“The Mystical Marriage of Blessed Fr. Bernardo de Hoyos y Seña, SJ”
As part of both her LGBT Saints series and Queer Christ series at the always insightful Jesus in Love Blog, Kittredge Cherry highlights and celebrates today the mystical same-sex marriage of Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos to Jesus. (Mmm . . . I’m thinking we should declare Bernardo the patron of Catholics for Marriage Equality MN!)
Following is an excerpt from Kitt’s post.
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Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos y Seña is an 18th-century Spanish priest who wrote vividly of his mystical gay marriage to Jesus. He was beatified in 2010 and his feast day is today (Nov. 29).
Bernardo (1711-1735) was 18 when he had a vision of marrying Jesus in a ceremony much like a human wedding. He described it this way:
Always holding my right hand, the Lord had me occupy the empty throne; then He fitted on my finger a gold ring. . . . “May this ring be an earnest of our love. You are Mine, and I am yours. You may call yourself and sign Bernardo de Jesus, thus, as I said to my spouse, Santa Teresa, you are Bernardo de Jesus and I am Jesus de Bernardo. My honor is yours; your honor is Mine. Consider My glory that of your Spouse; I will consider yours, that of My spouse. All Mine is yours, and all yours is Mine. What I am by nature you share by grace. You and I are one!”
– Quoted from The Visions of Bernard Francis De Hoyos, S.J.
by Henri Bechard, S.J.
Bernardo’s vision inspired artist-priest William Hart McNichols to paint an icon of Bernardo’s wedding with Jesus.
“I was so taken with this profoundly beautiful account of Jesus’ mystical marriage with Bernardo, including all the symbols of a human wedding. Personally, I am not aware of any other man in the history of Christianity who has had this marriage experience,” McNichols wrote. [Oh, I'm sure many others have. It's just that only Bernardo's has been acknowledged and celebrated in this way.]
. . . While the Catholic church refuses to bless same-sex marriages, the lives and visions of its own saints tell a far different story – in which Christ the Bridegroom gladly joins himself in marriage with a man.
To read Kitt's post in its entirety, click here.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “More Lovely Than the Dawn”: God as Divine Lover
• The Many Manifestations of God’s Loving Embrace
• The Catholic Hierarchy: Officially Homophobic, Intensely Homoerotic
• The Inherent Sensuality of Roman Catholicism
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
• Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• The Allure of St. Sebastian
• “From Byzantine Daddy to Baroque Twink” – Charles Darwent on the Journey of St. Sebastian
• The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
• The Archangel Michael: Perspectives and Portraits
• Song of Songs: The Bible’s Gay Love Poem?
• Terence Weldon on the “Disciple Jesus Loved” as a Role Model for LGBT Christians
• Jesus and the Centurion (Part 1)
• Jesus and the Centurion (Part 2)
• Getting the Word Out
• Jesus Was a Sissy
• Christ and Krishna
• It Happens All the Time in Heaven
I’m delighted that you got so much out of my piece about Bernardo de Hoyos. He story inspired me and I was happy to share it with the world. A major windstorm in Los Angeles has kept me from commenting until now, and I still have a lot of catching up to do. Many others are still suffering without electricity here. Thank you again.
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