CHAPTER I

“Who shall find a valiant woman?
far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.” (Proverbs 31:10)

§ 1

ALEPH א. Solomon praises the Church under the symbol of a Valiant Woman in twenty-two verses according to the number of the Hebrew letters in which such a meter is used that the sentiment of each verse seems to allude to the meaning of the letter assigned to it. In the biblical Lamentations Jeremiah uses the same meter under a fourfold list of letters bewailing the burning of the Temple and of Jerusalem. Since, however, Solomon in this poem speaks of the search for and the finding of a Valiant Woman, which search is a kind of test, therefore to this chapter is assigned this letter Aleph (א) that is interpreted either “teaching of test” or a “thousand.” If both meanings are joined they mean “doctrine of a thousand tests.” St. Jerome, however, in a certain Gloss on Genesis says that 1000 is a perfect, four-squared number, that is, a body whose fourfoldness is in its length, breadth, and depth, because the length of a thousand is the number 10 that by philosophers is called its “root,” while its depth is from the extension of its length in breadth, that is, as 10 times 100 and thus 10 times 10 times 100. And Solomon wants by this to signify the perfect testing of this Valiant Woman according to the square of the four natural affections that are the roots of all virtues and vices.

	Hope
These are the four	Fear
affections...	Sorrow
	Joy

Testing, however, is through proving us in a battle in which we fight against the devil, the world, and the flesh. In this warfare it is not easy to find a strong person, especially a woman, for as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:29, “One man among a thousand I have found, a woman among them all I have not found.” This, however, is not to be understood as applying to gender, but rather as to resolution with regard to the weakness of carnal concupiscence, for of this battle Job 7:1 says, “The life of man upon earth is a warfare,” because through the training of such trials God proves his Saints and, as it says in Wisdom 3:5, “He has found them worthy of himself.”

The meaning of the verse that follows this letter is to be gathered from two phrases of which one is a question about this woman who is being sought, where it says: Proverbs 31:10 “Who shall find a valiant woman?” The other is about the high praise of the woman who is sought, and this is described as in the phrase “Far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.” In the first of these phrases four points should be noted. The first is that she is a “woman.” The second is “What does she have that she should be sought?” and the answer is that she is “strong.” The third is the dignity of the one who seeks her, and this is noted through the question, “Who?” The fourth thing to be noted is the diligence of the search which is indicated by “shall find her?”

Let us return to the first point and consider why the Church, or the faithful soul, is called a “woman.” And we can investigate this in two ways: one by a definition, namely, that a woman is a person who generates within herself from the seed of another while the man generates in another by his own seed. The former fits the Church, that is, as Revelation 21:9 says, the “Bride of the Lamb,” because whatever is conceived by the Church in her chaste womb is not from herself but from God, from the seed of the grace of Christ who is her Bridegroom, as the Apostle says in II Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God” and as he asks in Galatians 3:5, “Therefore who gives you the Spirit and produces the virtues in you?” as if to say, “No one but Christ.” John 1:16 also says, “And of his fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” and Isaiah 26:17-18 says, “So are we become in thy presence, O Lord. We have conceived, and been as it were in labor and have brought forth the spirit,” that is, of salvation.

For a second reason, the Church and the faithful soul are called a “woman” in view of the service of the four bodily members or instruments by which a woman differs from a man. The first instrument is for her reception of the seed. The second is for the conservation and development of the conception in her womb. The third is her care of the unborn child as it develops. The fourth is for her service in raising the child once it is born. The first instrument is the semen, the second the womb, the third the supply of blood, the fourth her breasts.

	Zeal for souls
And in the Church these four	Preaching
spiritual instruments are...	Piety
	Thanksgiving

Through “zeal for souls” the Church conceives the salvation of converts. Through “preaching” she shapes, as if with the hand of teaching, the conceived child. Then “piety,” which as St. Augustine says, “is good will to all who bear God’s image,” supplies the matter for the baby lest this be insufficient for its formation. Yet she does not ask about the size of the child she is begetting but only about its health. Fourth, “thanksgiving,” signifies that from one part of herself as from one breast flows milk that invites to a better life and from another part as from the other breast flows the milk of admonition that the child should persevere in the gifts it has already received from God. Thus two kinds of milk nourish the little one, namely, milk that enables it to grow toward maturity and milk that enables it to persevere throughout life.

