Acts 21:9

Acts 21:9. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. This is an example of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel quoted by St. Peter in the early days of the faith (Acts 2:17): ‘And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy... and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit' (Joel 2:28-29).

From the several traditions respecting these four daughters, it seems that subsequently two of them were married. It is improbable that any ‘order of virgins' existed at this early period. There seems to have been an organization (see 1 Timothy 5:9, etc.) at Ephesus of ‘widows' of an advanced age, who spent their days in charitable work in connection with the Church. But we find no trace of any order of virgins in the early Christian Church. The Ministrae alluded to by Pliny in his letter to the Emperor Trajan were not improbably deaconesses, but these need not have teen, probably were not, virgins.

It is very likely that these ‘four' foretold the apostle's coming captivity, and showed him the dangers he would meet with in Jerusalem.