I have believed Saint Francis to be gay for a long time. I base this assumption on the fact that much is written about his misspent youth, his carousing and drinking and getting into trouble. But there is absolutely no mention of any womanising whatsoever. He was a young Italian male for goodness sake! If he was carousing he would have most definitely have been womanising as well and that would have been mentioned by his biographers who wanted to emphasise his naughtiness before his conversion. The fact that there is no mention of Francis chasing young women must mean that he didn't. And for a young, rich Italian man there would be only one reason for that.
Of course, the real clue about his gender is in his title. Saint Francis of ASISSI - I mean, I ask you, could he have made it plainer?
And Clare, in the tradition of Girls-With-Crushes-On-Their-Gay-Besties everywhere, decided “Eh, might as well become a nun then…”
LOL and love your irreverent take on St. Francis. Growing up I all I knew of St. Francis was the movie “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” so I was surprised to learn of his gay inclinations. Thanks for commenting at Jesus in Love on my piece with the scholarly evidence for his queerness.
On the other hand, he never became a priest.
Those were the days when popes were “real men” and women knew it (especially those who were closely related to them).
St. Francis was a magnificent human being who should be spoken of with the utmost of respect.
Couldn’t agree with you more, John.