1600s Archives - Q Spirit

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Nun who loved a countess in 17th-century Mexico City

by Kittredge Cherry | | April 16-30, Nov. 1-15, Saints

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th-century Mexican nun whose critically acclaimed writings include lesbian love poetry. She is considered one of the greatest Latin American poets, an early advocate of women’s rights, and some say, North America’s first lesbian...

Thomas(ine) Hall: Intersex in colonial America

by Kittredge Cherry | | Nov. 1-15, Saints

Thomas(ine) Hall was an intersex person in 17th-century colonial America who caused controversy by switching back and forth between genders. The Jamestown court ruled that Hall was both “a man and a woman” and ordered him/her to wear male and female clothing...

Artemisia Gentileschi paints strong Biblical women

by Kittredge Cherry | | Artists, July 1-15, Saints

Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi inspires many with her paintings of strong Biblical women — created despite the discrimination and sexual violence that she faced as a woman in 17th-century Italy. She was born on July 8, 1593. Although Gentileschi was...

Madonna of Montevergine: Patron of LGBTQ people since medieval times

by Kittredge Cherry | | Feb 1-15, Saints

The Madonna of Montevergine has a reputation for helping queer people since medieval times — including the miraculous rescue of a male couple left to die in Italy more than 750 years ago. Processions to her shrine have been called “ancestral gay pride” marches...

Tibira do Maranhão: First indigenous gay martyr of Brazil

by Kittredge Cherry | | Dec 1-15, Saints

LGBTQ activists in Brazil launched a campaign for the sainthood of Tibira do Maranhão, the first gay martyr of Brazil. The indigenous man was baptized and then executed for sodomy by French missionaries on Dec. 8, 1614. Tibira is the first documented case of a person...

Richard Sibbes: Queer Puritan theologian for the LGBTQ community?

by Kittredge Cherry | | Nov 16-30, Saints

Richard Sibbes was a 17th-century English Puritan who never married, nurtured close male friendships, wore extravagantly lacy clothing and preached a rather queer theology. Puritans have a (somewhat undeserved) reputation for being distinctly puritanical, but Sibbes...

Walatta Petros: African nun and saint with a female partner in 17th-century

by Kittredge Cherry | | Nov 16-30, Saints

Walatta Petros is a 17th-century Ethiopian nun and saint who had an intense lifelong friendship with another nun and led a successful movement to drive out foreign missionaries. Her feast day is Nov. 23. Her biography, written by her disciples just 30 years after her...