gift which the Christian religion has bestowed on the world. Virginity is not new or even Christian. Pagans imposed this way of life on the Vestals for a certain time. Ambrose writes, "We read that also in the temple of Jerusalem there were virgins. But what does the Apostle say? 'Now all these things happened to them in figure', that this might be a foreshadowing of what was to come." "Mary is the model of virginity: No wonder that the Lord, wishing to rescue the world, began his work with Mary. Thus she, through whom salvation was being prepared for all people, would be the first to receive the promised fruit of salvation." "To sow the seeds of perfect purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the function of the priesthood." Augustine of Hippo Augustine is the father of many contemporary theological views on the body. He dwelled at length on the condition of the human body before and after the fall. He was convinced that the heavenly state consisted in complete control of mind over body, especially in the area of sexuality. To illustrate this point, he notes, that some people can wiggle with their ears, nose or even hair, completely at their will. This condition of complete freedom and absence of lust existed for human sexuality too before the fall. The body must be controlled, and therefore Augustine like his teacher Ambrose considered virginity of the human body the superior way of Christ. He considered matrimony a triple blessing in light of its offspring, conjugal faith and being a sacrament: "In conjugal faith it is provided that there should be no carnal intercourse outside the marriage bond with another man or woman; with regard to offspring, that children should be begotten of love, tenderly cared for and educated in a religious atmosphere; finally, in its sacramental aspect that the marriage bond should not be broken and that a husband or wife, if separated, should not be joined to another even for the sake of offspring. This we regard as the law of marriage by which the fruitfulness of nature is adorned and the evil of incontinence is restrained." He quoted St Paul saying that young girls should marry, arguing that they "should bear children to be mothers of families". Augustine was one of the first and most important Church fathers who wrote, that