especially since the holiness of the Virgin exceeds the purity and virginity of Jeremiah and John. In the others there was virginity, in her, fecundity together with virginity. And if they were sanctified in the womb, because they drew nearer to the Holy of Holies according to the expression of prophecy, how much more ought she to be sanctified in the womb who carried God in her womb? For John among the rest prophesied of the Lord, because in his mother's womb he leaped at the coming of the Lord, and afterward pointed Him out with his finger. Jeremiah too prophesied more expressly before John, when he said: *The Lord will create a new thing upon the earth, a woman shall compass a man*, in chapter thirty-one. For in this, that he says: *The Lord will create a new thing upon the earth*, it is given to be understood that it was not from male seed; and that He whom she shall compass was not pure man, since neither would be a new thing. And in this he comprehends all that Isaiah says: *Behold, a Virgin shall conceive* etc. But in this, that he adds: *And she shall compass a man*, he gives to understand that Christ from the instant of His conception was perfect in grace and wisdom. — He prophesied nonetheless by deed; for as it were all his deeds were signs of the Lord's Passion. — And therefore concerning these two it is read in particular that they were sanctified; and through these two the sanctification of the Blessed Virgin is given manifestly to be understood.

But if anyone should wish to say that sanctification from the womb belongs to other Saints, as to Job, who says: *From my infancy mercy grew up with me, and it came out with me from the womb*, and as certain ones wish to say of Jacob and David; this has neither certitude nor open authority, unless one wishes to do violence to Scripture. And therefore it is rejected with the same ease with which it is proved; and to none others does this grace of sanctification seem to have been granted except to virgins. — It must therefore be conceded that the Queen of Virgins was sanctified from the womb. And the reasons which show this are to be conceded.

*To 1 and 2.* To that which is objected to the contrary from the Gloss and Augustine, it must be said that birth is twofold, namely birth in the womb, and birth from the womb. Birth in the womb is from the joining of the soul with the flesh; birth from the womb is from the going-forth of the offspring from the belly. The saying, therefore, of the Gloss and the authority of Augustine is understood of birth in the womb, not of birth from the womb. For in that birth in the womb the original contraction takes place, and after it there can be sanctification. — Yet it could be said that that saying of Augustine is understood of regenerating grace according to the common law. And this is better made clear in the fourth book, distinction six.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that a property is not destroyed so long as it is joined with its origin; it must be said that this is true of that property which is preserved by a continuous influence from its cause. But such a one has no being in the matter at hand; and therefore it has no place here.

*To 4.* To that, that *ordered being* presupposes *distinct being*; it must be said that this is true; but from this it does not follow that sanctifying grace follows carnal birth, for the reason that before carnal birth the offspring is distinguished both as to soul and as to body; although that distinction before birth from the womb is not made manifest to bodily eyes.

*To 5 and 6.* To those last two which were objected, the response is now clear through the things which have been said.

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