The sacrament by which a baptized man and woman establish between themselves

a lifelong partnership for their mutual good and and for the procreation and education of
children.
The modern English word "marriage" derives from Middle English mariage, which
first appears in 12501300 C.E. This in turn is derived from Old French marier (to marry)
and ultimately Latin martre (to marry) and martus (of marriage).
Matrimony is marriage. Matrimony is the more appropriate term for legal and
religious use, and refers more to the relationship between husband and wife than to the
ceremony, which is a wedding.
The purposes of matrimony are procreative and unitive. The procreative purpose
means that the married couple participates in Gods ongoing creation of souls with which
He wishes to populate heaven, and to prepare these souls for heaven by raising them as the
Catholic Church teaches. The unitive aspect unites, or brings together, the spouses in
mutual joy as they help one another prepare for heaven.
Matrimony is called the lay sacrament because the parties administer it to each
other. The priest as official representative of the Church is the chief witness to the
sacrament. But because the Sacrament and the contract are identical, and because the
matter and form are contained in the contract, the priest is not the minister of this
sacrament. Rather, the man and woman themselves are the ministers of the Sacrament of
Matrimony.
Cultural Background

Although the institution of marriage pre-dates reliable recorded history, many

cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage.

The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications has
changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or
demographic of the time.

Various cultures have had their own theories on the origin of marriage.

One example may lie in a man's need for assurance as to paternity of his children.

He might therefore be willing to pay a bride price or provide for a woman in

exchange for exclusive sexual access.
Legitimacy is the consequence of this transaction rather than its motivation.
In Comanche society, married women work harder, lose sexual freedom, and do not
seem to obtain any benefit from marriage.
But nubile women are a source of jealousy and strife in the tribe, so they are given
little choice other than to get married. "In almost all societies, access to women is
institutionalized in some way so as to moderate the intensity of this competition."
Forms of group marriage which involve more than one member of each sex, and
therefore are not either polygyny or polyandry, have existed in history.
However, these forms of marriage are extremely rare. Of the 250 societies reported
by the American anthropologist George P. Murdock in 1949, only the Caingang of
Brazil had any group marriages at all.
Various marriage practices have existed throughout the world. In some societies an
individual is limited to being in one such couple at a time (monogamy), while other

cultures allow a male to have more than one wife (polygyny) or, less commonly, a
female to have more than one husband (polyandry).
Some societies also allow marriage between two males or two females. Societies
frequently have other restrictions on marriage based on the ages of the participants,
pre-existing kinship, and membership in religious or other social groups.