Gay saint sebastian

But who was Saint Sebastian really and how, when, and why did this curious exultation to the status of gay icon occur? To mark the final days of Pride, we’re sharing what we’ve discovered below.

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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. Scantily clad paintings of Saint Sebastian can be understood as inviting voyeurism to the beautiful male nude.

In some instances, Sebastian's head is thrown back in supposed pleasure, making the presence of ropes and restraints positively sadomasochistic. It is thought that the abundance of such eroticised portrayals of the martyr’s naked, muscular, arrow-pierced flesh, inspired the cult following Saint Sebastian attracted within late nineteenth-century gay communities.

Renaissance representations of Saint Sebastian–mostly paintings of a tender, loin-clothed youth writhing in the ecstasy of the arrows that pierce him–are perhaps ground zero for his appointment as the patron saint of gay sensuality. This Christian, who suffered martyrdom for his faith around the year AD, became a queer icon in the 19 th century and in that role has become one of the best-known saints.

In accordance with fifth-century legends, early depictions from the sixth century onward show us Sebastian as a dignified and elderly soldier. So how did this initially inconspicuous soldier-saint become an icon for queer desire and life? We know almost nothing about the historical figure of Sebastian. At this time, pilgrims were already visiting his tomb in the catacombs on the Via Appia.

In the more novelistic records of martyrdom, which includes some fictitious stories about the saints, Sebastian appears as an officer of the imperial guard cohortes praetoriae. When he was subsequently denounced, Emperor Diocletian, responsible for an empire-wide persecution of Christians, ordered Sebastian to be bound and then killed by being shot with arrows. This scene will become important later.

Sebastian manages to survive the arrows, while being raised up, in Christ-like fashion, and nursed back to health by Saint Irene. He returns to the palace, again accuses the emperors Diocletian and Maximian of unjustly persecuting Christians and is subsequently bludgeoned to death. Why was Sebastian not lost to history like so many other saints?

His tomb was located near a memorial to Saints Peter and Paul, and above it, the Emperor Constantine had a magnificent basilica built. Since the ninth century, this church has borne the title of S. Sebastiano ad Catacumbas. Sebastian also became the third patron saint of Rome. His further fate, however, was decided only in the seventh century. According to sources, in , the plague raged in parts of Italy, including the city of Pavia.

In a kind of diplomatic mission, the pope sent relics of this prominent Roman saint to the north in order to show his support. An altar was erected to Sebastian and the plague was miraculously defeated. In the early Middle Ages, the image of Sebastian martyred by soldiers with arrows emerges as a typical representation of the saint.

But Sebastian did not become a central figure in the life of the church until the 14th century. Once again, Europe is ravaged by the plague. This is the turning point. It should be recalled here that, in The Golden Legend , a popular compendium of stories of the lives of the saints, the story of the miracle of Pavia was told. And if Sebastian could help then, why not many centuries later?

Thus, more and more images of the saint bearing his arrows appeared, decorating numerous altars. The arrows acquired a new meaning: In ancient times as at the beginning of the Iliad , arrows were used to send plagues among people. In the Bible, it is partly God Himself who punishes people for their sins. Sebastian is also hit by arrows—but he survives.

He represents suffering and thus awakens hope for redemption. The decisive step is, however, still missing. It first needed to be introduced by art. Oscar Wilde is not alone in his adoration of Sebastian.