Marriage symbolism was a prevalent feature of early Christian and medieval cultures. Practically all Christian writers – bishops, canonists, theologians, monks, friars, and nuns – as well as some manuscript illuminators and artisans portrayed Christ's union with the Church as a marriage. The image of the heavenly nuptials between male divinity (Christ) and female humanity (Church) lies at the heart of the present study, since conceiving of this union as a marriage not only provided the fundamental principle for the doctrine – emergent in the twelfth century – which defined marriage as a sacrament, but also shaped the metaphorical understanding of virginity as marriage to Christ and priesthood as marriage to the Church. Marriage was a structuring frame, even for men and women who chose not to enter into it.

Grounded on the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22–33, the Song of Songs, Revelation, Psalm 44, and other biblical texts with nuptial themes, early Christian and medieval writers found rich hermeneutical possibilities to explore Christ's union with the Church or the saintly soul as a marriage. Long before the sacramental theories of marriage emerged as a major issue in the medieval West, theologians and exegetes delved into nuptial and conjugal metaphors to negotiate and establish a series of ecclesiological, political, devotional, theological, and juridical concerns.