Catholic Wedding Gifts
A wedding gift that is still on the wall at the silver anniversary. These are the paintings of Christian marriage: the wedding of Mary and Joseph, the wedding at Cana where Christ worked his first miracle, and the Holy Family at home — one of them painted, as it happens, as a wedding present.
Most weddings fall between May and October. Each print is made to order: allow about two and a half weeks for delivery.
The Marriage of the Virgin
Pietro Perugino
The wedding of Mary and Joseph before a great temple — the composition Perugino’s pupil Raphael took for his own famous version.
From $31.52
The Marriage of the Virgin
Luca Signorelli
The same wedding by Luca Signorelli, one of the great draughtsmen of the Italian Renaissance.
From $53.18
The Wedding at Cana
Paolo Veronese
Veronese’s Cana, the largest painting in the Louvre: a Venetian wedding feast where Christ turns water into wine.
From $44.13
The Marriage at Cana
Gerard David
A quieter Cana from Bruges, painted by Gerard David around 1500.
From $32.98
Madonna of the Goldfinch
Raphael
Raphael painted this as a wedding present for a friend in Florence — and it has been one ever since.
From $32.98
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Caravaggio
Joseph holds the music for an angel’s violin while Mary sleeps with the Child: the most tender picture of a husband in Baroque painting.
From $56.29
The Holy Family with a Bird
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Murillo’s Holy Family at home in Nazareth, Joseph playing with his son — married life as the Church hopes it will be.
From $32.98
The Panciatichi Holy Family
Agnolo Bronzino
Bronzino’s cool, jewel-bright Holy Family, painted for a Florentine family’s own walls.
From $31.52
The Holy Family
Juan Simon Gutierrez
A warm Spanish Holy Family: Mary, Joseph and the Child together, for a couple starting their own.
From $31.52
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla
Catholic Art Studio
A doctor, a wife and a mother, canonised in 2004 — patron of mothers and a model for married couples today.
From $33.26
Art for a Catholic marriage
A Catholic wedding is a sacrament, not only a ceremony, and the painters understood the difference. The marriage of the Virgin shows a vow made before God and witnesses; the wedding at Cana shows Christ choosing a wedding feast for his first miracle, which the Church has read ever since as a blessing on marriage itself.
For a couple setting up a first home, a painting is a gift that will outlast almost everything on the registry. It suits a living room or the wall above a bed, and a larger canvas — 24 × 36 and up — makes the kind of statement a wedding deserves.
Questions
What is a good Catholic wedding gift?
Something the couple will keep for life and that marks the marriage as a sacrament: a crucifix for the home, a family Bible, or a sacred painting such as the Wedding at Cana or the Holy Family.
Why is the Wedding at Cana connected with marriage?
In the Gospel of John, Christ’s first miracle is turning water into wine at a wedding at Cana. The Church sees his presence there as a blessing on marriage, and the reading is often chosen for Catholic weddings.
Who is the patron saint of married couples?
Several: Saint Joseph and the Holy Family, Saints Joachim and Anne, and in modern times Saint Gianna Beretta Molla and Saints Louis and Zélie Martin.
Can I send it straight to the couple?
Yes — enter their address at checkout. Prints ship in plain packaging from the printer.