Last Updated on January 10, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry

Saint Francis with Female Trinity by Sassetta

Francis of Assisi, one of the world’s best loved saints, rejoiced when an all-female Trinity greeted him as “Lady Poverty” in a queer experience that has been buried.

The subversive vision has been ignored, sanitized and perhaps suppressed for centuries, even though it is “hiding in plain sight” in the earliest source and in at least one famous altarpiece. This article is being re-posted for Trinity Sunday (June 4, 2023).

Francis is celebrated for loving animals, hugging lepers, embracing poverty and praying for peace, but few know about his gender nonconformity. The 13th-century friar’s little-known encounter disrupts and reverses traditional distinctions of gender and social class. For Francis, such earthly restrictions cannot limit God.

Christian doctrine says that there is one God in three persons: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Francis saw this Holy Trinity embodied instead as “three poor women.”  Does that make them Mother God, Christa and the Holy Spirit?  They may be related to the the pagan “triple goddess” archetype of the maiden, mother and crone, as well as “The Three Spinners” fairy tale and the “three Norns” of Norse mythology.  Church authorities sometimes allow the Holy Spirit to be represented as female, but never the entire Trinity — except this time.

Disregarding his biological sex, the women call Francis himself “Lady Poverty” — and he loves it! The genderbending name honors his commitment to upend social hierarchies and embrace poverty as a spiritual path.

Francis in Ecstasy by Sassetta

A female Trinity appears in “Saint Francis in Ecstasy” by Sassetta. (Wikipedia)

Later writers and artists downgraded the identity of the three women. Instead of embodying the Holy Trinity, they were said to represent the virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience. Lady Poverty ceased to be a name for Francis, and was recast as his bride in a mystical marriage.

Of course, all this mislabeling makes it virtually impossible for researchers to find the beautiful paintings of Francis with the female Trinity… despite the fact that art prints are widely available for both the “marriage” and the ecstasy of Francis.

Female spiritual power and queer saints become invisible. Religious authorities may have tried to disguise the story deliberately because it was seen as a threat. Or it may have disappeared by default because these ideas are almost unthinkable — too radically counter-intuitive to accept.

Why I wrote this article

My previous article about the queer side of Francis sparked questions from several serious scholars about the legend of the all-female Trinity. They wanted know the source behind my statement that Francis “experienced a vision of an all-female Trinity, who in turn saluted him as ‘Lady Poverty, a title that he welcomed.’”

A typical message said, “I love that! But I’m having trouble finding more info on his all-female Trinity on Google…”

Indeed it is extremely hard to find information online about Francis and the female Trinity. The need is clear, so I decided to write this article.

In the process I discovered a 15th-century altarpiece with a painting of the scene that, in my opinion as an art historian and religion scholar, has been misidentified all over the Internet. The painting is labeled as the mystical marriage of Francis with Lady Poverty, but a close examination shows that it illustrates the story of Francis and the female Trinity. He is not marrying Lady Poverty — he IS Lady Poverty!  Later the same female Trinity floats over the ecstatic Francis in the altar’s climactic central image.

Original 13th-century account: “Three women appeared”

The story of Francis’ encounter with the female Trinity is recorded in chapter LX of “The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul,” one volume in the Francis trilogy. It was written within two years of Francis’ death in 1226 by Thomas of Celano, a contemporary of Francis and his earliest biographer. Here is the text, as translated by Regis Armstrong:

Chapter LX: How three women appeared to him on the road, and how they disappeared after a novel greeting

I will tell in a few words something marvelous, doubtful in interpretation, most certain in truth. When Francis, the poor man of Christ, was traveling from Rieti to Siena for the treatment of his eyes, he passed through the plain near Rocca Campiglia, taking as a companion on the journey a doctor who was very devoted to the Order. Three poor women appeared by the road as Saint Francis was passing. They were so similar in stature, age, and face that you would think they were a three-part piece of matter, modeled by one form. As Saint Francis approached, they reverently bowed their heads, and hailed him with a new greeting, saying: “Welcome, Lady Poverty!” At once the saint was filled with unspeakable joy, for he had in himself nothing that he would so gladly have people hail as what these women had chosen. And since he thought at first that they really were poor women, he turned to the doctor who was accompanying him, and said: “I beg you, for God’s sake, give, something to these poor women.” The doctor immediately took out some coins, and leaping from his horse he gave some to each of them. They then went on for a short way, and suddenly the doctor and the brothers glanced back and saw no women at all on that whole plain. They were utterly amazed and counted the event as a marvel of the Lord, knowing these were not women who had flown away faster than birds.

Who are these three supernatural women?  Early Franciscan writer Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274) wrote in his Life of Saint Francis that this triple goddess symbolized the three virtues of charity, obedience and poverty. His interpretation has been widely accepted.

Kevin Elphick, a scholar specializing in queer Franciscan subjects, explains in a recent article how “the language describing the three women is inescapably Trinitarian in formula.” The description of them as “a three-part piece of matter, modeled by one form,” closely resembles Christian creeds that proclaim the Trinity as three distinct persons of one substance.

