Numerous beautiful, marriageable young women chose to lead such lives especially in the early years of the church and often ended up martyred in dramatic fashion. (Like being fed to lions in the arena, etc...)
And the example of their lives (and epic deaths) — of what they *willingly* gave up for Christ, often inspired others to convert. Most notably their brawny prison guards who likely found the virginity of these women peculiar and alluring in its own right.
William Shakespeare explores this propensity for attraction to consecrated virginity — in the play “Measure for Measure.” The central character, Isabella is a vibrant, charismatic woman at the prime of her life, and a novice nun.
The hypocrite Puritan, Angelo, tries to seduce her out of her vows.
Bernini’s famed sculpture “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” captures St. Teresa of Avila’s account of being caught up in a trance with God and the forces of Heaven, an orgasmic mystical union of sorts.
So, it’s not as though these women are incapable of experiencing bliss...just on a higher level and yet in full maintenance of their purity.
Excerpted here with the more erotic descriptions left out:
....The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.... - St. Teresa of Avila
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_of_Saint_Teresa
A woman who waits until marriage, and is then only with her husband, is pure without being chaste.
Okaaayyy......
That's just...... weird.
So, it’s not as though these women are incapable of experiencing bliss...just on a higher level and yet in full maintenance of their purity.
IOW, marriage and sex make a woman impure. So marriage and sex are sinful and to be avoided to maintain *purity*.