and women who,
while on earth, consecrated themselves to God by the vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. Many of them--perhaps the great majority are
virgins, while other are not. For many of them, like a St. Francis
Borgia, were widowers; and others, like a St. Frances of Rome, were
widows. Others again, there are, who, when young and foolish,
committed sin, by which they may have ceased to be virgins, but who
nevertheless received a most marked vocation to the religious life.
All these, as well as virgins, enjoy a peculiar glory in heaven,
which is due to them as a "crown of justice," on account of the great
sacrifices they made to God by the vows of religion.

By the vow of poverty, they not only stripped themselves of all their
possessions--they, moreover, gave up the natural right which all men
have to possess property. By the vow of chastity, they gave up the
natural right which all men have to enjoy the lawful pleasures of the
body. By the vow of obedience, they not only relinquished forever the
right to dispose of themselves, but they also placed themselves in
the hands of their superiors, to be ruled and governed by them as if
they were little children. Thus, by one single act, religious persons
abandon all that is dearest to the heart of man according to nature;
for they not only give up all their possessions--the world, with its
honors and pleasures--they not only sacrifice their liberty--they
also abandon father and mother, brother and sister, friends and
relatives. In a word, they cut themselves away from the world, and
all that makes life bright and desirable, according to nature. And
what is more, they embrace a life of continual mortification and
self-denial.

It is true, the grace of God, which enables men and women to make
such sacrifices, makes the life of religious tolerable; but this does
not prevent it from being a life of a continual and painful struggle
against the inclinations and cravings of nature. From all this, it
follows that religious, as such, whether virgins or not, enjoy an
exceeding glory in heaven on account of the sublime sacrifice of
themselves they have made to God by the three vows of religion. This
is what our Blessed Lord promises, when he says: "And every one that
hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a
hundred-fold, and shall possess life everlasting."

In speaking of the three