Citation: Budwey, Stephanie A. 2022. Saint Wilgefortis: A Queer Image for Today. Religions 13: 616. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel13070616 Academic Editor: Kimberly Hope Belcher Received: 31 May 2022 Accepted: 1 July 2022 Published: 4 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Saint Wilgefortis: A Queer Image for Today Stephanie A. Budwey Homiletics and Liturgics, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Nashville, TN 37240, USA; stephanie.a.budwey@vanderbilt.edu Abstract: An increasing number of people identify outside of the sex/gender binary, many of whom are in crisis and under attack simply because of how they choose to identify. There are few opportunities for them to experience healing in liturgies, particularly as these liturgies often perpetuate a normative view of the sex/gender binary through language and art. This article offers Saint Wilgefortis as an emancipatory image that offers healing while also transforming ethical attitudes and behaviors toward those who identify outside of the sex/gender binary. First is an examination of the history of the cult of Wilgefortis. This is followed by interpretations of the medieval devotion to Wilgefortis, providing a liberating depiction of someone who blurs boundaries, who is ‘both and neither,’ who is and is not Christ (human and divine), and who is and is not ‘female’ or ‘male.’ Next is an exploration of contemporary portrayals of Wilgefortis, providing a queer, multivalent, and prophetic image for today. Finally, there is a discussion of how Wilgefortis could be incorporated into liturgies that minister especially to those who identify outside of the sex/gender binary while also expanding the imagination of those who struggle to see sex/gender as a spectrum. Keywords: Wilgefortis; queer; sex/gender binary; liturgy; art; healing; crisis 1. Introduction There are an increasing number of people who identify outside of the cisnormative 1 sex/gender binary, 2 identifying as bigender, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gen- derqueer, intersex, nonbinary, and transgender, among other identities. Many of these people face higher levels of violence, economic instability, and health issues—both physical and mental (Budwey 2023; The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law 2021). How are liturgies complicit in perpetuating this normative view of the sex/gender binary? Further- more, what liturgies of healing are being offered for those who are in crisis because they are under attack for not ‘fitting’ into the sex/gender binary? Liturgies, both in their language and art, often reinforce the belief that sexual dimorphism— a paradigm where “people are seen to be naturally (in a normative sense) unequivocally and exclusively male or unequivocally and exclusively female” (Jung 2006, p. 293)—is ‘natural’ and ‘God-given’ along with the notion that to be a human being means to be created clearly ‘female’ or clearly ‘male’ 3 in the image of God (Budwey 2023, chp. 4). In their discussion of “The Normative Power of Images,” Stefanie Knauss and Daria Pezzoli- Oligati describe how art has been used in the “religious legitimation of gender norms” as it “communicate[s] and shape[s] normative ideas about and the actual practice of gender identity, gender roles, and the relationships between different gender categories” (Knauss and Pezzoli-Oligati 2015, pp. 1–2). Binary language and art exclude all those who identify outside of this strict binary—to the point of making people feel like they are monsters and not human (Budwey 2023, chp. 3). While there are many examples from the Christian tradition—both visual and textual—that reinforce the sex/gender binary, there are also those that help expand religious imagination beyond the sex/gender binary (Budwey 2018, 2020, 2023, chps. 4 and 5). These are what Marjorie Procter-Smith calls emancipatory language and images, those which challenge Religions 2022, 13, 616. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070616 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions