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Paul Halsall (c.)
August 1994
Version 2

 Calendar of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Saints

     This is a Calendar of  saints who were, or seem to have
been, gay, lesbian, transgendered or "queer" in some way.
     There are over 10,000 named saints, the vast majority
being early Christian martyrs and ascetics about whom little
if anything is known.  Popes only began canonizing in 988AD
and canonization in the Roman Catholic Church was only
reserved to Rome in 1170, although this was probably not
made effective until the Decretals of  Gregory IX in 1234.
The full canonization procedure only developed in the 17th
century, although it has recently been modernized. About 400
people have been canonized by the popes. Other churches, the
various Orthodox churches especially, also add saints. The
Anglican churches have no process of canonization, but do
add certain notable figures - such as Martin Luther (Feb. 18
in the New Zealand BCP) - to their liturgical calendars.
     Every saint has a feast day. Originally this was their
"dia natalis", the day they died as martyrs and hence were
reborn into the Lord.  Not every saint is on the General
Calendar of a particular church, or the general Roman
Calendar, but each can be commemorated privately or by
groups who wish to do so.
     Historically the most important role of saints has been
as intercessors. You pray to a saint for a miracle, or for
the saint to pray for you. As a matter of semantics it may
be noted that there is nothing about "praying through
saints" in Catholicism. You pray to them, "prayer" being a
general term for a certain sort of address to a second party
What you are not supposed to worship a saint as a god
[technically  called "latria"], but you may give a saint
"veneration"  [technically "dulia"]. This is just as much
prayer as worship. The Angelic Salutation for instance [the
"Hail Mary"] is a direct prayer to Mary. Protestants have on
the whole rejected the cult of saints, but it is a powerful
witness to the Catholic and Orthodox belief in the Church as
a community of love that transcends life and death, time and
space. In general the cult of saints became much more
restricted, even in Catholic countries, after the
Reformation, and religious practice became more
Christocentric, more Mariocentric, and more focused on
sacramental life. On a popular level, though, saints are
still invoked by millions on a regular basis, especially St.
Anthony as patron saint of lost things, and St. Jude as
patron saint of lost causes!  Saints are also important as
exemplars of Christian virtue. This has probably become more
important in recent years, hence Vatican searches for lay
people to canonize (most new saints are still founders of
religious orders, which spend much time and money on
promoting the causes of their founders).
     The saints here are from both the early Church - saints
who gained a reputation for transgendered behavior and some
same-sex paired martyrs - and, with better evidence of their
"queerness", later saints whose writings or actions show
some aspects of life that lesbian and gay people will
recognize. Although the Roman Church no longer commemorates
the saints of the Old Testament (Jewish Scriptures), I have
also included some figures, with their old feast day, who
play a role in lesbian and gay readings of the Bible.
     As a general point, and taking a pointer from modern
literary studies about the different ways different readers
read the same texts, there is for many Catholics an inbuilt
"queerness" to Catholicism: the distinct Christian teaching
that gender is irrelevant to salvation; religious women
going around with men's names; an extraordinary number of
men called "Mary" (St. John Vianney for instance)!;
religious clothes for men which, when it comes down to it,
are dresses; and a central service which involves the men
present taking communion to put another male's body in their
mouth (the situation with women communicants is different of
course. This is not to mention the proliferation of
homoerotic pictures of the Lord as naked on the cross, of
St. Sebastian, and the whole notion of transforming
suffering into holiness. All this is "queerness" to the
world, however far it seems from 1st-century Palestine, does
seem to accord well with Jesus' stance toward the world. The
downside is perhaps, that, like the queerness of male sports
in which men touch and hug and spend time naked together as
in no other aspect of society,  a defense mechanism among
some Church leaders leads to the intense homophobia of the
modern institutional Church.
     On the more particular point of methodology, I have
tried not to falsify history here. Where suggestions have
been made about saints, but I have not yet found any
evidence (e.g.  with St. Philip Neri)} I left the saint out.
Those here have some reason to be considered "queer". On the
other hand it should be noted that the self-identification
of "homosexual" would not have occurred to many of these
individuals. But history involves an excavation and reading
of what the past means  for us today. Thus, while we have
virtually no knowledge about St. Sebastian,  he has been the
subject of a homoerotic cult for so many centuries that it
would be absurd to omit him. Many of the saints listed were
"transgendered" in some way - and while this is certainly
not the same as "gay or lesbian" - there is some connection.
Modern lesbian and gay people transgress the most
fundamental modern definer of gender - who you desire to
have sex with.   I would be interested in specific points of
contention: in all cases I tried to give references and
reasons [I still have to work a bit on St. John the
Evangelist].
     If I had restricted the list to known lesbians, gays
and bisexuals, or those reasonably able to be fit into such
a category, many of the figures would still be on the list.
But I also included "transgendered" saints - those who were
eunuchs, cross-dressers, and so on- and did this because
such groups are part of the history of modern understandings
of lesbian/gay/bisexual people: it is true that for the most
part these days homosexuality is understood as a sexual
orientation, nevertheless the cultural conception of
queerness as a matter of dissonant gender identity maintains
some force. It is quite reasonable to include gender
dissonant saints and Old Testament figures. A particular
reason for doing so, which I took care to point out, is that
such gender-dissonance is specifically attacked in the
Levitical and Deuteronomic Law, just as modern LGB people
are attacked based on the Law, but later OT texts and
Christian tradition simply nullified the law in this matter
as understanding of God as a God who desires to save all
developed. I do not see how this can reasonably not be held
to inspire LGB people.
     The analogy that might be brought to mind is saints for
African Americans. We know nothing certain of St. Augustine
of Hippos's race, for instance, but it seems unlikely that
he would pass as "Caucasian" in modern America. We do know
St. Martin de Porres was Black (or "mulatto"), but it is not
clear that this was a major issue to him. With saints
though, the cult is dependent on the devotees, not the saint
- for instance St. Joseph of Cupertino might fins himself
amazed to now be the patron of airplane pilots.


Dates of Celebration taken from
NRC:            New Roman Calendar [from The Divine Office,
                London: Collins, 1974]
ORC:            Old Roman Calendar [from Omar Engelbert, The
                Lives of the Saints, London: 1951]
ECUSA:          Episcopal Church USA
                [from the US Book of Common Prayer]
COE:            Church of England
                [from the Alternative Service Book/1980]
ORTH            Orthodox Calendar
ARM             Armenian Calendar (ref. SSU)
ARAB            Arabic Calendar (Ref. SSU)
dia natalis     Date of birth, that is the day the person
                died and was reborn in Heaven

Other Abbreviations
CSTH            John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and
                Homosexuality, (Chicago: 1980)
OE              Omar Engelbert, The Lives of the Saints, (London:
                1951)
ORTH            translations from Dukakis, Megas Synaxaristes,
                        done in various volumes by Holy Apostles Convent,
                        Buena Vista, Colorado
SSU             John Boswell, Same Sex Unions in Premodern Europe,
                (New York: 1994)

January 5       ORTH            *St. Apollinaria/Dorotheos
January 9       ARM             SS. Polyeuctus and Nearchus, martyrs
January 12      ORC/ECUSA       St. Aelred of Rievaulx, abbot
January 20      NRC/ORC         St. Sebastian, martyr
February 11     ORC             *St. Euphrosyne/Smaragdus
                                (Sept 25 ORTH)
February 12     ORTH            *St. Mary/Marinos of Alexandria
March 7         ALL             *SS. Perpetua and *Felicity,
martyrs
March 10        ORC/ORTH        *St. Anastasia the Patrician
                                (or "of  Constantinople")
April 20        ORC             *St. Hildegonde of Neuss nr. Cologne
April 21        All West        St. Anselm of Canterbury, bishop & doctor

May 8           COE/ECUSA       *Julian of Norwich, mystic
May 20          ECUSA           Alcuin of Tours
May 30          ORC             *St. Joan of Arc

June 9          ORC             *St. Pelagia/Pelagios (Oct 8 ORTH)
June 22         NRC/ORC         St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop
June 29         NRC             St. Paul the Apostle (June 30 ORC)

July 17         ORTH            *St. Marina/os of Antioch
                                (July 20 ORC as St. Margaret)
July 20         ORTH            *St. Marina/Marinos of Sicily
July 21         ORC             Daniel the Prophet [0T]
                                (Dec 17/18 ORTH)

August 11       dia natalis     Cardinal John Henry Newman
August 28       All West        St. Augustine of Hippo, bishop & doctor

October 1st     ARAB            St. Bacchus, martyr
October 7       ORC             SS. Sergius and Bacchus, martyrs

September 11    ORTH            *St. Theodora/Theodoros of Alexandria
September 23    ORC             *St. Thekla of Iconium (Sept 24 ORTH)

October 9       ORTH            *St. Athanasia/Athanasios of Antioch
October 29      ORTH            *St. Anna/Euphemianos of Constantinople

November 1      All West        All Saints
November 9      ORTH            *St. Matrona/Babylas of Perge
November 14     ORTH            St. Justinian [emperor],

December 14     ORC             St. Venantius Fortunatus, bishop
December 14     NRC/COE         St. John of the Cross, priest
                                and doctor (Nov 24 ORC)
December 17     ORTH            The Three Young Men [OT] (also Dec 18)
December 20     ORTH            *Ruth and *Naomi
December 24     ORTH            *St. Eugenia/Eugenios of Alexandria
December 24     ORTH            SS. Protus and Hyacinth, martyrs
December 27     All West        St. John the Evangelist
December 29     ORC             David the Prophet  [OT]

Saints - feast days as yet undetermined
Nehemiah [OT],  St. Peter Ordinski, *St. Uncumber [or
Wilgefortis], Zozima and Basilisk


CALENDAR

January 9th ARM
St. Polyeuctus and St. Nearchus, martyrs

Two early martyrs who were paired together by early
Christians as a same-sex couple, and invoked as such in the
"adelphopoiia" ceremonies, recently discussed by historian
John Boswell as indicating a Christian tradition of
exclusive and publicly recognized same-sex unions. St.
Polyeuctus had a huge church, modeled after the Temple of
Solomon, built in his name in 6th century Constantinople.

