Castration is a frequent feature of early Christian debates on the purity of the body, but it remained a difficult issue in the pursuit of sanctity, particularly in accounts of male saints and martyrs. As Jacqueline Murray writes, ‘the whole problem of the body was perceived to be located in the male genitals. Once they were removed, it was believed that the problem of lack of control of the flesh would simply disappear.’ As a result of such (well-intentioned) logic, self-castration was practiced among some early Christian theologians, most notably Origen (c. ad 185–254) and Ignatius of Constantinople (ad 799–877); however it was condemned by the First Council of Nicaea (ad 325) as an excessive misinterpretation of the biblical verse Matthew 19:12 which ends with the exhortation ‘there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, he that can take, let him take it’. Peter Abelard, in the twelfth-century account of his own castration (Historia calamitatum), lauds Origen as a model (albeit excessive) for sexual restraint but constructs his own forced, punitive mutilation as a form of martyrdom, a necessary trial to achieve spiritual purity. Martin Irvine suggests that Abelard ‘will be able to imitate the exemplary self-castrator, Origen, and other saints and martyrs who rejoiced to be without genitals’. However, there are relatively few instances of castration in hagiographical narratives; most occur as part of a miracle performed by the saint.