St John the Evangelist is often identified as the "Beloved Disciple" mentioned in his own Gospel, and it has been suggested that there may well have been an intimate relationship between him and Jesus. (In medieval Northern Europe, there was even a long-standing tradition that he and Christ were the bridal couple at the Cana Wedding Feast).
After Jesus had left the earth, John had a further notable and intimate (at least emotionally so) relationship with another male disciple, this time younger than he - his disciple and scribe, Prochorus, bishop of Nicomedia. (Prochorus in turn, later formed a fresh relationship of his own with a younger man, Irenaeus,)
Thanks for this. I love the idea of John and Jesus being the bridegrooms who married each other at Cana.
ReplyDeleteTerry, I wanted to call your attention to my newest post, about Hildegard of Bingen, a medival mystic-artist-composer-genius -- and a likely lesbian. Hildegard has been one of my personal favorite saints for years, but I was surprised to learn that she is considered to be one of the LGBTQ saints. I know, I shouldn't have been surprised! I did a lot of digging to find more details about her love for the woman who was her assistant.
You can see it at this link on the Jesus in Love Blog:
http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/09/hildegard-of-bingen-mystic-who-loved.html
Thanks Kitt for drawing attention to Hildegard. I've seen the odd reference to her possible same-sex attraction before, but have not had enough of a handle on it to write anything myself. I'm delighted that you have done the hard slog and found such good material for a great post.
ReplyDeleteI will immediately do a pointer to it at Queering the Church, and cross-post here. That should send at least a few readers your way.
I just posted my new and improved piece on John the Evangelist: The Man Jesus Loved. The improvements include links to your posts about John, plus some new art and more info. Thanks and happy Beloved Disciple Day!
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