The paper aims to provide a brief overview of Christian views on sexual and gender identity, both in the early Christian and the patristic period. Focusing on three historical examples of a different understanding of Christian identity, the paper seeks to address the role of contemporary concepts of sex and gender in the creation of Christian identity. In the first case study, which is focused on the literary representations of the Christian martyrdom from the 2nd and 3rd century, a special emphasis is placed on the demand to the ‘manly’ or ‘masculine’ way of witnessing the faith. The second historical example relates to the creation of a wider ascetic movement in the 4th century Asia Minor, and its specific focus is on Macrina the Younger. In her Vita, Gregory of Nyssa distinguishes between Macrina’s sexual identity based on her virginity on the one hand, and her gender identity based on her social role as a widow, as well as as the mother and the father to her monastic community on the other hand. Finally, the focus is shifted towards Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, whose teachings about ecstasy, as a way to transcend oneself in the movement towards the loved one, provide the basis for establishing a theology of marriage and for creating a Christian identity not on sexual or gender roles, but on the uniqueness of human nature.