The Passing of the Vestals. The Vestals or Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. To be allowed entry into the order, a girl had to be free of physical and mental defects, have two living parents and be a daughter of a free-born resident of Rome, they were able to pardon prisoners condemned to death when they passed them in the streets by chance. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915.