(This is the text I prepared for the talk after the gala dinner celebration of Quest’s 40th anniversary conference. It differs in some details from the text actually delivered)

I want to talk to you tonight about a subject that is very Catholic indeed – S & M.

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), but “Saints and Martyrs”, specifically queer saints and martyrs. I know that some people find the term “queer” offensive, but the primary meaning is just “strange”. Some of our queer saints and martyrs are very queer. or strange, indeed.

Many of you will know about Sergius and Bacchus, the best known of the gay saints: Roman soldiers, lovers and Christian martyrs. But are they saints? They are no longer listed in some major reference books on Catholic saints, and in others are listed, but with a note that their “cult” was suppressed in 1969. I’ve since come across claims that they were not in fact lovers, but just “good friends” – and even that modern scholars don’t believe they ever existed, in the first place.

This rather sums up any attempt to grapple fully with the story of gay saints in Christian history: I have no doubt at all that there really were and still are many gay, lesbian and trans saints, but it’s not always easy to classify saints by orientation, there are ambiguities in what constitutes sainthood, and some of the historical details are distinctly unreliable. (The best known “facts” about St Patrick are that he drove the snakes out of Ireland, and used the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity. At least one of those is definitely not true, the other is dubious).

In the same spirit, I can assure you that of the saints I’m about to discuss, at least some of the facts are true.

(read more at Quest Gay Catholic)