by Kittredge Cherry | | 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...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Saint Wilgefortis prayed to avoid marriage to a pagan king — and her prayers were answered when she grew a beard! This “virgin martyr” virgin martyr has natural appeal for LGBTQ people. Her feast day is July 20. She was removed from the official Vatican calendar...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Artists, 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...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Alan Turing is a gay icon, pioneering computer scientist and British codebreaker. He is sometimes called a gay saint because his wartime codebreaking saved millions of lives, and a gay martyr because he was driven to suicide by court-ordered “chemical castration”...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Biblical arguments for LGBTQ rights and a queer Jesus may seem like new ideas, but they were pioneered about 200 years ago by an influential British philosopher — in writings that were published only in recent years. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748 –...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
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...
by Kittredge Cherry | | May 15-31, Saints
Joan of Arc was a tough cross-dressing teenage warrior who led the medieval French army to victory when at age 17. Joan is a queer icon, girl-power hero and patron saint of France. Her belief that God was the source of her — or their or his —...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Artists, Saints
Rosa Bonheur, the most famous female painter of the 19th century, was a queer cross-dresser who honored what she called the “androgyne Christ.” She had two consecutive long-term relationships with women. Her 200th birthday is March 16, 2022. She died on May 25, 1899....
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Julian of Norwich is a medieval English mystic who celebrated “Mother Jesus.” Her feast day, May 8, always falls near Mother’s Day. It’s not known if Julian herself was queer, but some of her ideas were. Julian is often listed with LGBTQ saints because of her...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Madre Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez was an abbess in 16th-century Spain who insisted that God changed her gender in the womb, transforming her from male to female. She dressed as a man to escape her family and join a community of religious women. Her feast day...