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Samantha: He is hot.
Carrie: He is a priest!
Basically the male counterpart of Naughty Nuns: the handsome, attractive, usually young priest. Has a long tradition in western culture, dating at least to the Middle Ages. The priest is usually Roman Catholic for the added Forbidden Fruit aspects of celibacy, but there's still room for the handsome young pastor in Protestant settings as well.
Depending on the viewpoint of the characters, this can be played for sympathy or antipathy: Either the priest is a innocent and charismatic Good Shepherd who just can't help attracting the attentions of women ( and sometimes men, too) or he is a sinister The Casanova in a Corrupt Church, in which case it is often a trait of the Sinister Minister.
See also: The Vicar. Can overlap with Nun Too Holy. May lead into Hot for Preacher.
In terms of rank, the Authority Tropes arguably equal are Badass Preacher, Corrupt Corporate Executive, Irish Priest, Landlord, Preacher Man, Pedophile Priest, Schoolteachers, Sinister Minister and The Vicar. For the next step down, see Student Council President. For the next step up, see Dean Bitterman.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- (pictured) Father Remington of Chrono Crusade is handsome... and knows it. He happily flirts back with the younger nuns, much to Sister Kate's chagrin. He's handsome enough that Rosette — a nun herself and something of an adopted daughter to him — has a crush on him, too, making him also a case of a Hot Dad.
- Apparently, the reason why he's so hot in the anime is that he's a Really 700 Years Old fallen angel. (In the manga he's unnaturally youthful despite having been a teen in the 1870s due to being implanted with demonic "legion.")
- In the epilogue of the manga, it turns out that Joshua Christopher, Rosette's younger brother, becomes a priest as well and keeps his bishonen looks.
- The Church of Violence in Black Lagoon acquires one of these in season 2: Ricardo aka Rico, the Naïve Newcomer who hangs out with Eda and gets called "jackass" for referring to her as "sis" intead of "Sister".
- Miroku of InuYasha is a houshi, a wandering Buddhist monk. He's also Team Inuyasha's resident Handsome Lech and generally very popular with the ladies of any given Adventure Town — to the endless exasperation of both Sango and Inuyasha.
- Trinity Blood is full of them. Father Abel, Father Tres, Father Leon, Father Hugue, Brother Petro... even the Pope! Observe here
 ◊.
- Nicholas D. Wolfwood in Trigun.
- Kotomine Kirei. Well, as much as a fake priest can be anyways.
- Farther Kanae of Maria†Holic has a bit of a crush on Mariya which he tries to keep to himself. Mariya spots the crush instantly and vainly glories in it.
- Frau in 07-Ghost. And Castor.
- Charley in Vassalord, though he gets it all the time from Rayflo.
- Enrico Pucci from part 6 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. His Fan Nickname is "Father Bootylicious".
- While not exactly priests, the Exorcists in D Gray Man could qualify.
- Ryoumei, from Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi. See here for reference. (Although that's when he's just a teenager.)
- Genjyo Sanzo of Saiyuki certainly qualifies.
- Violinist Of Hamelin has Clari Nett: serious, bishonen, and devout. Unfortunately for his mental health, Hamelin has convinced himself that Clari is gay and insists on calling him rude names. And forcing Raiel to dress up as a girl to "tempt" him.
Comicbooks
- The men in Sin City once sent a priest to Claudia's hen night. The women mistook him for a stripper.
- X-Men: Nightcrawler did train to become a priest, and many a girl dig that nummy Fuzzy Elf...
Film
- A quote from the movie Raising Helen:
Pastor Dan Parker: I'm a sexy man of God, and I know it.
- The film The Devils is in part about sexual obsession, nuns, a priest and a walled town in France.
- Based partially on a real life event, poor guy.
- The young priest from the film Contact.
- Philip from Pirates of the Caribbean, complete with Shirtless Scene.
- Nicolas Cage's character Castor Troy was disguised as a priest in Face Off and does a sexy dance in front of some schoolgirls. Gotta Love Nicolas Cage.
- Russell Crowe's character Cort in The Quick And The Dead.
- Joaquin Phoenix as Abbe du Coulmier in Quills. Teaches Kate Winslet's character how to read and tries to "cure" the Marquis de Sade, both of whom obviously want to get into his frock.
Abbe: I'm not a beautiful young prospect ripe for corruption.
Marquis: Don't be so sure.
- Paul McGann, who has his own personal Estrogen Brigade, played a vicar in Lesbian Vampire Killers.
