Dear Reverend Fathers,
Allow me to present a case to allow spouses at their wedding to make their vows and hear Mass in the sanctuary, in keeping with the immemorial English Catholic custom. This practice, rooted in the Sarum and Gallican traditions, was preserved in English-speaking lands long after Trent and was in continuous use until recently. In just a couple of decades it has disappeared from our churches. It’s restoration would not only honour legitimate tradition but also instruct the faithful in the sacred symbolism of Christian marriage.
I. Personal and Pastoral Context
As the father of 13 children, with one engaged to be married next year, and also a goddaughter scheduled to marry around the same time, this has become a prescient matter. In recent years it has become the practice in our churches for the vows to be exchanged at the communion rail and for the bride and groom to remain outside the communion rail to hear the Nuptial Mass. While this may be normal for the Roman Rite in other parts of the world, it has never been the norm in English speaking countries.
The tradition in Britain, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other English speaking countries was for the bride and groom to make their vows at the altar itself and then to remain in the sanctuary for the whole nuptial Mass, returning to the altar for the nuptial blessing and to receive Communion. These practices derive from the Sarum Rite, and prior to that, from ancient Gallican (French) practices. Thus, we are dealing with a tradition that is centuries old.
When I was a boy in the late 70s and 80s, my mother, a simple lady, with a solid, convent school faith, taught my brothers and me catechism herself before school every morning. When teaching about the sacrament of marriage she made a point of explaining that this unique honour, the only time lay people are the ordinary ministers of a sacrament, rightly takes place at the altar from which all graces flow.
When my wife and I were married in 1998, we continued this unbroken practice as our parents and forebears had done for untold generations.
This custom wasn’t isolated to the antipodes. Below is a picture of Bishop Fulton Sheen witnessing a marriage in 1962. Note the communion rail behind the couple:
The same couple receive Our Lord. You can just see the corner of the altar at the back of Msgr. Sheen; hence they receive on the altar step:
II. Historical and Canonical Legitimacy
The unique honour of laity, especially women, being in the sanctuary for their wedding is highlighted in the 1949 book My Catholic Faith [1]:
To be sure, this was an outstanding exception to the liturgical norm of strict exclusion of the laity from the sanctuary, “Nullus laicus ingrediatur presbyterium”, that existed prior to Vatican II, not just in the West but also the Eastern Churches. Nonetheless, the 1615 edition of the Rituale Romanum [2] states:
“Cæterum, si quae Provinciæ aliis, ultra praedictas, laudabilibus consuetudinibus, & cæremoniis in celebrando matrimonii Sacramento utuntur, eas Sancta Tridentina Synodus optat retineri. – However, if any Provinces use other, laudable customs and ceremonies in celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony, beyond those mentioned, the Holy Council of Trent wishes them to be retained.”
This quote is practically verbatim from the decree of the Council of Trent on the reformation of matrimony. [3] The approval is almost a necessity because the official Roman Rite of marriage is very simple, and without ‘local customs’ the ceremony would be ‘I do’ and that’s it! So most of the Catholic world had different customs that had existed for a very long time – not just England – and the fathers of Trent show here their express desire to preserve them.
Then we move on to specific approval for the couple to be in the sanctuary—from the Rituale Romanum of 1925: [4]
and:
The same Instructions as above are repeated verbatim in the 1952 The Small Roman Ritual [5], and The Sacristy Manual of 1905 [6] also contains:
So we see that even without a long standing ‘English’ tradition of bride and groom being in the sanctuary, the practice is approved as an integral part of the Roman Rite and the laity have the option, and right to make use of it.
