A custom that originated at the conclusion of the first millennium, the year 1,000 A.D. in the Republic of Venice, brought by Italian immigrants to the Parish of Saint Michael, Atlantic City, and for many decades, annually celebrated by the faithful of that parish, is presently observed by a number of our South Jersey shore parishes. That custom is the “Sposalizio del Mare,” the Wedding of the Sea, which attracts to our shore parishes thousands of people, some from a distance. It takes place on the 15th of August, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On August 15th, the Church celebrates that our Blessed Mother did not die a human death, but “having completed her earthly life,” was crowned with surpassing glory. Her crown of surpassing glory is the glory of heaven; the glory of sharing in the Resurrection of her son, Jesus, who is God’s son, the Saviour, Christ. Mary’s glory is the glory of sharing in the first fruits of the victory of salvation that the Lord gained for all women and men through his Death and Resurrection. It can be said that the Assumption of Mary is her Easter.
During the ceremony of the Wedding of the Sea, God is praised for the enormous gift of the ocean. God’s blessings are invoked on the water, on all who use the sea for relaxation and enjoyment and on all living creatures whose “home” is the ocean. A wreath of flowers with a ring attached is thrown into the sea to express symbolically our relationship with the ocean and to affirm that we have a responsibility to care for this gift of God to us. This precious resource deserves from humanity protection and respect.
In the encyclical “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis wrote that Mary is the “Queen of all creation … hence, we can ask her to look on this world with eyes of wisdom. Carried into heaven in her glorified body, together with the Risen Christ, part of creation has reached the fullness of its beauty.” The prayers and ceremony of the Wedding of the Sea remind us that critical to our South Jersey shore communities is the ocean, one of God’s beautiful creations.
The Wedding of the Sea is not found in an official Catholic prayer book, nor is it a teaching of the Church. Its origin is based in a story that the bishop of Venice threw his episcopal ring into the raging waters that threatened the City of Canals, and the sea was calmed. That gave rise to the Wedding of the Sea, a tradition found in “popular religion.” Expressions of devotion, ceremony and Catholic faith are found in cultures that pass them on from generation to generation and are observed by believers with devotion. Popular religion connects people with God and the Church and challenges its observers to concerns for society.
The Wedding of the Sea is concerned for the ocean, and the challenge is to implore the mother of God on her glorious Assumption into heaven to intercede before her Divine Son on behalf of the ocean. The ceremony is not a pious devotion to our Blessed Mother, which has a place in Catholic Marian spirituality. Rather, it is a popular, faith-filled expression of devotion to Mary and to the power of prayer to God in the face of calamity.
Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” – “The Joy of the Gospel” – writes on this topic: “The immense importance of a culture marked by faith cannot be overlooked; before the onslaught of contemporary secularism, an evangelized culture, for all its limits, has many more resources than the mere sum total of believers. An evangelized popular culture contains values of faith and solidarity capable of encouraging the development of a more just and believing society, and possesses a particular wisdom which ought to be gratefully acknowledged.” (#68)
Once again, this year, as I have done for the past 11 years as the diocesan bishop, I rode in a lifeguard boat out beyond the breakers, both on the Vigil of the Assumption in Wildwood and on the day itself in Atlantic City. On those occasions, as in the past, there was great joy evidenced in the smiling faces of the people who accompanied me to the boat.
Above all, their faith was evident in the recitation of the rosary, in the careful attachment of offerings on the statue of the Blessed Mother and the many petitions raised to our Heavenly Father for their personal intentions. The ocean water, which can be touched, is a source of God’s blessings.
Even in our secular culture, the Wedding of the Sea continues to feed the spiritual lives of many. It offers public witness of faith mixed with contemporary culture. It gives public prominence to our Church, our Lord, and our Blessed Mother. And it brings attention to God’s gift of the Atlantic Ocean so critical to South Jersey.
Mary, Queen of Creation, Pray for Us.
Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan, D.D.
Bishop of Camden