Daniel’s brother figured Daniel needed a little push if he was ever to find a wife. To help him out, he took the initiative and signed him up for a CatholicMatch membership.
Once on CatholicMatch, Daniel, who lived in Missouri, met Maria from Bali, and “what began as a connection grew into a deep and faithful love,” says the couple who connected in October of 2023. Their dedication to the Catholic faith and Church teaching bonded the couple, who dated long-distance until Daniel moved to Bali in August of 2024. He knew that he wanted to marry Maria, but he waited until May 2025 to pop the question while visiting Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
They found a quiet bench overlooking the sea and were enjoying the view, when Daniel suddenly blurted out, ‘If I had known we were coming here, I would have brought the ring."
“I looked at him, confused, and asked, 'What ring?,'" Maria recalls. "Daniel smiled and said that he had planned to propose but had been waiting for the perfect place.”
Daniel hadn't realized that they'd be seeing such a beautiful location that day, so he'd left the engagement ring in his hotel room. Since he let the cat out of the bag, he went ahead and asked Maria to marry him. Later at the hotel, he proposed properly with the ring.
They sent a request to the Vatican!
When Maria and Daniel began planning their wedding, they jokingly talked about holding it at the Vatican. “We wanted to marry in Italy, but we never imagined a wedding at St. Peter's Basilica,” they shared.
However, after a little research, Daniel and Maria realized that a St. Peter's Basilica wedding was possible. He sent off an email request to the Vatican, and the couple waited for a reply. Meanwhile, he also emailed other churches in Italy as a backup plan since an Italian wedding was their dream.
The Vatican finally replied...
Father Nicola from Santi Apostoli in Florence replied and said that he could marry the couple on June 2, 2026. They accepted his offer since they had not heard back from the Vatican.
Lo and behold, almost two months later, a message arrived from the Vatican explaining the application process.
“We immediately submitted all the required documents and a letter explaining why we wished to marry there. They informed us that our original date, June 2, was unavailable, but offered us May 26, 2026, instead,” Maria says.
They asked Fr. Nicola to officiate their wedding in Rome rather than at his parish in Florence. “Initially, he offered to help us find another priest, but a week later, he told us he would come himself. Since May 26 was also his birthday, he considered it a double blessing to celebrate his birthday by offering a nuptial blessing at St. Peter's Basilica,” they explained.
A few challenges!
As anyone can imagine, the wedding preparation posed a challenge considering Daniel and Maria were dealing with three different time zones and continents. Their first obstacle was finding a parish that would give them marriage prep. Maria tried to make that happen at two parishes in Bali to no avail, but then finally Daniel's previous parishes came through. Another difficulty arose when their documents accidentally arrived at the Diocese of Rome instead of the Vatican.
“When we informed Fr. Nicola, he remained completely calm and simply said, "Le vie del Signore sono infinite" — God's ways are infinite,” Marie recalls. “Through his contacts, our priest arranged for the documents to be collected and delivered to the Vatican. They arrived exactly two months before our wedding date. Shortly afterward, we received confirmation that everything was in order.”
However, more difficulties were on the horizon. Five days before the wedding, while Maria and Daniel were traveling, they unexpectedly received an email requesting that the couple bring the original civil marriage certificate.
“We had left it at home!” they shared.
It was the first that they had heard that they needed to have their civil marriage certificate in hand. Their parish in the U.S. had already submitted all of the required documents, so the couple thought they were set.
“We arrived in Rome the day before the wedding and went to the parish office, only to find it closed,” they recall. “By chance, we recognized the parish priest as he stepped outside for a coffee. After hearing our story, he reassured us that everything would be fine.”
Looking back, Maria and Daniel believe it was an act of Divine Providence that they ran into Fr. Agnello—the very person who could help them.
A wedding at St. Peter's Basilica!
All Daniel and Maria’s worries disappeared because the next day they were wed in a beautiful ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica. They even had the privilege of taking photographs in the Vatican Gardens! And the following morning, the couple attended the Sposi Novelli—where newlyweds married in the Catholic Church receive a personal blessing from the pope.
“Although we initially had seats at the back, Fr. Nicola somehow managed to move us closer to the front. In the end, we were able to stand in the front row, take photos, and even shake hands with the Pope!” the couple shares.
They added, “Throughout this entire journey, we experienced so many unexpected blessings and moments of providence. What started as a joke about getting married at the Vatican became a reality. We are deeply grateful for the many people God placed in our path to make it possible.”