Next, a quick look at the Sarum Rite. As mentioned above, the English rite has its roots in the English Sarum Rite. This was the rite promulgated by St Osmond, bishop of Salisbury Cathedral in the 11th Century. Basically it was a Romanisation (and ‘Normanisation’) of the much older Gaelic practices.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has the following under the entry for ‘Ritual of Marriage’ [7]
When, however, through the Elizabethan persecution the clergy were forced to go abroad for their ecclesiastical training, the distinctively English customs of Sarum or York gradually became unfamiliar. No attempt or hardly any was made to print new Missals or Breviaries according to the English rite, and Roman usages were thus everywhere adopted by the missionary clergy. But in one respect an exception was made. The Catholic laity who lived on at home knew no other marriage service than that of their forefathers. Hence the Sarum form was in substance retained and in 1604 and again in 1610 in the English Rituale printed at Douai, under the title “Sacra Institutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium celebrandi etc.”, the old Sarum text was reprinted unchanged, though at a later date, e.g. in the book of 1626 (? printed at Antwerp), certain modifications were introduced. The form thus modified remains in force for England, Scotland and Ireland down to the present day. Seeing that the Anglican marriage service has also retained a great deal of the primitive Sarum rite, we find ourselves confronted by the curious anomaly that in the British Isles, the Catholic marriage service resembles the Anglican service more nearly than it does the form provided in the Rituale Romanum.
A copy of the Sacra Institutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium celebrandi etc. in the Douay Ritual is available online here[8]. A brief summary of the rite is as follows:
The vows and exchange of rings took place at the church door, followed by a procession right up to the altar step covered with a pallium or ‘care-cloth’, as it was called, which is essentially the same as the baldachino held over the Blessed Sacrament or popes and cardinals in procession – another sign of honour given to the couple. They remained at the epistle side of the sanctuary (between altar and choir) for the Nuptial Mass where the bride was placed to the right of her groom, with both facing the middle (i.e. choir style). They received the nuptial blessing at the altar step; the husband also received the Pax from the priest and then gave it to his bride. Both then received Communion, again at theaAltar.
If the vows in the Sarum Rite were made at the church door not the sanctuary, how then did the vows end up in the sanctuary? It seems to be a simplification that took place out of necessity during the persecution following the English schism. The procession of the bride and groom up to the altar under a ‘care-cloth’ was naturally a bit of a spectacle, fine for a public church wedding, but definitely not compatible with ‘priest holes’ and clandestine ‘house Masses’. So it disappeared, and when Catholics in Britain and Ireland emerged from persecution the whole ceremony had migrated to the sanctuary.
By the way, the ‘care-cloth’ was by no means an exclusively Sarum practice. Variations were used in France, still in use as late as the late 1990s [9], Spanish colonies [10], and other places.
I. Personal and Pastoral Context
As the father of 13 children, with one engaged to be married next year, and also a goddaughter scheduled to marry around the same time, this has become a prescient matter. In recent years it has become the practice in our churches for the vows to be exchanged at the communion rail and for the bride and groom to remain outside the communion rail to hear the Nuptial Mass. While this may be normal for the Roman Rite in other parts of the world, it has never been the norm in English speaking countries.
The tradition in Britain, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other English speaking countries was for the bride and groom to make their vows at the altar itself and then to remain in the sanctuary for the whole nuptial Mass, returning to the altar for the nuptial blessing and to receive Communion. These practices derive from the Sarum Rite, and prior to that, from ancient Gallican (French) practices. Thus, we are dealing with a tradition that is centuries old.
When I was a boy in the late 70s and 80s, my mother, a simple lady, with a solid, convent school faith, taught my brothers and me catechism herself before school every morning. When teaching about the sacrament of marriage she made a point of explaining that this unique honour, the only time lay people are the ordinary ministers of a sacrament, rightly takes place at the altar from which all graces flow.
When my wife and I were married in 1998, we continued this unbroken practice as our parents and forebears had done for untold generations.
 |
| Vows at the Altar, 1998 |
 |
| Nuptial Mass begins; note the prie-dieus for the bride and groom |
Another example at our church, this time from 1999:
Another example: vows on the altar steps of the church of St Ignatius Loyola in New York City, from the American Catholic Action Bible 1953. Note the witnesses are also in the sanctuary for the vows – probably a necessity in a large church, in order to be able the hear the ‘I will’:
II. Historical and Canonical Legitimacy
The unique honour of laity, especially women, being in the sanctuary for their wedding is highlighted in the 1949 book My Catholic Faith [1]:
“Cæterum, si quae Provinciæ aliis, ultra praedictas, laudabilibus consuetudinibus, & cæremoniis in celebrando matrimonii Sacramento utuntur, eas Sancta Tridentina Synodus optat retineri. – However, if any Provinces use other, laudable customs and ceremonies in celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony, beyond those mentioned, the Holy Council of Trent wishes them to be retained.”
