ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author unpacks an entry in Magnus Hirschfeld's Transvestites (1910) on the Life of St Marinos the Monk to argue that his theories of the soul may be useful to flip the understanding of medieval trans saints from a frame of cisgender artifice, fears and desires to the frame of authenticity. In the process, the tradition of describing the subjects of these hagiographies as ‘transvestite’ saints is thoroughly critiqued by critically historicizing and reclaiming the term. Imago transvesti and imitatio transvesti are proposed as theoretical lenses that combine the medieval discourses of imago Dei and imitatio Christi with insights from trans studies in order to improve our understanding of medieval transgender saints.
