Whether the marriage between Our Lady and Saint Joseph was a sacrament

Question

Dear Father Angelo,

My questions are perhaps a little peculiar. I’m curious to know whether the marriage between Our Lady and Saint Joseph was a sacrament or not. Was theirs a Christian marriage or not? Furthermore: is a marriage indissoluble, or can it be indissoluble, in which the two spouses mutually agree before the wedding to never engage in sexual activity (I’m not specifically referring to the desire to exclude children, but to sexual activity)?

Maria

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Priest’s Answer

Dear Maria,

1. The marriage between Our Lady and Saint Joseph was not a sacrament in the precise sense of our seven sacraments. In fact, Jesus had not yet been born, and therefore the sacrament of marriage had not yet been instituted.

But if we take the word sacrament in a broad sense (i.e., as a sign that refers to a sacred reality), then the marriage between Our Lady and Saint Joseph was also a sacrament.

Leo XIII in the encyclical Arcanum writes: “Since marriage has God as its author, and since it has been from the beginning a sort of figure of the Incarnation of the Word of God, there is in it something sacred and religious, not added, but original not received from men, but impressed by nature. For this reason, our predecessors Innocent III and Honorius III could affirm that “the sacrament of marriage exists among the faithful and the unfaithful”.”

However, since grace is not tied to the sacraments and God can communicate it through other means as well, we must consider that of all marriages, that between Our Lady and Saint Joseph was the richest in grace, primarily because of the exceptional sanctity of the spouses.

2. Two spouses, even if they mutually decide not to have sexual relations, celebrate a true sacramental marriage and therefore their pact is also by its nature indissoluble.

However, the Church dispenses super rato et non consumato because the marriage, although indissoluble, has not reached its natural perfection. If the Church dispenses and does not declare null, it means the marriage is valid. But, as I repeat, it has not yet reached a certain perfection. As you may have noticed, I said a certain perfection.

But the two, by mutual agreement, can renounce that perfection to attain a higher one, as was the case with the Madonna and Saint Joseph.

I thank you, I promise you a prayer, and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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