Do People Ever Get Married In Convent Chapels?

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

The Bride taking flowers to our Lady is a very common custom. What I meant is going to a monastery or convent and doing it. It was an old custom that has gotten lost. Maybe it was an Italian custom because we have a lot of Italians around this area.

 

[beatitude]

I've seen it happen at a lot of weddings in England, and quite a few in Palestine as well. I don't understand why anybody would think it specifically Latina.

[Cherie]

The Bride taking flowers to our Lady is a very common custom. What I meant is going to a monastery or convent and doing it. It was an old custom that has gotten lost. Maybe it was an Italian custom because we have a lot of Italians around this area.

 

We didn't do that, but we did have our wedding pictures taken at a nearby Franciscan Friars' monastery...does that count? ;)

 

If I had lived near the convent where I had once been a member, I likely would have wanted to do something similar. Unfortunately, we don't live close by at all. Where we live NOW, I don't think there's a convent or a monastery in an hour's drive, maybe even more; it's quite sad, actually, as that's something I always wanted my children to be familiar with: seeing and visiting religious. There IS a beautiful Carmelite monastery not too far from where we were married. It's a good drive, but it would have been doable. Maybe we'll do that in honor of our upcoming anniversary. :)

[graciandelamadrededios]

Thanks for sharing that! I had never heard of it before, except in that movie. Maybe it will come back.

 

For putting flowers at Our Lady's altar during (or before or after) Mass at the church where one is married, I always thought that was a widespread custom, but maybe not. In my parish it's almost always done, and most are not Latina. It is during the Mass.

 

I went to an EF Mass at St. John Cantius once, and it was done at the end, I believe just after the Mass was over, although before the Recessional Hymn. I still have the program. The bride went to the side altar with the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and left a bouquet of flowers and prayed, while a hymn to Our Lady was sung by the choir. The vows were exchanged right at the beginning, and were a separate Rite from the Nuptial Mass itself which followed.

 

That is so beautiful, your story, AnneLine!! What a grace! :pray:

 

It was a common Custom among "convent-schooled" girls in the Philippines when they get married. The newly-married woman along with her husband goes back the school's convent chapel and leave the bouquet at the feet Our Lady.

 

I have seen many old year books of exclusive Catholic School (from Assumption College and St. Scholastica's College) for girls who bears such photos. 

 

A book was published about the stories of women who were convent-schooled in the Philippines entitled "Behind the Walls: Life of Convent Girls". They were called "colegialas." A lot of these schools still exists such as:

 

Assumption College by the Religious of the Assumption

 

St. Scholastica's College by the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing

 

St. Theresa's College by the Missionary Canonesses of St. Augustine (now Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) - the campus in Manila where sold to C.M. Fathers and now called Adamson University - my alma mater and we still call the old building ST Building - short for Saint Theresa

 

St. Paul's College by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres

 

Maryknoll College by the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic (now called Maryknoll Sisters) - the school was sold to secular group

 

Holy Ghost College (now College of the Holy Spirit) by the Sister-Servants of the Holy Spirit

 

Colegio de Santa Isabel by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul

 

Concordia College by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul

 

and many more.....

Edited October 8, 2013 by graciandelamadrededios

[inunionwithrome]

The answer is yes- my parents were married in a convent chapel in the 70's. So, about today, I do not know.

[SNJM]

It really does depend upon on the community. I've known some very gracious Benedictines whom have joyfully allowed an Oblate to use their Chapel to be married in. But remember since Marriage is a Sacrament, there needs to be a priest (or Pastor) who is willing to record the marriage at the Church "proper." I have seen two weddings blessed at one would call more traditionally papally enclosed monasteries. In both cases, the bride had an aunt in the Monastery. And in both cases, the bridal bouquet was placed in front off The Blessed Virgin. In all the cases I know of personally - there was no expectation placed on the nuns to sing, set up or anything out of witnessing the event (either marriage or blessing). I also know each couple did give the Monasteries a generous stipend.

[Frankie]

My wife and I got married in the chapel of Goldenbridge Convent, Inchicore, Dublin, in 1982. The parish church of St Michael was being renovated, and was full of scaffolding, so my wife asked her Parish Priest if he could arrange for the use of the convent chapel, which he did. It was small and packed out with guests, and needed extra seats. As we left the chapel, there was a very, very old nun in the corridor propped up by two younger sisters, who had never seen a wedding, and who had asked to be brought down to see us as we left.

In the TV show "Who Do You Think You Are" programme about him, Boy George was filmed in the by-then-abandoned chapel, almost on the very spot where we were married. Sad, but I did well out of it...I married my best friend there.

[gloriana35]

Someone's being married outside of a parish church could depend on the diocese (or even the pastor.) I've known couples who wanted to marry at the chapel of a university both had attended - another who wanted to marry at the church where her parents and grandparents had been married (the pastor denied permission because 'we are a parish community') - and so forth. 

[Norseman82]

In Chicago, one of the "hot" places to have a wedding Mass is the St. James Chapel, which used to be the chapel of Quigley Preparatory Seminary (the now-closed high-school level seminary) but is now part of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. 

[Lea]

In Vienna propably half of the churches and parishes are run by orders and religious congregation and often their convent churches or chapel are also the parish churches or at least partly used as such, so yeah - it is quite common to get married in convent's churches. In smaller villages actually this can be the only option. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Lea

[gloriana35]

On 10/7/2013 at 2:57 PM, beatitude said:

I've seen it happen at a lot of weddings in England, and quite a few in Palestine as well. I don't understand why anybody would think it specifically Latina.

I agree - I've seen brides in England place flowers before Our Lady's statue/altar many times. 

I doubt that any convent would object to a bride's visiting in her wedding dress, and placing flowers in the chapel. The problem with having a wedding there is that some priests or dioceses are very rigid (now, not in the 1970s, when some of my friends had weddings outdoors - baptisms at home - marriages in universities) about parish 'communities,' and not having weddings anywhere else.