Mary’s virginity in childbirth (virginitas
in partu) has been taught in the Church since the first centuries and was
defined as a dogma in 649. It was long understood to include the physical aspect
of Mary’s virginity and to have been a miraculous birth without pain. This
understanding was consolidated in the fourth century and expressed in the Roman
Catechism, . . . (John Lawrence M. Polis, The Virgin Shall Give Birth: The
Validity of the Traditional Doctrine and Scotist Explanations of Mary’s Cooperation
with the Miracle [New Bedford, Mass.: Academy of the Immaculate, 2022], xv)