Gay Saints

[Jbreyes777]

 

The Catholic Church doesn’t want you to read this. They’ve deliberately erased many gay saints from official lists.

And we have to admit it is difficult to find hard historical evidence about most saints. Many of the stories about them are little more than legends.

But if you start looking, there are lots of LGBTI saints and martyrs. Here are just a few of the most famous:

St Joan of Arc

The 1999 movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

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Jeanne d’Arc is not just the most famous LGBTI saint but the most famous saint full-stop.

Joan was just a French peasant. But an angel appeared to her in a vision and told her God wanted her to lead the French fight against the English in the Hundred Years War.

She persuaded the French Prince Charles to let her lead his army, even though she had no military training. And, dressed as a male soldier, she achieved a momentous victory over the English at the city of Orléans in 1429.

Thanks to her, the prince was crowned King Charles VII. But Joan was then captured by the English.

They decided she was a heretic and a witch and burnt her at the stake. She was just 19.

Some refuse to accept Joan was LGBTI.

Was she a trans warrior or did she only cross-dress in male armor through necessity? Either way, she would be part of our gay, trans and gender-fluid family today.

Likewise, the same people who claim she was a virgin admit she liked to share her bed with other young women. And that sounds pretty lesbian to us.

St Sebastian

Gerrit van Honthorst’s depiction of Saint Sebastian.

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St Sebastian is the original gay icon. This near-naked, young, muscled man – tied to a post and pierced with arrows – is one of the most famous images in fine art.

He was the commander of a company of archers in the imperial Roman bodyguard. And he was known to be ‘close’ to his male superiors. But he had a secret.

To rescue two other Christian soldiers, he ‘outed’ himself as Christian too. The Emperor Diocletian ordered that he should be shot to death by his fellow archers.

Strangely, that didn’t kill him. The pious St Irene saved him and treated his wounds. But Diocletian caught up with him. He ordered a second execution and Sebastian’s fellow soldiers beat him to death.

There’s no single reason why he became the unofficial gay patron saint. It’s a mix of his rumored sexuality, his ‘coming out’ story and his iconic homoerotic image penetrated with arrows. And homosexuality was once considered an illness while St Sebastian was known to save plague victims.

St Wilgefortis

Conchita (right) brought fresh attention to St Wilgefortis.

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Legend says Wilgefortis was the daughter of a king in Portugal who took a vow of chastity.

When her father tried to force her into marriage with the king of Sicily she prayed for help. God saved her by giving her a beard and the Sicilian king refused to marry a bearded wife.

So she is a trans male saint.

Sadly, there is no happy ending. Her father got so angry he crucified her.

Her only reward is to become the patron saint of difficult marriages. After all, it’s a particularly difficult marriage that ends in crucifixion. In Spain she is called Librada because she helps women who want to be ‘liberated’ from difficult husbands.

The Catholic Church plays down St Wilgefortis. But after Conchita – another bearded lady – won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014 for Austria, depictions of the saint gained short-lived cult status.

St Perpetua and St Felicity

George Hare’s 1890 painting Victory of Faith depicted Perpetua and Felicity in prison.

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This North African lesbian couple are the patron saints of same-sex relationships.

Perpetua was 22-year-old noblewoman with a newborn baby. Felicity, who was pregnant, was her slave.

Roman soldiers arrested them in around 203AD because they were Christians. They comforted each other in prison and Perpetua wrote a jail diary, describing the visions she had while inside.

Felicity worried that she wouldn’t be martyred because Roman law forbade the execution of pregnant women. But she gave birth to her daughter in time.

The day came for games to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Septimus Severus. As part of the entertainment, the pair were taken into the amphitheater in Carthage, North Africa, along with a group of male Christians.

Gladiators whipped them. Then boar, a bear, and a leopard were set on the men, and a wild cow on the women. That still wasn’t enough to kill them and they gave each other the kiss of peace before a swordsman finished them off.

Perpetua’s diary became the ‘Passion of St Perpetua, St Felicitas, and their Companions’. The story was so popular in North Africa that St Augustine ordered people not to treat it like it was part of the Bible.

St Paulinus

St Paulinus processed through the streets of Nola, near Naples, Italy.

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If you’ve ever heard a bell ringing to call you to church, you’ve got the bisexual St Paulinus to thank. He invented that tradition.

