The Nun Who Became a Soldier, Fought in the Spanish Army

Catalina de Erauso, Spanish-Mexican soldier and Catholic nun; also known as 'La Monja Alfrez' (The Second Lieutenant Nun)

Catalina de Erauso (1592? - 1650), soldier and nun

Catalina de Erauso was daughter and sister of soldiers from the city of San Sebastián in Spain. Her father was Miguel de Erauso and her mother María Pérez de Gallárraga y Arce. She was expected to become a nun but abandoned the nunnery after a beating at the age of fifteen, just before she was to take her vows. She had not ever seen a street, having entered the convent at the age of four .

She dressed as a man, calling herself "Francisco de Loyola", and left on a long journey from San Sebastian to Valladolid. From there she visited Bilbao, where she signed up on a ship with the assistance of other Basques. She reached Spanish America and enlisted as a soldier in Chile under the nameAlonso Díaz Ramírez de Guzmán. She served under several captains in the Arauco War, including her own brother, who never recognized her.

After one fight in which she killed a man and was wounded fatally, she revealed her sex in a deathbed confession. She however survived after four months of convalescence and left for Guamanga.

To escape yet another incident, she confessed her sex to the bishop, Fray Agustín de Carvajal. Induced by him she entered a convent and her story spread across the ocean. In 1620, the archbishop of Lima called her. In 1624, she arrived in Spain, having changed ship after another fight.

She went to Rome and toured Italy, where she eventually achieved such a level of fame that she was granted a special dispensation by Pope Urban VIIIto wear men's clothing.

Her portrait by Francesco Crescenzio is lost. Back in Spain, Francisco Pacheco (Velázquez's father-in-law) painted her in 1630.

She again left Spain in 1645, this time for New Spain in the fleet of Pedro de Ursua, where she became a mule driver on the road from Veracruz. In New Spain she used the name Antonio de Erauso.

- wikipedia

Benedict IX: The First (Primarily) Gay Pope (r. 1033-1045; 1047-1048)

That Benedict IX had sexual relationships with men seems to be beyond reasonable doubt. In his diatribe against "sodomy" among the Catholic clergy (Liber Gomorrhianus), St. Peter Damian described him as "feasting on immorality" and "a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest". The modern researcher Lynne Yamaguchi Fletcher, in "The First Gay Pope and Other Records", rightly called Benedict IX (r. 1033-1045; 1047-1048) “the first pope known to be primarily homosexual.” Benedict’s pontificate, which was known for  homosexual orgies in the Lateran Palace, “turned the Vatican into a male brothel” and was so scandalous that he was deposed, not once but twice.

Cardinal Borghese (1576 - 1633), Homoerotc Art Lover

b. 1 September 1577
d. 2 October 1633



The name "Borghese" will be familiar to many art lovers and tourists in Italy from the name "Villa Borghese", the palace which was designed by the architect Flaminio Ponzo from sketches by Cardinal Borghese himself, and which housed his impressive art collection.

The mere existence of this collection and its magnificence poses important questions about the institutional Catholic Church. What does this vast wealth that this collection represented, have to do with pastoral care, outreach to the poor, or preaching the Gospels? The questions become even murkier in the light of its manner of acquisition:

Canon Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Pioneering gay theologian ((1910-1984)

Bailey was the first Christian scholar to re-evaluate the traditional understanding of the Biblical prohibitions regarding homosexuality. He was an Anglican clergyman and Canon Residentiary of Wells Cathedral. Although not a full-time academic theologian or biblical scholar, after World War II he led a small group of Anglican clergymen and physicians to study homosexuality. Their findings were published in a 1954 Report entitled The Problem of Homosexuality produced for the Church of England, and were influential in moderating the church's subsequent stance on the moral issues raised by homosexuality. The work of Bailey and his colleagues also paved the way for the progressive Wolfenden Report (1957), which was followed a decade later by the decriminalization of homo­sexual conduct between consenting adults in England and Wales.

