829 angelic doctor called an angel clothed in a body. A pigeon was at one time a symbol of chastity among the ancients,19 because it was the most continent bird. Bees also represented this virtue to the ancients, which is why they were called by the poets “virginal insects.”20 If, however, a Christian wanted to represent chastity with a true and genuine symbol, he would not be able to do so more aptly and more fittingly, than if he would procure St. Thomas to be painted with wings. For all who are most diligent guardians of an intact virginity, all these I call earthly angels, not being such only by name, but by the truth of the matter.21 However, just as among angels there are found great differences, so also among men distinguished with the gift of chastity. For from among these some are chaste by nature, others by vow, or by proposition. Among them all those stand out with the greatest praise, who strive to preserve so inviolate the lily of a pure soul consecrated to the Almighty God, that they would prefer to suffer the most difficult battles and the cruelest deaths than to allow the fragrance of the most divine flower to be not even ruined, but touched, by the breath of the Stygian wind. Holy Thomas was such that one does not know [him], who does not know how much struggle he went through for the sake of defending chastity. [His] mother attacked the most chaste mind of the untouched youth;22 he resisted. [His] brothers attacked [him] like the most furious soldiers;23 he did not yield. 19 Cf. Thomas de Aquino, Summa Theologica, III, q. 39, art. 6: “Columba autem est animal simplex, astutia et dolo carens; unde dicitur Math. X, 16: ‘Estote simplices sicut columbae.’” 20 In Latin: “virgineas volucres”. Cf. Ambrosius, “De virginitatibus”, lib. I: Opera, IV, Romae 1582, 347, A. 21 These words written with italics are probably the quote of some author, who was not able to be identified (no citation was given in the text). It is possible that it was the sentence of the author himself, which he emphasized in this way to indicate its importance. 22 Cf. Petitot, op. cit., p. 28. 23 Cf. Thomas, “[…] iam adolescens fratrum Praedicatorum ordinem suscepit. Sed matre ac fratribus id indigne ferentibus, Lutetiam Parisiorummittitur. Quem fratres, [Reginaldus et Landolphus] in itinere per vim raptum, in arcem castri
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