Honoring the Passion of Sergius and Bacchus

To mark yesterday’s feast of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, I share today an excerpt from Kittredge Cherry’s informative piece entitled “Sergius and Bacchus: Paired Male Saints Loved Each Other in Ancient Roman Army.”

I also share the portrait of Sergius at right and the portrait of Bacchus below, both of which are by artist Nicolo’ Mazzucato.

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Saints Sergius and Bacchus were third-century Roman soldiers, Christian martyrs and men who loved each other. . . . They are by far the best documented, most widely worshiped and most influential male paired saints in Christian history. They are some of the earliest Christian martyrs. The close bond between Sergius and Bacchus has been emphasized since the earliest accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed their homosexuality. The oldest record of their martyrdom describes them as erastai (Greek for “lovers”). Scholars believe that they may have been united in the rite of adelphopoiesis (brother-making), a kind of early Christian same-sex marriage. Their names were often included in these rites of same-sex union, along with other saintly male pairs. Some see them as patron saints of same-sex couples. But their devotion to each other has inspired people of every sexual orientation over the centuries.

From ancient times until today these “gay saints” have inspired some of the most beautiful art depicting the holiness of same-sex couples, sometimes in a homoerotic way. A classic example of paired saints, Sergius and Bacchus were high-ranking young officers in the Roman army. Sergius was primicerius (commander) and Bacchus was secundarius (subaltern officer). They were tortured to death around 303 in present-day Syria after they refused to attend sacrifices to Zeus, thus revealing their secret Christianity.

Yale history professor John Boswell names Sergius and Bacchus as one of the three primary pairs of same-sex lovers in the early church in his 1995 book Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. (The others are Polyeuct and Nearchus and Felicity and Perpetua.) Paired military saints were popular in the Middle Ages [and] Sergius and Bacchus were the most famous and one of the earliest couples. . . . An appendix in the book includes Boswell’s translation of “The Passion of Sts. Serge and Bacchus” from the original Greek text dated 373-395. It was the first time that an ancient hagiography of Sergius and Bacchus was ever translated into English.

Today LGBTQ Christians in the west can get status from their religion but may hide their sexual orientation to avoid condemnation. However Sergius and Bacchus faced the opposite dilemma. In the Roman army homosexuality was accepted and perhaps even encouraged, but Christianity was taboo.

To read Kittredge Cherry's article in its entirety (and view a number or artistic depictions of Sergius and Baccchus), click here.


For more of Sergius and Bacchus at The Wild Reed, see:
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
• Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyred Lovers
• Photo of the Day – October 7, 2013
• On the Feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Thoughts on Marriage Equality in the U.S. and the Vatican’s Synod on the Family

Images: Nicolo’ Mazzucato

Elastic Theatre's "The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus": An Exploration of the Merging of Eroticism and Sacredness

With today being the feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, I share Elastic Theatre's re-imagining of the legend of these two late Roman Empire-era saints.

Entitled The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, this 26-minute long dance performance is choreographed by Lola Maury and features Igor Urzelai as Sergius and Moreno Solinas as Bacchus. Vocals are provided by Heather Knight, Holly Rose, and Jacek Ludwig Scarso.

A statement from Elastic Theatre notes the following about The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus:

This dance-theatre piece is inspired by the story of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, two high ranking officers in the third century Roman army, refusing to enter a pagan temple and subsequently being exiled, made to dress up in women’s clothing, tortured and killed. Some have come to believe that they were lovers, and their ambiguous relationship has raised fascinating and inevitably controversial issues of gender and sexuality in early Christianity.

The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is an exploration of the concept of ecstasy, here seen as a merging between eroticism and sacredness. The ambiguous way in which the hagiography of these two saints depicts their love for one another has inspired a range of accounts, suggesting an early notion of same-sex union between the two.

With an original vocal score devised collaboratively by the company and choreography by Lola Maury, the piece premiered at the Arcola Theatre in July 2009 and was subsequently presented as part of the Borderline Opera season at London Metropolitan University, in a double bill with MEDOUSA – a miniature opera.

For more of Sergius and Bacchus at The Wild Reed, see:
• On the Feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Thoughts on Marriage Equality in the U.S. and the Vatican's Synod on the Family
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
• Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyred Lovers
• Photo of the Day – October 7, 2013

Related Off-site Links:
Sergius and Bacchus: Paired Male Saints Loved Each Other in Ancient Roman Army – Kittredge Cherry (Q Spirit, October 7, 2017).
Igor and Moreno: Contemporary Dancing, Making, Thinking

On the Feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Thoughts on Marriage Equality in the U.S. and the Vatican's Synod on the Family

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"Marriage of Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus" (2013)
by Tony de Carlo.