Select bibliography

Boswell,  John, SSU, 141-44


January 12 ORC/ECUSA
St. Aelred of Rievaulx, abbot
c.1110- 1167

OE: He  is one of the most lovable saints. Of noble birth,
Aelred first lives at the court of David, Kind of Scotland.
There they thought him happy. He wrote: 'nevertheless the
wound in my heart caused me unspeakable torments and I could
not bear the intolerable burden of my sins". Breaking the
closest ties, he resolved to leave the world. "It was then,
O my God," he went on, "that I began to taste the comfort,
the joy, and the profound peace which is found after seeking
you and serving you".
     In 1135, at the age of twenty-six, Aelred entered the
Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx. Ten years later he became
abbot, which he remained until his death in 1167. This
monastery, where a great fervor and charity reigned, counted
more than three hundred monks. Aelred who only sought "to
love and to be loved", tasted pure happiness there whist
making others happy.
     Among the writings of St. Aelred there is one in which
the charms of spiritual friendship are extolled in an
incomparable manner.

How Aelred Made it to the American Book of Common Prayer
by Louie Crew, founder of Integrity, [email:
[e-mail]]

Aelred was not in ECUSA's calendar until a Roman Catholic
head of history at Yale, John Boswell, wrote about him
powerfully in his book Christianity, Social Tolerance and
Homosexuality  Boswell dwelt at length with the lesbigay
positive evidence.   That spurred Integrity member, the late
Howard Galley, one of the major architects of the 1976
Prayer Book, to initiate the actions which finally led to
Aelred's inclusion: using Aelred's own texts, Galley shaped
the readings which appear in THE LESSER FEASTS AND FASTS,
including this collect:

     Pour into our hearts, O God, the Holy Spirit's gift of
     love, that we, clasping each the other's hand, may
     share the joy of friendship, human and divine, and with
     your servant Aelred, draw many to your community of
     love; through Jesus Christ the Righteous, who livers
     and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
     one God, now and forever. AMEN

Select Bibliography

Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship, trans. Mary
     Eugenia Laker, (Kalamazoo MI: Cistercian Publications
     1977)

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 221-20

McGuire, Brian P, "Looking Back on Friendship: Medieval
     Experience and Modern Context", Cistercian Studies 21:2
     (1986), pp. 123-142

McGuire, Brian P, Brother and Lover: Aelred of Rievaulx,
     (New York: Crossroad, 1994)

Russell, Kenneth C., "Aelred, the Gay Abbot of Rievaulx",
     Studia Mystica 5:4 (Winter 1982), 51-64


January 20th NRC/ORC
St. Sebastian, martyr
d. 288

The martyrdom of St. Sebastian, about whom little is known,
has been a subject for countless artists to portray the male
body. St. Sebastian was killed by multiple arrow shots, an
image of suffering and redemption which provided the basis
for his cult.  Georges Eekhoud seems to have been the first
to make the connection between the art of St. Sebastien and
homoeroticism.

Office of Readings:
He suffered martyrdom in Rome at the beginning of the
persecution of Diocletian. His tomb in the place named Ad
Catacumbas on the Via Appia has been venerated by the
faithful from the earliest times.

Select Bibliography

Eekhoud, Georges, "Saint Sebastien dans la peinture",
     Akdemos 1 (Feb 15 1909), 171-75

Jarman, Derek, director, Sebastian, Film, UK, 1977

Le Targat, Francois, Saint-SebastiΘn dans l'histoire de
     l'art depuis le XVe siΘcle, (Paris: Paul Vermont, 1977)

Le Targat, Francois, Saint-SebastiΘn: Adonis et martyr,
     (Paris: Editions Persona, 1983)

Saslow, James M, "The Tenderest Lover: Saint Sebastian in
     Renaissance Painting: A proposed Iconology for North
     Italian Art, 1450-1550", Gai Saber 1:1 (Spring 1977),
     58-66, and response by Wayne Dynes, Gai Saber 1:2
     (Summer 1977), 150-51


March 7th NRC/ORC/COE/ECUSA
*St. Perpetua and *St. Felicity, martyrs
d. 203

Office of Readings:
Died in the persecution of Septimus Severus in the year 203
at Carthage. There is an impressive narrative of their
martyrdom in existence, partly written by the saints
themselves and partly by a contemporary writer.

CSTH: The popularity of the story of Saints Perpetua and
Felicitas...was largely dues to the appeal of love between
two women. Five Christians were martyred together at
Carthage on March 7, 203, suffering death at the hands of
wild animals and the sword, but only Perpetua and Felicitas
captured the fancy of the Christian community, apparently
because of the tale of the two women comforting each other
in jail, suffering martyrdom together as friends, and
bestowing upon each other the kiss of peace as they met
their end, charmed the tastes of the age.

Select Bibliography

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 135

Boswell, John , SSU 139-141

Castelli, Elizabeth, "`I Will Make Mary Male': Pieties of
     the Body and Gender: Transformation of Christian Women
     in Late Antiquity", in Julia Epstein and Kristina
     Straub, eds. , Body Guards: The Cultural politics of
     Gender Ambiguity, (New York: Routledge, 1991), 29-39

Dronke, Peter, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical
     Study of Texts from Perpetua ro Marguerite Porete, (New
     York: Cambridge UP, 1985)


Lefkowitz, Mary R. "Motivations for St Perpetua's martyrdom",
     Journal of the American Academy of Religion 44
     (1976) ,417-421

Miles, Margaret, Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and
     Religious Meaning in the Christian West, (Boston:
     Beacon Press, 1989; pb New York: Vintage, 1991), 53-77

Pettersen, Alvyn L., "Perpetua - prisoner of conscience",
     Vigilae Christianae 41:2 (1987), 139-53

Rossi, Mary Ann,  "The passion of Perpetua, everywoman of
     late antiquity",  in R. Smith and J. Lounibos, eds.,
     Pagan and Christian anxiety  (1984), 53-86

Scholer, David M.,  "æAnd I was a manÆ: the power and
     problem of Perpetua",  Daughters of Sarah 15 (September-
     October 1989), 10-14



April 21st NRC/ORC/COE/ECUSA
St. Anselm of Canterbury, bishop and doctor
1033?-1109

from Compton's Online Encyclopedia, (AOL, Downloaded
7/22/94)
ANSELM OF CANTERBURY (1033?-1109). In the late Middle Ages
the attempt to use philosophy to explain Christian faith was
called scholasticism. The founder of scholasticism was St.
Anselm, a man who combined the careers of philosopher,
theologian, monk, and archbishop.

Anselm was born at Aosta, Italy, in about 1033. In his youth
he resisted family pressure to enter politics and obtained a
classical education instead. In 1057 he entered the
Benedictine monastery at Bec, in northwestern France. In
1078 he became the abbot there. As Anselm's abilities and
great learning became known, Bec became one of the leading
schools of philosophy and theology.

While on inspection tours of monasteries in England, Anselm
had been befriended by King William I. In 1093 William I's
son and successor, William II Rufus, appointed Anselm
archbishop of Canterbury. His term of office was an unhappy
one, for he immediately became involved in one of the major
conflicts of the time--the investiture controversy. At issue
was whether a king had the right to invest a bishop with the
symbols of his office. On this issue Anselm resisted both
William II and his successor, Henry I. The matter was
finally resolved in Anselm's favor by the Westminster
Agreement of 1107. He lived only two more years, dying on
April 21, 1109.

Anselm is remembered principally as one of the great
theologians in the history of the Roman Catholic church. His
main works--the 'Monologium' (Monologue), the 'Proslogium'
(Addition), and the 'Cur Deus Homo?' (Why Did God Become
Man?)--were outstanding attempts to use reason to explain
belief. He was canonized a saint in 1163 and declared a
doctor of the church in 1720.

OE: He was canonized by Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and
proclaimed a doctor of the Church by Pope Clement XI in
1720.

Anselm as a Gay Saint?
Paul Halsall
I make no claims about Anselm's sexual practices, but I am
sure he was what we would now call gay. I

Anselm had emotional relationships with Lanfranc and then a
succession of his own pupils. He would address his letters
to his "beloved lover" [dilecto dilitori]. Here is a sample:

"Wherever you go my love follows you, and wherever I remain
my desire embraces you...How then could I forget you? He who
is imprisoned on my heart like a seal on wax- how could he
be removed from my memory? Without saying a word I know that
you love [amor] me, and without my saying a word, you know
that I love you. [Epistle 1.4; PL 158:1068-69]

Or again:

"Brother  Anselm to Dom Gilbert, brother, friend, beloved
lover... Sweet to me, sweetest friend, are the gifts of your
sweetness, but they cannot begin to console my desolate
heart for its want of your Love."
[Ep. 1.75, PL 158:1144-45].
refs. from John Boswell's CSTH.

It is worth mentioning also, that St. Anselm was one of the
first saints to address Jesus as mother, a practice and
spirituality later taken up by Julian of Norwich.


Select Bibliography

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 218-20

Bynum, Caroline Walker, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the
     Spirituality of the High Middle Ages, (Berkeley: 1982)

McGuire, B., "Love, Friendship and Sex in the 11th Century:
     The Experience of Anselm", Studia Theologia 28 (1974),
     pp. 111-155

McGuire, Brian P., "Monastic Friendship and Toleration in
     Twelfth Century Cistercian Life", in W. J. Shiels.,
     ed., Monks, Hermits and the Ascetic Tradition, Studies
     in Church History 22, (London: 1985)

Olsen, Glenn, "St. Anselm and Homosexuality", Anselm Studies
     (1988)
     Article by a conservative Roman Catholic scholar.


