Saints Archives - Page 13 of 16

Holocaust Remembrance: We all wear the triangle

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, Jan 16-31, Saints

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27) honors the victims of the Nazi era, including the estimated 5,000 to 60,000 sent to concentration camps for homosexuality. The United Nations set the date as the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau,...

David Kato: Ugandan LGBTQ rights activist and martyr

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 16-31, Saints

David Kato, Ugandan LGBTQ rights activist, is considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement. He was beaten to death on Jan. 26, 2011 in a case that some blame on anti-gay religious rhetoric. The anniversary of his death has become an annual event called Kuchu...

Saint Sebastian: History’s first gay icon?

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 16-31, Saints, Top saints

Saint Sebastian has been called history’s first gay icon and the patron saint of homosexuality. Sebastian was an early Christian martyr killed in 288 in Rome on orders from the Roman emperor Diocletian. His feast day is Jan. 20. He is the subject of countless artworks...

Mary Oliver: Lesbian poet, mystic of nature

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 16-31, Saints

Lesbian poet Mary Oliver, winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, is a mystic of nature who became an LGBTQ saint by popular acclaim. She died on Jan. 17, 2019, at age 83. Her poetry expresses intimacy with nature and compassion for humanity, using...

Aelred of Rievaulx: Gay saint of friendship

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 1-15, Saints

Aelred of Rievaulx is considered one of the most lovable saints, the patron saint of friendship and also, some say, a gay saint. He found divine love through friendships with other men. Aelred (1109-1167) was the abbot of the large, influential Cistercian abbey of...

Jeanne Cordova: Lesbian nun who “kicked the habit” to become an activist

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 1-15, Saints

Jeanne Cordova was a pioneering lesbian feminist activist and ex-nun who shook the world by revealing lesbian life in the convent. She died on Jan. 10, 2016 at age 67. Cordova told her story as contributor to the groundbreaking 1985 book “Lesbian Nuns: Breaking...

Jeanne Manford: PFLAG founder who loved her gay son

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 1-15, Saints

Jeanne Manford loved her gay son so much that she founded PFLAG, the first and now the largest organization for LGBTQ people and their parents, families, and allies. She died on Jan. 8, 2013 at age 92. Her son, the late Morty Manford, was beaten during a gay rights...

Apollinaria / Dorotheos: Queer saint crossed gender line to become a monk in 5th-century Egypt

by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 1-15, Saints

Apollinaria of Egypt or Dorotheos has been called a transgender icon or a cross-dressing saint. Assigned female at birth, Apollinaria adopted the name Dorotheos and entered a monastery as a man in fifth-century Egypt. This saint is honored by churches on Jan. 4-5 and...

David and Jonathan: Same-sex love between men in the Bible

by Kittredge Cherry | | Dec. 16-31, June 16-30, Saints

Love between men is celebrated in the Bible with the story of David and Jonathan. “Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women,” David said in his famous a lament for Jonathan. David’s feast day is Dec. 29. Their relationship inspires LGBTQ people and...

Desmond Tutu: Anti-apartheid Archbishop who stood for LGBTQ equality

by Kittredge Cherry | | Oct 1-15, Saints

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning South African activist for racial and LGBTQ equality. He was born Oct. 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp, in the South African state of Transvaal. Tutu famously fought apartheid, but he also worked passionately to support...