The Latin word "castitas", from which the English "chastity" derives, is an abstract noun denoting "a moral and physical purity usually in a specifically religious context", sometimes but not always referring to sexual chastity. The related adjective "castus" (feminine "casta", neuter "castum"), "pure", can be used of places and objects as well as people; the adjective "pudicus" ("chaste, modest") describes more specifically a person who is sexually moral. The goddess Ceres was concerned with both ritual and sexual "castitas", and the torch carried in her honor as part of the Roman wedding procession was associated with the bride's purity; Ceres also embodied motherhood. The goddess Vesta was the primary deity of the Roman pantheon associated with "castitas", and a virgin goddess herself; her priestesses the Vestals were virgins who took a vow to remain celibate.