Wedding rings have this ancient history and they are typically connected to traditions in Judaism, Rome and even in Babylon.
As each of these traditions were developed for various reasons, it links to the likely possibility that St. Joseph gave the Virgin Mary a ring at their betrothal.
Though, this is a small detail that isn’t mentioned in scripture, as some local traditions are typically omitted from the New Testament since the original readers would have been familiar with these customs.
Whatever the case maybe, there’s a miraculous ring that surfaced in Italy during the 15th century. Some legends claims that a goldsmith from Chiusi, Italy, got the ring from a Jewish merchant around the year 1,000.
This particular ring had been passed down through the generations of a Jewish family and the Virgin Mary appeared to the Jewish merchant in a dream.
So, he gave the ring to the goldsmith, but at the initial times, the goldsmith did not believe the story.
It was after witnessing a vision of his deceased child, that the goldsmith donated the ring to a nearby convent. Eventually, the ring was stolen from Chiusi, but was immediately and soon after recovered, it was entrusted to a church in Perugia.
And there was countless miracles and legends surrounding the ring, adding to its mysterious nature.
In a separate occasion, an 18th-century visionary known as Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich seemed to confirm the authenticity of the ring in a vision she had of the ring.
She explained the vision as thus: “I saw the wedding ring of the Blessed Virgin; it is neither made of silver nor of gold, nor of any other metal; rather, it is dark in color and iridescent in nature; it is not a thin narrow ring, but rather a thick and at least a finger broad.
I saw it very smooth and yet as though it is covered with little regular triangles in which were letters. On the inside part of it was a flat surface.
Indeed, the ring is engraved with something. I saw the ring placed behind many locks in a beautiful church. And devout people which were about to be married take their wedding-rings to touch it.
As interesting as it may seem, author Miska Michele Tosti wrote in his book Il Santo Anello: Leggenda, Storia, Arte, Devozione that “an investigation which was carried out in 1949-50 suggested that the relic is actually a ring signet of a man from the 1st century AD.”
At the same time, it is difficult for historians to link that ring to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.
Nevertheless, the ring reminds us of the ring that existed at the betrothal of the Virgin Mary and Joseph and links us to the holy and faithful marriage that these two saints had, providing a beautiful home for Jesus to be brought up in.
