Saints Archives - Page 5 of 16

Augustine of Hippo: Saint who rejected his bisexual past, defended intersex people

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

After a sexually active and probably bisexual youth, Augustine of Hippo became an influential early Christian theologian who was sex-negative but argued that God created intersex people. This contradictory queer saint’s feast day is Aug. 28 in western Christianity....

Ethiopian eunuch and Philip: Early church welcomed queers in Bible story

by Kittredge Cherry | | April 16-30, Aug 15-31, Oct 1-15, Saints

A queer black man was welcomed as an early Christian convert in Biblical times, according to progressive Bible scholars. He was a triple outsider — a gender-variant foreigner from a racial minority — and his story shows that the early Christians welcomed...

Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, one of the most famous Catholic icons, is the model for a Haitian Vodou goddess who protects lesbians. Traditional images of Erzulie Dantor, the Vodou defender of lesbians, are based on the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, whose feast...

Bayard Rustin: Gay saint of racial justice and non-violence

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Jan 1-15, March 16-31, Saints

Bayard Rustin was a black gay activist and the genius behind the civil rights movement. He became the chief organizer of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington where where Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream Speech.” A follower of the Quaker faith...

Bernard of Clairvaux and Malachy: Abbot and the archbishop he loved

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

Bernard of Clairvaux was a medieval French abbot who wrote homoerotic poetry about Jesus and had a passionate same-sex friendship with Irish archbishop Malachy of Armagh. Bernard is best known for founding 70 monasteries around Europe and for his mystical writings....

Robert Wood: First clergy to picket for LGBTQ rights, author of first book on Christianity and homosexuality

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

Robert Watson Wood was an ordained Congregational minister who started advocating for LGBTQ rights in the early 1960s. He died Aug. 19, 2018, at age 95. In 1960 Wood urged churches to welcome lesbian and gay people in America’s first book on homosexuality and...

Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 1-15, Saints

A mid-August holiday was once the festival of the lesbian goddess Diana (Artemis), but it has been adapted into a feast day for the Virgin Mary. Midsummer feasts have celebrated the divine feminine on Aug. 15 since before the time of Christ. Now devoted to Mary, the...

Joseph and the queer Biblical princess dress

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 1-15, Saints

Joseph, a popular figure in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, can be seen as a gender-nonconformist who inspires LGBTQ people today. Queer Bible scholars focus on how Joseph wore a robe that is usually known in English as a “coat of many colors,” but could be translated as...

Radclyffe Hall: Queer Christian themes mark banned book “Well of Loneliness”

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 1-15, Saints

A queer Christ figure is the main character in the classic lesbian novel, “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall. She was born on Aug. 12, 1880 in Bournemouth, England. The book was banned for obscenity in England in 1928, not just because it portrayed lesbian...

Blessed John of La Verna: Kissed by Jesus

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 1-15, Saints

Blessed John of La Verna is a medieval Italian friar known for his visions of kissing and being kissed by Jesus. His feast day is Aug. 9. John also had an intense relationship with fellow friar and poet Jacopone da Todi. Traditional writers have done “gender...