FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception over the weekend for an unlikely wedding ceremony. 
 
 The bride, Jessica Hayes, was marrying her groom, Jesus Christ. She became the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese's first consecrated virgin in 25 years, reports CBS affiliate WANE. 
 
 Hayes' is currently the only consecrated virgin in her diocese. WANE reports that consecrated virgin is a fairly rare occurrence in the Catholic Church. There are only 200 in the United States and approximately 3,000 in the world. 
 
 A consecrated virgin is not the same as a nun. Hayes will still live her life as a lay person. 
 
 38-year-old Hayes is a high school theology teacher. She told WANE that this decision represents years of prayer and soul-searching. 
 
 "I had been praying about it for years, trying to seek God's will for my life and not really finding it in any of the paths that I sought before," she said. "It was really a consideration of which things brought me the most joy and where my greatest happiness was." 
 
 While it may not have been an average wedding ceremony, Hayes did face some of the same struggles that most brides face, such as finding the perfect wedding dress. 
 
 Jessica Hayes during her wedding ceremony to Jesus Christ. CBS affiliate WANE 
 
 "I've seen so many wedding dresses over the years that I think I've probably changed my mind very many times," she told CBS affiliate WANE. "I had to really consider the appropriateness of the occasion for my dress. I wanted my shoulders to be covered, and I would have to lie prostrate before the altar, so I really wanted to make sure that I was well-covered in a way that still shows the beauty of a bride." 
 
 Hayes explained to WANE she will still go by Ms. Hayes, not Mrs. 
 
 "My students asked if they should call me Mrs. Hayes when I come back to school next week, and no, I'm still Ms. But, I am married to Jesus," she said. 
 
 Hayes believes in some sense, all people are called to be married. 
 
 "It's just a matter of discerning how," she said. "So, my marriage is to Christ and someone else's marriage is to their spouse. A priest's marriage is to the church. That's a good desire that's planted in us by God. The real question is how, how is this lived most joyfully in me." 
 
 Jessica Hayes during her wedding ceremony to Jesus Christ. CBS affiliate WANE 
 
 Hayes said this is a vocation for women who feel a deeper call to spend their life more in knowing with Jesus. She chose to make a public commitment in serving the church. And she said she hopes her experience will help increase vocations among women. 
 
 "I do think that not everybody has the same path," she said. "To be able to look at all of these different ways of life and to see people living them out joyfully is an invitation to consider a little bit more deeply what those things mean. As Catholics and as Christians, we're all called to that loving relationship with our God. So, I'm called to live it out in this way." ||||| Copyright by WANE - All rights reserved 
 
 Sara Wagner - FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Hundreds of people attended a wedding at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Fort Wayne Saturday morning. It may sound like a standard on a summer Saturday, but this marriage is one most people have likely never seen or heard of before. 
 
 The bride's name is Jessica Hayes, the groom is Jesus Christ. Saturday morning, she became the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese's first consecrated virgin in 25 years. 
 
 It's not the wedding day Hayes envisioned for herself as a little girl. Sure it came with the same struggles any bride-to-be would have, like finding the perfect dress. 
 
 "I've seen so many wedding dresses over the years that I think I've probably changed my mind very many times. I had to really consider the appropriateness of the occasion for my dress. I wanted my shoulders to be covered, and I would have to lie prostrate before the altar, so I really wanted to make sure that I was well-covered in a way that still shows the beauty of a bride," Hayes said. 
 
 Of course, she also wanted to make sure her guests had a good time. 
 
 "I'm so happy to have had so many witnesses today because there may be others that the Lord is calling in this way that have now heard of this life and can consider it in their prayer," Hayes said. 
 
 For the 38-year-old theology teacher from Bishop Dwenger High School, this commitment represents years of prayer and soul-searching. 
 
 "I had been praying about it for years, trying to seek God's will for my life and not really finding it in any of the paths that I sought before. It was really a consideration of which things brought me the most joy and where my greatest happiness was. It seemed that all of those loves converged on this one thing where I could still be living in the world and be a part of the lives of my students and be studying and teaching and involved in a parish life, but I could also give myself more completely by making this total commitment of my life to serve the church in whatever capacity is needed and whatever capacity my own gifts are available for," Hayes said. 
 