As a separate project arising from this work, he undertook a separate historical study, which led to the publication of his groundbreaking book, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition. Although this monograph has been criti­cized, it was a landmark in the history of the subject, combining scrutiny of the Biblical evidence with a survey of subsequent history. Bailey's book drew attention to a number of neglected subjects, including the intertestamental literature, the legislation of the Christian emperors, the penitentials, and the link between heresy and sodomy. Since then, his work has been overtaken by more extensive analyses by specialist biblical scholars, but it was an important influence on the early work that followed by historians (for example, John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality", and Mark D Jordan's "The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology ") and by biblical scholars (William Countryman's "Dirt, Greed, and Sex").

It was also important for influencing the findings of the British Wolfenden Report, which led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, and on the later deliberations of the Anglican Church on the subject.

Bailey died in Wells in Somerset.

Gay Popes, Papal Sodomites

For the month of Gay Pride (in church), it would be great if we we could simply celebrate a list of unambiguously gay popes - but we can't. This is not because they don't exist (there were undoubtedly several popes whom we know had physical relationships with men), but because of the inadequacies of language, and the weakness of the historical record over something so deeply personal, especially among the clergy. Both of these difficulties are exemplified by Mark Jordan's use of the phrase, "Papal Sodomites".  In medieval terms, a "sodomite" was one of utmost abuse, which meant far more than just the modern "homosexual". It could also include, bestiality, or heresy, or withcraft, and (in England, after the Reformation) "popery", which is deeply ironic, and hence treason.

So in the years before libel laws and carefully controlled democratic institutions, accusations of "sodomy" were a useful slander for the powerful to throw at their political enemies.

Prostitution in the Service of the Lord

From Australia, we have a story of a father who allegedly forced his 14 year old son to have sex with a prostitute, because he suspected the boy was gay. There is nothing new in enlisting the services of prostitutes to "cure" gay men: church and state alike have at times encouraged (female) prostitution in the defence of public morals.

"Augustine had argued that prostitution was a necessary evil that the state should tolerate to protect wives and virgins, and Aquinas had endorsed this view in his Summa".

-L Crompton, "Homosexuality & Civilization"

Backed by the authority of these eminent theologians, fifteenth century Venice licenced the activity, and the church accepted it. Crompton notes that Venice at that time was internationally renowned for its courtesans, and famous for its sexual opportunities. That emphatically did not include same-sex opportunities. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, several hundred men were executed for sexual activities with men, mostly by burning at the stake. At the heart of Venice's tourist route, the little square in front of beside the Doge's palace, beside St Mark's square, was the site of "more executions for sodomy than anywhere else in Europe, before Hitler." (Crompton)

Venice was not alone in supporting prostitution while prosecuting "sodomites." In Florence, where there were far more prosecutions than in Venice, the sentences were at least less severe. They were also more explicit in their support of prostitution as a remedy. Where Venice created a special magistracy to hunt down and prosecute sodomites, the Florence counterpart,which was called the "Office of Decency", was specifically set up to extirpate the vice of sodomy. But the method was to set up brothels, and to recruit women to work in them. Nearby, in Lucca, similar tactics were adopted, with the dedicated sodomy police specially authorized to promote female prostitution.

These examples show yet again how, in defence of their stand against the supposed "horror" of loving relationships between men, the church , and the secular authorities which relied on its support, were willing to ignore all respect for the dignity of women, and the pretence that sexual relationships could only be approved in marriage, for procreation.

The bigger picture, of the role of the church in the horrific executions of many thousands of men and women for loving relationships, is one I shall return to again.

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This is part of the news story that prompted the above. (Read the full report at "The Morning Bulletin").

Father 'forced son into sex with hooker'

A ROCKHAMPTON dad is accused of forcing his son to have sex with a prostitute because he feared the 14-year-old was gay.

During a family barbecue around Christmas time in 2007, the dad allegedly phoned a prostitute and arranged to meet her at a motel on Yaamba Road, North Rockhampton.

The father drove his son to the motel and paid the prostitute in $50 notes.

The prostitute took the boy into a motel room while the father waited on a balcony.

The dad walked in and out of the room to check on his son and told him he wanted to see a used condom as proof that they’d had sex. After the boy and the prostitute had finished the dad took his son home.

A magistrate yesterday found there was enough evidence against the father for him to stand trial for the rape of his son.

Giving evidence during the committal hearing in Rockhampton Magistrates Court, the boy’s mother testified she questioned the youngster about where his father had taken him.