diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/324-acme_certificate-fullchain.yml b/changelogs/fragments/324-acme_certificate-fullchain.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..10f5eb36d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/324-acme_certificate-fullchain.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "acme_certificate - avoid passing multiple certificates to ``cryptography``'s X.509 certificate loader when ``fullchain_dest`` is used. Doing so potentially produces an error when cryptography 36.0.0 is used (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.crypto/pull/324)."
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/acme/backend_cryptography.py b/plugins/module_utils/acme/backend_cryptography.py
index ed1cf9a45..8f0a35dcb 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/acme/backend_cryptography.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/acme/backend_cryptography.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 import os
 import sys
 
-from ansible.module_utils.common.text.converters import to_bytes, to_native
+from ansible.module_utils.common.text.converters import to_bytes, to_native, to_text
 
 from ansible_collections.community.crypto.plugins.module_utils.acme.backends import (
     CryptoBackend,
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@
     cryptography_name_to_oid,
 )
 
+from ansible_collections.community.crypto.plugins.module_utils.crypto.pem import (
+    extract_first_pem,
+)
+
 try:
     import cryptography
     import cryptography.hazmat.backends
@@ -357,6 +361,9 @@ def get_cert_days(self, cert_filename=None, cert_content=None, now=None):
         if cert_content is None:
             return -1
 
+        # Make sure we have at most one PEM. Otherwise cryptography 36.0.0 will barf.
+        cert_content = to_bytes(extract_first_pem(to_text(cert_content)) or '')
+
         try:
             cert = cryptography.x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(cert_content, _cryptography_backend)
         except Exception as e:
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/crypto/pem.py b/plugins/module_utils/crypto/pem.py
index a59f710a4..ffa0df068 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/crypto/pem.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/crypto/pem.py
@@ -72,3 +72,13 @@ def split_pem_list(text, keep_inbetween=False):
                     result.append(''.join(current))
                     current = [] if keep_inbetween else None
     return result
+
+
+def extract_first_pem(text):
+    '''
+    Given one PEM or multiple concatenated PEM objects, return only the first one, or None if there is none.
+    '''
+    all_pems = split_pem_list(text)
+    if not all_pems:
+        return None
+    return all_pems[0]