One of the many pearls of wisdom that has stayed with me from my 2004 interview of Catholic theologian and author Mary Bednarowski is the following response by Mary to my question about authority within the Catholic tradition.

I understand “authority” as residing in both the individual and the community. For quite some time I’ve thought about “authority” as that in which I can place my trust. For me that means that as an individual who is a member of a faith community, I have to exercise my own conscience as an informed adult within the framework of the moral guidance offered by my community. If my conscience is not “clear” – that is, if I don’t know where I stand on a moral issue – I must seek clarity. Sometimes it comes from within the Church. Sometimes it comes from the culture in combination with the Church. Sometimes the culture in some aspect or another is, for the moment, ahead of the Church. As an individual and as a member of a community, I have to figure out how to hold it all together. It is my obligation to come to know “in what I can place my trust.” This whole ongoing process is informed by human experiences – mine and others, individual and communal. However we understand the workings of God in our midst and whatever our doctrine of the Church, there is no institutional Church that exists apart from the human community and its experiences and struggles.

I've been reflecting on Mary's words in light of two events that I believe clearly illustrate her observation that sometimes the culture is ahead of the church. The first of these is the Vatican's Synod on the Family, which began this past weekend and which I'll discuss later in this post. The second is the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals from five states that were challenging lower-court rulings legalizing same-sex civil marriage. At first glance, this decision may not seem particularly important, but it's actually quite significant. By declining to hear these appeals the court has given a final legal stamp of approval to marriage equality in five states: Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia and Wisconsin. It has also set the stage for legalization in six other states that also fall under the lower courts' jurisdiction: Colorado, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. As a result of the Supreme Court's decision, the Washington Post declared that the legal argument over same-sex marriage is "all but over."


Beyond the hierarchy

In light of these two events serving as an example of "the culture being ahead of the church," or more accurately, the hierarchy of the church, here's a relevant quote from Simon Rosser, another wise and inspiring person I interviewed in 2004.

The Church is in a tough place right now. On the one hand, the Church teaches that science and theology can never be truly in conflict since Catholicism teaches they are reflections of the same God. On the other hand, Catholic sexual theology is about 150 years behind science in some fundamental assumptions about sex and sexuality.

The theology of human sexuality that the Church is teaching is seriously disturbed, so science/medicine and theology appear at times diametrically opposed. Part of the problem is that as the scientific world advanced, the Church first didn’t keep pace with change, and then became a refuge for those frightened of change, including the psychosexually underdeveloped. I don’t think it’s fair to expect the Church to be ahead of science, but when it lags so far behind, it loses credibility and starts becoming extremist.

The headline today of a National Catholic Reporter article initially gave me hope that the bishops gathered in Rome may actually be thinking about moving away from their "disturbed" and "extremist" sexual theology.

"Among First Synod Discussions: Changing Harsh Language, Trying 'Graduality'," read the headline of Joshua J. McElwee's article. Yet I soon discovered that this "graduality" doesn't refer to the gradual movement on the part of the bishops to a place where church teachings on sexuality are reflective of the findings of both science and human experience. Rather, according to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who spoke to reporters at today's daily briefing, the theological notion of "graduality," which apparently is indeed a recurring theme of the synod, refers to Catholics "growing toward adherence or understanding of church teaching throughout their lives."

So it seems it's always the people who must change, who must conform their lives to church teaching, and never the other way around. Although this is disappointing to hear, it's not particularly surprising. After all, the clerical leadership is very much entrenched in its erroneous and dysfunctional sexual theology. I really don't expect it to evolve beyond it anytime soon, a failure that is both pathetic and sad.

Still, things are moving in the right direction beyond the hierarchy, as recent events in the U.S. concerning marriage equality attest, and as can be discerned in the experiences and insights of many Catholics attuned to the transforming love of God in the lives, relationships, and families of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. A number of these Catholics gave presentations at "The Ways of Love," a conference focused on the pastoral care of homosexual and trans people, and which took place in Rome in the days leading up to the synod. As well as reporting on this conference, the folks at New Ways Ministry are doing a stellar job in covering the synod itself from a gay Catholic perspective.

