Before too much time passes, let me draw attention to the curious use of a 12th-century English saint as a patron for gay causes. I am referring to Saint Aelred of Hexham (in Northumbria, West Yorkshire), whose feast day was last Saturday (Jan. 12), and has become a yearly observance by the Episcopal gay caucus Integrity. Aelred is their official patron saint.
No one knows for sure where Aelred, born in 1110 AD, stood on such things.
According to his bio on Integrity's Web site, he found celibacy quite a challenge although he apparently kept it until he died of liver failure at the age of 57. As abbot for a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, England, he would occasionally jump into icy baths to calm his physical passions. What's gotten Aelred his reputation is his romantic attachments to other men, which he wrote about.
Aelred's cause was taken up by the Integrity folks back in 1985, when a committee got his feast day listed in the liturgical book "Feasts and Lesser Fasts," a must-buy for Episcopal seminarians. 
My attention was drawn to Aelred a few weeks ago when I noticed his profile in Washington Window, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington's newspaper. Last I checked in 2004, the diocese listed 14 same-sex clergy couples, so it's not unusual that Aelred might be a hit with these folks.
I was intrigued, however, by the headline atop Aelred's profile, which called him as "a saint for January." There are lots of saint's days in January, including that of Saint Paul on the 25th of this month.
But I get the funny feeling that Paul, who wrote scathing reviews of homosexual activity in Romans 1, may not be as popular with that crowd.
A drawing of St. Aelred.
— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times
Comments (4)
It appears that Paul was relatively adept at sublimating his homosexual tendencies. Still there are indications that they infected his teachings, rendering them essentially anti-sexual. Me thinks he doth protest too much!
Posted by Asinus Gravis | January 16, 2008 12:30 AM
We don't need to look back 900 years to find saints who happened to be gay. One example in our own time is Father Mychal Judge, the late New York fire chaplain and "the saint of 9/11".
Most of us first heard of Mychal Judge from that iconic photo of his body being carried from Ground Zero.
Yet even prior to his heroic death on 9/11, Father Mychal was widely seen by many New Yorkers as a living saint for his deep spirituality and his extraordinary work not only with firefighters -- but also with the homeless, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and many others.
Father Mychal also self-identified as gay, though he was celibate by all accounts. Still, he blessed and supported committed gay relationships asking, "Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love ?"
This often annoyed the Roman church hierarchy. But like his spiritual father St. Francis of Assisi, Mychal reported directly to a Higher Authority, as evidenced by several miraculous healings through him.
Posted by Mychals Prayer | January 16, 2008 1:01 AM
The Apostle Paul a sublimated homosexual? That's a laugh.
Posted by Moki | January 17, 2008 12:00 AM
The posting is interesting in that St. Aelred was the author of "Spiritual Friendship", used in my monastic formation classes. I enjoyed that book. It was aimed at getting his monks to become genuine loving friends with each other rather than each one keeping to themselves; sort of like using the model of Jesus with his disciples or David and Jonathan. I never found it suggesting anything like romantic or homosexual relationships.
There was once a fellowship of gay Catholic priests that had a website promoting "holy" homosexual relationships that claimed St. Sebastian (Feast Day Jan. 20), a Roman soldier who was martyred by his own company when he confessed his faith in Christ, as their patron saint. I was not sure why he was chosen but a racy image of his martyrdom was featured. People can "read" their presuppositions into these stories.
Posted by Br. Gregory Foret OSB | January 22, 2008 6:09 AM