He had previously been a married Roman senator. But after his wife died, he became bishop of Nola in Italy from 395AD to 431AD.

When the Vandals raided the region, a poor widow came to Paulinus asking him to help her son who the Vandals had carried off.

He had spent all his money paying ransoms for other captives. So he went to Africa to offer himself to the Vandals in return for the widow’s son. They agreed and made Paulinus a gardener. But when the Vandal king realized his son-in-law’s slave was the Bishop of Nola, he set him free.

What’s not well known is Paulinus also wrote love poems to his boyfriend, Ausonius. In one, he promised there love would last even after his death. And he added:

Thee shall I hold, in every fiber woven,
Not with dumb lips, nor with averted face
Shall I behold thee, in my mind embrace thee,
Instant and present, thou, in every place.

He is still honored every year in Nola when his statue is paraded through the streets. American descendants of Italians from Nola also honor him in the same way in Brooklyn.

St Francis of Assisi

Mickey Rourke as St Francis of Assisi in the movie Francesco.

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St Francis is one of the best-loved religious figures in history, famous for hugging lepers and showing compassion to animals.

What you probably don’t know is he encouraged the other Franciscan friars in his 13th century cloister to call him ‘mother’.

Even more surprisingly, he allowed a widow to enter the all-male friary, renaming her ‘Brother Jacoba’.

And it is likely he had at least one same-sex relationship while in his 20s. His partner’s identity is hidden by history but is thought to be Brother Elias of Cortona.

Thomas of Celano, who knew Francis personally and wrote a biography of him in 1230 just four years after his death, wrote:

‘Now there was a man in the city of Assisi whom Francis loved more than any other…

‘He would often take this friend off to secluded spots where they could discuss private matters and tell him that he had chanced upon a great and precious treasure. There was a cave near Assisi where the two friends often went to talk about this treasure.’

St Sergius and St Bacchus

The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus by Elastic Theatre.

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Homophobic Christians tell us that same-sex marriage is against their faith. Trouble is they don’t know their own history. Step forward Saints Sergius and Bacchus.

Sergius was a commander in the Roman army in the third century and Bacchus was his second in command.

They were referred to in the earliest records of their story as ‘erastai’, the Greek word for ‘lovers’. And it’s believed they committed themselves to each other in a Christian ceremony called ‘adelphopoiesis’ or ‘brother-making’ which was a kind of same-sex marriage.

But their faith got them in trouble while they were stationed in Syria in 303AD. As Christians, they refused to sacrifice to Jupiter, the Roman’s chief god.

Officials arrested them, dressed them in women’s clothing and paraded them through the street to humiliate them into submission. But they resisted, chanting they were dressed as brides of Christ.

So the Romans turned to torture. They separated them and beat them so severely that Bacchus died.

That wasn’t the end of the story. That night Sergius had a vision.

Bacchus appeared to him in his soldier’s armor and with the face of an angel. He urged Sergius not to give in, saying they would live together as lovers forever in heaven. It’s a unique martyrdom story, because martyrs are always promised they will be with God in heaven, not with their lover.

Over the coming days, Sergius was tortured and finally beheaded.

Christians honored them as saints right up until 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Riots. The Catholic Church stripped them from the official list of saints, perhaps to starve the emerging gay rights movement of their power.

St Aelred

The Name of The Rose movie depicted medieval monastic life.

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The patron saint of friendship was erotically attracted to men, and celebrated male relationships, throughout his life.

Aelred was the abbot of a Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, England for 20 years until his death in 1167. He wrote about the link between friendship and spirituality, saying ‘God is friendship’.

And he encouraged friendship between his monks comparing it to the love between Jesus and his beloved disciple, and between Jonathan and David. (You can read more about those two gay stories here).

Aelred advocated chastity. But his passion for male relationships is clear when he wrote: ‘It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love…’

In the same passage he describes this relationship with another man as one where ‘the sweetness of the Spirit flows between you, where you so join yourself and cleave to him that soul mingles with soul and two become one.’

St Galla and St Benedicta

Women in the Dark Ages faced few choices, as depicted in The Last Kingdom.

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Galla had been married but was widowed after just one year. Not wanting another relationship with a man, she grew a beard to ward them off.

And she went even further. St Galla founded a convent in Rome in the sixth century and fellow nun Benedicta moved in with her there.