May 8th COE/ECUSA
Julian of Norwich
1342-  c. 1417

Mother Julian qualifies as transgendered for her name, if
nothing else. But that is not her main interest for lesbian
and gay people. Mother Julian was one of the foremost
English mystics of the middle ages. As a young women she had
a series of intense visions, or "showings" as she said,  of
Jesus. She then lived as an anchoress, a sort of local
hermit, for the rest of her life meditating and writing down
he meditations on these visions. There is a pretty poor
modern English version put out by Penguin, but the edition
in the Classics of Western Spirituality Series is well worth
the extra cost. Julian, although no feminist, experienced
God directly as "our mother", and experienced God as pure
love. She also saw Jesus as a loving mother, full of warm
and care for her children. Julian's immensely attractive
spirituality emphasize that God love's human beings, and
that in the end "all will be well, and all shall be well,
and all will be well". In her awareness of the motherhood of
God, in her emphasis on God's love and manifest intention
that "every kind of thing will be well", Julian's
spirituality has the called many who have encountered it
back to a joyful Faith. And a Faith that is not joyful
hardly seems worth the effort.

Chapter 60 (from Long Text of "Showings")
"The Mother can lay her child tenderly to her breast, but
our tender Mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed
breast through his sweet open side, and show us there a part
of the godhead and of the joys of heaven with inner
certainty of endless bliss. And that he revealed in the 10th
revelation, giving us the same under standing in these sweet
words which he says: See how I love you, looking into his
blessed side, rejoicing"

Chapter 31 (from Long Text of "Showings"), a passage Julian
referred back to repeatedly,
"And so our good Lord answered to all questions and doubts
which I could raise, saying most comfortably: I may make all
things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall
make all things well, and I will make all things well, and
you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well"

Chapter 11 (from Short text of "Showings")
"Thus I chose Jesus for my heaven, whom I saw only in pain
at that time. No other heaven was pleasing to me than Jesus,
who will be my bliss when I am there; and this has always
been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus as my heaven in all
times of suffering and of sorrow."

Select Bibliography

Julian of Norwich, Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge and
     James Walsh, (New York: Paulist Press, 1978)


May 20th  ECUSA
St. Alcuin of Tours
C. 735- 804

Alcuin was a leading figure in the Carolingian renaissance
of the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The poet, who was a
teacher also, knew his students by pet names such as
"Cuckoo". It is sometimes asserted that Alcuin's writings
reflect classical models, and were exercises rather than
representations of his own thought. What must be noted is
that there were many possible classical models to imitate -
it is why a writer chooses some and not others that is
interesting.

CSTH: A distinctly erotic element...is notable in the circle
of friends presided over by Alcuin at the court of
Charlemagne. This group included some of the most brilliant
scholars of the day (Theodule of Orleans, Anglibert,
Einhard, et al,), but the erotic element subsisted
principally between Alcuin and his pupils. Intimates of this
circle of masculine friendship were known to each other by
pet names, most of them derived from classical allusions,
many from Vergil's eclogues... A particularly famous poem is
addressed to a pupil whom Alcuin calls "Daphnis" and laments
the departure of another young student, "Dodo", who is
referred to in the poem as their "cuckoo"....The prominence
of love in Alcuin's writings, all of which are addressed to
other males, is striking...
     One expects hyperbole in poetry, but even in Alcuin's
prose correspondence there is an element which can scarcely
be called anything but passionate. He wrote to a friend (a
bishop...):-
     "I think of your love and friendship with such sweet
     memories, reverend bishop, that I long for that lovely
     time when I may be able to clutch the neck of your
     sweetness with the fingers of my desires. Alas, if only
     it were granted to me, as it was to Habakkuk [Dan.
     14:32-38], to be transported to you, how I would sink
     into your embraces,...how much would I cover, with
     tightly pressed lips, not only your eyes, ears and
     mouth, but also your every finger and toe, not once but
     many a time."

"Lament for a Cuckoo"

O cuckoo that sang to us and art fled,
  Where'er thou wanderest, on whatever shore
Thou lingerest now, all men bewail thee dead,
  They say our cuckoo will return no more.
Ah, let him come again, he must not die,
  Let him return with the returning spring,
And waken all the songs he used to sing.
  but will he come again? I know not, I.

I fear the dark see breaks above his head,
  Caught in the whirlpool, dead beneath the waves,
Sorrow for me, if that ill god of wine
  Hath drowned him deep where young things find their graves.
But if he lives yet, surely he will come,
  Back to the kindly nest, from fierce crows.
Cuckoo, what took you from the nesting place?
  But will he come again? That no man knows.

If you love sings, cuckoo, then come again,
  Come again, come again, quick, pray you come.
Cuckoo, delay not, hasten thee home again,
  Daphnis who loveth thee longs for his own.
Now spring is here again, wake from thy sleeping.
  Alcuin the old man thinks long for thee.
Through the green meadows go the oxen grazing;
  Only the cuckoo is not. Where is her?

Wail for the cuckoo, every where bewail him,
  Joyous he left us: shall he grieving come?
let him come grieving, if he will but come again,
  Yea, we shall weep with him, moan for his moan.
Unless a rock begat thee, thou wilt weep with us.
  How canst thou not, thyself remembering?
Shall not the father weep the son he lost him,
  Brother for brother still be sorrowing?

Once were we three, with but one heart among us.
  Scare are we two, now that the third is fled.
Fled is he, fled is he, but the grief remaineth;
  Bitter the weeping, for so dear a head.
Send a song after him, send a song of sorrow,
  Songs bring the cuckoo home, or so they tell
Yet be thou happy, wheresoe'er thou wanderest
  Sometimes remember us, Love, fare you well.

[trans. Helen Waddell, in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse]

Select Bibliography

Coote, Stephen, ed., The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse,
     (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983), 112-114

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 188-191


May 30th ORC
*St. Joan of Arc
c.1412-1431
and *La Rousse
and *Catharine de La Rochelle

Joan, who was executed at the age of 19, lived, as Marina
Warner notes, one of the most classically heroic lives of
any woman in history. She is the national heroine of France.
She also refused to wear women's clothes and had her hair
cut in the typical male "basin" style of the day. Even
during her trial she insisted on male attire, an insistence
which angered her prosecutors.

from Compton's Online Encyclopedia, (AOL, Downloaded
7/22/94)
JOAN OF ARC (1412?-31). One of the most romantic figures in
European war history was Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who
saved the kingdom of France from English domination. She has
also been called the Maid of Orleans and the Maid of France.
When she was only 17 years old, Joan inspired a French army
to break the English siege of the French city of Orleans and
to win other important victories.

Joan of Arc (in French Jeanne d'Arc) was born in the village
of Domremy, in the Meuse River valley, probably in 1412. She
was the daughter of a wealthy tenant farmer. From her mother
she learned how to spin, sew, and cook, and also to love and
serve God. She spent much of her time praying in church.

For almost 100 years France and much of Europe had been
fighting in what became known as the Hundred Years' War. The
English occupied much of northern France and the Duke of
Burgundy was their ally. Because the impoverished French
king, Charles VII, had not yet been crowned, he was still
called the Dauphin (See Charles, Kings of France). Reims,
where the coronation ceremonies for French kings had been
held for 1,000 years, was in enemy hands (See Reims). The
valley where Joan lived was constantly overrun by armies and
guerrilla bands.

Joan was only about 13 when she first saw a heavenly vision.
She later claimed that St. Michael had told her to be a good
girl, to obey her mother, and to go to church often. For
some time, however, she told no one of the visions. When St.
Catherine and St. Margaret commanded her to journey to the
Dauphin in order to inspire his armies to clear the way to
Reims for the coronation, she told her parents and others.
Her father refused to let her go.

Joan's visions continued to command her. Her friends, who
believed that she was truly inspired, secured boy's clothing
and a horse for her. Several rode with her on the long trip
to the Dauphin's court at Chinon. Perhaps as a test, the
Dauphin made one of his courtiers pretend to be the king.
Joan, however, went directly to the true king and greeted
him. The Dauphin and his councilors were not entirely
convinced of her mission, however. Months of doubt and
indecision followed while she was questioned.

Slowly an army was gathered. The Dauphin equipped Joan with
armor, attendants, and horses. A special banner was made for
Joan to carry into battle. On one side were the words "Jesus
Maria" and a figure of God, seated on clouds and holding a
glove. The other side had a figure of the Virgin and a
shield, with two angels supporting the arms of France.

When the army at last moved toward Orleans, Joan was not its
commander, but her presence inspired the soldiers with
confidence. At Orleans, after Joan disapproved of the plans
made for entering the besieged city, her own plan was
adopted. From the city she led a series of sallies that so
harassed and discouraged the English that they withdrew. In
one of the skirmishes Joan was wounded.

On May 8, 1429, the victory was celebrated by the first
festival of Orleans. The army entered Reims on July 16. The
next day the Dauphin was crowned king as Joan stood by with
her banner. (See also France, Hundred Years' War, Orleans.)

A decision was made to attack Paris, but the new monarch's
hesitation and indecision prevented Joan's soldiers from
concerted attack. Nevertheless, Compie`gne and other nearby
towns were taken. A French attack on a Paris salient was
driven back and Joan was again wounded. Charles VII
disbanded his army for the winter and retired southward.
Through the cold months Joan chafed at royal delay.

In the spring she returned to Compie`gne, now besieged by
forces of the Duke of Burgundy. On May 23, 1430, Joan, on a
sortie into the Burgundian lines, was separated from her
soldiers and captured.

Trial and Execution

As a prisoner at Beaurevoir, she attempted to escape, but
was injured in the leap from the donjon tower. Later she was
sold to the English, who vowed that she would be executed.
They removed her to Rouen, where she was held in chains.

Although the English wanted Joan's death, they desired her
to be sentenced by an ecclesiastical court. The Burgundian-
controlled University of Paris provided the charges of
heresy and witchcraft. It also provided some of the members
of the court. Other members came from areas under English
occupation. Chief of the court was the bishop of Beauvais.

Joan was handed over to this bishop on Jan. 3, 1431. The
sittings began on February 21 and continued intermittently
for months. Joan's appeal to be sent before the pope for
judgment was denied. On May 23 she was condemned to be
burned unless she recanted. She had been held for many
months in chains, threatened with torture, and harassed by
thousands of questions. In spite of all this, she had
maintained her shy innocence, often confounding her
oppressors with simple, unaffected answers to tricky
questions. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, she said,
still counseled her.

