Gay saint

We cannot fully understand Christianity without discussing gender and sexuality because these concepts drove some saints to display some of the greatest examples of faith and devotion. This article explores the lives and legends of LGBTQ+ saints, examining how their faith and sexuality or gender identity were intertwined.

Of course, for years, LGBTQ + people of faith have celebrated many saints as among their own. Behold a short list of the queer and saintly, from Catholic and other traditions. 1. Saint Aelred. In the dramatic first years of the H.I.V./AIDS crisis, when the diagnosis in many cases represented a death sentence, and gay men were marginalized and treated with hostility by secular and religious authorities, the suffering queer Saint Sebastian became an iconic figure.

Blessed John Henry Newman is being canonized a saint in Rome today at a spectacular ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. Is he the Catholic Church’s first openly gay saint? The answer to that question depends on your definitions of “openly,” “gay,” and “first.”. Q Spirit presents profiles of traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, theologians, authors, activists, spiritual and religious leaders, mystics, humanitarians, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people of faith and allies.

By signing up you agree to terms and conditions and privacy policy. I agree to the Art UK terms and conditions and privacy policy. Sign up to the Art UK newsletter , a weekly edit of insightful art stories. Saint Sebastian probably Saint Sebastian — Saint Sebastian. Portrait of a Man as Saint Sebastian. Every year, on 20th January, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates the life and death of the early Christian martyr Saint Sebastian c.

AD — The patron saint of archers, pin-makers and athletes, as well as numerous cities around the world, the figure and holy death of Saint Sebastian has been revered for many centuries, and his story of religious defiance in the face of tyranny continues to resonate. The image of Saint Sebastian tied to a post or tree — his body riddled with protruding arrows — has since become iconic in art history.

what is saint sebastian known for

Yet his image has transformed quite dramatically over the centuries. Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. According to a fifth-century hagiography , Saint Sebastian was a middle-aged Roman soldier who served under the pagan emperor Diocletian who ruled at the end of the third century AD. As a Christian, Sebastian was sentenced to death by archer firing squad as part of the Diocletianic Persecution — the last and most severe attack on Christians in the Roman Empire.

Saint Sebastian Bound for Martyrdom — Somewhat miraculously, Sebastian was not killed by this onslaught of arrows. Saint Sebastian Tended by the Holy Irene s. After his recovery, Sebastian confronted Diocletian publicly and was clubbed to death for his impudence. His dead body was dumped in a sewer before it was retrieved by Saint Lucy and buried in a Roman catacomb, where a basilica bearing his name still stands.

The legacy of Saint Sebastian has continued through art history, particularly through sculpture and paintings that depict his moment of torture and eventual demise. Saint Sebastian Tied to a Tree. During the medieval era, Saint Sebastian was presented as a mature and manly figure. He occupied an important place in the medieval mind, and symbolised the divine protector against the plague, alongside the archer god Apollo.

After the Black Death ravaged Europe in , his image evolved into a youthful, healthier-looking being rather than an elderly man. Artists of the Italian Renaissance rejected earlier depictions of Saint Sebastian, in which he appears older. Instead, they favoured depictions of masculinity deriving from ancient Greece, embodying ideals of ephebic beauty.

Saint Sebastian c. Subsequently, Sebastian has frequently been depicted as a handsome young man with a perfectly sculpted body. He is nearly always naked, his modesty barely covered by a thin loincloth. In true Christian-Stoic fashion, Sebastian does not cry out in pain as his body is pierced by the arrows but looks off into the distance or towards the heavens with an enigmatic expression. In this sculpture by the Master of the Furies , we see a rare example of an emotional and panicked Saint Sebastian which follows in the Hellenistic tradition of portraying extreme emotion.