How Did a Third-Century Catholic Sat Bee a Gay In? Here’s the Homoerotic History of Sat Sebastian

Contents:

• HOW DID A THIRD-CENTURY CATHOLIC SAT BEE A GAY IN? HERE’S THE HOMOEROTIC HISTORY OF SAT SEBASTIAN
• THE DEPRAVY OF ST. SEBASTIAN’S GAY CATHOLIC PRITS: HOW THEY NETWORK AND HAVE “COME OUT”
• IS SEBASTIAN GAY?

HOW DID A THIRD-CENTURY CATHOLIC SAT BEE A GAY IN? HERE’S THE HOMOEROTIC HISTORY OF SAT SEBASTIAN

How did a third-century Catholic sat bee a ntemporary gay in referenced on everythg om the vers of men’s magaz to art and films and an adopted psdonym by Osr Wil? But who was Sat Sebastian really and how, when, and why did this cur exultatn to the stat of gay in occur? Ined, the Renaissance and Baroque pictns are rooted the Catholic teachgs about the permeabily of sats’ bodi and the ecstasy experienced their munn wh the dive—the pictns were the on to be later embraced by the gay muny who saw their own experienc mirrored Sat Sebastian’s betiful sufferg.

Ecstasy and Agony: Sebastian, Patron Sat of the Gay Communy. In the morn era, the popularizatn of Sat Sebastian as an in the gay muny often leads back to Guido Reni’s Martyrdom of St.

Reni’s patg was siarly fluential to the famed 20th-century Japane thor Y Mishima; Mishima’s 1949 novel Confsns of a Mask, the book’s adolcent protagonist experienc a homosexual awakeng while gazg at the very same patg. The referenc to the sat didn’t end there—Mishima, who was himself gay, went so far as to pose as Sat Sebastian a now-famo photographic portra, taken not long before the wrer’s ath by suici 1970. The photograph further cemented associatns between the ecstasy and torments of the sat’s martyrdom wh the homosexual experience of persecutn throughout the 20th century.

THE DEPRAVY OF ST. SEBASTIAN’S GAY CATHOLIC PRITS: HOW THEY NETWORK AND HAVE “COME OUT”

Wil, himself, should be noted, had been exiled Paris, followg a nearly two-year imprisonment at Readg Gaol England for the crime of practicg homosexualy. In the 1970s, Italian artist Luigi Ontani staged a provotive photograph of Sat Sebastian as a gay in. In the 1976 film Sebastiane, filmmaker Derek Jarman engaged wh the narrative of the sat to explore ti between sexual and spirual ecstasy, through a specifilly homoerotic lens.

He nceals the pth of his emotns, experiencg both torments and pleasur privately, a feelg siar to the experience of gay inty for many men the 20th century (and often to this day).

Others have terpreted the arrows piercg the sat’s body as phallic allns and disguised referenc to homosexual sex, while his rope-tied hands n be seen through the lens of sadomasochism.

IS SEBASTIAN GAY?

Perhaps most ncretely, the story of Sat Sebastian paralleled the experienc and fears of the closeted gay muny—when Sebastian’s ncealed te (Christian) inty was revealed, he was shunned, tormented, and killed by those power, a harrowg tale that mirrored the gay experienc of beg “outed” throughout morn history. Intertgly, referenc to the sat by gay artists have ntued to shift more recent history.