The Song of Songs 7:1 says, “The joints of thy thighs are like a necklace, that are made by the hand of a skillful workman”. By “thighs” here is meant the zeal for souls, because, as St. Isidore says in his book On Etymologies, the term “necklace” (monile) is derived either from “warning” (monendo) or “shielding” (muniendo) because it is given by the bridegroom to his bride as a reminder of her husband when he is absent. And thus the Church has zeal through which she recalls her commitment to her Spouse and love by which she always seeks to bear fruit to his seed, remembering what is written in Genesis 38:7-10 about Er and Onan, the sons of Judah. Er sinned in that he did not plant his seed in its proper vessel and therefore was slain by God. The other sinner was Onan who “knowing that the children should not be his, when he had intercourse with his dead brother's wife, spilled his seed upon the ground” and thus was also slain by God. “Er” is a name that means “rising confusion” and signifies those who in accordance to the great gifts given them do not seek to grow in their zeal for souls but only for some evil purpose, as the Apostle says in II Corinthians 2:17, “adulterating the word of God.” But “Onan,” which means “grief of grace,” signifies those who are vain and blown up with pride and want to be born sons of grace only to gain praise for themselves, not receiving the seed as zeal for soul but rather in the zeal of vanity and self-praise, preaching, as in II Corinthians the Apostle says 4:5, “themselves not God” (II Corinthians 4:5). Both these men were slain by the Lord because they had been condemned to the punishment of eternal death. A “necklace” is derived from “shielding” because it is given by a husband to shield his wife’s bosom lest some adulterer shamefully touch her breasts. Thus again the zeal of modesty guards both one’s soul and the Church, as Psalm 69:10 says, “For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.”

And as for the “womb” that means “preaching” the Apostle says in Galatians. 4:19 “My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you.” And note that birthing is impeded by two defects of the womb; one is that it has too much moisture so that the semen cannot remain in it and the other is that it has too tight closure so that the semen cannot penetrate it. And so it is spiritually in preaching the Word of God, since by too great wordiness the seed [of truth] is prevented from bearing fruit, as is Leviticus 15:2-4 says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The man that hath an issue of seed, shall be unclean. And then shall he be judged subject to this evil, when a filthy humor, at every moment, cleaveth to his flesh, and gathereth there. Every bed on which he sleepeth shall be unclean, and every place on which he sitteth.” A “filthy seminal humor” is a sermon that does not fit the time or is not suited to those who hear it. The “bed on which he sleepeth” is what such preachers indulge in, namely, indecency and buffoonery.

The shutting up or closure of the womb occurs when the preached word that might profit many is closed by a damnable silence, as Ezekiel 3:18-21 says, “If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not converted from his wickedness and from his evil way: he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity: I will lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning: he shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou warn the just man, that the just may not sin and he doth not sin: living he shall live, because thou hast warned him, and thou hast delivered thy soul.”

The third way in which a woman differs from a man is as a source of blood, which above we said symbolizes “piety” or “good will to all who bear God’s image,” and such is according to St. Augustine one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. From this fount flows the blood of love of neighbor in regards to which the Valiant Woman abounds with all that is needed for the formation of the children of Christ, as is noted in the words of the Apostle, II Corinthians 5:13-14, “For whether we be transported in mind, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for you. For the charity of Christ presseth us,” that is, whatever we draw from the unfathomable mind of God and whatever we are able to do in ordinary practice we do wholly for you, O Lord, because the love Christ urges us on. For as the abundance of blood urges a woman to give birth to children so the abundance of charity urges us to spiritual rebirth. And therefore in II Corinthians 6:11-12 the Apostle says, “Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. You are not straitened in us.”[modern translation: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you”] As if he were to say “The mouth of piety is open to you and the heart of charity toward you is broad and abundant, nothing in us is narrow or restricted in its power of expression that would lead me to do any less for your formation in Christ. And this is what he says in Acts 20:26-27, “Wherefore I take you to witness this day that I am clear from the blood of all men. For I have not spared to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” And note that Aristotle says in History of Animals, VII, c. 1 that, the ‘menstrual discharge of young women is always white.” For elderly women cease to be fertile, as we read in Genesis 18:11, “It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” And thus two things spiritually corrupt the fount of blood so that it loses its proper color, which should be red with the flame of the fire of the love of God. Thus one cause for the blood to lack redness is youthful immaturity, while the other cause is greed that freezes charity. Of the first cause Jeremiah 31:19 says, “I am confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach of my youth.” And of the second Matthew 24:12 says, “And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.”

The fourth way in which a woman differs from a man is that she nurtures in Christ little newborn children and this we call “thanksgiving” and for this she has two breasts, from one of which, the invitation to better things, flows the Valiant Woman’s milk nourishing spiritual life, from her other breast flows the comforting milk that is perseverance in the life that the child has accepted. And this is what the Apostle means in when he says in I Corinthians 3:1-2, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat” and the Song of Songs 4:11 says, “Honey and milk are under thy tongue,” which the Psalmist 45:3 glosses by saying, “Grace is poured abroad in thy lips; therefore hath God blessed thee for ever.”

And thus is answered the question why the Church or the faithful soul is called the “Woman.”

Excerpt from: The Valiant Woman: A Medieval Commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31

St. Albert the Great; Translated by Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P. and Fr. Dominic Holtz, O.P. © 2013

https://www.newpriorypress.com/the-valiant-woman