68: Was Mary always a virgin?

Today we'll ask Aquinas about whether or not Mary remained a virgin her entire life. Thanks to the following awesome people who are supporting Pints With Aquinas on Patreon: Jack Buss! ... You're the man, Jack. Tim Davolt, Chris Reintjes, Tom Dickson, David Young, Andrew Kener, Desirae Sifuentes, and Sean McNicholl. James Boehmler, Laura Suttenfield, John Hipp, Kathleen Cory, Sarah Jacobs, Fernando Enrile, Travis Headly, Matthew Lafitte, Russell T Potee III, Jed Florstat, Phillip Hadden, and Katie Kuchar, Tom Clark, Ben Blythe, Trevor Sorensen, Russell Potee III, James Governale, Benjamin Morris, and John Droesch. You can support Pints With Aquinas here: Patreon.com/pwa --- Without any hesitation we must abhor the error of Helvidius, who dared to assert that Christ's Mother, after His Birth, was carnally known by Joseph, and bore other children. For, in the first place, this is derogatory to Christ's perfection: for as He is in His Godhead the Only-Begotten of the Father, being thus His Son in every respect perfect, so it was becoming that He should be the Only-begotten son of His Mother, as being her perfect offspring. Secondly, this error is an insult to the Holy Ghost, whose "shrine" was the virginal womb ["Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti" (Office of B. M. V., Ant. ad Benedictus, T. P.), wherein He had formed the flesh of Christ: wherefore it was unbecoming that it should be desecrated by intercourse with man. Thirdly, this is derogatory to the dignity and holiness of God's Mother: for thus she would seem to be most ungrateful, were she not content with such a Son; and were she, of her own accord, by carnal intercourse to forfeit that virginity which had been miraculously preserved in her. Fourthly, it would be tantamount to an imputation of extreme presumption in Joseph, to assume that he attempted to violate her whom by the angel's revelation he knew to have conceived by the Holy Ghost. We must therefore simply assert that the Mother of God, as she was a virgin in conceiving Him and a virgin in giving Him birth, did she remain a virgin ever afterwards.   ST III Q. 28, A. 3.