Sacraments

The Sacrament of Marriage is an ancient tradition. As early as the fifth century, Christian couples would come to church to have the priest give them a blessing. Later, the priests added the gesture of joining the couple’s hands together or putting a garland over them.

Today at St. Patrick’s, couples come from all over the world (the United States, Canada, Ireland, England, and Australia) to be married.

For complete information on holding your wedding at St. Patrick’s, please see our wedding information page.  

Regarding Civil Marriage Certificates:  We get many, many requests from Irish couples who got married at St. Patrick’s Church or Americans who got married at Santa Susanna Church in Rome, who now wish to obtain their civil marriage certificates from the Comune di Roma (City Hall).  This has become progressively more and more difficult.  Much time and expense have been invested in assisting these couples with very little success.  Sometimes – most of the time – the Comune di Roma cannot find these registered marriages.  And so, sadly, we will no longer provide any assistance as it is too frustrating and heart-breaking.

And so we recommend this company: MultiLex:  MultiLex <info@multilex.it> Bureaucratic Services – Legalizations – Translations

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They can provide tailored quotations, and the fees can be discussed directly with the interested couple.  If the certificate cannot be located, they might be able to provide an affidavit: a statement to a Public Officer confirming that although the marriage occurred and was certified by religious authorities, there is no civil registration due to historical issues like floods, fires, or mishandling of the Civil Registries in Rome. However, please know that we cannot confirm the Irish authorities would accept an affidavit, so it would be best to address that possibility with them directly. In the US, it may be possible to do such an affidavit directly with the Social Security Office or banking companies, but you will need to made this investigation on your own.

We can only provide a Church certificate, which has no legal authority.

We are very sorry but with staff and time limitations, this is the best we can offer to you.

Problems with obtaining civil certificates of marriage in Rome has led us (as well as the diocese of Rome) to require that all present and future couple get married civilly in their home country before coming to Rome for their Sacramental Rite of Marriage.

We are sorry that we cannot be more helpful than this.

For weddings that took place at St. Peter’s in Vatican City, we can give you the contact information for the Vatican Government Office which keeps these recrods.