When the matrimony has been considered a true sacrament?

Is it true that the doctrine of matrimony is not defined by any dogma?

Is it true that, before the Council of Trent, matrimony was not considered a sacrament?

Answer of the priest

Dear friend,

1 None of the two questions, you asked, is true.

First of all, let’s consider the meaning of the word sacrament.

Sacrament means a holy sign.

2. In the first thousand years of the life of the Church the word sacrament had two different meanings:first it was meant to indicate what we today consider specifically a sacrament but, besides this meaning, the word sacrament was intended also to indicate many other realities which are holy signs ( of the presence) of God such as the universe.

However, at that time, it was clear that the word sacrament had also an analogical meaning, i.e. it was intended to indicate different realities but not always with the same meaning.

Of some of these realities, which we today call sacraments, it was well clear that they not only meant something holy but also they were able to confer Grace.

Other realities only meant something holy, but weren’t able to confer Grace.

3.The holy matrimony is called a mystery in the greek text (of the Gospel) and a sacrament in the holy Bible and more precisely st. Paul says :” This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church (Ef 5,32)”.

As I said before, in the Latin translation of the holy Bible instead of using the Greek word mystery holy matrimony was described as a great sacrament ( sacramentum Magnum).

St. Paul, in the same letter, few lines before, described what is the exact meaning of  holy matrimony as a sacred sign “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and delivered himself up for it:that he might sanctify it , cleansing it with the laver of water in the world of live” (Ef 5, 25-26).

4 In the first centuries of the Church St. Augustine described which are the three goods of the holy matrimony: the good of the sons or of the offsprings, the good of fidelity and the good of the sacrament, meaning with this word the indissolubility of holy matrimony (see De Bono Coniugali).

During the medieval age  the analogical meaning of holy matrimony remains, and no one denies such a meaning.

St. Thomas destroys every uncertainity: “ Since the sacraments give what they signify, it must be believed that through this sacrament the husband and the wife receive the Grace through which they belong to the union of Christ with the Church.”

5 During the second Council of Lyon (1274)  the confession of faith of the emperor Michael VIII Paleologue was read, which was approved by all the members of the Council.

In such Confession is was affirmed and accepted as dogma of faith that “ Holy matrimony is one of the seven sacraments”:” The Holy Roman Catholic Church firmly holds and teaches that the sacraments of the Church are seven: first of all Baptism, regarding which we talked before, the second one is Confirmation, which the bishops confer through the imposition of the hands and anointing of the holy Chrism to those who are born again ( through Baptism), another is Penance, another are the holy Orders, another is Holy matrimony, another is the anointing of the sick, which according to what st. James teaches is given to the sick.”

6 Nearly three centuries later the Council of Trent reaffirmed the same faith:” If anyone says that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelical law, instituted by Christ the Lord, but has been devised by men in the Church and does not confer grace, let him be anathema.”

7: Therefore well before the Council of Trent holy matrimony was defined as a sacrament, even though only during the medieval age it was specified that holy matrimony is a sacrament because it gives Grace.

Equally during the Council of Lyon it was declared that holy matrimony is a sacrament and more clearly it was reiterated, during the Council of Trent, that is a dogma of faith that holy matrimony is true sacrament.

I wish you all the best, I bless you and I remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo

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