Faced with death in the flames, she recanted, but many
historians think she did not understand what was meant in
the statement of recantation. As a result of her submission,
her punishment was commuted from death to life imprisonment.
This leniency enraged the English, however, and it was not
long before she was accused of relapsing from her
submission. On May 30, 1431, when she was only 19 years old,
Joan was turned over to civil authority and burned to death
at the stake.

Charles VII had made no effort to save Joan. Some 25 years
later he did aid her family to appeal the case to the pope,
and in 1456 a papal court annulled the judgment of 1431. On
May 16, 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized a saint by the Roman
Catholic church.

Select Bibliography

Marina Warner, St. Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism,
     (London: 1981, pb. Penguin, 1985), esp. 149-59

Charles T. Wood, Joan of Arc and Richard II: Sex , Saints
     and Government in the Middle Ages, (Oxford: Oxford UP,
     1988)


June 22nd NRC/ORC
St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop
353-431
and Ausonius

Paulinus of Nola was an important figure in the Christian
Roman Empire. He was passionately in love with his fellow
Christian and writer, Ausonius. There is an element of
copying classical homosexual poetry in these verses, but
they clearly indicate a relationship distinct and more
erotic than "friendship". Later in life Paulinus distanced
himself from Ausonius, a victim perhaps of a narrowing view
of sexual ethics.

"To Ausonius"

I, through all chances that are given to mortals,
  And through all fates that be,
So long as this close prison shall contain me,
  Yea, though a world shall sunder me and thee,

Thee shall I hold, in every fibre woven,
  Not with dumb lips, nor with averted face
Shall I behold thee, in my mind embrace thee,
  Instant and present, thou, in every place.

Yea, when the prison of this flesh is broken,
  And from the earth I shall have gone my way,
Wheresoe'er in the wide universe I stay me,
  There shall I bear thee, as I do today.

Think not the end, that from my body frees me,
  Breaks and unshackles from my love to thee;
Triumphs the soul above its house in ruin,
  Deathless, begot of immortality.

Still must she keep her senses and affections,
  Hold them as dear as life itself to be,
Could she choose death, then might she choose forgetting:
  Living, remembering, to eternity.

[trans. Helen Waddell, in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse]

An Epigram by Ausonius [c. 310-390]

Epigram No 62
Glad youth had come they sixteenth year to crown,
To soft encircle they dear cheeks with down
And part the mingled beauties of thy face,
When death too quickly comes to snatch your grace.
But thou'll not herd with ghostly common fools,
Nor piteous, waft the Stygian pools;
Rather with blithe Adonis shalt thou rove
And play Ganymede to highest Jove.

[in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse]


Select Bibliography

Coote, Stephen, ed., The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse,
     (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983), 110-112

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 133-134

Waddell, Helen, Medieval Latin Lyrics, (New York: 1948), 289-
94


June 29th NRC (June 30th ORC)
St. Paul the Apostle
d.67

At first glance, the argument that St. Paul was homosexual
seems absurd, as it may be. After all was not he the one who
condemned gay people in Romans, and elsewhere? There is
considerable debate over those anti-gay "proof -texts", but
whatever the conclusions, there is much, as Anglican Bishop
of Newark John Spong has pointed out which leads one to
suspect Paul might have been "queer" in some way. The fact
he was never married, unusual for a Jew of his time, his
companionship with a series of younger men, especially St.
Timothy, his mention of an unnamed "thorn in the flesh".
and, possibly,  his disdain for some types of exploitative
homosexual relationship in his period, all raise questions,
questions which cannot be answered it must be admitted,
about his sexuality. It should also be added that despite
Paul's modern reputation for placing women lower than men,
he also penned revolutionary words about the absolute
equality of all believers in Christ, a complete destruction
of prevailing social codes and norms that has only
intermittently played out in full in Church history.

2 Cor 12:7-11
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I
should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said
unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses
for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. I
am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I
ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I
behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

Gal 3:26-28
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for
ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Select Bibliography

Spong, John S. Rescuing the Bible for Fundamentalists, (San
     Francisco: HarperSanFranciso, 1991)

Tarachow, Sidney, 'St. Paul and early Chirstianity: A
     Psychoanalytic and Historical Study", in W.
     Muensterberge, ed., Psychoanalysis and the Social
     Sciences, (New York: International Universities press,
     1955), vol 4: 223-81


July 21st ORC (December 17th/18th ORTH)
Daniel the Prophet [0T]
c.650BCE
[eunuch]

The prophet Daniel was understood by Byzantine commentators,
including St. John Chrysostom, to have been taken to serve
as a eunuch, the major defined sexual minority of the
ancient world, at the King of Babylon's court. Note the
emphasis on the physical beauty of the four young men. He
is, nevertheless, along with David one of the heroes of the
Jewish Scriptures. Kathryn Ringrose has written recently on
this matter, and Fr. Helminiak reports suggestions that
"eunuch" was just a general way of referring to
"homosexuals" in the period, although remains merely a
suggestion. More interesting has been discussion of the
"favor and tender love" Daniel enjoyed with the chief
eunuch. Nothing definite can be asserted, but Daniel is one
of the most interesting biblical figures for gay people.

Dan 1:1-20  In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king
of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem,
and besieged it.  And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah
into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God:
which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his
god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of
his god.  And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his
eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of
Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;
Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and
skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and
understanding science, and such as had ability in them to
stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the
learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.  And the king
appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of
the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years,
that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:  Unto whom the prince of the
eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of
Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael,
of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.  But Daniel
purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with
the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he
drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs
that he might not defile himself.  Now God had brought
Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the
eunuchs.  And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I
fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your
drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than
the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me
endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar,
whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,  Prove thy servants, I
beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat,
and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon
before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of
the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with
thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and
proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their
countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all
the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.
Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the
wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.  As for
these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in
all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all
visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king
had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the
eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.  And the king
communed with them; and among them all was found none like
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they
before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and
understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them
ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that
were in all his realm.

Select Bibliography

Helminiak, Daniel, What the Bible Really Says about
     Homosexuality, (San Francisco: Alamo Square Press,
     1994)

Ringrose, Kathryn, "Living in the Shadows: Eunuchs and
     Gender in Byzantium",  in Gilbert Herdt, ed., Third
     Sex, Third Gender, (New York: Zone, 1994), 85-110


August 11th dia natalis
Cardinal John Henry Newman
1801-90
[Cause in process in Rome]

John Henry Newman, the most prominent 19th century-convert
to Roman Catholicism, is best known for his writings,
especially his superb spiritual biography, Apologia Pr Vita
Sua. It is certain that Newman was sexually abstinent,
nevertheless he spent most of his life with his closest
friend, Fr. Ambrose St. John. Some reports [see Hillard ref.
below for rebuttal] state that he lay all night on Ambrose
St. John's death after Ambrose's death, and, certainly,
stipulated in his will that he wished to be buried in the
same grace as Fr. St. John at Rednal in the English
midlands.

from Compton's Online Encyclopedia, (AOL, Downloaded
7/22/94)
NEWMAN, John Henry (1801-90). One of England's 19th-century
religious leaders, John Henry Newman attempted to reform the
Church of England in the direction of early Catholicismthe
church as it had existed in its first five centuries.
Failing in this, he eventually joined the Roman Catholic
church and rose in its ranks to become a cardinal. Newman
was also an educator, a poet, and a master of English prose.
His "Idea of a University" and "Apologia pro Vita Sua" (a
defense of his life) are clear-cut, powerful essays on
education and religion.

Newman, the eldest of six children, was born on Feb. 21,
1801, in London, England. His father was a banker. At Ealing
Academy Newman mastered his lessons easily and spent much of
his time editing the school paper. He was 16 when he entered
Trinity College, Oxford. Newman won a fellowship to Oriel
College, Oxford, in 1822. In 1824 he was ordained a priest
in the Church of England.

Newman served as curate of an Oxford parish while a fellow
of Oriel College. He became a leader of the Oxford Movement,
which sought to bring about a renewal of catholic thought
and practice within the Anglican Communion.  His zeal for a
church with the power and grandeur of medieval times led him
to join the Roman Catholic church in 1845. He was convinced
that the Protestant element in the Church of England would
never accept his traditionalist views.

In 1847 Newman became a Roman Catholic priest in Rome. He
joined the Oratorian order and founded congregations near
Birmingham and London. Although at times his life was
difficult, as he continued to write and preach, his views
gradually won acceptance. He was made a cardinal in 1879.
Cardinal Newman died near Birmingham on Aug. 11, 1890.

Select Bibliography

Chadwick, Owen. Newman. Past masters. (Oxford; New York:
     Oxford University Press, 1983)

Faber, Geoffrey, The Oxford Apostles, (London: 1933)

Hillard, David, "UnEnglish and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism
     and Homosexuality", Victorian Studies 25 (Winter 1982),
     esp. 183-186

Woodward, Kenneth, Making Saints, (New York: Simon  &
     Schuster, 1990; pb. Touchstone, 1990), 355-73


August 28th NRC/ORC/COE/ECUSA
St. Augustine of Hippo, bishop and doctor
354-430

Augustine has often been held responsible for the aggressive
anti-sex stance of much of western Christian history,
chiefly because of his linking the transmission of original
sin with sexual activity. In fact, compared to some of the
anti-sex zealots of his time, he was rather moderate in
seeing at least some good in sex within marriage. At times
he spoke violently against "sodomy", but as the extracts
from his Confessions show, he was for a time completely in
love with another man, whose death threw him into turmoil.
In the passage below note that Orestes and Pylades were
famous homosexual lovers.

from Compton's Online Encyclopedia, (AOL, Downloaded
7/22/94)
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430). The bishop of Hippo in Roman
Africa for 35 years, St. Augustine lived during the decline
of Roman civilization on that continent. Considered the
greatest of the Fathers of the Church in the West, he helped
form Christian theology (See Fathers of the Church).

Augustine was born Aurelius Augustinus on Nov. 13, 354, at
Tagaste in the Roman province of Numidia (now Souk-Ahras in
Algeria). Although his mother, St. Monica, was a devout
Christian, he was not baptized in infancy. His father,
Patricius, a wealthy landowner, was a pagan.

