Wilgefortis is a female saint of popular religious imagination whose cult arose in the 14th century. Art historians have argued that the origins of the cult can be found with the Volto Santo of Lucca, a large eleventh century carved wooden figure of Christ on the Cross (now replaced by a 13th century copy), bearded like a man, but dressed in a full-length tunic like a woman instead of the normal loin cloth familiar in the West. The theory is that when the composition was copied and brought north over the next 150 years, in small copies by pilgrims and dealers, this unfamiliar image led trouser-wearing Northerners to create a narrative to explain the androgynous icon. Read more