There are certain inevitabilities in this life: death, taxes and the internet collectively losing its mind every time a reasonably attractive man puts on a clerical collar. While we confess our obsession with hot fictional priests isn’t exactly new, the great “hot conclave” discourse of 2025 has entered the Vatican-watch group chat, and no amount of holy water can stop it.
To be clear: the sexy-yet-saintly man of the cloth has graced our screens – and stained glass windows – for what feels like forever, smouldering his way through internal conflict and forbidden longing. He isn’t just handsome – he’s positively haunted. And nothing says “unattainable object of desire” quite like a vow of celibacy and a face like Andrew Scott’s. Or at least, that’s what we tell ourselves when we let the intrusive thoughts win.
When Fleabag dropped in 2019, it felt like the Second Coming. Viewers worldwide suddenly found themselves at the mercy of a gin-swilling, chain-smoking Irishman whose Phoebe Waller-Bridge-written homily may as well have been an ode to forbidden fruit.
But the hot fictional priests canon didn’t begin there. It stretches back – biblically far.
We’ve had Father Francis Chisholm, played by the inimitable Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom, who offered us a taste of temptation long before Jude Law threw us into moral panic as The Young Pope. And now, we’re poised for Josh O’Connor to deliver us into damnation in Knives Out 3.
Call it divine intervention, but the marketing miracle that brought us the 2024 film Conclave mere months prior to a literal papal succession being called, has sent the Internet feral. And in the name of the father, the son and the holy algorithm, we might have reached peak perversion.
It’s no wonder then, that in 2025, even the Vatican is no longer immune from stan culture.
Thanks to real-time conclave updates, thirst traps have entered sacred territory. Papal contenders are being ranked like Bachelorette finalists or imagined as The Real Housecardinals of Vatican City, and even centuries-old religious rites are having a Mean Girls moment.
So, in honour of the real (and much less sexy) sequestration taking place as we speak, we’re keeping the faith with a roundup of the hottest fictional priests and flirty fathers to grace the halls of our fantasy conclave.
Hot Priest in Fleabag
Andrew Scott
While a cast list of Phoebe Waller Bridge’s Fleabag names Andrew Scott’s character as simply “The Priest”, he’ll never be anything but Hot Priest in our pious eyes.
Pope Pius XIII (Lenny Belardo) in The Young Pope
Jude Law
It goes without saying that if Jude Law ever decided to take up a papal position for real, we’d be first in line to be baptised.
Reverend Sidney Chambers in Grantchester
James Norton
He may technically be a vicar, not a priest, but Grantchester’s Reverend Sidney Chambers can take our confession any day.
Camerlengo Patrick McKenna in Angels & Demons
Ewan McGregor
Naughty, nice, or hellbent on incinerating Vatican City – we’ll accept all moral denominations in this fictional conclave. Especially if it’s a Camerlengo played by Ewan McGregor.
Father David
Paapa Essiedu
Channel 4’s upcoming series Falling may not even be out yet, but we’re already head over heels for Paapa Essiedu’s Priest David and the promise of an enemies-to-lovers arc between him and “devoted nun” Anna.
Hot Priest 2.0 in Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Josh O’Connor
Another one for the hotly-anticipated pile is Josh O’Connor’s promising character in the upcoming Knives Out 3 film Wake Up Dead Man. We only have first look images to go off, but it’s certainly a step in the sexier direction from his previous role as the self-involved Vicar Elton in Emma.
Father Brah in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Rene Gube
Father Brah has a devoted following among both his parish, and the internet. A priest with good morals and good looks? Praise be!
Father Charlie Mayhew in Grotesquerie
Nicholas Alexander Chavez
Father Charlie Mayhew of Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie – played by Nicholas Chavez – is giving Andrew Scott a run for his Hot Priest money, and we’re not mad about it.
John Miller in The Flowers of War
Christian Bale
He might only be masquerading as a man of the cloth to protect himself from the perils of the Second Sino-Japanese War, but John Miller’s ability to pull off a cleric’s collar will go down in hot fictional priests history as one of the best.
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