I'm getting married in the next short while and this weekend we were at wedding. It was in the Ukrainian church and I didn't understand most of it. They had a statue, a Bible, and something else where the participants wandered in a circle kissing and showing respect. I'm not Catholic and I've rarely been to a Catholic Church so that was new to me. BUT the thing I was most curious about is the bride and groom had a crown of thorns placed on their heads. Now, I really liked that idea…I'd steal it if i could…but here's the question…What does it represent? I was thinking simply being believers…now someone else says chastity before marriage? Is that a Catholic-only symbol? Fill me in.
kay, first of all, the Ukrainian Rite is part of the Byzantine Rite, the Apostolic Liturgy of the Catholic Church as it developed in Constantinople and spread all throughout the lands of the Eastern Slavs (i.e., the Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Serbs, Bulgarians, etc.). So, it has different customs than the Roman Rite, which is the Apostolic Liturgy as it developed in Rome and in the rest of Western Europe; but, like the Roman Rite, all of its customs testify to Apostolic truths.
Secondly, I'm a bit surprised to hear that a statue (or what was perceived to be a statue) was used at this Ukrainian wedding, since no statues are used in the Byzantine Rite. Rather, icons (flat but highly symbolic and stylized religious images) are used instead. As for the crowns on the bride and groom's heads, this has great significance. The crowns are not always shaped like a crown of thorns, but are most often (especially among the Greeks) made of white fabric, with a white ribbon connecting the groom's crown to the bride's. But, what the crowns represent are three-fold: They represent Christ's crown of thorns, signifying that the husband and wife will have to live a life of sacrifice for each other. They also represent the crowns that Christians will receive in the glory of Heaven, meaning that the husband and wife are meant to help each other become saints – to help each other "finish the race" and so "gain an imperishable crown of victory". And also, the crowns represent the glory that was once held by Adam and Eve as "king and queen" of Paradise – the Garden of Eden. Basically, what the Church is saying is that their marriage should be like a "garden enclosed", and that the Sacramental bond between the husband and the wife should be like that of Adam and Eve – that is, in the way that God intended marriage to be (per the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6, where He condemns divorce). So, that's the scoop on the crowns. There are also all sorts of other beautiful symbolic acts in the Byzantine marriage ceremony, such as when the priest leads both the bridegroom and bridge around the altar (or, as they call it, the "holy table"). The "holy table" is intentionally square, and its four sides are supposed to represent the four corners of the earth (a very Eastern idea); and so, by making them walk around it, the Church is recognizing the universality of this marriage bond – that the groom is bound to this one bride in all places and for the rest of their lives. And there are countless symbolic signs like this.
Mark Bonocore
January 15, 2005
