ABSTRACT A commitment to virginity within marriage is far from normative in early medieval England. Yet three of the twenty-six saints' lives curated in one volume by Ælfric have virgin spouses as protagonists. Saints' lives provide an insight into behaviour that is, by definition, extraordinary, they also act as exempla. Thus, married virginity is not easily achievable, but it is of clear interest to Ælfric and his audience. In this article, I will examine the implications of this unusual identity for masculinity through an analysis of the legends of the married virgins Julian and Basilissa, Cecilia and Valerian and Chrysanthus and Daria in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (from this point, I will be collectively refer to them as The Lives of the Virgin Spouses). A virgin marriage can destabilise the process of gender performance through heterosexual desire. The virgin spouses, therefore, have the potential to subvert gender conventions by revealing the possibilities for alternative masculinities or a third gender, by troubling the more established masculinities present in hagiography such as martial or regal identities. Yet my analysis of these texts, through the lens of Douglas Schrock and Michael Schwalbe's theory of manhood acts, demonstrates that this potential is not realised as masculinity remains tied to concepts of dominance and female virginity is subordinated by its links to vulnerability. Schrock and Schwalbe describe how manhood acts can construct a more esteemed masculinity, compensating for perceived deficiencies in non-hegemonic masculinities. I explore how, in The Lives of the Virgin Spouses, manhood reinforces a contrast between masculinity and femininity, such as through alternative depictions of torture and sexual desire. Male virginity becomes centred around autonomy, self-discipline and commitment, producing a venerable identity in opposition to female virginity, which is focused on bodily enclosure. My discussion thus contributes to the understanding of manhood acts, as well as the functioning of masculinity within Old English literature. Virginity within marriage is more than an early-medieval Christian ideal unobtainable to most. Male virginity in hagiography provides new ways of understanding masculinity.