It's also crucial to remember that just because the bishops aren't evolving, gradually or otherwise, in their thinking about sexuality, it doesn't mean that the church, as people of God, is not. I've long maintained that the problem isn't that Catholics don't have an informed and healthy theology on sexuality. We do! It's been and continues to be developed and articulated by many people, including John McNeill, Fran Ferder and John Heagle, Jeannine Gramick, Mary Hunt, Daniel Maguire, Joan Timmerman, Daniel Helminiak, Cletus Wessels, Margaret Farley, James Alison, Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler, Tina Beattie, Francis DeBernardo, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, and many others. Perhaps most fundamentally, this alternative theology is being embodied, lived out, by Catholics.

The crucial question is, when will the bishops, the gatekeepers of orthodoxy, acknowledge this and allow the experiences and insights of Catholics to shape official Catholic teaching on sexuality? The ongoing failure on the part of the bishops to engage in this process is a major problem for the credibility and life of the church.


Sergius and Bacchus

I think it's something special that yesterday's major step forward for marriage equality occurred so close to today's feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, whom some consider the patron saints of gay marriage. Of course, it's also interesting, and somewhat ironic, that the feast day of these saints coincides with the Vatican's Synod on the Family. Others, too, have noted and remarked on this, including Terence Weldon.

As the bishops in Rome continue to deliberate on marriage and the family, while largely ignoring queer families, it’s appropriate to recall that the synod coincides with the memorial of two saints, Sergius and Bacchus, who remind us that the Christian Church has not always so studiously avoided any recognition of same–sex relationships, but has in fact blessed and even celebrated them.

And then there's theologian Daniel Maguire's perspective and advice to the bishops, found in his 2008 book Whose Church?, and still very relevant for today.

The Catholic hierarchs, lagging again behind the wisdom of the Church [as understood as the people of God], are very upset by same-sex unions. “Disordered,” they call them. Help, however, is available to these bishops, right in their tradition. Same-sex unions are found in the first thousand years of Christianity and were even liturgically celebrated. Rather than fulminating against same-sex unions, the bishops should kneel and say a prayer to Saints Sergius and Bacchus, a same-sex couple whose marriage is preserved in a seventh-century icon showing Jesus as the pronubus (official witness, “bestman”) at their wedding.

Related Off-site Links:
Vatican Begins Landmark Synod to Discuss Family Life – James Reynolds (BBC News, October 5, 2014).
Pope Seeks "Open" Debate on Family Issues as Progressives Seek Change and Conservatives the Maintaining of the Status Quo – Nicole Winfield (Associated Press via The Star Tribune, October 5, 2014).
You've Got Male: A Synod on the Family Slideshow – Mary E. Hunt (Religion Dispatches, October 6, 2014).
One Step Closer to Marriage Equality – The Editorial Board (The New York Times, October 6, 2014).
The Supreme Court Just Quietly Made Marriage Equality the Law of the Land in Many States – Ian Millhiser (ThinkProgress.org, October 7, 2014).
60 Percent Of Americans Soon Will Live In States With Marriage Equality – Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel (The Huffington Post, October 7, 2014).
Here's What Could Happen Next in the States That Still Ban Gay Marriage – Brad Heath (USA Today via The Huffington Post, October 7, 2014).
These States Still Won't Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses – Roxana Hegeman (Associated Press via The Huffington Post, October 7, 2014).
Same-Gender Couples Mentioned in Synod Talk, But Not In a Very Positive Way – Francis DeBernardo (Bondings 2.0, October 7, 2014).
No Change in Doctrine from Synod, Say Bishops – Thomas Reese (National Catholic Reporter, October 7, 2014).
Catholic Church Reform's Alternate Gathering on the Family Highlights Lay Vocation – Joan Chittister (National Catholic Reporter, October 2, 2014).
Clericalism and Laity-ism: Twin Evils in Our Church – Brian Willette (The Progressive Catholic Voice, July 6, 2011).
Saints Sergius and Bacchus: Male Couple Martyred in Ancient Rome – Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Love Blog, October 7, 2014).

UPDATES: Sex, Marriage and the Catholic Church – Tina Beattie (The Guardian, October 8, 2014).
The Supreme Court, Same-Sex Marriage and the Synod – Maureen Fiedler (National Catholic Reporter, October 9, 2014).
Bishops Rethinking Development of Theology and Annulment Process at Synod – Joshua J. McElwee (National Catholic Reporter, October 9, 2014).
Two More Cardinals Back Communion for Divorced and Remarried – John L. Allen Jr. (Crux, October 9, 2014).
Gay Rights Groups Hail New Catholic Tone – Nicole Winfield (Associated Press via Yahoo! News, October 10, 2014).
Cardinal Raymond Burke Takes Break from Vatican Synod to Say Ugly Things About Gay Relationships – Antonia Blumberg (The Huffington Post, October 10, 2014).
Vatican Debate on Gays Provokes Strong Reaction from All Corners – Josephine McKenna (Religion News Service, October 10, 2014).

