Правило 18 Василия Великого

About the fallen virgins, who communicated with the Lord in purity of life, but then fell into carnal passions and broke their vows, our fathers, simply and meekly forgiving the infirmities of those who crawled, laid down the law: to receive them after a year, establishing this following the example of bigamous people. But since, by the grace of Christ, the church is becoming stronger over time, and the rank of virgins is now multiplying: it seems to me that it is appropriate to delve with precision into the matter, which is obvious from its very concept, and into the understanding of Scripture, which can be found by conclusion. For widowhood is lower than virginity: therefore, the sin of widows is much lighter than the sin of virgins. Let's see what Paul wrote to Timothy: Do not accept young widows, for they, falling into luxury in opposition to Christ, desire to marry. They are condemned because they have rejected their former faith (1 Tim. 5:11–12). And so, if a widow is subject to the most severe condemnation, as if she had rejected faith in Christ: then what should we conclude about the virgin, who is the bride of Christ, and a holy vessel dedicated to the Lord? It is a great sin when a slave, having given herself over to a secret marriage, fills the house with depravity, and with her bad life offends the one who has acquired her; but it is much graver when the bride becomes an adulteress, and having dishonored her union with the groom, gives herself over to unbridled voluptuousness. And so the widow is condemned as a corrupt slave, and the virgin is condemned as an adulterer. Just as we call one who has sex with another man’s wife an adulterer, and we do not accept him into fellowship until he has ceased from sin: let us deal in the same way with him who has eaten a virgin. We now need to explain that a virgin is a woman who voluntarily dedicated herself to the Lord, renounced marriage and preferred to live in sanctification. We then recognize the vows as valid when the age has reached perfect intelligence: for children’s words in this matter should not be considered completely firm. But one who is more than sixteen or seventy years old, who has power over her thoughts, who has been tested for a long time and has remained firm in her intentions and with prayer asks for her acceptance, should finally be accepted into the rank of virgins, and such vows should be confirmed, and for violations, punishment must be unconditionally imposed. For many are brought by parents, and brothers, and some of their relatives, before they reach adulthood, not out of their own desire for celibacy, but through this they are providing for something worldly for themselves: we should not accept such people easily until we clearly know their own disposition. (I Om. 19; IV Om. 15, 16; Trul. 4, 40, 44; Ankyr. 19; Carth. 6, 44, 126; Dvukr. 5; Basil Vel. 44, 58, 60). Here we are not talking about nuns, but about those consecrated virgins (ιεράς παρθένους), which are spoken of in Rules 6 and 44 of the Council of Carthage and which we mentioned, by the way, in the interpretation of Rule 4 of Trullo. To the question of Amphilochius what should be done with such virgins who violated the solemnly given vow of virginity and fell into fornication, Saint Basil replies that, according to the definitions of former times, such are subject to a year's penance, like second-weds (Anchir. 19). This was so established out of condescension for the weaknesses of people, also because the Church of Christ was not yet quite widespread, that the title (τό τάγμα) of consecrated virgins was only in embryo, but now, when everything is different, Saint Basil prescribes that a virgin who has fallen into fornication is subject to the fate of adulterers (τψ κρίματι τής μοιχαλίδος), namely, fifteen-year penance (Basily the Great 58, 60). To justify his present injunction, Saint Basil refers to the Holy Scriptures and notes that the position of a widow is lower in its meaning than virginity, and therefore if a widow who has fallen into fornication is subject to punishment, then how much more punishment should a virgin who has violated her vow be subject to, while he compares the widow with a slave, and the virgin with the bride of a free man, and from here makes a conclusion about the validity for the fallen initiate maidens of the mentioned punishment. And to prevent this from happening in the future, Saint Basil prescribes that girls should be accepted into the rank of consecrated virgins only after they reach 17 or at least 16 years of age, i.e. those who control their own mind and their own will, for the vows that are given at an earlier age are nothing more than empty childish words (παιδικάς φωνάς), which cannot be relied upon; Moreover, it happens that parents and other relatives, for the sake of their own self-interest, force young girls to enter the rank of consecrated virgins, while they are not able to say whether they can live outside of marriage, as a result of which such virgins cause harm to the church when they become adults. You might be interested in: