Though 39 year old Paula Podest Ruiz and 41 year old Carlos Ciuffardi Elorriga were scheduled to be married in the church back in 2010, their parish at Santiago was destroyed in an earthquake sometime before their big day because of which their religious union never happened though they were legally husband and wife.

But now the couple, flying as flight attendants for Pope Francis became the first couple to get blessed by the Pope himself on a papal plane.

It all started when the pair, began chatting with the pontiff when they were seated next to him during a group photo shoot and the couple asked the Pope to bless their marriage. Little did they know the Pope had something else on his mind.

“We told him that we are husband and wife. That we have two daughters and that we would have loved to receive his blessing. All of a sudden, he asked us if we were married for the Church too,” Mr Ciuffardi told reporters afterwards on the plane, which was en route to the northern city of Iquique from Santiago.

The Pope performed the brief ceremony in the front of the plane.

Pope Francis gave the bride a white rosary and the groom a black rosary.