Sanctity and Male Desire: A Gay Reading of Saints

"Human desire is a path to spiritual wholeness," says author Donald Boisvert, in this unusual look at how saints--and one's devotion to them--can be sites for the confirmation and celebration of homoerotic desire. The author comes to the topic as a gay scholar of religion and draws upon his own experience of saints including his years in seminary beginning at age 13. Saints can inspire desire and, through eclectic readings of their lives and imagery, the author suggests meanings and strategies attached to the emergence of same-sex attraction. The book contains 12 chapters that focus on saints, including: Michael the Archangel; Sebastian and Tarcisius; John the Baptist; Joseph; Paul and Augustine; the Ugandan and North American martyrs; Francis of Assisi; Dominic Savio and other boy saints; Damien and the missionary saints; Peter Julian Eymard and the Eucharist; and gay saints.