 A consecrated virgin is a fairly rare occurrence in the Catholic church. Saturday's ceremony makes Hayes the only one in the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese. There are approximately 3,000 around the world and more than 200 in the United States. 
 
 "I think that in some sense, we're all called to be married. It's just a matter of discerning how. So, my marriage is to Christ and someone else's marriage is to their spouse. A priest's marriage is to the church. That's a good desire that's planted in us by God. The real question is how, how is this lived most joyfully in me," Hayes said. "I do think that not everybody has the same path. To be able to look at all of these different ways of life and to see people living them out joyfully is an invitation to consider a little bit more deeply what those things mean. As Catholics and as Christians, we're all called to that loving relationship with our God. So, I'm called to live it out in this way. Married couples are called to live that out in their married vocation and their love of their family. It's a way of life that really anticipates what all of us will live in heaven, that union with ourselves and Christ and a real knowing and loving of him. My path is choosing that closer following now because that's where my greatest joys lie." 
 
 A consecrated virgin is different from a nun in that Hayes will still live her life as a lay person. 
 
 "This is a vocation for women that feel that deeper call to spend their life more in knowing Jesus and making that a public commitment in serving his church, but are also called to live in the world," Hayes said. 
 
 As one might expect, the vocation comes with some confusion. 
 
 "My students asked if they should call me Mrs. Hayes when I come back to school next week, and no, I'm still Ms. But, I am married to Jesus," Hayes said. 
 
 Hayes said she wants to use her experience to help increase vocations among women. 
 
 "I think, especially with the young women I've worked with in my teaching so far, the religious life isn't something that many of them consider because we don't have women religious teaching with us in our schools like we used to years ago. So, many of them don't consider that as an option anymore because they don't see young women their own age considering it and joining it. That's really something I try to expose my female students a little bit more to," Hayes said. 
 
 It's a spiritual journey Hayes can't wait to begin. 
 
 "Even more so than looking forward to this day is a looking forward to the rest of my life just because it's a deepening of that commitment. Now that I've made a public commitment, that's really an encouragement to me to live up to that because people know that this is who I am and my life needs to be lived in conformity with that . So, it's one more step in that direction that others expect this way of life from me and I need to live consistently in my words and actions that love for Jesus," Hayes said. ||||| Three women consecrated as virgins lie prostrate during a June 24 ceremony at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. (CNS photo/Joel Breidenbach) 
 
 The women vowed to live in perpetual chastity, but will live 'in the world' rather than in a convent 
 
 Three brides in long, white dresses stood before the altar of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. There was not a single groom in sight. 
 
 Like the 10 wise virgins from Matthew’s Gospel, each carried a lighted lamp. Together, they joined their voices in an antiphon, “I am espoused to him whom the angels serve.” 
 
 These women are “brides of Christ,” and through this ceremony, they have sealed their intention to dedicate their lives to God in perpetual virginity. 
 
 “It’s a promise that we make to be faithful to Christ all our life,” Theresa Jordan explained shortly after the June 24 ceremony. “(We) make him a promise of our virginity as a gift back to him.” 
 
 “Making a resolution to live in perfect chastity my whole life, I get to testify that God satisfies. He is enough,” Karen Ervin added. 
 
 This particular ceremony of consecration had never been performed before within the Archdiocese of Detroit. As far as records show, it was the first time in the United States that three women committed their lives at the same time in this way. 
 
 Yet this vocation, the order of virgins, whose members are known as “consecrated virgins living in the world,” dates back to the very beginnings of the church. 
 
 “If you’ve heard of St. Cecilia or Agnes or Lucy, they were all virgins living in the world,” said the third bride, Laurie Malashanko, referring to first-century martyrs. 
 
 Women called to this vocation do not live in a community as religious sisters do, nor are they called by a title like “sister” or wear distinguishing garb. These three women will continue their professional careers — Jordan as a college professor; Malashanko as an acquisitions editor for a publishing company; and Ervin as a principal at an all-girls Catholic high school. 
 
 As consecrated virgins, however, they intend to show a profound commitment to the Lord during their everyday interactions. 
 
 “I think young women really need to see who they are, and who they are is reflected in God’s eyes not the world’s eyes,” said Ervin, who had already explained her vocation to the students at her school. “I witness that to them and they know that I’m completely captured by God.” 
 
