English monk and writer Saint Aelred of Rievaulx died on this day in 1197. Born in Hexham in Northumbria, the son of a married priest, he was educated at the cathedral school in Durham, and spent several years in service at the court of David I of Scotland, becoming intimate friends with the king’s stepson Waldef of Melrose. He took religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church in 1134, entering the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. In 1147, he was elected abbot, a position he held until his death. Under his leadership, the abbey expanded its membership to 140 monks and 500 laymen. As well as his religious duties, he was heavily involved in politics, including campaigning for the recognition of Pope Alexander III. A prolific writer, he wrote several influential religious tracts, most notably De spirituali amicitiâ (On Spiritual Friendship), and several biographies of English kings. He died in 1167, aged 56 or 57. A religious cult formed after his death, bolstered by a biography published by Walter Daniel, and he was informally canonised as a saint. He is recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. In the 1970s, religious historians Brian Patrick McGuire and John Boswell speculated that Aelred may have been sexually attracted to men, pointing to his descriptions of sexual experiences in adolescence (“a cloud of desire arose from the lower drives of the flesh and the gushing spring of adolescence“) and his extensive tributes to homosocial friendships, including an unnamed younger companion (“It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love, someone in whom your spirit can rest, to whom you can pour out your soul…. where you so join yourself and cleave to him that soul mingles with soul and two become one“). A protracted academic debate followed, with critics arguing that McGuire and Boswell had conflated medieval notions of spiritual friendship with 20th conceptions of homosexuality. Aelred has since been adopted as a patron saint by several gay-friendly religious organisations, including Integrity USA in the American Episcopal Church and the Order of St Aelred in the Philippines.