In his 'Confessions' Augustine wrote seven chapters about an
incident in his early life--stealing pears from a neighbor's
tree. This sin troubled him for the rest of his life. He
also confessed to immoral behavior at the University of
Carthage, where he was sent at the age of 16.

Augustine remained in Carthage, teaching rhetoric, until he
was 29. Then he went to Rome, taking with him his mistress
and his son, Adeodatus. His religion at this time was
Manichaeism, which combined Christianity with Zoroastrian
elements.

By 386 Augustine was teaching in Milan, where his mother
joined him. He came under the influence of the city's great
bishop, St. Ambrose, who baptized Augustine and Adeodatus on
the following Easter.

From this time Augustine lived as an ascetic. He returned to
Africa and spent three years with friends on his family's
estate. He was ordained a priest and five years later, in
396, was consecrated a bishop. He spent the remainder of his
life in Hippo (now Annaba, Algeria) with his clergy,
encouraging the formation of religious communities.
Augustine, who was ill when the Vandals besieged Hippo, died
on Aug. 28, 430, before the town was taken.

Augustine's most widely read book is Confessions, a vivid
account of his early life and religious development. The
City of God was written after 410, when Rome fell to the
barbarians. The aim of this book was to restore confidence
in the Christian church, which Augustine said would take the
place of the earthly city of Rome. During the Middle Ages
the book gave strong support to the theory that the church
was above the state. Augustine's writings on communal life
form the 'Rule of St. Augustine', the basis of many
religious orders.


From Augustine, Confessions
[from electronic text archives at CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU]
Here describing his relationship with a man
Book 3: 1: For this cause my soul was sickly and full of
sores, it miserably cast itself forth, desiring to be
scraped by the touch of objects of sense. Yet if these had
not a soul, they would not be objects of love. To love then,
and to be beloved, was sweet to me; but more, when I
obtained to enjoy the person I loved, I defiled, therefore,
the spring of friendship with the filth of concupiscence,
and I beclouded its brightness with the hell of lustfulness;
and thus foul and unseemly, I would fan, through exceeding
vanity, be fine and courtly. I fell headlong then into the
love wherein I longed to be ensnared. My God, my Mercy, with
how much gall didst Thou out of  Thy great goodness
besprinkle for me that sweetness? For I was both beloved,
and secretly arrived at the bond of enjoying; and was with
joy fettered with sorrow-bringing bonds, that I might be
scourged with the iron burning rods of jealousy, and
suspicions, and fears, and angers, and quarrels.
Book 4: 6-8   In those years when I first began to teach
rhetoric in my native town, I had made one my friend, but
too dear to me, from a community of pursuits, of mine own
age, and, as myself, in the first opening flower of youth.
He had grown up as a child with me, and we had been both
school-fellows and play-fellows. But he was not yet my
friend as afterwards, nor even then, as true friendship is;
for true it cannot be, unless in such as Thou cementest
together, cleaving unto Thee, by that love which is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto
us. Yet was it but too sweet, ripened by the warmth of
kindred studies: for, from the true faith (which he as a
youth had not soundly and thoroughly imbibed), I had warped
him also to those superstitious and pernicious fables, for
which my mother bewailed me. With me he now erred in mind,
nor could my soul be without him. But behold Thou wert close
on the steps of Thy fugitives, at once God of vengeance, and
Fountain of mercies, turning us to Thyself by wonderful
means; Thou tookest that man out of this life, when he had
scarce filled up one whole year of my friendship, sweet to
me above all sweetness of that my life.
     Who can recount all Thy praises, which he hath felt in
his one self? What diddest Thou then, my God, and how
unsearchable is the abyss of Thy judgments? For long, sore
sick of a fever, he lay senseless in a death-sweat; and his
recovery being despaired of, he was baptized, unknowing;
myself meanwhile little regarding, and presuming that his
soul would retain rather what it had received of me, not
what was wrought on his unconscious body. But it proved far
otherwise: for he was refreshed, and restored. Forthwith, as
soon as I could speak with him (and I could, so soon as he
was able, for I never left him, and we hung but too much
upon each other), I essayed to jest with him, as though he
would jest with me at that baptism which he had received,
when utterly absent in mind and feeling, but had now
understood that he had received. But he so shrunk from me,
as from an enemy; and with a wonderful and sudden freedom
bade me, as I would continue his friend, forbear such
language to him. I, all astonished and amazed, suppressed
all my emotions till he should grow well, and his health
were strong enough for me to deal with him as I would. But
he was taken away from my frenzy, that with Thee he might be
preserved for my comfort; a few days after in my absence, he
was attacked again by the fever, and so departed.
     At this grief my heart was utterly darkened; and
whatever I beheld was death. My native country was a torment
to me, and my father's house a strange unhappiness; and
whatever I had shared with him, wanting him, became a
distracting torture. Mine eyes sought him every where, but
he was not granted them; and I hated all places, for that
they had not him; nor could they now tell me, "he is
coming," as when he was alive and absent. I became a great
riddle to myself, and I asked my soul, why she was so sad,
and why she disquieted me sorely: but she knew not what to
answer me. And if I said, Trust in God, she very rightly
obeyed me not; because that most dear friend, whom she had
lost, was, being man, both truer and better than that
phantasm she was bid to trust in. Only tears were sweet to
me, for they succeeded my friend, in the dearest of my
affections.
Book 4: 10 ...Wretched I was; and wretched is every soul
bound by the friendship of perishable things; he is torn
asunder when he loses them, and then he feels the
wretchedness which he had ere yet he lost them. So was it
then with me; I wept most bitterly, and found my repose in
bitterness. Thus was I wretched, and that wretched life I
held dearer than my friend. For though I would willingly
have changed it, yet was I more unwilling to part with it
than with him; yea, I know not whether I would have parted
with it even for him, as is related (if not feigned) of
Pylades and Orestes, that they would gladly have died for
each other or together, not to live together being to them
worse than death. But in me there had arisen some
unexplained feeling, too contrary to this, for at once I
loathed exceedingly to live and feared to die. I suppose,
the more I loved him, the more did I hate, and fear (as a
most cruel enemy) death, which had bereaved me of him: and I
imagined it would speedily make an end of all men, since it
had power over him. Thus was it with me, I remember. Behold
my heart, O my God, behold and see into me; for well I
remember it, O my Hope, who cleansest me from the impurity
of such affections, directing mine eyes towards Thee, and
plucking my feet out of the snare. For I wondered that
others, subject to death, did
live, since he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was
dead; and I wondered yet more that myself, who was to him a
second self, could live, he being dead. Well said one of his
friend, "Thou half
of my soul"; for I felt that my soul and his soul were "one
soul in two bodies": and therefore was my life a horror to
me, because I would not live halved. And therefore perchance
I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved should die
wholly.

Select Bibliography

Boswell,  John, CSTH, 135

Brown, Peter R. L., Augustine of Hippo: A Biography,
     (London: Faber; Berkeley: University of California
     Press, 1967)


November 1st
All Saints Day

The Church has never claimed to have recognized all the
saints, and this ancient day had long been designated for
All Saints. As lesbian, gay and bisexual people have
realized in recent years, the AIDS epidemic has brought
forth tremendous witnesses of courage and faith in the Lord
and his promises. We have seen People with AIDS light up the
world with their presence, before they departed for the
light. The names here are a few of those who have illumined
the Dignity Community in New York, but there are many
others. I have given a special mention to Timothy McGinty,
but he is representative rather than unique.

Prayer for People Who Have Died of HIV Disease
(Used at Dignity/NY Liturgies)

All powerful . ever-living God
  you never refuse mercy
  to those who call upon you in faith
Be merciful to your servants -
  our friends, brothers and sisters
  who endured the pain and suffering of HIV disease
  and left this life expecting and believing
  in your power to save.
You redeemed them from sin and death
  in the water of baptism.
In their illness they served you faithfully
  by imitating the patience of their Savior, Jesus
As they shared in his passion and death,
  may they now share in his resurrection
  and enter your reign of eternal light and life
  there to be counted among your saints forever.
May their favor with you bring new hope to us,
  the living,
  that we may draw strength from their lives
  and become for others
  instruments of your peace and consolation.
This we ask in the name of Jesus.
Amen.

Dios todo poderoso y eterno
  nunca niegas tu favor
  a quien te lo pide con fe'.
Se' misericordioso con tus siervos -
  nuestros amigos y amigas, hermanos y hermanas
  que soportaron el dolor y el sufrimiento del SIDA
  y dejaron esta vida esperando y creyando
  en tu poder de salvacio'n
Les redimiste del pecado y de la muerte
  por le agua del bautismo.
En su enfermedad te sirvieron fielmente
  al imitar la paciencia de su Salvador, Jesucristo.
Como participaron en su pasio'n y muerte,
  que puedan ahora participar tambie'n en su resureccio'n
  y entrar en tu reino de luz y vida eterna
  y contarse entre tus santas y santos para siempre.
Que el favor tuyo, de que disfrutan, nos traiga une
  nueva esperanza a los vivos,
  que podamos extraer fuerza y significado de sus vidas,
  y llegar a ser para otros
  instrumentos de tu paz y consuelo
Te lo pedimos en el nombre de to hijo, Jesucristo.
Ame'n

Timothy McGinty, dia natalis July 1992
Tim was the "golden boy". Raised in Ft. Lauderdale, he was
successful at high school. college and law school. After
beginning work he became ill, and supported by his friends,
his parents, his lover and his colleagues embarked on a
spiritual journey to Christ which he took care to make known
to others who might need to know of it. Having everything
material, he lost everything material, including at the end
his eyesight. But through it all he lived life as a gift, a
true living that inspired all. At his wake, people who came
for ten minutes stayed hours. At his funeral, Kaddish, a
prayer of life, was said by his lover, and the homilist
called attention to the meaning Tim had given us. Referring
to an incident during the 1992 Olympic Games when a runner
had fallen, gotten up, and fallen again, then to be raised
and carried across the line by his father, she told us what
Tim, dead at 31,  had taught us; that what is important in
finishing the race is not who wins, or how long it lasts,
but who holds and supports you to the end.

