Laís Dogninia young woman from the Brazilian municipality of Jaraguá do Sul, Santa Catarina, left the convent four years ago. She always had an active religious life, as a missionary since she was a teenager, and aspired to be only to dedicate his life to service.
However, she faced a diagnosis that forced her to return home, and in parallel her future husband faced a similar personal struggle as seminarian.
On the eve of celebrating six months married to her husband, Jackson Dogninithe former novice shared a post on her Instagram account that went viral.
The first photo in the publication was a comparative image of both of them with their habits on: he as a future priest, and she as a Carmelite. «We were determined to give our existence to serve as spouses of God,» he wrote about the postcard.
The following photograph corresponds to March 2025, both kneeling in front of the altar in the church, dressed in a couple the day they got married. «Clearly God had other plans for us»he commented. Immediately his more than 16,000 followers asked him to tell how they fell in loveand what was the reaction of their respective families.
«I was going to be a nun and he was a priest»: the love story of Laís Dognini and Jackson Dognini
In a new publication, Laís summarized what the chronology of the relationship was like. «Our love story was improbable, but not impossible: we have known each other for more than six years, when I was still a missionary, but we had never spoken to each other, not even a ‘hello,'» she said.
Jackson Dognini and Laís Dognini at their wedding. (Photo: Instagram @laisdognini)«He wanted to be a priest and went to the seminary for five years; I wanted to be a nun and I went to the convent as a cloistered Carmelite for two years,» she revealed. «When I felt that God literally spoke to me and endorsed my vocation, it was one of the best moments of my life; I don’t regret anythingand I would do it all again a thousand times,» he clarified.
«During his stay in the cloister, Laís was diagnosed with dysthymiaa chronic form of mild depression, and had to leave the convent to take care of her health.
«I remember when I discovered that I had dysthymia, and it broke me emotionally, because for a long time I was taught that those who love God do not suffer from depression and have no ill will,» he recalled.
The Brazilian couple spoke about their religious life before falling in love.«I know exactly how guilty it makes you feel not to be able to express your spirituality and your faith as others do, out of pure romanticism, and I can assure you that you have to keep trying, because it was a moment of great maturity for me, where I talked a lot with God to ask him why he was tearing me away from the life I had chosen,» he explained.
When Laís was already at home with her parents, the young seminarian sent her a message to tell her that he was praying for her.
«He told me that he had found out about my departure from the convent, and His intention was to change my mind so that I would come back.but he didn’t know that I didn’t even want to leave, but that it was my own health that left me without options,» he told his followers.
Thus began a long-distance conversation that lasted several months, and they exchanged books from the local Catholic library, and held debates about interpretations of sacred scriptures.
She was going to be a nun and he was going to be a priest, but today they are married. (Photo: Instagram @laisdognini)«I had nothing to do with his trial and I didn’t know it either, but two years later he began to realize that Being a priest was not his vocation, and he prayed a lot to discern what he should do,» he commented.
Jackson went through a long period of discernment before leaving the seminary. Finally he decided to resign from the seminary, and there they resumed contact. «We both maintain the Catholic vocation and faith intact, so we agreed go to a mass togetherand since then we don’t separate anymore«, they revealed.
They started dating in April 2024, got engaged in October, and got married in March 2025. «For my mother it was very strong when I told him that we were together after six months of dating,» Laís explained.
«I am very happy at his side, and as adults we know well what we want,» said Laís Dognini.He assured that it was much easier with his in-laws, who knew the internal struggles that the young man had gone through. «With my mother it was really very difficult, because she thought that he had left the seminary because of me, and we had to explain to her so that she understood how things were; now with my husband they are neck and neck,» she said with humor.
The declaration of love of the former seminarian, a symbolic book of Saint Louis and Saint Zelia
He also commented that he was the first to demonstrate romantic feeling. He returned a book she had lent him, with a marked page, describing the love story of Saint Louis and Saint Celia Martinthe parents of Saint Therese of Lisieux.
Jackson Dognini and Laís Dognini in their civil marriage. (Photo: Instagram @laisdognini)Both were canonized on October 18, 2015, as the first marriage declared holy on the same date, and are commemorated every July 12, the date of their anniversary.
They met in 1858, married and had nine children. Their Catholic home was characterized by unwavering faith, even in the face of Celia’s tragic death from cancer and Luis’s subsequent mental illness.
Jackson Dognini and Laís Dognini told how he declared himself a seminarian.As a parallel with the young couple, both Luis and Celia felt in their youth the desire to consecrate themselves to God: he asked to be admitted to the monastery of the Great Saint Bernard, but was rejected because he did not know Latin, and she wanted to enter the congregation of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, but was not accepted either.
Luis opened a watch shop and Celia a lace workshop. They met in April 1858 on the San Leonardo bridge. She felt that an inner voice was telling her that this was her future husband, a feeling that came true that same year.
Today the former seminarian is a professor of Philosophy, and Laís is dedicated to marketing. They continue to consider themselves practicing Catholics, and as a couple they participate in the local church choir, are promoters of missionaries and charity campaigns, in addition to sharing Bible readings with the community that follows them.
