Is there a Catholic ceremony for virgins who are not nuns or sisters? I once saw online that there is a Catholic classification or special private ceremony for women who are chaste and do not engage in any form of sex. This is for women who are not nuns or sisters. Is there such a thing?
Nuns (contemplatives) or sisters (active life, e.g., teaching, nursing, etc.) belong to religious orders. They take vows required by their order, which include the vow of virginity.
A lay person can make a private vow to observe virginity &quot;under the virtue of religion.&quot;¹

a vow of perfect chastity by a lay person…could be a public vow only if it were made in the name of the Church and accepted as such by a legitimate ecclesiastical superior.¹

Although &quot;such a public vow was forbidden by the Holy See in 1927,&quot;¹ it is permitted by the 1983 Code of Canon Law canon 604, as it had been at other times in Church history.
On the difference between public and private vows (and solemn and simple vows), see 1917 Canon 1308 or 1983 Canon 1192 (commentary):


A vow is public if a legitimate superior accepts it in the name of the Church; otherwise, it is private.




A vow is solemn if the Church has recognized it as such; otherwise, it is simple.


Vows are also either perpetual or temporary. Vows differ from promises in that vows bind under the virtue of religion; viz., to break a vow is a sin against the virtue of religion.


ch. 5, &quot;The Manner of Dedication,&quot; of The Mystery of Love for the Single: A Guide for Those Who Follow the Single Vocation in the World by Fr. Unger. For an explanation of the 1927 denial, see: &quot;Explanations for the 1927 Denial&quot; (PDF pp. 129-33) of the 2019 dissertation by Judith M. Stegmancf. also Pope Pius XII's encyclical Sacra Virginitas and this informative blog written by a consecrated virgin