2 Tim 4:5-8
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For
I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Peter Seifert, dia natalis,
Fr. Declan Daly, dia natalis,
Alberto Arevelo, dia natalis, January 27 1989
Allan Royale, dia natalis,
Peter Hamory, dia natalis,
Gus Alexiou, dia natalis,
Lou Sacco, dia natalis,  April 24 1990
Craig Huston, dia natalis,
Steven Smurr, dia natalis,
George Moran, dia natalis, Fall 1992
Michael Olivieri, dia natalis, June 1993
John Taktikos (Axios), dia natalis, October 1993
James Serafini, dia natalis, May 1994


October 7th ORC  (October 1st for Bacchus in Arabic
Calendar)
St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, martyrs
d. circa. 297

Saints Sergius and Bacchus were two Roman soldiers and
lovers. As John Boswell has shown recently they were invoked
repeatedly in the middle ages in the blessing of ceremonies
of union for couples of the same sex. They were arrested and
humiliated for being Christians. Bacchus was killed first,
and then a few days later, Sergius. Their joint "passion"
calls them "erastoi" - that is "erotic lovers", and after he
died,  Bacchus offers himself to Sergius as the prize for
Sergius' martyrdom..The female clothes they were forced to
wear may have been an early example of gay baiting. (One
thing that cannot be found among the saints is a male saint
who voluntarily adopted women's clothers). Their cult was
one of the most intense in the eastern Mediterranean, with a
huge pilgrimage site at Sergiopolis. The passage following,
translated from the earliest passion by John Boswell,
recounts Sergius' laments after Bacchus' death, and Bacchus
appearance to him, promising himself as the prize of
martyrdom.

from The Passion of St. Sergius and Bacchus
Meanwhile the blessed Serge, deeply distressed and heartsick
over the loss of Bacchus, wept and cried out, "No longer,
brother and fellow soldier, will we chant together, 'Behold,
how good an pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity!'  You have been unyoked from me and gone up to
heaven, leaving me alone on earth, bereft, without comfort."
After he uttered these things, the same night the blessed
Bacchus suddenly appeared to him with a face as radiant as
an angel's, wearing an officer's uniform, and spoke to him.
"Why do you grieve and mourn, brother? If I have been taken
up from you in body, I am still with you in the bond of
union, chanting and reciting, "I will run the way of thy
commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart.' Hurry up
then, yourself, brother, through beautiful and perfect
confession to pursue and obtain me, when finishing the
course. For the crown of justice for me is with you."

SERGIUS AND BACCHUS
updated August 1, 1994
by Richard Oliver
[email: [e-mail]]

In August 1993 when rumors about medieval same-sex
"marriage" ceremonies  began appearing on the Internet, out
of curiosity I did a brief investigation  on the martyrs,
Sergius and Bacchus, who were mentioned as an inspiration
for  the "rite" and posted my results.  During the pre-
publication discussion of  John Boswell's Same Sex Unions in
Pre-Modern Europe I re-posted on 5 April  1994 what I had
found out about the martyrs:

 Some information and sources for further investigation
concerning the  martyred/married(?) pair, Sergius and
Bacchus.  Feastday, formerly 7  October; "cults suppressed
in 1969" (The Book of Saints, 505).

Sergius and Bacchus, MM.
They were Roman soldiers, officers in the household of
Emperor Maximian.  Sergius is said to have been
'primicerius gymnasii trionum' at Trieste, and Bacchus a
subaltern officer.  For refusing to sacrifice to the gods,
they were ignominiously dressed in women's clothing and
conducted through the  streets of Arabissus (near Comana in
Cappadocia).  Then they were scourged until Bacchus died, 1
Oct. 290.  Sergius was brought to  Resapha (Augusta
Eupratasiae) in Syria, where, after various tortures, he was
decapitated, 7 Oct. 290.

 "The tomb of S. Sergius at Resapha was a famous shrine.  In
431, Bishop Alexander of Hierapolis built a magnificent
church in his honor.  In 434, the town of Resapha was raised
to the rank of an episcopal see and was named Sergiopolis.
Emperor Justinian I enlarged and fortified it.  Sergius was
venerated as patron of Syria. Parts of his relics were
transferred to Venice, where these saints were patrons of
the ancient cathedral.

In the seventh century a church was dedicated to them in
Rome.  F. 7  Oct"
Holweck, R.G., A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints (St.
Louis; London: Herder, 1924), 901

 Variations/expansions on the above life:

 "...absenting themselves when Emperor Maximian was
sacrificing to  Jupiter...."  "Sergiopolis became one of the
greatest pilgrimage centres of  the East.  Many churches
bore the name of Sergius (sometimes with Bacchus),  and his
cultus was extraordinarily widespread and popular; the
nomads of  the desert looked on him as their special patron
saint" (Attwater, 305-6).

 "These martyrs were said to be officers of the Roman army
on the Syrian  frontier, Sergius being described as
commandant of the recruits' school and  Bacchus as his
subaltern.  ...  On their refusal they were stripped of
their arms and badges of rank, dressed up in women's
clothes, and so  paraded through the streets.  ... St.
Bacchus died under the lash.  His  body was thrown out on to
the highway, were vultures protected it from the  attacks of
dogs, an incident recorded of several other martyrs.  St.
Sergius was made to walk a long distance in shoes with nails
thrust through  into his feet, and was beheaded.  ...the
particulars of their passion are  far from trustworthy.  ...
Sergius and Bacchus became the heavenly  protectors of the
Byzantine army, with the two Theodores, Demetrius,
Procopius and George. ... Their "acts" are preserved in
Latin, Greek and  Syriac" (Thurston, ed., Butler's Lives of
the Saints, "Oct. 7").


Select Bibliography (rev. 8/1/94)

Sources
Acta sanctorum / collecta, digesta commentariisque et
     observationibus  illustrata a [socios Bollandianos,
     societatis Iesu].  Bruxelles : A.  Greuse : Socios
     Bollandianos, 1845-,  III:833-883.

"Passio Antiquior SS. Sergii et Bacchi graece nunc primum
     edita," Analecta  Bollandiana, 14 (1895), 373-395.  Tr.
     by J. Boswell in his SSU, 375-90.

 Symeon Metaphrastes, St.  "Martyrium SS. Martyrum Sergii et
     Bacchi," Patrologia  Graeca (Paris, 1899) 115:1005-
     1032.

Synaxarium Alexandrinum.  2 v. in 6. edidit [et
     interpretatus est] I. Forget.  Louvain : Secretariat du
     CorpusSCO, L Durbecq 1953-1963.(Corpus scriptorum
     Christianorum orientalium. v. 47-49, 67, 78, 90.
     Scriptores Arabici; Series 3; t. 18-19). I:55, 61, 62,
     133; II:214

Works

Attwater, Donald.  The Avenel Dictionary of Saints.  New
     York : Avenel Books : distributed by Crown Publishers,
     [1981] c1965.

Boswell, John, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, (New
     York: Villard, 1994), 153-66 [added by Halsall]

Delehaye, Hippolyte, S.J.  Les origines du culte des
     martyrs.  2. ed., rev.         Bruxelles : Societe des
     bollandistes, 1933, 92, 163, 186, 188-89, 206,  209-
     211, 213, 240, 299, 325, 357, 413.

 --------.  Melanges d'Hagiographie grecque et latine.
     Paris : Societe des  Bollandistes, 1966, 238.

 --------.  The Legends of the Saints.  Tr. Donald Attwater.
     New York :  Fordham, 1962, 22.

 Grabar, Andre.  Martyrium : recherches sur le culte des
     reliques et l'art chretien antique.  3 v.  Paris :
     College de France, 1946, II:26 et pl.  xxx:1 et lx:1.

 Guerin, Paul.  Les petits Bollandistes: vies des saints,
     etc.  7eme ed., rev.,  corrigee et considerablement
     augmentee.  17 v.  Paris : Bloud et Barral,   1888,
     12:150-151.

Histoire des saints et de la saintete chretienne.  11 v.
     Paris : Hachette,  1986-88, II:238 (illus.), IV:50,
     V:94.

Lucius, Ernst.  Die Anfaenge des Heiligenkultus in der
     Christlichen Kirche. Herausg. G. Anrich.  Tuebingen,
     1908, 223.

Piolin, Paul.  Supplement aux vies des saints et
     specialement aux Petits bollandistes d'apres les
     documents hagiographiques les plus authentiques et les
     plus recents.  3 v.  Paris : Bloud et Barral  [1885-
     86]. 3:222

Stadler, J. E.  Vollstaendiges Heiligen-Lexikon : oder,
     Lebens-geschichten aller heiligen, seligen &c.&c.;
     hrsg. von Joh.Evang. Stadler, und Franz Joseph Heim in
     Augsburg. 5 v. Augsburg : B. Schmid, 1858-.

The Book of Saints : a dictionary of servants of God
     canonized by the Catholic Church /  comp. by the
     Benedictine Monks at St. Augustine's Abbey Ramsgate.
     6th ed., rev. and re-set. London : Black, 1989.

The Catholic Encyclopedia.  15 v.  New York : Encyclopedia,
     1907-1914, 13:727,  728.

Thurston, Herbert J, S.J., and Donald Attwater.  Butler's
     Lives of the Saints.  4 v.  Westminster : Christian
     Classics, 1988.

Vie des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du
     calendrier : avec  l'historique des fetes / par les rr.
     pp. benedictins Baudot et Chaussin.  13 v.  Paris :
     Librairie Letouzey et Ane, 1935-1959, X:191-197.

 Waddington, William H.  Inscriptions grecques et latines de
     la Syrie :  recueilles et expliquees.  Roma : "L'Erma"
     di Bretschneider, 1968, n.  2124.  [Photographic
     reprint of vol. 3 of Inscriptions recueilles en  Grece
     et en Asie Mineure par Philippe Le Bas, Paris, 1870.]


December 14th ORC
St. Venantius Fortunatus, bishop
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 decided to enter a
monastery. He continued to write poetry, some of which have
a permanent place in Catholic hymnody, for instance the
Easter season hymns Vexilla Regis and  the Pange Lingua
(Sing, O my tongue, of the battle). Three of four years
before he died he was made bishop of Poitiers. As this poem
shows, he is also a spiritual ancestor of same-sex lovers.

