#sergius/bacchus

[anniflamma]

Okay… I’m going to rant about a book that I read a while ago.... And I can’t deny it anymore… it was a bad book.

The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus by David Reddish. It’s a romantic retelling of the Christian saints Sergius and Bacchus.

To tell the story briefly about these saints, Sergius and Bacchus were third-century Roman soldiers and Christian martyrs. The oldest record of their martyrdom describes them as erastai (Greek for “lovers”). Scholars believe they may have been united in the rite of adelphopoiesis, a kind of early Christian same-sex union. When their Christian faith became known, after they refused to attend sacrifices to Zeus, Sergius and Bacchus were arrested and paraded through the streets in women’s clothing in an unsuccessful effort to humiliate them. The reason it failed was that the duo didn’t feel humiliated being dressed as women. After that they were both executed. Bacchus was beaten to death and Sergius was forced to walk in inward-iron-spiked metal shoes to another town and there was executed.

So, of course, when I found out there was a book retelling about them, I bought it immediately and obviously ignored the negative reviews. I read it with rose-tinted glasses on and loved it! Sure, I could see some red flags, but I ignored them, and to be honest, there are some parts of the book that is very good.

But here’s the problem with it: Reddish’s way of portraying women is… very questionable. For example, there are only two named female characters in the book. Only two. The first one is Helen, whose personality traits are that she’s pregnant and stupid. Im not kidding. Not that she actually does anything dumb, the narrative just tells us she’s stupid. She don't do anything, like she takes parts in some conversations with the other male characters but other than that, nothing. But the book itself and the maincharacters acts like she is the most dumb person there is. Later in the book, she dies, motivating another male character to make irrational decisions out of grief. Her only purpose is to serve as a plot device when she dies.....

The second named female character is Miriam (I remember right...), and she’s a homophobe. She does have a small arc where she recognizes she’s wrong, the next chapter she’s back to being homophobic again, and the narrative nor other characters doesn’t acknowledge her regression.

Trigger warning for the topic of rape.

Then there’s another female character who appears in the book. She doesn’t have a name. She’s basically just a narrative device to show that Sergius is a good person. There’s a scene where Sergius finds a group of Roman men raping a 14-year-old girl. He kills them and saves her. He doesn’t speak to her, she have no speaking lines, and then… Sergius just leaves and continues with whatever he was doing before. The plot moves on, and it’s never mentioned again....This entire scene happens in less than one page. At first, I thought it would come back to bite Sergius, you know, because he just killed four Roman men.... but nope! It was just there to show that Sergius thinks rape is bad and that he’s a skilled fighter who can take down four men at once. That’s all. Wtf?

This is why I hate stories that use rape as a tool to make a male character look good...

And then there’s the moment when Sergius and Bacchus were forced to be dressed in women’s clothing… In this retelling book, it’s portrayed as deeply shameful. Sergius has a long inner monologue about how awful he feels seeing Bacchus in women’s clothing, blah blah blah.

Like… this book shits on every single female character it has, and when it reaches the part where, in the original story, the men proudly embrace being “Brides of Christ,” it does the exact opposite. Yet Sergius is described as empathetic toward women’s suffering, that guy have inner monologues about how much he thinks that women should be treated better but at the same time he’d rather be physically tortured than wear women’s clothing.... And Sergius nor the narrative never questions why Sergius feel that way.... Talk about the irony... a modern retelling of an ancient story about two men who proudly embrace becoming "Brides of Christ" which leads to their death, yet in this version, it’s portrayed as something shameful.

How do you, as an author, take an old story from the freaking third century and potray it like this? There is no women in the legend so all these female characters are made up by the author... I can't help it but it feels like this author just simply don't like women... I really wanted to like this book... but once you see it without the redtinded glasses... it's really hard for me to recommend it... Stay away guys.

[pierrotsoup]

Sooo everyone agrees that these are gay boys correct?

