page_title: Perpetual virginity of Mary
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Perpetual virginity of Mary / History
caption_attribution_description: Nativity (Throne of Maximianus in Ravenna)
context_page_description: The perpetual virginity of Mary is the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was a virgin ante partum, in partu, et post partum - before, during and after the birth of Christ. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, and is held also by the Orthodox churches and by some Lutherans and Anglicans.
  Mary's pre-birth virginity is attested in the New Testament, but there is no biblical basis for her perpetual virginity. It arose at the end of the 2nd century in ascetic circles who believed that sex and marriage were symptoms of original sin, and was affirmed as orthodoxy during the 4th century debates between supporters of virginity on the one hand and Christian marriage on the other.
  The 4th century controversies centred on the question of whether scripture did or did not indicate that Mary had other children, for the Pauline epistles, the four gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, all mention the brothers of Jesus; the scriptural evidence is not absolutely conclusive.
caption: The midwife tests Mary's virginity following the birth of Christ, as recounted in the Protoevangelium of James
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