Then Galla fell seriously ill and St Peter appeared to her in a vision, telling her to prepare for death. She was devoted to God so liked the idea of going to heaven. But she was also devoted to Benedicta and didn’t want to leave her behind.

So she prayed to Peter that Benedicta would swiftly follow her to the afterlife.

Admittedly, by modern standards, praying for your partner’s death seems a bit wrong. But Peter agreed.

Galla died in 550AD of breast cancer and Benedicta’s death came 30 days later, just as St Peter had promised.

Historical note on gay saints

To historians, we would point out there are around 10,000 Catholic saints (though there is no definitive figure). By any impartial standard, some of them are bound to have been LGBTI.

To Catholics, we would say that you accept a saint’s sanctity on the basis of faith, not scientific proof. So why would you not accept their sexuality on the same basis?

[chrysostom]

Hello! If you want to start a discussion, please use your own words and not an unattributed copypaste from a 2016 gaystarnews article.

Edited March 16, 2021 by chrysostom

[Peace]

2 minutes ago, chrysostom said:

Hello! If you want to start a discussion, please use your own words and not an unattributed copypaste from a 2016 gaystarnews article.

I think this nonsense still deserves a response.

8 hours ago, Jbreyes777 said:

The Catholic Church doesn’t want you to read this. They’ve deliberately erased many gay saints from official lists.

And we have to admit it is difficult to find hard historical evidence about most saints. Many of the stories about them are little more than legends.

But if you start looking, there are lots of LGBTI saints and martyrs. Here are just a few of the most famous:

What does the author mean "erased"? St. Joan of Arc is still recognized as a saint is she not?

Who cares if she was gay? Look, the Church teaches that homosexual inclinations are objectively disordered. It is not something to be lauded. Get over it.

That being said, nobody said that a person cannot be gay and be a saint. Most men have a disordered inclination to masturbate. That does not mean that they cannot be saints.

What exactly does the author want? Does he want Catholics to give gay people a pat on the head for being gay?

8 hours ago, Jbreyes777 said:

To historians, we would point out there are around 10,000 Catholic saints (though there is no definitive figure). By any impartial standard, some of them are bound to have been LGBTI.

To Catholics, we would say that you accept a saint’s sanctity on the basis of faith, not scientific proof. So why would you not accept their sexuality on the same basis?

What is the author suggesting? That a saint being homosexual is part of his or her sanctity? That is ridiculous. A person's sexual orientation (be it straight, gay, bi, or whatever) has nothing to do with the person's holiness. Following God's commandments according to his will makes a person holy. Sinning defiles a man. Do more of the former, less of the latter. It ain't that complicated.

[MIKolbe]

so people who struggle with sin can become saints?

don't know about you, but that's good news for me!

[Luigi]

It is possible that some saints had homosexual inclinations, but: 

- Sharing a bed with a person of the same gender was standard operating procedure for centuries. Beds were scarce, and there was no central heating or electric blankets. Personally, I've had plenty of experience of "three heads in a bed," with cousins when they came to visit, and with little brothers and sisters who woke up scared in the night. I've heard the same argument attributed to Mark Twain when we was traveling in the American West, and because he wrote about boys skinny dipping in the river. People who make these kinds of claims don't know social history, and they show that they cannot conceive of non-gay folks doing things that they themselves consider gay in a non-gay way. 

- Any evidence from Hollywood must be rejected out of hand. Hollywood produces fiction, not fact, and the portrayals are always exaggerated - pretty people are beautiful, ugly people are very ugly, mean people are very mean - everything's bigger on the big screen. And Hollywood has been a den of iniquity since its inception, both off the screen and on the screen. Any number of screenwriters, producers, directors, and actors have pushed 'loose morals' in American cinema for the last 100 years. 

People who make these kinds of claims think they're revealing deep dark secrets when, in fact, they're only revealing their own desperate need for affirmation. 

[Mercedes]

11 hours ago, Jbreyes777 said:

 

The Catholic Church doesn’t want you to read this. They’ve deliberately erased many gay saints from official lists.

 

This is classic anachronism.  Beginning in the 20th century modernist 'scholars' began seeing 'gay traits' in historical vocations that featured celibacy.  This included shamans and holy teachers in ancient pagan tribes.

