‘Gay Saints & Others’

Sergius & Bacchus

The best known of the supposed gay saints, Sergius & Bacchus, were a pair of Roman soldiers and supposed lovers who were martyred in the 4th century, and later recognised as saints.  There are two problems with this.In the first place, the historical facts are not absolutely agreed.  While they are historical figures, it is not entirely certain that they were lovers, nor are the reasons for their execution entirely clear. Nor is their status as saints beyond dispute.  The modern criteria and process for canonisation are well-established, but this was not so in the early church, when the process was informal, by a process of popular acclaim.

The entry in the Advent Catholic Encyclopedia accepts their status as saints and martyrs, with a joint feast day of October 7th, but I have seen entries for Sergius & Bacchus in one modern reference book on Catholic saints,  another stated that they have been ‘purged’ from the list of recognised saints, together many others from the remoter past, as having insufficient foundation for that status.

Transgendered Saints

The LGBT Catholic Handbook lists  an intriguing group of transvestite saints – women who took on men’s clothing  in order to live as monks.

The Handbook lists some scholarly references in support, but the Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. however,  dismisses the tales as ‘hagiographic fiction.’

The stories and motives of these women are remote from our time, and ‘transvestite’ is not to be confused with ‘transgendered’. Still, whatever the full historic truth, it seems to me this is a useful story to hold on to as a reminder of the important place of the transgendered, and differently gendered,  in our midst.

Many of us will remember how difficult and challenging was the process of recognising, and then confronting, our identities as lesbian or gay, particularly in the context of a hostile church. However difficult and challenging we may have found the process of honestly confronting  our sexual identies,  consider how much more challenging must  be the process of confronting and negotiating honestly a full gender identity crisis.

Saint Sebastian, Martyr

Widely known as an early martyr, Sebastian was a Roman soldier arrested during theDiocletian persecution of the late 3^rd Century. Ordered to be executed, he was tied naked to a column and shot with arrows. Widely represented in art, it was not this, however, that killed him. He was left for dead, but was nursed back to life. After recovering, he intercepted the Emperor and denounced him for his cruelty to Christians. Enraged, the Emperor once again (more)

St Aelred of Rielvaux, Gay Abbott

St Aelred,  whose feast we celebrate today, is recognised in all sources as an important English saint, who lived in the north of England in the 12 C. As a young man, he joined the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx, later returning there as Abbott.  He is remembered especially for his writings on friendship, some of which have led gay writers such as John Boswell to claim him as ‘homosexual’. For instances, Integrity USA, an Anglican LGBT organisation, have designated him as their patron.

Others point to his work as insisting on chastity, and believe that his well-recognised male friendshipswere entirely non-sexual.  Whatever the genital truth, we should remember and honour Aelred as a reminder of the important place of intimate (emotionally, if not sexually) relationships between same-sex couples in the history of the church. (more)