Matrimony
The covenant by which a baptized man and a baptized woman establish a partnership of their whole life — ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children — raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament.
The mutual consent of the spouses, given freely, before the witness of the Church.
In the Latin Church, the spouses themselves are the ministers of the sacrament — they confer it on each other by their mutual consent. The priest or deacon receives this consent on behalf of the Church and blesses it. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the priest is the minister of the sacrament.
The marriage vow exchanged by the spouses, e.g.: 'I, N., take you, N., to be my wife/husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.'
A baptized man and a baptized woman — capable of marriage (free of canonical impediments) — who exchange consent freely.
- ✦A perpetual and exclusive bond between the spouses, sealed by God Himself: 'What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder' (Mt 19:6)
- ✦Sacramental grace by which the spouses are perfected in their love and strengthened for their indissoluble unity
- ✦The grace to welcome children with love, to educate them in the faith, and to build a domestic church — the family as the smallest cell of the Church
- ✦A particular configuration to the relationship between Christ and His Church (Eph 5:32)
Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. (Genesis 2:24) What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. (Matthew 19:6) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it... This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church. (Ephesians 5:25, 32)
Marriage was instituted by God in the beginning — 'God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them' (Gen 1:27). Already in Eden, before the Fall, the Creator established marriage as the union of one man and one woman in a covenant of love and fruitfulness.
Christ raised the natural bond of marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. At the wedding feast of Cana He worked His first miracle — His blessing on the wedding of two unknown spouses. In His teaching He restored marriage to its original indissolubility against the divorce permitted by Moses 'for the hardness of your hearts' (Mt 19:8).
The Catholic Church has consistently held that a valid marriage between two baptized persons is a true sacrament, indissoluble, ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. The Council of Trent (1563, Session XXIV) defined this teaching; the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes 47–52) restated it; St. John Paul II's catechesis on the Theology of the Body (1979–1984) developed it in great depth.