[actualmermaid]

I'm going to have this made into stickers for the shop, but feel free to download it for personal (non-commercial) use.

Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Roman imperial defectors and radical martyrs and also probably a cute gay couple in real life, want you to say NO to homonationalism

[akonos]

mio re, mio re // obedience, for the king

A little copiiia piece for the lovely @highwarlockofphilly ‘s beautiful series on ao3… utterly obsessed

[idiotwhotalkstoomuch]

Ryuji’s distorted persona: Sergius and Bacchus

Background: A pair of young Roman nobles in the Roman army who had the favor of the emperor. After refusing to make sacrifices to a pagan temple, they were outed as Christians. Bacchus, who died from torture, appeared to tell Sergius they would be reunited which came true following his beheading.

If you look at the starting post for the perfect semester, you will see my friend reblog the fact his research for the personas is limited to watching tiktok videos to find saints. These are the saints he found.

The reasoning behind having Sergius and Bacchus for Ryuji is because much like Ryuji, they were persecuted for standing by what they believe in. Much like how Sergius and Bacchus were executed for their faith, Ryuji’s leg was broken by Kamoshida because he couldn’t stand the abuse of Kamoshida. They differ in that even though Ryuji stood up to Kamoshida, he was made a pariah for daring to oppose how things the way they were, while Sergius and Bacchus would eventually have a cult and many churches dedicated to them.

Shadow Ryuji thinks his actions are heroic and is what is best for the people, the people in the ship of his palace undergo trials because they want to be saved by him in his glacier where they can rejoin society and be happy. In a sense, Shadow Ryuji believes that even if he has to go down to achieve it, he will be venerated for his actions and be loved by everyone.

The reason he got both Sergius and Bacchus instead of just Sergius or Bacchus is to highlight Ryuji’s loyalty to the Phantom Thieves as Sergius and Bacchus are saints that are paired together because their stories are interconnected and are even considered by many to be lovers, Ryuji is the phantom thief aside from Morgana who is actually the most doubtful about their actions as gods but his loyalty to his friends and his desire to make them happy is why he joined them despite his misgivings.

As me and Krotus aren’t artists, we can’t actually make any art of these two as his persona but I imagine with Shadow Ryuji they manifest as corpses with rotting flesh (with other flourishes but I’m not completely sure how they’d look) but when they are his persona after Ryuji has a change of heart, they are skeletons.

[illustratinglaura]

Mourning of Bacchus.

This here is more tragic story than Romeo and Juliet. Why are there no movies about them? Sure their relationship might have been completely platonic (and they were rome mates) but the LOVE, the commitment, the tragic end!

Meanwhile the blessed Serge, deeply depressed and heartsick over the loss of Bacchus, wept and cried out, "No longer, brother and fellow soldier, will we chant together, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' You have been unyoked from me and gone up to heaven, leaving me alone on earth, bereft [literally, "made single"], without comfort." After he uttered these things, the same night the blessed Bacchus suddenly appeared to him with a face as radiant as an angel's, wearing an officer's uniform, and spoke to him. "Why do you grieve and mourn, brother? If I have been taken from you in body, I am still with you in the bond of union, chanting and reciting, 'I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart.' Hurry then, yourself, brother, through beautiful and perfect confession to pursue and obtain me, when finishing the course. For the crown of justice for me is with you.''

[shetland-clouds]

[justanothergeneralkrow]

Humanitas Sakamoto Boss Fight

Ryuji’s boss fight is broken down into three parts. This battle involves a time limit similar to that of Okumura’s Boss Battle. Furthermore Ryuji’s battle has a specific status ailment that will punish the player for taking too long to make a decision during turns by drastically decreasing agility and attack.

The first part of Ryuji’s battle involves the Infiltrators going through waves of guards to catch up to Ryuji while he attempts to run ahead of them. Failure to keep pace with Ryuji is an automatic defeat. To put it in simpler terms, the first segment lasts a specific amount of time but that set of time can be broken down into smaller segments and not beating the wave of guards within that small segment of time will result in defeat. 