This quote is practically verbatim from the decree of the Council of Trent on the reformation of matrimony. [3] The approval is almost a necessity because the official Roman Rite of marriage is very simple, and without ‘local customs’ the ceremony would be ‘I do’ and that’s it! So most of the Catholic world had different customs that had existed for a very long time – not just England – and the fathers of Trent show here their express desire to preserve them.
Then we move on to specific approval for the couple to be in the sanctuary—from the Rituale Romanum of 1925: [4]
and:
The same Instructions as above are repeated verbatim in the 1952 The Small Roman Ritual [5], and The Sacristy Manual of 1905 [6] also contains:
Next, a quick look at the Sarum Rite. As mentioned above, the English rite has its roots in the English Sarum Rite. This was the rite promulgated by St Osmond, bishop of Salisbury Cathedral in the 11th Century. Basically it was a Romanisation (and ‘Normanisation’) of the much older Gaelic practices.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has the following under the entry for ‘Ritual of Marriage’ [7]
When, however, through the Elizabethan persecution the clergy were forced to go abroad for their ecclesiastical training, the distinctively English customs of Sarum or York gradually became unfamiliar. No attempt or hardly any was made to print new Missals or Breviaries according to the English rite, and Roman usages were thus everywhere adopted by the missionary clergy. But in one respect an exception was made. The Catholic laity who lived on at home knew no other marriage service than that of their forefathers. Hence the Sarum form was in substance retained and in 1604 and again in 1610 in the English Rituale printed at Douai, under the title “Sacra Institutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium celebrandi etc.”, the old Sarum text was reprinted unchanged, though at a later date, e.g. in the book of 1626 (? printed at Antwerp), certain modifications were introduced. The form thus modified remains in force for England, Scotland and Ireland down to the present day. Seeing that the Anglican marriage service has also retained a great deal of the primitive Sarum rite, we find ourselves confronted by the curious anomaly that in the British Isles, the Catholic marriage service resembles the Anglican service more nearly than it does the form provided in the Rituale Romanum.
A copy of the Sacra Institutio Baptizandi, Matrimonium celebrandi etc. in the Douay Ritual is available online here[8]. A brief summary of the rite is as follows:
The vows and exchange of rings took place at the church door, followed by a procession right up to the altar step covered with a pallium or ‘care-cloth’, as it was called, which is essentially the same as the baldachino held over the Blessed Sacrament or popes and cardinals in procession – another sign of honour given to the couple. They remained at the epistle side of the sanctuary (between altar and choir) for the Nuptial Mass where the bride was placed to the right of her groom, with both facing the middle (i.e. choir style). They received the nuptial blessing at the altar step; the husband also received the Pax from the priest and then gave it to his bride. Both then received Communion, again at theaAltar.
If the vows in the Sarum Rite were made at the church door not the sanctuary, how then did the vows end up in the sanctuary? It seems to be a simplification that took place out of necessity during the persecution following the English schism. The procession of the bride and groom up to the altar under a ‘care-cloth’ was naturally a bit of a spectacle, fine for a public church wedding, but definitely not compatible with ‘priest holes’ and clandestine ‘house Masses’. So it disappeared, and when Catholics in Britain and Ireland emerged from persecution the whole ceremony had migrated to the sanctuary.
