At the University of East Anglia this week, I spoke to an attentive audience on “Queer Saints, Sinners and Martyrs in Church History”. I am now attempting to put the complete presentation on - line, in full audio-visual format, but that’s…
Queer Saints and Martyrs
LGBT (Church) History Month: The Early Christians
The cultural context of the early Christians was one of stark contrasts with more recent times. Then, it was Christians who were political and even social outcasts, more recently Christian values underpin much of the laws and customs of Western…
LGBT (Church) History Month: Queer Saints, before "Christianity"
Christianity did not enter the world independently of other religions, or uninfluenced by them. It began as a Jewish sect, and still shares with Judaism a major part of its scriptures and traditions. The Jews in turn were just one…
Queer Saints and Martyrs, February
Throughout Jewish and Christian history there have undoubtedly been numerous leading churchmen, including popes,cardinals, bishops, abbots and saints who have had sex with men, or protected those who did, or who commissioned frankly homoerotic artworks. Many others, who as priests…
Jan 20th: Not Dead Yet: St Sebastian as Role Model
Writing about St Joan of Arc, I observed that she carries a particular importance for us as gay men, lesbians and transsexuals in the church, as her martyrdom at the hands of church authorities can be seen as a powerful metaphor…
Three Queers of the East: Thought for the Epiphany
Earlier, I wrote that some Bible stories are so familiar, we do not stop to consider their significance. I could also add, that some others are so familiar, we do not stop to ask if they are accurate. A case…
Queer Saints and Martyrs for January
Throughout Jewish and Christian history there have undoubtedly been numerous leading churchmen, including popes,cardinals, bishops, abbots and saints who have had sex with men, or protected those who did, or who commissioned frankly homoerotic artworks. Many others, who as priests…
St Venantius Fortunatus, Italian Bishop and Homoerotic Poet
c.530-c.603 Venantius Fortunatus was a poet, born c. 530 in Treviso, near Ravenna in Italy. He spent his time as court poet to the Merovingians. After visiting the tomb of St. Martin of Tours at St. Hilary at Poitiers, he…
St John of the Cross: 14th December
John of the Cross was born in Fontiveros, in Spain, in about 1542. He spent some time as a Carmelite friar before, in 1568, Saint Teresa of Ávila persuaded him to pioneer the reform of the Carmelite order. This was a…
Nov 1st: Feast of all (Queer) Saints
An important part of Catholic tradition is a strong interest in S & M - and that’s not Sadism and Masochism (although some would say that to be a Catholic, and especially a gay Catholic, it helps to be a masochist),…
