The Catholic Church never seems to have specifically identified sadism or masochism as sins. In fact the Church seems to have completely ignored the entire concept. Even so, many Christian stories and a great deal of the religious art in churches graphically tell the tales of some of the most notorious sadists and most peculiar masochists of all time. One of the most startling things about Christianity for many non-Christians is the intense preoccupation with death and suffering. The Catholic church has been the producer of a multitude of disturbing tales describing the trials and tribulations of their holy saints and martyrs. Torture and martyrdom were the most popular themes in Christian legends for many centuries. The stories associated with these victims are, at best, wildly exadgerated and, at worst, completelyfictitioushaving little basis in reality. Documentation does not exist to corroborate these tales, and some are even based on stories from other religions or traditions. The best we can tell is that some of these people, or similar people, may have existed, and that some Christians were persecuted or killed. These stories are especially horrific, even for fiction, but they were written this way for a reason. It is likely that they were tailor made to appeal to the proclivities of their consumers. The people in these stories suffered every torture imaginable, not at the whim of their persecutors, who did not exist, but because of the preferences of the patrons, who paid for the art, and their audience. Fictitious victims were tied up, often in poses that today would be categorized as kinky. They were exposed to the public view. They were degraded and humiliated. They were tortured and often killed. In any other context the images associated with these stories would be considered disturbing, deviant and questionable for public display, especially for children because they showed graphic depictions of
brutality and torture
beating, whipping
piercing with knives, swords, arrows
torn flesh and body parts
bleeding and blood (collecting and drinking, or bathing in blood are esp popular themes in Christian art)
burning or ‘roasting’
beheading
death
In addition, emphasizing any sexual aspects of their torture would not only elicit pity and horror, but also tapped into the voyeurism in the audience evoking a kind of fascination. Its like that car accident on the side of the road that you cant help but slow down to have a look.
There is no way to know for sure what was going on in the minds of the people who wrote these stories or produced this art, or in the minds of the people who consumed it, but I think it is an interesting topic to explore.