- Young Jean-Paul Belmondo in Léon Morin, prêtre. A young atheist woman confronts him. She ends up beaten by the obvious power of faith (and a something else beyond)◊
- Camerlengo Patrick McKenna from Angels and Demons. Ewan Mcgregor makes a damn fine priest.
- Gael Garcia Bernal's Father Amaro from The Crime of Father Amaro. Bases on a novel.
- Gabriel Byrne in Stigmata.
- Montgomery Clift in Hitchcock's I Confess. The movie was a flop as a result of the controversy over the romantic themes in the film involving his character.
- Linus Roache in Priest, playing gay Father Greg.
- Jason Scott Lee's ass-kicking, vampire-hunting and absolutely gorgeous Father Uffizi in Dracula II Ascension and Dracula III Legacy.
- Edward Norton in as Father Brian in Keeping The Faith; Brian's friend Anna Lampshades it.
Anna: I've seen the way women look at you, even though they know you're a priest....especially when they know you're a priest!
- In the film Amen., young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana, played by Mathieu Kassovitz, is quite a looker...
Folklore
- Also, the bogatyr (similar to "knight errant") Alyosha Popovich from Russian folk legends may fit. While not a priest himself (he's a popovich, or priest's son: the Russian Orthodox Church allows married men to become priests), his image bears many of the stereotypes associated with priests at the time (e.g., he's cunning and well-spoken, and relies more on wits than strength). Besides his valiant deeds, Alyosha is known for his often dubious amorous escapades. Like that one time when he "disgraced" a fair maiden and received severe fisticuffs from her angry brothers. Or when he tried to trick the wife of his fellow bogatyr, Dobrynya Nikitich, into marrying him by telling her that Dobrynya's dead. It's important to note that Alyosha also gets the girl (a beautiful, loving wife) at the end.
- In medieval Europe, the supposed sexual endowment of priests was standard dirty-joke fodder:
- One joke had a wife threatening to leave her husband because of his physical inadequacy: the priest arranged to have him "inspected" by the women of the parish, through a hole in the church door. The man admitted to the priest that his wife's accusations were correct — he was, in fact, physically most men's lesser — so the two arranged for the priest, not the husband, to display himself through the hole. All the women lined up to offer their opinions — "That's not too bad," "What's she complaining about?", "That's more than my husband has!", until one woman objected: "That's the priest! I'd know him anywhere!"
- Kramer and Sprenger, in their notorious witch-hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum, accepted just such a dirty joke as a factual report of witches' stealing men's "members":
"And what, then, is to be thought of those witches who in this way sometimes collect male organs in great numbers, as many as twenty or thirty members together, and put them in a bird’s nest, or shut them up in a box, where they move themselves like living members, and eat oats and corn, as has been seen by many and is a matter of common report? It is to be said that it is all done by devil’s work and illusion, for the senses of those who see them are deluded in the way we have said. For a certain man tells that, when he had lost his member, he approached a known witch to ask her to restore it to him. She told the afflicted man to climb a certain tree, and that he might take which he liked out of the nest in which there were several members. And when he tried to take a big one, the witch said: You must not take that one; adding, because it belongs to a parish priest."
Literature
- Gösta Berling in Gösta Berling's Saga is at one point this, at least at some points in the narrative. (It's complicated.)
- Older Than Print: There are at least a few examples of both types in the Decameron.
- Mentioned in Gargantua: "The tower of a cloister makes the woman of the village more fertile."
- In Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Bean Trees, Taylor mentions that whenever she sees Father William, she has to resist the urge to flirt with him.
- The Thorn Birds — Father Ralph de Bricassart is pretty much the trope codifier, if not the trope maker. To a lesser extent, his and Meggie's son Dane was planning to follow in his footsteps.
- Father Dominic from The Mediator series by Meg Cabot is in his sixties, but Suze the heroine, frequently notices how handsome he must have been and actually still is "in that Sean Connery way".
- Julien Sorel, the Anti-Hero / Villain Protagonist of The Red And The Black.
- There is a medieval (probably 12th century) Latin poem called the "Altercatio Phyllidis et Flora" about whether knights or priests make better lovers. Guess who wins?
- The Canterbury Tales features a Friar as one of the pilgrims who loves associating with the fairer sex, and is kind enough to perform marriages which he has made necessary.
- Medieval literature in general has tons of these — in jealous husband/sexy adulterous wife stories, the wife often takes up with the local priest. Hilarity Ensues, generally.
- A number of these in the Deryni works. Bishop Denis Arilan's face is described as "handsome", and then-Monsignor (later Bishop) Duncan McLain prompts this exchange between two ladies at his cousin's ducal court:
"...I do hope he gets back in time for dinner. You've seen him, haven't you?"
