| Luke 1:34
| And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?
| How shall this be done? She only asks about the manner. --- Because I know not man.{ Ver. 34. Quia virum non cognosco. St. Augustine, quod profecto non diceret, nisi Deo Virginem se ante vovisset. (De Virginitate, ch. IV, tom. 6, p. 343. Ed. Ben.)|} This answer, as St. Augustine takes notice, would have been to no purpose, had she not made a vow to God to live always a virgin. (Witham) --- Listen to the words of this pure Virgin. The angel tells her she shall conceive; but she insists upon her virginity, holding her purity in higher estimation than the promised dignity. (St. Gregory of Nyssa.) --- She did not doubt the truth of what the angel said, (as Calvin impiously maintained) but she wished it might not happen to the prejudice of her vowed virginity. (St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, Ven. Bede, Theophylactus, etc. etc.)
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