He points out how the appearance of the three women also echoes the story in Genesis of how Abraham and Sarah welcomed three mysterious visitors.  They are interpreted in Christian tradition as the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Elphick presents full evidence for the Trinitarian understanding in his article “Thee Poor Women Appeared” in the winter 2016 issue of “Franciscan Connections: A Spiritual Review.”

In addition, “Francis of Assisi: The Life” by Augustine Thompson (2013) flatly states, “Francis, who always sought the divine even in the humblest of places, identified the three as a manifestation of the Trinity, sent to support him in his trials.”

In case anyone doubts that the church would deliberately suppress imagery of a female Trinity, I can report from personal experience that this is still happening in our times. Church leaders pressured Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar and world-renowned iconographer, to withdraw permission to use his all-female “Celtic Trinity” icon (along with some other alternative and gay-positive icons). Now his female Trinity icon is pretty much purged from the Internet, but it remains on the cover of “Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth” by Matthew Fox.

15th-century art shows Francis and female Trinity

Take a close look at the 15th-century painting by Italian Renaissance artist Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, who is known as Sassetta.

Many usually reliable websites display this painting with titles such as “The Marriage of Saint Francis to Lady Poverty” or “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Francis.” Mystical, yes. But what makes them think this is a marriage? Especially a heterosexual marriage?

Marriage of Saint Francis with Lady Poverty by Sassetta

Saint Francis with Female Trinity by Sassetta… better known as “The Marriage of Saint Francis with Lady Poverty” by Sassetta. This panel is housed at Musée Condé in Chantilly, France. (Wikipedia)

If this was a wedding, why would all three women fly away to heaven afterward? And how did the identity of Lady Poverty switch from Francis himself to one of the women? The dominance of heterosexual marriage and gender conformity must have been too powerful to resist. However, the painting matches the original story much better than the marriage model.

I believe it should be titled “Three Women Appear to Saint Francis,” sticking with the language of the earliest text. If I wanted to be as bold as my predecessors in excluding alternate interpretations, I would call it “An All-Female Trinity Greets Saint Francis as Lady Poverty.”

Web Gallery of Art offers the standard interpretation:

“This panel, one of the eight smaller scenes accompanying the “Saint Francis in Ecstasy” on the back of the double-sided altarpiece, shows the saint stepping forward to place a ring on the finger of Poverty, who stands between Chastity and Obedience, as the three float off for celestial regions. Poverty glances back sweetly toward her bridegroom.”

The middle woman of the Trinity who glances back fondly at Francis could well be a female Christ figure or Christa. A close look reveals that Francis is offering the threesome a blessing, not a wedding ring.

Female Trinity by Sassetta

Middle woman in the female Trinity looks back at Francis in a detail from Sassetta’s alterpiece. (Wikipedia)

Top art historians from many nations wrestle with the implications in “Sassetta: The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece,” a major book edited by Machtelt Israëls and published in 2009 by Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. The book has been called “the most exhaustive study of a single altarpiece ever undertaken.”

The scholars describe searching in vain for traces of gilding or damage in the area where the wedding ring should be. They certainly are wedded to the belief that this is a wedding. A queer interpretation seems beyond their ability to imagine, so they express sincere befuddlement with lines such as:

“There is another extraordinary detail in the Chantilly picture… The ring is missing and its absence cannot be ascribed to subsequent damage… It is difficult to see how Francis’s and Lady Poverty’s hands could meet to exchange a ring. So what sort of marriage is this? To answer this question, we need to examine the poses and gestures of the central figures carefully…Sassetta depicted Saint Francis blessing Lady Poverty, rather than Christ blessing their union. The gesture of benediction is unmistakable… There are no known precedents for this iconography.” (pages 297-298)

Too bad they didn’t explore or even entertain the possibility that Francis was in the presence of an all-female Holy Trinity. Art historians tend to look for precedents only in other artworks, not in original text sources.  However they did use Sassetta’s other image of the female Trinity as their book cover.

Francis in Ecstasy by Sassetta

“Saint Francis in Ecstasy” by Sassetta (Wikipedia)

The same three women make an impressive appearance in the larger central image of the Sassetta altarpiece: “Saint Francis in Ecstasy” or “The Ecstasy of Saint Francis.” It is the crown jewel in the Italian art collection at Villa i Tatti near Florence, Italy.

Both unconventional panels come from the back of a huge double-sided altarpiece created for the church of the convent of San Francesco at Borgo San Sepolcro in 1437-1444. It has been called “the Rolls Royce of early Renaissance painting,” standing 20 feet high with multiple hinges and a gilded frame. Its 60 panels have been dismantled and distributed to 12 museums.

Saint Francis altarpiece by Sassetta

A reconstruction of the Saint Francis altarpiece by Sassetta shows how the paintings of the female Trinity were positioned (Wikipedia)

The two paintings of the female Trinity were located next to each other, so the trio seems to be flying from their first encounter with Francis toward the central climax of his ecstasy.

In the culminating scene, the Trinitarian identity of the three women seems to be reinforced by their glorious appearance and impressive golden halos. Francis extends his arms in rapture as the female Trinity hovers divinely above his head.

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Top image credit: Detail of Saint Francis with female Trinity by Sassetta… better known as “The Marriage of Saint Francis with Lady Poverty” (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 February 2019, was expanded with new material over time, and most recently updated on June 1, 2023.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

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