Consecrated Virginity

IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

COHOES WOMAN A RARE `BRIDE OF CHRIST’

Judith Mary Hervieux makes it official at her consecration ceremony.

By Katy Moeller

COHOES [NEW YORK] — As a sign of her devotion to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, Judith Mary Hervieux wears a gold band on her ring finger.

She’s not married — at least not in the traditional sense. Nor is she a nun, who may wear a ring to symbolize her commitment to God.

Hervieux is a consecrated virgin.

In short, that means the 66-year-old real estate broker has pledged to live the rest of her life in the "holy state of virginity" and in the service of God and the Catholic Church.

"People give up the pleasures of this world in order to dedicate their lives totally to preparing for life in heaven," said the Rev. Reginald Reddy, a Franciscan friar and retired Siena College physics professor, explaining the link that virginity has to serving God. "They don’t do it for their own interest. They do it to minister to people — to help bring the Gospel to others."

If you’ve never heard of consecrated virginity before, you’re not alone. It’s an obscure designation even to devout Catholics.

"You do have to explain it to people," Hervieux said Friday morning as she sat in her Cohoes real estate office, which is decorated with flowered wallpaper and pink curtains. "I tell people I’m mystically espoused to Christ. I’m a bride of Christ."

The ring she wears — which has a diamond cross inside a heart —symbolizes this union. This way of devoting oneself to God isn’t for everyone, including Hervieux’s twin sister.

"I do have the faith, but I don’t think I have the calling the way she does," Carol A. Hervieux-Potts said of her sister.

Consecrated virgins are in a class all their own: They are not nuns, nor are they considered part of the laity.

They are expected to support themselves financially and live "in the world," as opposed to living communally in the way that members of religious orders do. They are not required to wear religious garb of any kind.

Hervieux plans to continue working as a real estate agent.

"Selling real estate is a wonderful way to help people," she said. "You have to find all the different ways to get financing and find all the different ways to get them into a house."

Consecrated virgins have no official duties and are not obliged to take on any particular work in the Church; most volunteer their time to their local parish. They are expected to recite the Liturgy of Hours and pray daily for the bishop, other clergy and the diocese.

About 190 people attended Hervieux’s consecration ceremony at St. Mary’s Church in Waterford last Sunday. Bishop Howard Hubbard presided over the ancient rite, which had never before been performed in the Diocese of Albany.

"It was magnificent," said Hervieux, who wore a white dress under her alb and carried a white candle. "Everybody said I was radiant. I think I was up in seventh heaven."

The Cohoes native has joined a tiny number of Catholic women in the world in her new vocation; the option is not available to men. The women who do this are "real" virgins, having never engaged in sex.

There are about 1,500 consecrated virgins worldwide, including 100 in the United States, according to the Church-sanctioned United States Association of Consecrated Virgins. Its Web site is www.consecratedvirgins.org.

Bishop Raymond Burke of La Crosse, Wis., is the national adviser and advocate of consecrated virgins in the United States. He could not be reached last week.

Underscoring the lifelong commitment required of the vocation, Burke has said publicly that he won’t confer consecration on women under the age of 35.

Long tradition

One of the reasons so few Catholic women have chosen this path of devotion could be because so few know about it.

There were consecrated virgins in the earliest days of the Church — it is described in Canon 604 of church law — but it fell out of practice during the rise of religious orders in the first millennium. It resurfaced again in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

"It was back in 1970 that Pope Paul VI reinaugurated consecrated virginity in canonical law. It wasn’t visible in the law," said Reddy, who guided Hervieux in theological and historical studies before her consecration.

Reddy was asked by Hubbard to assist Hervieux in the "formation" period leading up to her consecration. They met for an hour and a half each month for two years.

But Hervieux’s dedication to her faith didn’t begin just two years ago.

She comes from a very religious family. She grew up saying the rosary and attending Mass every day. Her father, Joseph G. Hervieux, was an organist for 49 years at St. Bridget’s Church in Watervliet.

The Hervieux sisters both worked at Cohoes Hospital when they were in high school. "We learned a lot about taking care of the sick," Judith Hervieux said.

She planned on becoming a nun and doing God’s work the rest of her life. And she was a nun for 18 years, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Albany and Syracuse. She worked as an elementary school teacher and particularly enjoyed teaching third grade.

She was forced to leave the religious order about 30 years ago, when she developed health problems and her father had a stroke. She didn’t want to leave the Sisters of St. Joseph but felt she needed to help Carol care for their sick father.

"I cried when I signed the papers," Hervieux said of her dispensation from the Sisters of St. Joseph.

She later joined Carol in working at their father’s real estate business. Most of her off hours were spent with her ailing father and on church-related activities, including bringing communion to nursing home residents.

Hervieux now lives with and cares for her 93-year-old mother, who is in relatively good health these days. Her mom didn’t get to attend the consecration ceremony, but she will get to view it on videotape.

There’s no dispensation from being a consecrated virgin.

"Once you’re consecrated, you can’t become unconsecrated," Hervieux said. "God consecrated you through the bishop. You give your whole life to God. You’re supposed to be Christlike in everything you do."

Reach Gazette reporter Katy Moeller at (518) 395-3193 or katy@dailygazette.com

Source: The Sunday Gazette, 11/22/03

Reprinted with permission

©2004 by the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins. All rights reserved. The USACV provides this information service under the authority of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.