All Saints and All Souls

Whether or not you believe in the religious content of these holidays, it's a time to remember those who have gone before . . .

Sergius and Bacchus: paired male saints who loved each other in the ancient Roman army.

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.

This site, I think, does some stretching to identify various special people as saints, but who's to say they are not . . . https://qspirit.net/saints/

One of the essays is about Saint Francis of Assisi . . .

When Francis (1181-1226) was a young man, he had an unnamed male companion whom he dearly loved — and who was written out of history after the first biography. The earliest companion of Francis, a man whom Francis “loved more than any other because he was the same age” and because of “the great familiarity of their mutual affection” remains nameless. Modern research suggests that the unnamed soulmate of Saint Francis was Brother Elias of Cortona.