Ælfric's Lives of the virgin spouses with modern English parallel-text translations : Julian and Basilissa, Cecilia and Valerian and Chrysanthus and Daria

As a leading churchman writing at the time of the Viking raids at the end of the first millennium, AElfric wrote his "Lives" to bolster the faith of English Christians. These three stories of couples who marry but do not consummate their unions point to the ideal of marital celibacy in AElfric's programme of pastoral care.