"Written on an Island off the Breton Coast"

You at God's altar stand, His minister
  And Paris lies about you and the Seine:
Around this Breton isle the Ocean swells,
  Deep water and one love between us twain.

Wild is the wind, but still thy name is spoken;
  Rough is the sea: it sweeps not o'er they face.
Still runs my lover for shelter to its dwelling,
  Hither, O heart, to thine abiding place.

Swift as the waves beneath an east wind breaking
  Dark as beneath a winter sky the sea,
So to my heart crowd memories awaking,
  So dark, O love, my spirit without thee

[trans. Helen Waddell, in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse]

Select Bibliography

Coote, Stephen, ed., The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse,
     (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983), 112


December 14th NRC/COE (November 24th ORC)
St. John of the Cross, priest and doctor
1542-1591

St. John of Cross was one of the great Spanish mystics,
whose outstanding Dark Night of the Soul is still read by
all interested in Catholic mysticism. He also wrote a series
of intense religious canticles. St. John, like other mystics
such as St. Theresa of Avila, used the language of courtly
love to describe his relationship with Christ. He also
discussed, with rare candor, the sexual stimulation of
prayer, the fact that mystics experience sexual arousal
during prayer. With the male Christ of course, this amounts
to a homoeroticism  of prayer. It must be said that St. John
was not entirely happy with this aspect of prayer. He was
beatified by Clement X in 1675, canonized by Benedict XIII
in 1726, and declared a Doctor of Church Universal by Pius
XI in 1926

Office of Readings:
Born at Fontiveros in Old Castile in Spain about the year
1542. He was a Carmelite Friar and about the year 1568 he
was persuaded by St. Theresa of Avila to be the first to go
to undertake the reform of his order, which cost him much
hard work and many trials. He died at Ubeda in Andalusia in
1591. he was outstanding in holiness and knowledge as his
many spiritual writings testify.

from The Dark Night of the Soul, I.4.1-2
I.4.1...For it often comes to pass that in their very
spiritual exercises, when they are powerless to prevent it,
there arise and assert themselves in the sensual part of the
soul impure acts and motions, and sometimes this happens
even when the spirit is deep in prayer, or engaged in the
sacrament of penance or in the Eucharist. These things are
not, as I say, in their power; they process from one of
three causes.
I.4.2 The first cause from which they often proceed is the
pleasure which human nature takes in spiritual things. For
when the spirit  and the sense are pleased, every part of  a
man is moved by that pleasure to delight according to its
proportion and nature. For then the spirit, which is the
higher part is moved to pleasure and delight in God; and the
sensual nature, which is the lower part, is moved to
pleasure and delight of senses, because it cannot possess
and lay hold upon aught else, and it therefore lays hold
upon that which comes nearest to itself, which is the impure
and sensual. Thus it comes to pass that the soul is deep in
prayer with God according to the spirit, and on the other
hand, according to the sense it is passively conscious, not
without great displeasure of rebellions and motions and acts
of the senses, which often happens in Communion, for when
the soul receives joy and comfort in this act of love,
because this Lord bestows it (since it is to this end that
he gave himself), the sensual nature takes that which is its
own likewise, as we have said, after this manner. Now as,
after all, these two parts are combined in one individual,
they ordinarily both participate in that which one of them
receives, each after its own manner....Now when this sensual
part is renewed by purgation of the dark night which we
shall describe, it no longer has these weaknesses; for it is
no longer this part which receives aught, but rather it is
itself received into the Spirit. And thus it then has
everything after the manner of the Spirit.
[St. John goes on to say that such arousal can be caused by
the devil or even the fear that people have of such erotic
feelings. In I.4.7 he discusses, apparently with some
knowledge, friendships which spiritual people make with
others and how these can be discerned as coming from God or
from "luxury"]

Select bibliography

St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E.
     Allison Peers, 3rd ed. (Garden City NY:
     Image/Doubleday, 1959)

Rougement, Denis de, Love in the Western World, trans.
     Montgomery Belgion, rev. ed. (New York: Pantheon, 1956;
     pb New York: Harper, 1956), 159-64


December 17th/18th ORTH (with Daniel)
The Three Young Men [OT]
c. 650BCE
[eunuchs]

Byzantine commentators were quite aware, as Kathryn Ringrose
has recently shown,  that Daniel and the three young men
would have been take to Babylon as court eunuchs. Eunuchs
are by far the most discussed sexual minorities in both the
Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament. It is interesting
to note that while eunuchs were excluded from the community
of Israel by Deuteronomy,  Third Isaiah and Wisdom both
specifically include them in God's blessing. The Bible talks
to itself! Isaiah rejects then provision of the law which
reject the eunuch. He expands the definition of God's people
beyond the patriarchal family that characterized the early
history of Israel.  The following passages affirms that the
lord offers salvation to all, not just those in conventional
heterosexual family life.


Isaiah 56:1-8
Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for
my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be
revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of
man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from
polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined
himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly
separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say,
Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the
eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that
please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will
I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name
better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons
of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve
him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants,
every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and
taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my
holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer:
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted
upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of
prayer for all people. The Lord GOD which gathereth the
outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him,
beside those that are gathered unto him.

Wisdom 3:13-14
Blessed the barren women...Her fruitfulness will be seen at
the scrutiny of souls. Blessed too the eunuch...For his
loyalty special favour will be granted him, a most desirable
portion in the temple of the Lord.

Select Bibliography

Helminiak, Daniel, What the Bible Really Says about
     Homosexuality, (San Francisco: Alamo Square Press,
     1994)

Ringrose, Kathryn, "Living in the Shadows: Eunuchs and
     Gender in Byzantium",  in Gilbert Herdt, ed., Third
     Sex, Third Gender, (New York: Zone, 1994), 85-110

Swidler,  Leonard, Biblical Affirmations of Women,
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979), 121-123


December 20th ORTH
*Ruth and *Naomi [OT]
 c1100BCE

Ruth was great-grandmother of King David, and hence a direct
ancestor of Jesus. Although Deuteronomy 23:3 specifically
states that no Moabite is to be admitted to the assembly of
the Lord (a position vigorously pursued later by such
nationalists as Ezra and Nehemiah [Ezra:1,2,12; 103,18,44,
Neh 13:23, 25, 27-28, 30]), Ruth was a Moabite women. This
is a book of the inclusivity of God's call, and another
Biblical illustration of the limits of the Law.. The focus
of the story is on her loving relationship with Naomi. At
Naomi's suggestion, Ruth marries a kinsman of Naomi, called
Boaz, but this is the perpetuate her dead husband Mahlon's
line (see Ruth 4:12-14, 17). Is this a story about
Lesbianism, which was not forbidden at all in the Law?
Whatever the answer, it is a story of love and loyalty
between two women.

Ruth 1:16-18  And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee: for whither thou
goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God:  Where thou
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do
so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and
me.  When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with
her, then she left speaking unto her.

Select Bibliography

Boswell, John, SSU 1336

Swidler,  Leonard, Biblical Affirmations of Women,
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979), 118-123


December 24 ORTH
St. Protus and St. Hyacinth, martyrs
eunuchs

Companions of St. Eugenia of Alexandria, these were two of
her teachers who accompanied her on a somewhat romantic
journey, and at the end were martyred with her.

Select Bibliography

Dukakis, Megas Synaxaristes, translated in various volumes
     by Holy Apostles Convent, (Buena Vista, Colorado,
     various dates ), sub. Eugenia

Szarmach, Paul E., "Aelfric's Women Saints: Eugenia", in
     Helen Damico and Alexandria Hennessey Olsen, eds., New
     Readings on Women in Old English Literature,
     (Bloomington IN: Indiana UP,  1990), 146-157


December 27th  NRC/ORC/COE/ECUSA
St. John the Evangelist
1st Century CE

The Beloved Disciple.

Select Bibliography

Boswell,  John, SSU, 138-39


December 29th ORC
David the Prophet  [OT]
     and Jonathan
1035?-960?BCE

The Love Story and Covenant Between David and Jonathan

1 Sam 17:57-18:9
And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of
the Philistine in his hand.  And Saul said to him, Whose son
art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son
of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. And it came to pass,
when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul
of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan
loved him as his own soul.  And Saul took him that day, and
would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then
Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as
his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even
to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. And David
went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself
wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was
accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the
sight of Saul's servants.  And it came to pass as they came,
when David was returned from the slaughter of the
Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel,
singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with
joy, and with instruments of music.  And the women answered
one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his
thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very
wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have
ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have
ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the
kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
[Saul's daughter also falls in love with David in chapter
18]

I Sam 19: 1-6
1 Sam 19:1  And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all
his servants, that they should kill David.  But Jonathan
Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David,
saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore,
I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and
abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:  And I will go
out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art,
and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see,
that I will tell thee.  And Jonathan spake good of David
unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king
sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not
sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-
ward very good:  For he did put his life in his hand, and
slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation
for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore
then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David
without a cause?  And Saul hearkened unto the voice of
Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not
be slain. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him
all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he
was in his presence, as in times past.