The second part of the battle involves a fight with Ryuji in the deepest part of the iceberg while flanked by two of his guards. This portion of the battle is straightforward except for two key aspects. Firstly Ryuji will not let his guards die and take the fatal hits for them at a quarter of the damage, if an infiltrator uses a team wide attack that will kill the guards Ryuji will take the hit plus a quarter of the damage the guards would’ve been hit with. The guards themself are able to heal one another and, though much rarely, Ryuji himself. Secondly Ryuji has the ability to break the floor underneath the Infiltrators that will temporarily put them out of commission and when they return they will suffer from the palace specific status ailment. The Infiltrators have two ways of getting to the third portion of the first: one is whittling down Ryuji’s health or sending a team member to break the floor under Ryuji.

During the third part of the battle Ryuji unveils his persona St. Sergius and Bacchus. This portion of the battle involves Ryuji attempting to destroy the floor of the iceberg in order to kill himself and all the Infiltrators. The infiltrators have three minutes to take Ryuji down before he accomplishes his goal. Additionally Sergius and Bacchus have separate health bars and will take hits for one another while also possessing the ability heal and resurrect one another.

[uskomatontakinkohan]

Had somebody told me a year ago that I’d be neck deep into saints I would have died laughing. But here I am, my circles of favorite saints growing bigger by the day. These two are my new favorites. 😍

Bacchus and Sergius.

I really want to draw my version of Bacchus and Sergius riding horses and rubbing cheeks.

[catholic-saint-tournament]

SS Sergius & Bacchus, gay soldiers who didn't snitch on each other

They will be added to the folk/traditional list! For those jumping aboard, I had it as folk/legend - now it's folk/traditional. Meaning any saints that have popular devotions, unreliable hagiographies, or didn't go through the formal canonization process!

As for Sts Sergius and Bacchus, this is the first nomination so if you want them on the bracket we'll need more propaganda for them!

[emaadsidiki]

Küçük Ayasofya Camii

Little Hagia Sophia / Church of Saints Sergius & Bacchus

[anniflamma]

2 months ago I was just like this the moment I finished reading The Prince's Psalm and now again with the Passion Of Sergius And Bacchus. Am I the only one who reads gay retellings of the bible or christian lore!!!??????????

[cairamelcoffee]

i love art history i got to ask my professor today "do you know who the second gayest saint is"

[actualmermaid]

I have roughly one million feelings about Sergius and Bacchus, which I have been posting anywhere I can get people to listen to me, so in true ~traditional icon writing~ fashion, I tried to compress all of my thoughts and feelings down into a single image: SAINTS SERGIUS AND BACCHUS, PATRON SAINTS OF QUEER COMMUNITY DEFENSE.

I didn't plan out which guy was going to be which saint, but over the course of making this, I started thinking of the saint on the right as Sergius and the one on the left as Bacchus.

As with my Saint Robin Hood icon, this is free to use, remix, and distribute. And it's transparent!

"LEGIO LXIX" means "Legion 69," which is the funny sex number even if the joke doesn't work in Roman numerals.

The fish is an ancient Christian symbol used to represent disciples of Jesus. The palm frond is also a traditional symbol for martyrs, which S&B were.

Many Roman war banners had images of eagles on top, but to paraphrase Ben Franklin, the eagle is a bird of bad moral character. Instead, S&B's banner has a swan on top, because swans are famously very gay animals who are also very protective of their nests.

"PROTEGITE INFIRMOS" is Latin for "protect the weak." This is written on a sheet of papyrus, which was a common everyday writing material used by all classes of people in ancient Rome.

[anniflamma]

Welp... after finish The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus... (╥_╥)

:,)

[illustratinglaura]

Sergius and Bacchus.

The original BFF.