Banns

Banns are published prior to a wedding to determine if there is a civil or religious reason to prevent the marriage. Concerns could be a current marriage, a pledge of celibacy, a close family relationship, or lack of consent. The guidance from 1743 required the priest to carefully and separately question the bride and groom. If any of these concerns were discovered, the banns were suspended. If the bride and groom cleared this hurdle, the banns were published to give the public the chance to object. In most cases, there are three banns and in most records I read, the wedding went through. For example, Ignatius Kurkiewicz and Antonina Czarnopyś, (3rd great aunt and uncle) had a religious marital union on 12 November of 1876. “This marriage was preceded by three announcements of the banns published in the church on 22 October, 29 October, and 12 November.” But I also found an example of only two banns and a marriage happening within 30 days of the death of the groom’s first wife. I am not sure of the reason for the rush. In another fascinating example, the first bann was published--but 8 months later the groom married someone else! Banns are no longer required in the Catholic church but may still be published and many parishes still do so. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/ben14/b14nimia.htm