 During the ceremony, the three brides each placed their hands between the hands of Detroit’s Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron and requested that he accept their resolve to live in chastity. Similar to the sacrament of holy orders and religious profession of vows, the women then lay prostrate while the congregation petitioned the saints to intercede. 
 
 The newly consecrated also received a prayer book containing the Liturgy of the Hours along with wedding veils and rings, clearly symbolising their mystical marriage to Christ. 
 
 “Consecration, in general, means something is being set aside. It’s set aside for God alone,” said Judith Stegman, a consecrated virgin and president of the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, a group founded to facilitate communication among those who follow this vocation. 
 
 “In this case what is being set aside is a person,” she told Catholic News Service. 
 
 To be set aside as a bride of Christ, the woman must have lived a life of perfect chastity. This is another factor that distinguishes the vocation of consecrated virginity from religious orders, which women may join if they are widowed or if they resolve to live a chaste life from that day forward. 
 
 “Virginity itself is important because virginity is important in the eyes of God,” Stegman said. “This is representing the church as a virgin, this is representing the Virgin Mary.” 
 
 “(We) image the church herself as virgin, as bride, as mother, so this whole vocation reflects Christ’s spousal union with his church,” said Malashanko. 
 
 Although prevalent in the early church, the vocation of virgins living in the world disappeared after the 11th century as women living a life of chastity came together in communities. By the time of the Second Vatican Council, the consecration of women existed entirely in conjunction with religious life. 
 
 “The rite of consecration of virgins in the world dropped off over the centuries as monastic community life for women developed,” explained Mary T. Kantor, who studied the vocation extensively for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard Divinity School. “The rite for women living in the world was brought back with Vatican II. It is specifically noted in the liturgy document, ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium.'” 
 
 The renewed rite for virgins living in the world is both overseen and administered by diocesan bishops, making it necessary for each diocese to develop its own formation programme if a woman within its borders feels called to the vocation. This requirement, combined with this rite’s novelty, slowed its spread in the United States in the decades directly following Vatican II. 
 
 “During my research, I spoke with someone in the bishop and/or vocation offices of each diocese in the country,” said Kantor in an email interview with CNS. She had begun her national survey in the early 2000s. 
 
 “Some had no knowledge of the rite,” she said. “I was hung up on more than once by those who thought I was joking or a prank caller. One secretary in a diocesan office said: ‘I’ve never heard of it, and if I’ve not heard of it, it must not be happening.'” 
 
 Today, the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins counts about 245 consecrated virgins living in 106 dioceses across the United States. For this first consecration ceremony in the Archdiocese of Detroit, a congregation of hundreds as well as two dozen priests and deacons celebrated alongside the three brides. 
 
 “We’re delighted that God should have called these women from our local church,” said Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Donald F. Hanchon, who had helped to oversee the women’s formation. “They’re going to be great witnesses for the Lord in the businesses and careers that they already have.” 
 
 A constant stream of friends, family and complete strangers congratulated the newly consecrated at a reception following the ceremony. Between poses with a huge bouquet of red roses, Jordan paused to give advice. 
 
 “(Jesus) is waiting for whatever gifts you have to give back to him,” she said, “and to have an eternal relationship even here on earth.”
– Well, it should save on honeymoon airfare, anyway. A 38-year-old Indiana woman married Jesus Christ over the weekend, becoming one of his approximately 3,000 living wives worldwide, CBS News reports. The process is known as becoming a consecrated virgin and is relatively rare within the Catholic Church, with only about 200 in the US. She's not a nun: According to the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins, someone who marries Jesus lives a life of "perpetual virginity" dedicated to serving the church and performing works of mercy while still living in the secular world. Jessica Hayes, a high-school theology teacher in Fort Wayne, tells CBS affiliate WANE she made the decision to become a consecrated virgin after lots of "prayer and soul-searching." She says she believes God calls all people to become married; for some that means wedding their spouse, while for others it means committing to Jesus. Despite the non-traditional groom, Hayes still wore the traditional wedding dress and faced the traditional wedding questions. "My students asked if they should call me Mrs. Hayes when I come back to school next week, and no, I'm still Ms.," she tells WANE. "But, I am married to Jesus."