Mary Ever Virgin

But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James," that the brethren of Jesus
were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honour of Mary in
virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into
her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the
purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of
virginity.

ORIGEN, Commentary on Matthew, Book X, Chapter 17 [A.D. 185-253]

For if Mary, as those declare who with sound mind extol her, had no other son but Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His mother, "Woman,
behold thy son," and not "Behold you have this son also," then He virtually said to her, "Lo, this is Jesus, whom thou didst bear." Is it
not the case that every one who is perfect lives himself no longer, but Christ lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, then it is said of him to
Mary, "Behold thy son Christ." What a mind, then, must we have to enable us to interpret in a worthy manner this work, though it be
committed to the earthly treasure-house of common speech, of writing which any passer-by can read, and which can be heard when read
aloud by any one who lends to it his bodily ears?

ORIGEN, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 1, Chapter 6 [A.D. 185-253]

And when he had taken her, "he knew her not, till she had brought forth her first-born Son."He hath here used the word "till," not that
thou shouldest suspect that afterwards he did know her, but to inform thee that before the birth the Virgin was wholly untouched by man.
But why then, it may be said, hath he used the word, "till"? Because it is usual in Scripture often to do this, and to use this expression
without reference to limited times. For so with respect to the ark likewise, it is said, "The raven returned not till the earth was dried up."And
yet it did not return even after that time. And when discoursing also of God, the Scripture saith, "From age until age Thou art,"not as fixing
limits in this case. And again when it is preaching the Gospel beforehand, and saying, "In his days shall righteousness flourish, and
abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away,"it doth not set a limit to this fair part of creation. So then here likewise, it uses the word
"till," to make certain what was before the birth, but as to what follows, it leaves thee to make the inference. Thus, what it was necessary
for thee to learn of Him, this He Himself hath said; that the Virgin was untouched by man until the birth; but that which both was seen to
be a consequence of the former statement, and was acknowledged, this in its turn he leaves for thee to perceive; namely, that not even
after this, she having so become a mother, and having been counted worthy of a new sort of travail, and a child-bearing so strange, could
that righteous man ever have endured to know her. For if he had known her, and had kept her in the place of a wife, how is it that our
Lordcommits her, as unprotected, and having no one, to His disciple, and commands him to take her to his own home? How then, one may
say, are James and the others called His brethren? In the same kind of way as Joseph himself was supposed to be husband of Mary. For
many were the veils provided, that the birth, being such as it was, might be for a time screened. Wherefore even John so called them,
saying, "For neither did His brethren believe in Him."

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily V, Chapter 5 [A.D. 347-407]

But those who by virginity have desisted from this process have drawn within themselves the boundary line of death, and by their own
deed have checked his advance; they have made themselves, in fact, a frontier between life and death, and a barrier too, which thwarts
him. If, then, death cannot pass beyond virginity, but finds his power checked and shattered there, it is demonstrated that virginity is a
stronger thing than death; and that body is rightly named undying which does not lend its service to a dying world, nor brook to become
the instrument of a succession of dying creatures. In such a body the long unbroken career of decay and death, which has intervened
between the first man and the lives of virginity which have been led, is interrupted. It could not be indeed that death should cease working
as long as the human race by marriage was working too; he walked the path of life with all preceding generations; he started with every
new-born child and accompanied it to the end: but he found in virginity a barrier, to pass which was an impossible feat. Just as, in the age
of Mary the mother of God, he who had reigned from Adam to her time found, when he came to her and dashed his forces against the fruit
of her virginity as against a 360 rock, that he was shattered to pieces upon her, so in every soul which passes through this life in the flesh
under the protection of virginity, the strength of death is in a manner broken and annulled, for he does not find the places upon which he
may fix his sting.

GREGORY OF NYSSA, On Virginity, Chapter 13 [A.D. 385]

Feeling himself to be a smatterer, he there produces Tertullian as a witness and quotes the words of Victorinus bishop of76 Petavium. Of
Tertullian I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proved from
the Gospel-that he spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary, but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say,
brethren in point of kinship not by nature. We are, however, spending our strength on trifles, and, leaving the fountain of truth, are
following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus,
Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same
views, and wrote volumes replete with wisdom. If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man. But I think it better to
reply briefly to each point than to linger any longer and extend my book to an undue length.

JEROME, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary--Against Helvidius, Chapter 19 [A.D. 342-420]

We believe that God was born of the Virgin, because we read it. That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe,
because we do not read it. Nor do we say this to condemn marriage, for virginity itself is the fruit of marriage; but because when we are
dealing with saints we must not judge rashly. If we adopt possibility as the standard of judgment, we might maintain that Joseph had
several wives because Abraham had, and so had Jacob, and that the Lord's brethren were the issue of those wives, an invention which
some hold with a rashness which springs from audacity not from piety. You say that Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more, that
Joseph himself on account of Mary was a virgin, so that from a virgin wedlock a virgin son was born. For if as a holy man he does not
come under the imputation of fornication, and it is nowhere written that he had another wife, but was the guardian of Mary whom he was
supposed to have to wife rather than her husband, the conclusion is that he who was thought worthy to be called father of the Lord,
remained a virgin.

JEROME, The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary--Against Helvidius, Chapter 21 [A.D. 342-420]