How two gay women tricked the Catholic church into marrying them in 1901

Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas met and fell in love in A Coruña, Spain in 1901 while training as teachers. Outraged, Marcella’s mother sent her away to Madrid, little did she know Elisa was sent away too. The pair ended up being posted to village schools just miles apart where their love only blossomed.

While there they hatched a plan to trick the Catholic church into marrying them. First, they made a big show of having a falling out. Then Marcela, who was pregnant with an unidentified man’s child, announced she would wed Elisa’s cousin “Mario” who had been conveniently living in London all this time.

Elisa posed as Mario, cutting her hair and wearing a man’s suit, and was baptised and married to Marcela on the same day.

Unfortunately for the couple, Elisa’s true identity was leaked to a local newspaper who exposed them by publishing their wedding portrait under the headline: A wedding without a groom.

Elisa and Marcella were forced to go on the run, first to Portugal then to Argentina in 1902. The Spanish government tried to extradite them, even managing to jail them in Portugal, but the couple escaped.

The two then disappeared, with reports surfacing in a Mexican newspaper that Elisa had committed suicide in 1909.

This extraordinary story has been documented by historian Narciso de Gabriel and is set to be made into a film by Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet.

"I was fascinated the first time I heard about the story,” Coixet said, “which almost raised more questions than it has answers.

"We don't know what happened to them in the end, and how did they think they would get away with it?"

Tim Gibson - myGwork

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