If, in order to remain truly religious, any adaptation must leave untouched the essence of the vows of obedience, and of poverty, it is even more evident that it must not touch the essence of the vow of virginity. One day I was reading various passages from the Directory of the ancelles to a Benedictine nun. The paragraph concerning obedience began with these words. ‘Fundamentally it is obedience which makes nuns of you.’ She exclaimed: ‘Oh, no, indeed! If I am a nun it is before all because I am a consecrated virgin!’ I think that as a matter of fact she was right. Of the three vows one can say that in substance virginity is, by all that it offers and expresses, the most characteristic of a religious. consecration. Perhaps we shall come back to this. In any case it clear that there can be no toning down in the practice of chastity. Consecration to God is an absolute.

However, in this sphere as with the others a certain adaptation is noteworthy. It lies either in the teaching of the vow of chastity or in the traditional ascetism organized with a view to its preservation.