Santa Wilgefortis, the bearded protector of non -binary people
Reflections published on the Facebook page of Fundacja wiara i tęcza (Fondazione Fede and Arcobaleno), Group of Christians LGBT+ Polish, on July 20, 2024, freely translated from Innocenzo Pontillo
On July 20, according to tradition, Santa Wilgefortis is remembered, an extremely important figure among the Saints Arcobaleno. Santa Wilgefortis is an extraordinary and stimulating figure. Legend has it that she was the Christian daughter of a medieval Portuguese king and that he tried to avoid a marriage imposed with a pagan king. He asked to become repugnant for his future groom and his prayers were fulfilled when he grew his beard. This transformation infuriated his father, who made it crucified. So Wilgefortis became a martyr and a symbol of virginity and faith.
Although San Wilgefortis, in 1969, was removed from the official Vatican calendar is still present in many Catholic sources. Images of her depicted as a bearded woman placed on a cross are common throughout Europe and in Latin America. The name Wilgefortis could derive from the Latin "Virgo Fortis" (strong virgin) or from the ancient high German "Heilige Vartez" (Holy face). In Spain it is known as Liberada, which means "liberated". It also has many other names, such as Uncumber, Liberata, Kummernis and many others.
Wilgefortis belongs to a group of saints whose stories include elements of the transgender world or cross-show (transvestism). Characters were raised as girls and who, for example, entered male monasteries where they always lived as men. Their true identity was always discovered only after death.
Today his figure is seen in different ways: he is considered the patroness of intersex, asexual, transgender people, with polycystic ovary syndrome or lesbian girls. Although already in the 16th century it had been established that its history was false, its cult continued, despite the objections of the prelates of the Church.
Wilgefortis was venerated throughout Europe and its popularity in some places even rival with the cult of the Virgin Mary.
Wilgefortis' legend could be born to explain the holy face of Lucca, the famous Italian sculpture of the Crucified Christ with a long tunic, which in the medieval many saw as a female dress.
The story of Wilgefortis is described in detail in the book "The female crucifix: images of St. Wilgefortis since the Middle Ages"By Ilse E. Friesen, professor of art history at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. The author traces the story of the appearance of increasingly feminine crucifixes that occurred over the centuries, focusing on the German language regions of Bavaria and Tyrol, where Wilgefortis' cult reached its peak.
Santa Wilgefortis also appears on the cover of the book "The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion, Sexuality and Gender", Edited by Donald Boisvert and Carly Daniel-Hughes. The introduction to the book underlines that Wilgefortis' history is an example of how religion and sexuality intersects itself and how holiness can be "queer": the history of this saint crosses the heteronormative binary divisions of the male/female and dell human/divine.
The figure of Wilgefortis is immortalized in the song "St. Wilgefortis ”of the singer and pianist Rebecca Clamp, originally from Cambridge, England, and now residing in Helsinki. In the song, Clamp has a dialogue with the saint, which ends with these words:
I will not marry a pagan
And I will not marry a saint
I won't marry anyone.
Give me just a beard
and find me a cave
I will be a happy hermit
and I will build a small sanctuary
For my dear Santa Wilgefortis
patroness of bearded women,
so haughty, so sublime.
Original text: Dziś, 20 Lipca, TradycyJnie Wspomina Się Wilgefortis
