genderbendy

Mom smiled at Sister Veronica. “St. Anthony of Padua.” I have to believe that she smirked. Now this was Ireland, 1963. It was still six years before Johnny Cash's hit “A Boy Named Sue.” Anything genderbendy was unheard of at the best of times, let alone in the parish church of a Catholic village with a population of 900, including surrounding farmlands. Taking a male saint's name—Mom says it was on a dare—was unheard of and, as far as I know, unreplicated since.