For more of Sergius and Bacchus at The Wild Reed, see:
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
• Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
• Sergius and Bacchus: Martyred Lovers
• Photo of the Day – October 7, 2013

For more insights from Daniel Maguire, see the previous The Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – April 10, 2012
• Daniel Maguire: "Heterosexism, Not Homosexuality, is the Problem"
• Daniel Maguire on the Progressive Core of Catholicism
• Daniel Maguire on Catholicism's "Long History of Demeaning Sexuality"
• Daniel Maguire on Sex as Liturgy
• Daniel Maguire in Minneapolis

Image 1: "Marriage of Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus" (2013) by Tony de Carlo.
Image 2: A 7th century icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchusfrom St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai, Israel, now in an art museum in Kiev, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons)

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
Sergius and Bacchus: Martyred Lovers

Related Off-site Links:
Sergius & Bacchus, October 7th: Patron Saints of Gay Marriage? – Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, October 7, 2013).
Saints Sergius and Bacchus: Male Couple Martyred in Ancient Rome – Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Love Blog, October 7, 2013).
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary – Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, October 7, 2013).

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Sergius and Bacchus: Martyred Lovers

Today is the feast of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, and over at the always impressive Jesus in Love Blog Kittredge Cherry has posted an informative and insightful commentary about these two saints, martyrs and lovers. Here's just a snippet . . .

. . . The close bond between Sergius and Bacchus has been emphasized since the earliest accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed their homosexuality. The oldest record of their martyrdom describes them as erastai (Greek for “lovers”). Scholars believe that they may have been united in the rite of adelphopoiesis (brother-making), a kind of early Christian same-sex marriage.

A classic example of paired saints, Sergius and Bacchus were high-ranking young officers. Sergius was primicerius (commander) and Bacchus was secundarius (subaltern officer). They were tortured to death after they refused to attend sacrifices to Zeus, thus revealing their secret Christianity. . . .

To read Kitt's post on Saints Sergius and Bacchus in its entirety, and to view more artistic depictions of the two saints, click here.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers
Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus

Image: “Sts. Sergius and Bacchus” by Plamen Petrov, St. Martha Church, Morton Grove, IL.

Honoring (and Learning from) the Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus

Today is the feast of Saints Sergius and Bacchus – two ancient Christian martyrs who were tortured to death for refusing to attend sacrifices in honor of the Roman god Jupiter. Early Greek manuscripts tell us something else about the pair. They were erastai, or lovers. For some, this indicates an earlier, more accepting Christian attitude toward homosexuality than that which later emerged and which carries on in various Christian traditions, including that of Vatican theology.

In honor of Sergius and Bacchus I share today various artistic depictions of the two saints along with excerpts from Daniel Maguire’s book, Whose Church? – A Concise Guide to Progressive Catholicism. Maguire is a Marquette University moral theologian and author. He will be in the Twin Cities October 21 speaking on "Why You Can Be Catholic and Support Gay Marriage." (For more information on this event, click here.)

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It is part of the mind-shrinking quality of prejudice that it misses much of reality. The result is what smart people call “heteronormativity” – i.e., only heterosexual attraction and pleasure is “normal.” In the current political mantra, "Marriage is between a man and a woman."

. . . If you believe that God is the author and creator of nature, then sexual diversity is a Godly idea. Gay is not just good: it’s holy! Harmful options can be called immoral, but not all the sexual options are self-evidently harmful.

The Catholic hierarchs, lagging again behind the wisdom of the Church, are very upset by same-sex unions. “Disordered,” they call them. Help, however, is available to these bishops, right in their tradition. Same-sex unions are found in the first thousand years of Christianity and were even liturgically celebrated. Rather than fulminating against same-sex unions, the bishops should kneel and say a prayer to Saints Sergius and Bacchus, a same-sex couple whose marriage is preserved in a seventh-century icon showing Jesus as the pronubus (official witness, “bestman”) at their wedding.



