Of Virgin Births and Vultures

Parthenogenesis in Condors?  The vulture in some medieval symbolism was used to signify the Most Holy Virgin Mary.  A Condor is a type of Vulture. 

 If confirmed, this actually bolsters an argument used by the early Church writers.  For example, Origen, in his 3rd century work "Against Celsus" [Celsus was a pagan critic of Christianity] defends the veracity of the Virginal Conception of Our Lord, and he cites the examples of Vultures.    

In Against Celsus, Book I, Chapter 37, Origen says:

"I think, then, that it has been pretty well established not only that our Saviour was to be born of a virgin, but also that there were prophets among the Jews who uttered not merely general predictions about the future — as, e.g., regarding Christ and the kingdoms of the world, and the events that were to happen to Israel, and those nations which were to believe in the Saviour, and many other things concerning Him — but also prophecies respecting particular events; as, for instance, how the asses of Kish, which were lost, were to be discovered, and regarding the sickness which had fallen upon the son of the king of Israel, and any other recorded circumstance of a similar kind. But as a further answer to the Greeks, who do not believe in the birth of Jesus from a virgin, we have to say that the Creator has shown, by the generation of several kinds of animals, that what He has done in the instance of one animal, He could do, if it pleased Him, in that of others, and also of man himself. For it is ascertained that there is a certain female animal which has no intercourse with the male (as writers on animals say is the case with vultures), and that this animal, without sexual intercourse, preserves the succession of race. What incredibility, therefore, is there in supposing that, if God wished to send a divine teacher to the human race, He caused Him to be born in some manner different from the common!"

And, perhaps one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the Latin Church Fathers, St. Ambrose of Milan, says:

 "We have spoken of widowhood as it appears in the life of birds.  We have shown how this virtue first arose among them.  Now let us discuss the virtue of continency -- a virtue which birds are said also to possess.  This virtue can be found even among vultures.  It is said that vultures 'do not indulge in conjugal embraces' [Virgil, Gegorgics 4:198] or in any sort of union or nuptial tie.  They are said to conceive without contact with the male seed and that without the union of sexes they generate offspring that live to a ripe old age.  In fact, it is asserted that they live as long as an hundred years and that by no means does 'the limit of a natural span of life await them.' 

""What do those people say who usually ridicule our mysteries when they hear that a virgin gave birth to a child -- people who consider that parturition is impossible to one who never had any relations with a man?  Is that to be thought impossible for the Mother of God which is admitted to be possible in the case of vultures?  A bird gives birth without contact with a male.  No one has cast any doubt on that.  But because Mary, though unwedded, brought forth a Child, they raise doubts about her chastity.  Do not our observations show that the Lord has provided many precedents in the realm of nature by which to prove the Glory of His Own Incarnation and assert its veracity?"

 [Chapter 20, Homily 8, Hexemeron of St. Ambrose] 

Of course, various early Church writers did not make this argument in order to argue for a purely naturalistic origin of the Virgin Conception of Our Lord; after all, even if there were no 'naturalistic' examples, it would still be true; rather, I believe, it was to say, "If cases can be found of this without invoking a miracle, then what is the problem with saying a Miraculous Intervention by God took place, the Virginal Conception of the Incarnate Word in the Womb of the Ever-Virgin Lady?  With God all things are possible."