Sex for Saints : How the
Holy Do It (or Don’t, as the Case May Be)
A Novel by Patrick Donohue
Saint Peter did it. Saint Augustine did it.
Did Saint Jerome do it? Did Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?
Fuck, that is.
How seldom it occurs to us that saints had sex. We know much about their lives, yet we’re mostly in
the dark about what went on under the holy covers.
That’s what Art and Mary plan to uncover. Art, a former seminarian, is now a journalist. Mary, a clinical
psychologist, was once a nun. A married couple, they’ve been asked to give some talks to seminarians about spirituality
and sex.
As they explore the connections between sex and religion, a book begins to take shape. Then, possibly, a tv
series. Along the way, Art and Mary discover some disconcerting truths about their own marriage.
In recalling Art and Mary’s experiences of religious life in the 1960s, Sex for Saints re-visits the exciting days of the Second Vatican Council. To liberals like Art and Mary, Church renewal looked much
more hopeful then than it does now.
Through letters, journals, dreams, psychotherapy sessions and incisive dialogue, Sex for Saints (about 200,000 words) exposes Roman Catholicism’s conflicted attitude to sexuality. Serious issues are at stake,
but a rich vein of comedy runs through the novel.
- "Donohue has two things on his mind: sexual repression and Roman Catholicism. Make that one thing!" –
Sigmund Freud
- "Anathema sit!" – Pope Benedict XVI
******
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