Michael, of New York City, who was hesitant even to create a social media account, was very reluctant to try online dating at first. But after hearing the app promoted by Catholic podcaster Matt Fradd and after a few more months of discernment, he finally made an account in the Spring of 2022, and less than a year later, he met Giovanna.
For her part, Giovanna, of Binghamton, New York, was thinking she would meet someone in person, and like Michael, had similar reservations about online dating. But after hearing about CatholicMatch through a friend at her parish who had met her husband on the app, and after some nudging from her mother to make an account, she finally did so in late 2021. A little over a year later, she connected with Michael.
He thought three hours was too far away at first...
Michael had seen Giovanna’s profile a few times before reaching out, but after learning she lived in Binghamton, a three-hour drive from the Big Apple, he decided it was too far and didn’t reach out.
“I guess I have a low tolerance for a long-distance (relationship),” he recalled.
But by Divine Providence on New Year’s Day 2023, after their profiles were “matched,” Michael took another look. He was particularly drawn to her profile's strong family focus, their shared devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass, and her love of dogs, so he decided to reach out despite the distance.
Giovanna had also seen Michael’s profile previously and felt drawn to it, but did not want to make the first move. On New Year’s Day, when they were “matched,” she noticed that not only were they a match, but they were a whopping 90% match, so she was thrilled to see he had sent her a message.
Michael’s first message to Giovanna was about one of her friends’ dogs that was featured in one of her profile pictures.
“I always joke with my friend that her dog is really our relationship mascot,” she recounted.
They bonded over shared devotions to St. Joseph and St. Thérèse.
From there, the pair quickly hit it off, discussing books and black-and-white movies they both enjoyed, as well as various saints they were devoted to, especially St. Joseph and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Michael even began to read Father Donald Calloway’s book on the Consecration to St. Joseph because of Giovanna’s interest in the saint.
Interestingly, Michael had also become aware of St. Thérèse only just before exchanging messages, while Giovanna already had a great devotion to the sainted Carmelite. The pair didn’t know it yet, but the “little flower” would gain tremendous graces for the couple through her intercession.
Not wanting to rush anything, the pair didn’t begin texting each other until about a month after their initial conversation, had their first phone call about two months later in April, and finally met in person in July.
I-81 traffic delayed their first date!
For their first date on July 1, Michael made the almost two-hour drive to Giovanna’s parents’ home in Binghamton, arriving late due to traffic on I-81. Still, perhaps providentially, he was walking to her door just as her father pulled into the driveway, allowing him to meet both of her parents upon arrival.
“He immediately met my mom, and as he's walking up to see me for the very first time, my dad was pulling in the driveway, which is just nice, the cherry on top,” she said.
After meeting Giovanna’s parents, the pair went on a lunch date, then braved the Summer humidity and took a long hike at the Binghamton University Nature Preserve, which was also full of smog from that Summer’s wildfires.
Later in the afternoon, the pair attended Mass for the solemnity of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, before having dinner at Giovanna’s sister's and brother-in-law’s house.
Just three weeks after their first weekend date, Giovanna drove to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on a Sunday to meet his family.
There, the couple began the day properly by assisting at a high Mass, then went to lunch at an Irish pub where they enjoyed some Guinness, and walked around the historic city, before rounding out the day with a nice Sunday dinner at Michael’s family’s house.
Their relationship became official at the Jersey Shore!
Then in August, Michael traveled down to the Jersey Shore to meet Giovanna’s extended family.
“And on that occasion, I asked her to be my girlfriend, to make it official,” Michael recalled.
“On August 3rd,” Giovanna added.
From there, roughly every other weekend, Michael would drive up to Binghamton or Giovanna would drive to Bethlehem when Michael was visiting his family, since she preferred not to drive into New York City.
During these weekends, the couple enjoyed going on walks, drinking some beer, visiting family, praying the rosary together, and, of course, assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
“Walking, Mass, beer, and family, those are like the pinnacles of our relationship,” Michael quipped.
After about eight months of officially dating, he was ready to propose.
He drove 9 hours over one weekend to make the proposal work!
Michael had initially planned to propose to Giovanna on April 8, 2024, the feast of the Annunciation that year and the day of a total solar eclipse. But this was not to be, as the ring (which he had to pick up at a jeweler in Binghamton) would not be ready until later that week.
The next weekend, Giovanna was supposed to drive down to New York City to meet him for a gala. But since the jeweler was in Binghamton, Michael offered to pick her up there to grab the ring, which was a three-hour drive from the Big Apple.
