Transgender Saints

Most of the saints considered here are assigned female at birth, whose sanctity depended upon their subsequent embrace of a male identity. Their stories of personal liberation and salvation could have helped to model her vocational flight from an arranged marriage. Among such saints are Anastasia (Anastasios), Apolinaria (Dorotheos), Athanasia, Eugenia (Eugenios), Euphrosyne (Smaragdus), Hilaria (Hilarion), Marina (Marinos), Matrona (Babylas), Pelagia (Pelagius), Susannah (John), and Theodora (Theodoros).

Christina of Markyate

St Albans Psalter, Psalm 105 initial, Hildesheim

St Wilgefortis

Miniature of the female Saint Wilgefortis (Virgo fortis), from a late fifteenth or early sixteenth century Flemish Book of Hours.

British Library, Additional MS 19416

St Eufrosine/Esmarade

The Life of Eufrosine/Esmarade tells the story of a saint assigned female at birth who does not wish to marry the partner chosen by her father, preferring to retain her virginity. After a brief stay at a monastery with her father Pasnutius, she realises she wishs to enter the religious life.
Esmarade seeks the guidance of several monks, who each advise the saint to reject marriage for God; one monk cuts her hair and gives her a monk’s habit so that she can join a convent.

The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 71 A 24, fol. 61v

St Eugenia of Rome

Eugenia of Rome, who, to follow a Christian calling and maintain a life of chastity, spent several years dressing and living disguised as a monk named Eugene.

Le procès d'Eugène-Eugénie, Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, BnF, Arsenal manuscrit 5080 fol 154 c. 1335 (enlumineur : Mahiet)

St Hilaria/Hilarion

Saint Hilarion, assigned female at birth, lived his life as a trans man while living a life of solitude for many years as a monk

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XV 8 (83.MR.178), fol. 133v

St. Mary of Egypt

Zosimas hands Mary his cloak, from the Dunois Hours

Yates Thompson MS 3, f. 287r