Opinion / The Irish Times on the Web / ireland.com: "



Tuesday, August 11, 1998

When marriage between
gays was by rite



RITE AND REASON: A Kiev art museum contains a curious icon from St Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. It shows two robed Christian saints. Between them is a traditional Roman pronubus (best man) overseeing what in a standard Roman icon would be the wedding of a husband and wife. In the icon, Christ is the pronubus. Only one thing is unusual. The 'husband and wife' are in fact two men.
Is the icon suggesting that a homosexual 'marriage' is one sanctified by Christ? The very idea initially seems shocking. The full answer comes from other sources about the two men featured, St Serge and St Bacchus, two Roman soldiers who became Christian martyrs.
While the pairing of saints, particularly in the early Church, was not unusual, the association of these two men was regarded as particularly close. Severus of Antioch in the sixth century explained that 'we should not separate in speech [Serge and Bacchus] who were joined in life'. More bluntly, in the definitive 10th century Greek account of their lives, St Serge is openly described as the 'sweet companion and lover' of St Bacchus."


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