By the way, the ‘care-cloth’ was by no means an exclusively Sarum practice. Variations were used in France, still in use as late as the late 1990s [9], Spanish colonies [10], and other places.
 |
| The Duke of Bourbon marries Mde de Nantes under a care-cloth, in the Sanctury. Versailles 1685 |
 |
| Care cloth making a comeback in 2021. The insert, below, is the ‘auspice’ embroidered into the cloth for the occasion. |
 |
| Nuptial Mass at the altar with care-cloth (14th century manuscript of Gratian’s Decretals) |
On the other hand, as noted in the Catholic Encyclopedia, much of the of the Sarum Rite has survived. In addition to the spouses being in the sanctuary, the words of the vows used today remain essentially the same: “hereto I plight to thee my troth”, the option of giving of gold and silver by the groom to his bride is still available, and the practice of placing rings on the thumb, fore and index fingers progressively while saying in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost before finally placing it on the ring finger with ‘Amen’, are all examples of practices that originated in Sarum.
Since the use of Sarum was violently repressed during the persecutions following the reformation it is not surprising that a sound case is being made today to return to a more full revival of the Rite of Marriage [11].
III. Liturgical and Theological Significance
In the Sarum rite of marriage, the honours given to the spouses during the ceremony served to emphasize the deep theological meaning of marriage presented by St Paul in Ephesians 5: “This is a great mystery (Sacrament): but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” St Paul sees Marriage as a figure of the union of Christ and the Church. The groom represents Christ, the bride represents the Church – indeed the Blessed Virgin who was the Church, standing at the foot of the Cross. Since the union of Christ and the Church was consummated on Calvary, and the altar steps today represent Calvary in our churches, it is fitting that the bride and groom receive the blessings of marriage kneeling on the altar step. Traditionally, the top step was made of wood, not stone [12], to signify the wood of the Cross, as Christ offered the sacrifice on wood, so the priest also stands on wood to offer the Sacrifice. By kneeling on the wooden step, the groom now pledges to “love his wife as Christ loved the Church and delivered himself up for it”. The bride also pledges to submit herself to her husband (cf. Eph 5, 22), ‘to obedience even to the death of the cross’ (Phil. 2, 8). Since all Grace is derived from the Cross, the Grace the spouses give to each other are fittingly given at the altar.
Not only did the Sarum Rite honour the bride and groom by placing in them in the Sanctuary, the rite took a cue from the emphasis of the bride in the liturgy (i.e. in the blessing) and placed her closer to the altar than the groom. On this day she, like the Blessed Virgin Mary beneath the cross, stands for the Church – hence the place of honour, the reason she dresses like a queen, and why no amount of attention to her beauty on this day could be considered vanity – she does it to honour the Church and Our Lady.
Given the Church’s otherwise strict exclusion of the laity from the sanctuary at Mass, the significant exception for the nuptial vows and Mass are a profound reminder to the bride and groom, and all present, that marriage is sacred, so sacred that Christ modelled it on His union with the Church, and the spouses are to live their lives united to Christ and His Church.
IV. Pastoral Considerations and Continuity
Some today may find this custom unfamiliar. A renewal, especially after having rejected decades of liturgical disorder and the indiscriminate presence of laity in the sanctuary in the post conciliar church, may even seem scandalous. Yet the answer is not to suppress legitimate custom but to catechise. This practice reminds the faithful that entry into the sanctuary is not casual privilege but solemn participation in the mysteries of Christ.
As traditionalists, committed to restoring all things in Christ, we are uniquely placed to preserve such authentic expressions of our patrimony. The restoration of the sanctuary wedding would not represent novelty, but fidelity—to our forebears, to the Council of Trent, and to the Roman liturgical tradition as lived in the English-speaking world.
V. Conclusion
In summary:
Since the use of Sarum was violently repressed during the persecutions following the reformation it is not surprising that a sound case is being made today to return to a more full revival of the Rite of Marriage [11].