I Sam 20:1-42
And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said
before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity?
and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my
life?  And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die:
behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but
that he will show it me: and why should my father hide this
thing from me? it is not so.  And David sware moreover, and
said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace
in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this,
lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy
soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. Then
said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I
will even do it for thee. And David said unto Jonathan,
Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to
sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide
myself in the field unto the third day at even.  If thy
father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave
of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is
a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. If he say thus,
It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very
wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him.
Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou
hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with
thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me
thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father? And
Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly
that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee,
then would not I tell it thee?  Then said David to Jonathan,
Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee
roughly?  And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go
out into the field. And they went out both of them into the
field.  And Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Israel,
when I have sounded my father about to morrow any time, or
the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David,
and I then send not unto thee, and show it thee;  The LORD
do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father
to do thee evil, then I will show it thee, and send thee
away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the LORD be with
thee, as he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not
only while yet I live show me the kindness of the LORD, that
I die not:  But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness
from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off
the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying,
Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.
And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved
him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.  Then
Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou
shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty. And when
thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down
quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself
when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone
Ezel. And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as
though I shot at a mark.  And, behold, I will send a lad,
saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the
lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them;
then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as
the LORD liveth. But if I say thus unto the young man,
Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the LORD
hath sent thee away. And as touching the matter which thou
and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and
me for ever. So David hid himself in the field: and when the
new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.  And
the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a
seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by
Saul's side, and David's place was empty. Nevertheless Saul
spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath
befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean. And
it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of
the month, that David's place was empty: and Saul said unto
Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to
meat, neither yesterday, nor to day? And Jonathan answered
Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a
sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me
to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes,
let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore
he cometh not unto the king's table.  Then Saul's anger was
kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of
the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast
chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the
confusion of thy mother's nakedness? For as long as the son
of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be
established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch
him unto me, for he shall surely die. And Jonathan answered
Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be
slain? what hath he done? And Saul cast a javelin at him to
smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of
his father to slay David. So Jonathan arose from the table
in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the
month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had
done him shame.  And it came to pass in the morning, that
Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with
David, and a little lad with him.  And he said unto his lad,
Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad
ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.  And when the lad was come
to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan
cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?
And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay
not. And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to
his master.  But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan
and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his artillery
unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.
And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place
toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and
bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and
wept one with another, until David exceeded. And Jonathan
said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both
of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD be between
me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And
he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.

I Sam 23:14-18
And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds, and
remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul
sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his
hand.  And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his
life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood. And
Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood,
and strengthened his hand in God.  And he said unto him,
Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find
thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be
next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.  And
they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in
the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.

II Sam 1-27
2 Sam 1:1  Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when
David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and
David had abode two days in Ziklag;  It came even to pass on
the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from
Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so
it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth,
and did obeisance. And David said unto him, From whence
comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel
am I escaped. And David said unto him, How went the matter?
I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are
fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen
and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. And
David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest
thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? And the young
man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon mount
Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the
chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.  And when he
looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I
answered, Here am I.  And he said unto me, Who art thou? And
I answered him, I am an Amalekite.  He said unto me again,
Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is
come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood
upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not
live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was
upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and
have brought them hither unto my lord.  Then David took hold
on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that
were with him:  And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until
even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people
of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were
fallen by the sword. And David said unto the young man that
told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of
a stranger, an Amalekite. And David said unto him, How wast
thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the
LORD'S anointed? And David called one of the young men, and
said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he
died. And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head;
for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have
slain the LORD'S anointed. And David lamented with this
lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: (Also he
bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow:
behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are
the mighty fallen!
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of
Askelon;
lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,
lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew,
neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of
offerings:
for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away,
the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with
oil.
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,
 the bow of Jonathan turned not back,
and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives,
and in their death they were not divided:
they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than
lions.
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in
scarlet,
with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your
apparel.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!
O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
very pleasant hast thou been unto me:
thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

II Sam 9:1-13
And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house
of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was
Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said
unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of
Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba
said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame
on his feet. And the king said unto him, Where is he? And
Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of
Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar.  Then king David
sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of
Ammiel, from Lodebar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of
Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on
his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold thy servant!  And David said unto
him, Fear not: for I will surely show thee kindness for
Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the
land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually.  And he bowed himself, and said, What is
thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog
as I am? Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and
said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that
pertained to Saul and to all his house.  Thou therefore, and
thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and
thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may
have food to eat: but Mephibosheth thy master's son shall
eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and
twenty servants.  Then said Ziba unto the king, According to
all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so
shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he
shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons. And
Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micha. And all
that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto
Mephibosheth.  So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he
did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on
both his feet.

Select Bibliography

Boswell, John, SSU 135-36

Comstock, David, Gay Theology Without Apology, (Cleveland,
OH: The Pilgrim Press: 1993)

Horner, Tom, Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical
     Times, (Philadelphia: Westeminster, 1978)


OTHER SAINTS (no dates)

Nehemiah the Cup bearer [OT]
Fifth century BCE
eunuch

According to Neh 1:11 Nehemiah was a cup bearer to the
Persian king. Extrabiblical texts and artistic
representations reveal the importance of this office. From a
variety of argument, chiefly references in Ctesias, most
scholars have concluded that Nehemiah was probably a eunuch.
A critical examination of these arguments, however, reveals
that many of them are untenable or less than convincing.
Though Nehemiah may have been a eunuch, we cannot assert
that this was more than a possibility.

Neh 1:11-2:6
 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to
the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy
servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray
thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight
of this man. For I was the king's cup bearer.
     And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the
twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before
him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now
I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.  Wherefore
the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing
thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.
Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the
king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad,
when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth
waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then
the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I
prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it
please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy
sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city
of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king
said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long
shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it
pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

Select Bibliography

Yamauchi, Edwin M. "Was Nehemiah the Cup bearer a Eunuch?".
     Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
     92:1 (1980)  132-142


St. Peter Ordinski
1257-66

Select Bibliography

Boswell, John, SSU 252-53


Zosima and Basilisk of Alaska

Zozima and Basilisk were two Orthodox monks in Alaska who
seem to have had a long romantic involvment with each other
- not necessarily sexual. They are in the process of
"glorification" (the Orthodox "recognition" of sainthood).
Their "Life" maked the importance of their relationship
clear. Orthodox scholar, Nicholas Zymaris point out this
couple as possible gay saints.

From the Life
 "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward
for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his
fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has
not another to lift him up. Again, if "two lie together,
they are warm; but how can one be warm alone?" (Ecclesiastes
4:9-11; quote shortened in original)

Select Bibliography

Rose, Seraphim,  ed. Life of Zosima and Basilisk, (Platina
CA: St. Herman of Alaska Press,  19??)


TRANSVESTITE SAINTS

I have treated these saints as a group as their stories are
often similar. These are the large number of saints who were
famous for their holy cross-dressing. All of these were
women, and the stories, largely but not exclusively
fictional, generally have them escaping marriage or some
other dreaded end by dressing as monks. This is no short
term ploy, however. The women then live their lives as men
(in direct contradiction to the Levitical Law which calls
cross-dressing an "abomination"), some of them becoming
abbots of monasteries. In such positions it is hard to
imagine that they would not perform roles such as confessor.
Their biological sex is only discovered after they die.  It
is sometimes argued that  these transvestite saints did not
cross-dress because they wanted to but because they had to,
and so calling them "transvestites" is wrong. It is true
that we know nothing of the psychology of these women, but
when they dressed as man for 20 years and became abbots of
monasteries, it is hard to know in what way they were bing
"forced" to corss-dress. These women chose to live their
Christian lives as members of the opposite biological sex -
it is fair to see them as "transgendered". There are no male
saints, it seems, who dressed as women (with the possible
exception of Sergius and Bacchus, who were forcibly paraded
through the streets in women's clothes). At work here is an
old notion that women are saved in so far as they have "male
souls", a repeated term of praise in lives of female saints.
These women's lives do show that the Levitical Law was not
determinative in Christian estimations of holiness, and that
modern rigid gender categories had much less role in earlier
epochs of Christianity than nowadays. These saints found a
place in both Orthodox and Roman calendars.

*St. Anastasia the Patrician (or "of  Constantinople")
March 10th ORC/ORTH

*St. Anna/Euphemianos of Constantinople
Oct 29 ORTH

*St. Apollinaria/Dorotheos
Jan 5, 6 ORTH

*St. Athanasia of Antioch
Oct 9 ORTH

*St. Eugenia/Eugenios of Alexandria
Dec 24th ORTH

*St. Euphrosyne/Smaragdus
Feb 11th ORC (Sept 25 ORTH)

*St. Marina of Sicily
July 20th ORTH

*St. Marina/Marinos of Antioch
July 17th ORTH (July 20th ORC - as St. Margaret)

*St. Mary/Marinos of  Alexandria
Feb 12th ORTH

*St. Matrona/Babylas of Perge
Nov 9 ORTH

*St. Pelagia/Pelagios
June 9 ORC (Oct 8 ORTH)

*St. Theodora/Theodorus of Alexandria
Sept 11 ORTH

*St. Thekla of Iconium
Sept 23 ORC (Sept 24 ORTH)

*St. Hildegonde of Neuss near Cologne
April 20th ORC
d. 1188
OE: A nun who lived under the name "Brother Joseph" in the
Cistercian monastery of Schoenau near Heidelberg.

*St. Uncumber [or Wilgefortis]
A bearded woman saint, also known as St. Liverade (France),
Liberata (Italy), Liberada (Spain), Debarras (Beauvais),
Ohnkummer (Germany), and  Ontcommere (Flanders)


Select Bibliography

Anson, J., "The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: the
     Origin and Development of a Motif", Viator 5 (1974), 1-32

Bennasser, Khalifa Abubakr, Gender and Sanctity in Early
     Byzantine Monasticism: A Study of the Phenomenon of Female
     Ascetics in Male Monastic Habit with a Translation of the
     Life of St. Matrona, [Rutgers Ph.D Dissertation 1984; UMI
     8424085]

Delcourt, Marie, "Le complexe de Diane dans l'hagiographie
     chretienne", Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 153
     (January-March  1958), 1-33

Patlagean, Evelyne, "L'histoire de la femme dΘguise en moine et
     l'evolution de la saintetΘ feminine α Byzance", Studi
     Medievali ser. 3 17 (1976), 597-625, repr. in Structures
     sociales, famille, chretientΘ α Byzance IVe-XIe siΦcle,
     (London: Variorum, 1981), XI

Marina Warner, St. Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism,
     (London: 1981, pb. Penguin, 1985), esp 149-63


*Possible LGBT Saints*
[more information needed on these figures, suggested by
various correspondents, but without enough reason]

January 2 ORTH
St. Seraphim of Sarov
d. 1833

January 10 ORTH
St. Paul of Obnora
d.1429

May 26th NRC/ORC
St. Philip Neri, priest

September 25 ORTH
St. Sergius of Radonezh
d. 1392

Oct 15 NRC/COE/ECUSA
St. Theresa of Avila, mystic

Nov 14th ORTH
St. Justinian [emperor]

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

St. Nectarios of Aegina
d. 1920