Jessica Hayes just got married in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this past Saturday.
Her groom? God.
Hayes, a Catholic 38-year-old theology teacher at Biship Dweenger High School, married God to show her devotion to the Catholic Church, according to WANE, a local news station in Fort Wayne.
“I had been praying about it for years, trying to seek God’s will for my life and not really finding it in any of the paths that I sought before,” Hayes said to WANE.
“It was really a consideration of which things brought me the most joy and where my greatest happiness was. It seemed that all of those loves converged on this one thing where I could still be living in the world and be a part of the lives of my students and be studying and teaching and involved in a parish life, but I could also give myself more completely by making this total commitment of my life to serve the church in whatever capacity is needed and whatever capacity my own gifts are available for.”
The marriage makes Hayes the first consecrated virgin in 25 years for the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, WANE reported.
According to Christian Today, consecrated virgins are Catholic women who “choose to remain celibate for their whole lives” to show their devotion to God. Unlike nuns, though, they hold this marriage outside the covenant of the church and hold no power within the Catholic Church.
Consecrated virgins declare celibacy often to honor Jesus’ words from Matthew 19:12 (New International Version): “... and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,” according to Christian Today.
Hayes is one of nearly 3,000 consecrated virgins around the world and one of the more than 250 in the United States.
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Herb Scribner is a writer for Deseret News National. Send him an email at hscribner@deseretdigital.com or follow him on Twitter @herbscribner.