Last Updated on January 10, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Alcuin of York was an 8th-century English scholar and abbot who served as advisor to Emperor Charlemagne and wrote homoerotic poetry and letters. His feast day is May 20 in Episcopal and other Anglican churches.
Called “the most learned man anywhere to be found,” Alcuin is renowned as an influential medieval teacher, theologian, clergyman and poet. While working at the French court of Charlemagne he helped advance the great intellectual revival in Europe known as the Carolingian Renaissance. He was responsible for reforming worship and collecting and preserving much ancient knowledge from both Christian and pagan sources. He even talked Charlemagne into abolishing the death penalty for paganism.
Alcuin (735? – 804) is also known among LGBTQ people and allies for homoerotic writings that qualify him to be considered a queer saint.
Alcuin is known for homoerotic writings
Historian John Boswell writes in his classic book “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality”:
“A distinctly erotic element…is notable in the circle of friends presided over by Alcuin at the court of Charlemagne. This group included some of the most brilliant scholars of the day (Theodule of Orleans, Anglibert, Einhard, et al,), but the erotic element subsisted principally between Alcuin and his pupils. Intimates of this circle of masculine friendship were known to each other by pet names, most of them derived from classical allusions, many from Vergil’s eclogues… A particularly famous poem is addressed to a pupil whom Alcuin calls “Daphnis” and laments the departure of another young student, “Dodo,” who is referred to in the poem as their “cuckoo”….The prominence of love in Alcuin’s writings, all of which are addressed to other males, is striking…”
That “particularly famous poem” by Alcuin is “Lament for a Cuckoo.” It is included in “The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse” and “Gay and Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology from Sappho to Michelangelo.” The poem expresses the loss felt when a beloved young man nicknamed “cuckoo” left the abbey.
Alcuin is portrayed as a young novice in a portrait by Tobias Haller.
Alcuin’s close connection with another young monk is even recorded in the medieval manuscript illustration at the top of this article. Alcuin appears in the center with his arm around the young German monk Raban Maur in a Carolingian manuscript from around 831. He is dedicating his work to Archbishop Otgar of Mainz on the right.
Alcuin’s expressions of same-sex desire extended beyond poetry and into his letters. He wrote to a bishop:
“I think of your love and friendship with such sweet memories, reverend bishop, that I long for that lovely time when I may be able to clutch the neck of your sweetness with the fingers of my desires. Alas, if only it were granted to me… to be transported to you, how I would sink into your embraces… how much would I cover, with tightly pressed lips, not only your eyes, ears and mouth, but also your every finger and toe, not once but many a time.”
While these writings suggest that Alcuin was gay, they don’t necessarily mean that he was sexually active with other men. Some scholars argue that they represent nothing more than friendship. His extensive network of male friendships extended across Europe and is reminiscent of the possibly queer Puritan theologian Richard Sibbes.
Alcuin’s legacy: “No secrets are hid”
When Alcuin was past age 60 and ready to retire, Charlemagne appointed him abbot of the abbey of St. Martin at Tours, France. He died there of natural causes on May 19, 804.
Books about Alcuin include “Alcuin: His Life and Legacy” by Douglas Dales and “Alcuin: Theology and Thought” by Rowan Williams.
Alcuin is portrayed as a novice in an icon by Tobias Haller, an iconographer, author, composer, and retired vicar of Saint James Episcopal Church in the Bronx, still assisting at a parish in Baltimore, Maryland. His Alcuin sketch is based on a young French model. Haller enjoys expanding the diversity of icons available by creating icons of LGBTQ people and other progressive holy figures as well as traditional saints.
One of Alcuin’s most enduring contributions to church life is the prayer known as the “collect for purity” or “prayer before mass.” It first appeared in a book of services compiled by Alcuin, and some believe that he wrote it. Many Christians today still pray these words to prepare for worship, eucharist or communion:
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Top image credit:
Alcuin appears in the center with his arm around a young monk in a Carolingian manuscript from around 831. (Wikipedia)
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in May 2020, was expanded with new material over time, and most recently updated for accuracy on May 20, 2022.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
As an addendum to my previous note: Alcuin stated bluntly in his writings that Sodom was destroyed because its men were “sinning against nature with men” (as he phrased it), so this sums up his actual views on the matter. And it should be noted that his “affectionate” language extended to plenty of women such as Abbess Gisela of Chelles and Charlemagne’s daughters Rotrudis and Bertha, but no one interprets that to mean he was romantically involved with these women. E.g. he addresses Gisela by describing his “bond of sweet love” with her but this is not likely to have anything to do with romance (I’m sure Boswell wouldn’t interpret it that way since he only interpreted such language to be romantic if it suited his agenda). If you really want to read romance into this type of thing then you at least need to be consistent with it.
If you want any serious historian to take you seriously, you need to 1) stop using Boswell, who has virtually zero support among historians; 2) stop making the same mistake Boswell did by misinterpreting a term that was just a very general word for any type of affection and hence did not mean “love” in the modern English sense and usually didn’t refer to romantic love. This is very basic stuff, especially when referring to writings by clergy and saints who used that term in the Biblical sense of charity towards one’s fellow humans. That’s all it generally meant. Historians have been pointing this out for ages, and also pointing out that Boswell misinterpreted (or deliberately misrepresented) stuff like this. Enough is enough.
The Gloria Dei choir. Choice one of St Alcuins texts set by Leo Sowerby as its selection for May 20 today