ABSTRACT
This chapter examines relationships between Darger’s Vivian Girls and female saints celebrated in Catholic devotional cults for their ability to transgress social boundaries and “become male.” His appropriation and use of holy cards, martyr narratives, as well as his own variations on specific martyrs’ names and their legendary ambiguous gender suggest a divine lineage between the Vivians and female martyrs like SS. Vivia Perpetua and Joan of Arc. Pursuing these connections, this chapter opens the possibilities for further discussion of Darger’s Vivians within broad-ranging, less sexually fetishized frameworks by bringing the image of these extraordinary children into the context of art and religion.
