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A number of male saints were included in Aldhelm's paired prose and poetic versions of the _De Virginitate_. A typical passage reads: "Nec pudeat, Christi caelibes strictis pudicitiae legibus lascivam naturae petulantiam coartantes corporeosque titillationum gestus velut indomitos bigarum subiugales ferratis salivaribus refrenantes Toronici reminisci pontificis....quique pro adepta integretatis corona et fausta virginitatis infula, quas velut regale diadema ac gemmatas crepundiorum lunulas indefessis viribus meta tenus servare satagebat, miris virtutum signis effulsisse memoratur." (Aldhelm, De Virginitate, _Aldhelmi Opera_, ed. Rudolph Ehwald, Monumenta Germaniae Historica Auctores Antiquissimi 15 [Munich 1984] 260). "Nor should it be an embarrassment for Christ's celibates (who are) contraining the unruly impulsiveness of their nature with the strict laws of chastity and curbing the bodily gestures of titillation with iron bridles, as if they were untamed cart-horses, to call to mind the bishop of Tours [i.e. Martin]....who, because of the crown of integrity he had acquired and the blessed distinction of virginity--which he was able to preserve with tireless efforts right up to the end, like a royal diadem or the jewelled necklaces of amulets--is said to have shone forth in the marvellous miracles of his virtues." (_Aldhelm: The Prose Works_, trans. Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren) We rarely refer to male saints as virgins, but that was not always true in all periods and in all places in the Middle Ages. John Damon University of Arizona jdamon@ccit,arizona.edu %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%