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Sacraments and rites

The Sacraments & Rites area is where you keep your parish's records for the major celebrations that mark Catholic life — weddings, baptisms, funerals, and quinceañeras. Each one is more than a calendar event: every Catholic parish is required by Canon Law to keep written records of sacraments celebrated, and your diocese will eventually rely on those records for marriage preparation, certificates, and historical lookups. This area is designed to make the day-to-day scheduling and the long-term record-keeping flow from the same form.

The Sacraments & Rites menu​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Sacraments & Rites. Four management areas live under this group:

  • Weddings — wedding ceremonies, wedding Masses, convalidations, anniversaries, and preparation tracking, plus rehearsals.
  • Baptisms — infant and adult baptisms, godparents, and baptismal certificates.
  • Funerals — funeral liturgies, vigils, committals, and care for the family.
  • Quinceañeras — fifteenth-birthday Masses with their own ceremony and family details.

Each of these has its own dedicated article. This page describes the workflow they share so you know what to expect across all four.

What every sacrament page looks like​

Each management page opens to a list view filtered for upcoming events. Across the top of every page you will find:

  • Filters — search by name, filter by Location, and filter by Status (planned, completed, cancelled, and any sacrament-specific options).
  • Create button — opens the dialog to add a new ceremony.
  • Pagination controls — switch between 25, 50, 100, or 200 records per page.

The table columns vary by sacrament, but you will always see the date and time, the location, the people involved (couple, candidate, deceased, or quinceañera), the assigned celebrant, and a status badge.

Status badges​

Every sacrament uses the same three core statuses, with a few sacrament-specific extras:

  • Planned — the ceremony is scheduled but not yet celebrated.
  • Completed — the ceremony has happened and is recorded as part of the parish register.
  • Cancelled — the ceremony was cancelled before it was celebrated. The record is preserved, but the event is removed from the calendar.

Cancelled records stay in the list so you can refer back to the original details, the cancellation reason, and any preparation that took place.

The shared workflow​

Although every sacrament has details unique to it, the underlying workflow is the same:

  1. Create the ceremony — open the management page, click the create button, and fill in date, time, location, celebrant, and the people involved.
  2. Reserve facility space — choose the rooms inside the location that the ceremony needs. Optionally include the main worship space and add reservation buffers before and after to give time for setup and cleanup.
  3. Track preparation — log the documents and prerequisites that Canon Law and your diocese require: baptismal certificates, marriage preparation, godparent eligibility, and so on. The list of requirements is sacrament-specific.
  4. Manage visibility — choose whether the ceremony shows on the admin calendar (for parish staff) and the public calendar (for parishioners). For weddings, you can also choose to show the public version anonymously, listed simply as "Wedding" without couple names.
  5. Celebrate and record — after the ceremony, mark the record as Completed and add any post-ceremony notes (witnesses' names, the place in the parish register, the sacramental certificate number).
  6. Generate documents — download a printable certificate or a detail sheet for the celebrant, the family, or the parish register.

You can return to any record at any point — before, during, or after the ceremony — to update details, attach documents, or correct typos.

Linking people to the parish record​

Sacramentum links sacraments to your People records when possible. When you enter the bride, groom, baptism candidate, deceased, or quinceañera, the system suggests existing records. Choosing a suggestion connects the ceremony to that person's canonical Person record so future searches find every sacrament celebrated for them in one place.

A linked badge on the row tells you the person is connected; an unlinked badge means the ceremony is recorded by name only and is not yet associated with a Person record. You can link or relink at any time from the edit dialog.

info

Linking matters for marriage preparation: when a couple from your parish later requests a baptism, funeral, or wedding for a relative, the existing baptismal record automatically surfaces in the new sacrament's preparation checklist.

Sacraments on the admin calendar​

Every planned sacrament appears on the admin calendar, color-coded by rite. Weddings, baptisms, funerals, and quinceañeras each have their own visual style and a small icon indicating which sacrament it is. Click any sacrament tile on the calendar to jump straight back into its detail dialog.

The Events Calendar under Rooms & Events also shows sacraments alongside facility bookings — useful when a wedding rehearsal in the parish hall conflicts with a council meeting, for example.

Generating sacramental documents​

Most sacrament records can produce two PDFs:

  • Certificate — the formal certificate suitable for the family or to file with the diocese.
  • Detail sheet — an internal print-out for the celebrant or wedding coordinator, listing every detail of the ceremony, contact info for the parties, and a summary of completed requirements.

Both are generated on demand from the row's actions menu. The PDFs use your parish's branding from your settings.

tip

The detail sheet is often more useful in the sacristy than the certificate. It pulls together everything the celebrant needs — names, prep status, pronunciations, special readings — onto a single printable page.

What's next​

  • Weddings — wedding ceremonies, rehearsals, and Catholic marriage details
  • Baptisms — baptism candidates, godparents, certificates, and registry
  • Funerals — funeral arrangements, vigils, and Catholic burial workflow
  • Quinceañeras — quinceañera celebrations and family details