"Ummm," the blond woman sighed approvingly. "I certainly have. What a pity he's a priest."
- In A Song of Ice and Fire a minor character claims he used to be one of these, since a wandering priest can be quite exotic and exciting if you've never left your dad's cow farm.
- Emilio Sandoz in Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow is a particularly sympathetic example.
- Father Lorenzo Quart in Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Seville Communion.
- The Monk Ambrosio is described as being very attractive, and is obviously popular with the ladies of his congregation.
- Aramis from The Three Musketeers and sequels.
- Inverted in The Hunchback of Notre Dame: it's not that the priest is attractive, it's that he's desperately in love with Esmeralda.
- In Purple Hibiscus, this is how Father Amadi is described by Kambili. Very frequently. In lots of detail.
- The humorous book Growing Up Catholic calls this trope "Father Whatawaste"
Live-Action TV
Music
- There's nothing true here yet, but the blue man in this[1] sure looks like a sexy priest, judging by the robes.
- The blue man's name is Kaito, by the way.
- This troper believes they meant purple (Gackupo) as Kaito's clothing does not look anywhere similar to clothing of the clergy, an entertainer maybe. Gackupo on the other hand does seem to be dressed like a priest of some sort.
- Gakupo is actually an educator and is dressed like one. Kaito, however, is wearing robes, which could mean either. The gold and jewels imply that he is either some sort of thief (gypsy, maybe) or a holy man.
Theatre
- Father Welsh in Martin Mcdonagh's The Lonesome West. It isn't stated outright that he is "sexy", but he is at least attractive enough to make seventeen-year-old Girleen to fall madly in love with him.
Videogames
- Angelo, despite being Dragon Quest VIII's resident Handsome Lech, is still an ordained member of the clergy.
- Play a Fire Emblem game. You'll probably find at least one handsome Priest, Monk, or Bishop. And yup, you can get more than one of them hook up with another character via A supports.
- Father Vincent from Silent Hill 3, depending on the player's fondness for slightly creepy, disheveled, lazy-eyed cult leaders.
- Priests in Ragnarok Online. Men have bared chests, and women wear habits with slits up to the waist. And stockings.
- Carter, from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends is this... at least, in the eyes of many fangirls. Many of them lament that he's not an eligible bachelor. Not to be confused with Carter the Archaeologist from the Wonderful Life/DS subseries.
- Teague Martin from Dishonored is an Overseer, which is the equivalent of a priest in that universe. He is noticeably better-looking than pretty much every other male character in the game.
- Sebastian Vael of Dragon Age II is tanned, blue-eyed, lean and athletic with great cheekbones... and very devoted to the Chantry and his vows. A female Hawke can romance him, but their marriage stays a celibate one (unless he and Hawke are in a rivalry, in which case he stops being a Sexy Priest and vows to take back his throne of Starkhaven).
Web Originals
Western Animation
Real Life
- The Witch craze in Loudun, France, was started when an amorous priest was brought on trial for witchcraft. Said priest had earlier on publicly humiliated some local bishop named Armand Jean du Plessis and who went on to become Cardinal some time later. It is the basis of the movie The Devils mentioned above.
- There's a calendar featuring male Mormon missionaries. The things one learns from Stephen Fry...
- In American Roman Catholic popular culture, such priests are known as "Father What-A-Waste".
- Father Cutie is not exactly hard on the eyes, and he seems to know it.
- The Reverend Ida Auken of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, also a Socialist MP and current Danish Minister for the Environment. This being a Lutheran church, not only is a woman allowed to be a priest, but they're allowed to marry; her mother was also a priest (and a Social Democratic MP).
- Pope Benedict XVI's private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, is known throughout the Vatican as "Beautiful George" because of his good looks. Possibly the only Vatican official in history to attract the attention of the tabloids and the papparazzi (that's the photographers, NOT Sun-speak for the current Pontiff).
- Father Jonathan Morris, a Fox News analyst and contributor, is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and quite adorable.
- Muslim example: Abdullah Gymnastiar, an Indonesian da'i (quite close to "minister"), well-known to Malay-speaking public. Every Muslim is allowed to marry, and he's married (twice).
- Zachary Quinto's Before/After video has him dressed up as one. Several comments from fans are of how they are going to hell for think that.
- Karol Woltyla, better known as Pope John Paul II. Since he became famous only as pope, an older man, he also falls under I Was Quite a Looker.
- Mariano Moreno studied to be a priest, but fell in love with a woman named Guadalupe Cuenca, so he dropped the priesthood (he had not been ordained yet, nor made any oath) and became a lawyer instead.
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