“I made it sound like I was being very chivalric and very good. I just said that, ‘Well, why don't I just come up and get you on Friday, you can come, and I’ll drop you off to stay with your friend in the city, and then we can go to the gala together Saturday, and I'll drive you back on Sunday,’” he recalled. “Which was absurd, because it's three hours each way, but it made it sound like I was being good.”
During that driving-intensive weekend, the pair enjoyed the gala on Saturday, then assisted at the Traditional Latin Mass at Holy Innocents Catholic Church on Sunday, and enjoyed lunch with some of Giovanna’s friends before Michael drove her all the way back to Binghamton, completing his nine-hour journey that weekend.
There, as the couple walked along the Chenango River Promenade, Michael popped the question, and she said, “Yes.”
After celebrating the news with Giovanna’s family and crashing on their couch, he got up at two in the morning and drove three more hours back to New York City to make it to work the next day. Michael’s scheming paid off, as despite having suspicions about why he picked her up in Binghamton, she was not expecting him to propose that weekend.
“I really did not see it coming that weekend. I knew it was coming soon, but I didn't know what was happening that weekend,” she said.
St. Thérèse showered them with roses throughout the relationship...
Throughout their relationship, one of the couple’s mutual favorite saints, St. Thérèse, interceded for them in truly unbelievable ways.
Giovanna, having a strong devotion to the Little Flower, prayed her rose novena at key points of uncertainty throughout her courtship with Michael and would always feel at peace and find (literal) roses at the end of the novena “without fail.” For instance, early in their relationship, she prayed the novena for clarity on whether the relationship was going anywhere, and amazingly at the end of the novena, she saw roses in her office.
Then, around the time Michael planned to propose to her, Giovanna prayed the novena, seeking clarity on whether they might get engaged soon.
“The day we got engaged, before Mass that morning, after I'd finished the novena, there were white roses in this random alcove,” she recalled. “I only realized this two days later, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Perhaps even crazier, two Roses helped Michael make the move to Binghamton. One of Giovanna’s family members, named Rose, helped Michael find a job in the area. And the previous owner of the house Michael purchased for them to move into together in Binghamton, once they were married, who had attended Giovanna’s parish, is also named Rose.
Giovanna also noted that 2023, the year they began seeing each other, was the Jubilee Year of St. Thérèse, commemorating the 150th anniversary of her birth and the centenary of her beatification.
“St. Thérèse has just been throwing roses all over this relationship,” Giovanna said. “She’s been showering us with roses.”
They were married on the feast of St. Andrew.
After about seven months of wedding planning and marriage prep with their priest surrounded by family and friends, the couple was married at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Endicott, New York on the feast of St. Andrew.
The now-married couple has settled in nicely in their Binghamton home and welcomed their first child, a boy. God willing, Michael and Giovanna hope to have more children, and help them and each other become saints. If it is God’s will, they’d also love to have a son enter the priesthood.
Their advice for current CatholicMatch users:
Giovanna’s advice for CatholicMatch users is to persevere in your search for a spouse and not to become overly fixated on or overly frustrated with using the app, remembering that ultimately God is in control of your courtship and to surrender your pursuit to His will.
“It's hard to see the ultimate goal when you're in the ‘in the trenches,’ of not feeling like it’s worth it, or not feeling like it's going anywhere,” she said. “One of the (most important) things is not to make (using CatholicMatch) your everything. If people are trying to set you up, do that. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.”
“When you stop putting all the emphasis on your feeling uncomfortable, that you're on CatholicMatch or annoyed or angry that you're there,” she added. “That's really when you should release the reins and let God work, that's when something's going to happen.”
She also encouraged all users to pray that God will bring them their future spouse and pray for that person, and citing the book Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, noted that the greater your patience, the more likely God will grant your request.
“The book says, the more you pray for something, the more God is testing your patience and zeal for this intention. And the longer you pray, and the more He makes you wait, the more likely you will get it, so pray,” she said.
Giovanna further stressed the importance of praying the Holy Rosary each day and making frequent novenas, because they help provide consolation that “gets you to push through the drought and keep going.”
Michael echoed Giovanna’s sentiments and advised CatholicMatch users not to automatically write off the app because it’s a “modern” way to meet people, but to humble yourself before God.
“It's easy for Catholics who are trying to live very intentionally, especially traditional Catholics, to write off (dating apps) as another error of the modern world,” he said.
“I would say I've certainly been humbled in being someone who would have written off such things as intrinsically bad, when, of course, that's ridiculous,” he added. “God's providence works in all things, including those which we might be averse to.”
“Let yourself be humbled, really, because that's when God's going to come in,” Giovanna added.