That thinking is a product of the Enlightenment rejection of the spiritual and mystery.

 

[fides' Jack]

By definition, a saint is a person in heaven.  They are perfect, because only perfect people are in heaven.  A perfect person doesn't have any inclinations toward sin or otherwise-unnatural tendencies.

Thus, there are no LGBT (where's the Q?  I thought there was a Q...?) saints.  They were all purified of their unnatural inclinations before they became saints. 

And I have a hard time understanding why the OP believed some of those saints belonged to one of those groups...  Certainly even in the brief stories given, there was no evidence of that.

But I realize this whole thread is just somebody trolling...

[Anastasia]

Believers usually read the lives of saints to be strengthened and encouraged.  The saints’ spiritual battles provide an excellent practical guidance for how we should manage our own spiritual life. The vices of the saints or better to say how a weak person full of shortcomings became a saint despite them work as an encouragement. For example, when I read about the life of St Tikhon of Zadonsk (a Russian saint and theologian) I found some comfort in the fact that he had a quite explosive temper which he had fought for all his life because I myself have such – meaning it is possible to restrain and even change my bad temper. So, I asked him to help me precisely because he knows this problem. The fact that Saint Tikhon had an explosive temper does not mean though that being explosive is a good thing. In those endless LGBTQwhatever discourses I find the desire to do exactly that, to see their vices (which, sadly, they use to define themselves reducing own complexity as persons to a single line) in saints and say “Look! – If they did it and they are the saints of the Church we who do exactly that are perfectly fine you hypocrites”. In this take, quite absurdly, all what is left of a saint is “he (supposedly) was a gay” – just like all what is left of LGBTQ etc is their sexual orientation. Paradoxically, it is not the Church who reduces LGBTQ people to their sexual orientation, they do that themselves and insist on that reduction.

I do not know which saint did what. However, in the Eastern Orthodox Church ‘Paterik’ (lives of saints and ascetics) a struggle with homosexual inclinations is sometimes mentioned as a problem and this is not a secret. But no one ever mentions it otherwise but “a sinful passion, a grave sin that must be fought against”. I will also add that the Eastern Orthodox Church is very “down to earth” re: sex-related matters and has very practical rules which are designed to reduce a possibility of situations which can contribute to "a burning passion" (homosexual or heterosexual).

All that said, I am quite sure that the topic began not as a desire to discuss something but as “look at me/us” adolescent provocation.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Anastasia

[Norseman82]

Oh for crying out loud........

A female wearing a military unifiorm for combat means that she is a trans/crossdresser?  Does that mean that any woman in today's U.S. military who wears body armor and kevlar helmet or a flight suit and helmet are trans?  EWHat about Sister Deidre Byrne?  

Or that any woman who has facial hair is trans?  

Give me a break.  This type of cuckooness is what causes sane people to think there is a "gay agenda" being pushed by a "gaystapo".

[Ash Wednesday]

16 hours ago, Jbreyes777 said:

 

To historians, we would point out there are around 10,000 Catholic saints (though there is no definitive figure). By any impartial standard, some of them are bound to have been LGBTI.

To Catholics, we would say that you accept a saint’s sanctity on the basis of faith, not scientific proof. So why would you not accept their sexuality on the same basis?

A saint is celebrated for their heroic virtue, not their sexuality. 
A saint certainly would not want any part of the kind of agenda on marriage and sexuality that this article is trying to push. This idea that opposing same sex marriage on the grounds of faith makes anyone "homophobic" and ignorant about history is totally absurd. 

I read articles like this and it genuinely frightens me how much we're turning into phone gazing dullards governed purely by emotional sentiment and not much else.

[Ice_nine]

this is gay

[MIKolbe]

14 hours ago, fides' Jack said:

(where's the Q?  I thought there was a Q...?)

[fides' Jack]

Ah, John de Lancie.  One of my favorite actors in the Star Trek franchise.

[Peace]

On 3/17/2021 at 12:07 PM, fides' Jack said:

Ah, John de Lancie.  One of my favorite actors in the Star Trek franchise.

Nah man its all about Picard make it so.

[fides' Jack]

50 minutes ago, Peace said:

Nah man its all about Picard make it so.

I almost listed my order of favorites.  Patrick Stewart tops that list.  John de Lancie is probably 3rd.