“He was part of a movement of people, I’ll call it, who had grown up Catholic and still loved many things about the Catholic Church, but also really loved the concept of having a very personal relationship with Christ,” said Patricia Bailey, who became close to Mr. Pence when she and her husband, Mark, worked with him at a law firm in Indianapolis in the mid-1980s.

Mr. Pence’s wife, Karen, was also part of that movement. They met when he was in law school at Indiana University. After they started dating, she bought a gold cross with the word “Yes” engraved on it, and kept it in her purse until he proposed.

“She’s been very much a part of his faith journey,” said Mark Bailey, who often started his day by praying with Mr. Pence in one of their offices at the law firm. “He would refer to his wife as the prayer warrior of the family.”

By the mid-1990s, Mr. Pence and his wife were attending an evangelical church in Indianapolis. Years later, the break from Catholicism still stung his mother, Nancy, according to Father Davis, who has been the priest at her church, now called St. Bartholomew, since 1997 and has grown close to her.