Sacrament of marriage

The sacrament of marriage in the Catholic Church is the marriage contract between two baptized persons of the opposite sex. Each person acquires the irrevocable and exclusive right over the body of the other for the purposes of procreation. Marriage ends with the death of either person. The sacrament of marriage is regulated by divine law, church law, and civil law. The Roman Catholic church does not perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Religions other than Roman Catholicism have different regulations and customs governing marriage.

Sacrament Of Marriage Media

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  Bride and groom outside a Roman Catholic church in Amalfi, Italy

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  Sometimes used as a symbol for Christian marriage: Two gold wedding rings interlinked with the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P)—the first two letters in the Greek word for "Christ" (see Labarum)

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  Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th century.

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  Mystery of Crowning during Holy Matrimony in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

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  Catholic couple at their Holy Matrimony or marriage. In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, during the celebration the priest imposes his liturgical stole upon the couple's hands, as a sign to confirm the marriage bond.

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  Arbëreshë Albanian couple during marriage in an Italo-Greek Catholic Church rite.

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  During the Warsaw Uprising (1944), a Polish couple, members of an Armia Krajowa resistance group, are married in a secret Catholic chapel in a street in Warsaw.

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  Wedding ceremony at First Baptist Church of Rivas, Baptist Convention of Nicaragua, 2011

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  The Wedding of Stephen Beckingham and Mary Cox by William Hogarth, c. 1729 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.).