III. Liturgical and Theological Significance
In the Sarum rite of marriage, the honours given to the spouses during the ceremony served to emphasize the deep theological meaning of marriage presented by St Paul in Ephesians 5: “This is a great mystery (Sacrament): but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” St Paul sees Marriage as a figure of the union of Christ and the Church. The groom represents Christ, the bride represents the Church – indeed the Blessed Virgin who was the Church, standing at the foot of the Cross. Since the union of Christ and the Church was consummated on Calvary, and the altar steps today represent Calvary in our churches, it is fitting that the bride and groom receive the blessings of marriage kneeling on the altar step. Traditionally, the top step was made of wood, not stone [12], to signify the wood of the Cross, as Christ offered the sacrifice on wood, so the priest also stands on wood to offer the Sacrifice. By kneeling on the wooden step, the groom now pledges to “love his wife as Christ loved the Church and delivered himself up for it”. The bride also pledges to submit herself to her husband (cf. Eph 5, 22), ‘to obedience even to the death of the cross’ (Phil. 2, 8). Since all Grace is derived from the Cross, the Grace the spouses give to each other are fittingly given at the altar.
Not only did the Sarum Rite honour the bride and groom by placing in them in the Sanctuary, the rite took a cue from the emphasis of the bride in the liturgy (i.e. in the blessing) and placed her closer to the altar than the groom. On this day she, like the Blessed Virgin Mary beneath the cross, stands for the Church – hence the place of honour, the reason she dresses like a queen, and why no amount of attention to her beauty on this day could be considered vanity – she does it to honour the Church and Our Lady.
Given the Church’s otherwise strict exclusion of the laity from the sanctuary at Mass, the significant exception for the nuptial vows and Mass are a profound reminder to the bride and groom, and all present, that marriage is sacred, so sacred that Christ modelled it on His union with the Church, and the spouses are to live their lives united to Christ and His Church.
IV. Pastoral Considerations and Continuity
Some today may find this custom unfamiliar. A renewal, especially after having rejected decades of liturgical disorder and the indiscriminate presence of laity in the sanctuary in the post conciliar church, may even seem scandalous. Yet the answer is not to suppress legitimate custom but to catechise. This practice reminds the faithful that entry into the sanctuary is not casual privilege but solemn participation in the mysteries of Christ.
As traditionalists, committed to restoring all things in Christ, we are uniquely placed to preserve such authentic expressions of our patrimony. The restoration of the sanctuary wedding would not represent novelty, but fidelity—to our forebears, to the Council of Trent, and to the Roman liturgical tradition as lived in the English-speaking world.
V. Conclusion
In summary:
- The practice of spouses making their vows and hearing Mass within the sanctuary is an immemorial Catholic custom in English-speaking countries, with roots in the Sarum and Gallican traditions.
- It has explicit canonical approval through Trent and the Rituale Romanum.
- It expresses profound theological truth about marriage as an image of Christ and His Church.
- Its restoration would honour our forefathers and enrich the faithful’s understanding of the sacrament.
Therefore, I respectfully request that permission be granted for couples to make their vows and remain within the sanctuary for the Nuptial Mass, following the long-standing English Catholic tradition. To restore this practice would be to restore one of the last living elements of the Sarum inheritance and to give visible witness to the sanctity and sacrificial meaning of Matrimony.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
(Father of a family)
NOTES
[1] My Catholic Faith, Bishop Louis LaRavoire Morrow S.T.D 1949 (pg 354)
[2] Rituale Romanum Pauli V. P.M. iussu editum- Pg 237 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Vv9zfk9ddMQC/page/n245/mode/2up)
[3] Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (1851) the Council of Trent, translated by Theodore Alois Buckley, Session XXIV. Decree touching the Reformation of Marriage (link)
[4] Rituale Romanum, Pauli V Pontificis Maximi. Editio Justa Typicam Vaticanam (1925 English) pg 506 and 508
[5] The Small Roman Ritual, 1952, Pgs 51 & 53
[6] The Sacristy Manual: Containing The Portions Of The Roman Ritual Most Frequently Used In Parish Functions. Re Paul Griffith, 1905 pg 60
[7] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09703b.htm
[8] https://www.shipbrook.net/wedding/matrimonium.html
[9] https://sicutincensum.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/3006/
[10] https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/02/the-velatio-nuptialis-ancient-and.html
[11] https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/09/the-return-of-care-cloth-at-traditional.html & https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/02/the-velatio-nuptialis-ancient-and.html
[12] For example see St Charles Borromeo: Instructiones Fabricae Et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae, 1577- Pg 144
