Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"In the Middle Ages and later on the image of Wilgefortis provoked anxiety on the part of the Churc officials, but simultaneously it was very attractive for large audiences of the faithful. The mysterious saint was not merely the product of ac onfusion, but she was also the embodiment of a certain ideal, that of a God who is both masculine and feminine. Christ represents all the humanity, hence his ideal representation should imply the two genders instead of simply one of them. In the image of a feminized Christ God transcends the limits of gender. David Williams maintains that the iconographic texts having Wilgefortis as their object revealed specific expectations towards an ideal icon representing God: 'Far from being the product of a confusion of Christological iconography, Wilgeforte may be seen more informatively as a symbolic encodement of the concept of a hermaphroditic Jesus as God'" -- Anna Czarnowus, "A saint who never existed : extrahistorical texts about St Wilgefortis", 2004