In its sensible moments, Catholic teaching, relying on the Bible, recognized that people are not prone to celibacy. Indeed, they saw it as a heroic effort when monks and nuns undertook to be celibate throughout their lives. Jesus said of celibacy, “Let those accept it who can” (Matt. 19:12). Very sensible. Voluntary celibacy for a good cause is something some can do, but it was seen as a special talent, a special gift that not all have. The Vatican Council called it “a precious gift of divine grace which the Father gives to some persons,” but not to all. Abstaining from all sexual activity is seen by the council as something “unique.” You cannot demand from all homosexual people that which is “unique.” St. Paul recognizes the same when he says, “It is better to marry than to burn” (1 Cor. 7-9). What kind of Gospel “good news” would it be to tell all gay people that their only choice is to “burn, baby, burn”?

The view that homosexual people are condemned to involuntary celibacy for life is as cruel as it is absurd. And it is very Catholic to say so. Saints Serge and Bacchus would agree.

– Daniel C. Maguire
Whose Church? – A Concise Guide to Progressive Catholicism
pp. 46-48

See also the previous Wild Reed post:
Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers





Image 1: A still from Elastic Theatre's production of The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.

Image 2: Robert Lentz.

Image 3: An icon of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus - 28.5 x 42 cm. Encaustic. 7th c. Kiev. Notes Joe Byrne of Belmont University, TN: “The youthful 4th c. martyrs are clad in brown chitons with gold striations and wear their distinctive gold torques (maniakion). Style and technique point to origin in Constantinople.”

Image 4: Ray Avito.


See also the related Wild Reed posts:
The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
St. Michael the Archangel: Perspectives and Portraits
The Allure of St. Sebastian
St. Francis of Assisi: Dancer, Rebel, Archetype
Mary of Magdala
The Inherent Sensuality of Roman Catholicism
Officially Homophobic, Intensely Homoerotic
Song of Songs: The Bible’s Gay Love Poem
“More Lovely Than the Dawn”: God as Divine Lover
Charis
Lover of Us All
It Happens All the Time in Heaven

Recommended Off-site Links:
Gay Saints and Lovers: Sergius and Bacchus - Kittredge Cherry (Jesus in Love, October 7, 2010).
Feast Day of Gay Saints, October 7 - Jayden Cameron (Gay Mystic, October 7, 2009).
Sergius & Bacchus - and Me - Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, October 8, 2009).

Sergius and Bacchus: Martyrs, Saints, Lovers

Today is the feast of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus.

Following is the description of these two saints that accompanies Robert Lentz’s 1994 portrait of them (pictured at right) and distributed by TrinityStores.com.

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Sts. Sergius and Bacchus were ancient Christian martyrs who were tortured to death in Syria because they refused to attend sacrifices in honor of Jupiter. Recent attention to early Greek manuscripts has also revealed that they were openly gay men and that they were erastai, or lovers. These manuscripts were found in various libraries in Europe, and indicate an earlier Christian attitude toward homosexuality.

After their arrest, the two men were paraded through city streets in women’s clothing, treatment that was meant to humiliate them as officers in the Roman army. They were then separated and each was tortured. Bacchus died first and appeared that night to Sergius, who was beginning to lose heart. According to the early manuscripts, Bacchus told Sergius to persevere, that the delights of heaven were greater than any suffering, and that part of their reward would be to be re-united in heaven as lovers.

The feast of these saints is October 7. The inscription at the bottom of the icon is their names in Arabic. The saints are particularly popular throughout the Mediterranean lands, in Latin America, and among the Slavs. For nearly a thousand years they were the official patrons of the Byzantine armies, and Arab nomads continue to revere them as their special patron saints.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
St. Michael the Archangel: Perspectives and Portraits
The Allure of St. Sebastian
St. Francis of Assisi: Dancer, Rebel, Archetype
Mary of Magdala
The Inherent Sensuality of Roman Catholicism
Officially Homophobic, Intensely Homoerotic
Song of Songs: The Bible’s Gay Love Poem
“More Lovely Than the Dawn”: God as Divine Lover
Charis
Lover of Us All
It Happens All the Time in Heaven

Recommended Off-site Links:
Feast Day of Gay Saints, October 7 - Jayden Cameron (Gay Mystic, October 7, 2009).
Sergius & Bacchus - and Me - Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, October 8, 2009).
Sergius and Bacchus: A Pair of Gay Saints - Kittredge Cherry (MyOutSpirit.com, October 7, 2009).

Image 1: Robert Lentz.
Image 2: Ray Avito.