My research has found a pattern of gender queer behaviors amongst female saints of Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. The behaviors that female saints exhibited made them “like men,” and created an ideal “gender queer” archetype for medieval women. I have researched primary sources, specifically stories of female saints’ lives, and analyzed the patterns of behavior. In addition to the primary sources, I have used secondary sources based on the scholarship of medieval sexuality to define and understand gender and sexuality as it was viewed at the time. I have researched saints such as Saint Perpetua, a Roman woman, through Saint Radegund, a Frankish queen and founder of the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. This project bolsters the understanding that gender queerness and fluidity have been around since Late Antiquity. My research seeks to support understandings of gender and sexuality throughout history.
