Welcome to Nominationtide! For one full week, the Supreme Executive Committee will be accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2017.
Please note that the ONLY way to nominate a saint is to leave a comment in this post. We will not accept nominations via social media, e-mail, carrier pigeon, brick through a window at Forward Movement headquarters, or singing telegram.
As you discern saints to nominate, please keep in mind that a number of saints are ineligible for next year’s “saintly smackdown.” This includes the entire field of Lent Madness 2016, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2015 and 2014, and those from the 2013 Faithful Four. Below is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations.
Also, note that the saints you nominate should be in the sanctoral calendar of one or more churches. When it comes to nominations, the SEC has seen it all over the years: people who are still alive, people who are not Christians, non-humans, etc. While these folks (and animals) may well be wonderful, they are not eligible for Lent Madness.
As always, we seek to put together a balanced bracket of saints ancient and modern, Biblical and ecclesiastical representing the breadth and diversity of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
And remember that when it comes to saints in Lent Madness, many are called yet few are chosen (by the SEC). So leave a comment below with your (eligible) nomination!
The Saints of Lent Madness 2016 (all ineligible)
Helena
Constance
Dominic
Clare
Vida Dutton Scudder
F.D. Maurice
Cyril
Methodius
Lawrence
Albert Schweitzer
Roch
Gertrude
Julian of Norwich
William Wilberforce
Meister Eckhart
Drogo
Columba
Kateri Tekakwith
Athanasius
Elmo
Barnabas
Frances Joseph-Gaudet
John Mason Neale
Sojourner Truth
Soren Kierkegaard
Christina Rossetti
Joseph
Matthias
Absalom Jones
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From 2013 to 2015 (ineligible)
Thecla
Bernard Mizecki
Molly Brant
Frederick Douglass
Egeria
Brigid of Kildare
Kamehameha
Basil the Great
Lydia
Harriet Bedell
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Anna Cooper
Phillips Brooks
Julia Chester Emery
Hilda of Whitby
Luke
Oscar Romero
After the SEC culls through the hundreds of nominations at their annual spring retreat, the 2017 Bracket will be announced on All Brackets’ Day (November 3rd).
In the meantime, we wish you all a joyous Nominationtide.
Mary of Egypt
Franz Jaeggersttater
I support this nomination.
I like this nomination.
Charles de Foucauld
I nominate Pope John Paul the first, although Bishop of Rome for only 33 days left an impact not only on the Roman Catholic Church but upon all Christendom.
I also nominate Cletus, 3rd Bishop of Rome and martyr of the church. His name is still listed in the first Eucharistic prayer in the Roman Church.
I nominate St Margaret of Scotland
I nominate: St. Peter and Teresa of Avila
SERIOUSLY!?! HOW MANY ARE ELIGIBLE ?
Elizabeth Seton
I support this nomination
For all you Julian of Norwich Fans who will be in London in the next few weeks—https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2016/04/medieval-manuscripts-by-female-authors-on-display-together-for-first-time.phtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FineBooksAndCollectionsBlog+%28The+Fine+Books+Blog%29
My nomination is Mother Teresa
Daniel Wu
Moses (not quite a saint but pretty important)
Abraham (ditto)
FDR
Pauli Murray
I seond that Moses! I third it! “Moses, Moses, Moses!”
I think Moses is indeed a saint and among those Saints of the Old Testament which the Anglican Church of Canada commemorates on November 4.
Well, of course he’s a saint. We have all heard someone say, “Holy Moses!” What more confirmation would we possibly need?
My thoughts on names to use in the next Lent Madness are:
Martin Luther King, Dr. Paul Branch, Dr. Robert Coles, Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky, Dr. C. Everett Koop, Annie Dillard, Henri Nouwen
Henry Nouwen – oh yes!!
Yes, Henry Nouwen
Ditto for Henri Nouwen.
I also support Henri Nouwen .
Yes, another vote for Henri Nouwen!
Yes, to Henri Nouwen and Jean Vanier.
Henri Nouwen and Jean Vanier
yah I agree on martin Luther king, and I want to nominate Mother Teresa please and Gandhi.
I was thinking about MLK and Nouwen as well!
I guess a nomination via airplane banner is also not permissible! 🙂
I would like to nominate Elizabeth Seton for next year’s Lent Madness.
I agree!
Most definitely ST ELIZABETH SETON!
I’m also nominating St Elizabeth Seton. Thank you Katie Baldwin.
We need a Great Awakening- John Wesley, George Whitefield.
Yes, John Wesley!
What about Samuel Wesly and Dorothy Sayers
I nominate Artemesia Bowden.
Dorothy Day
Absolutely, Dorothy Day!
I second
Dorothy Day and add Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa!
Yes – Mother Teresa of Calcutta is my choice
Yes, another vote for Mother Teresa , soon to be St. Teresa of Calcutta
I’m in for Dorothy Day, too.
Some that come to mind are St. David, and Jean Vanier.
As a Welshwoman St David is a definite for me too.
Also Jean Vanier as a still living saint.
And what about Mary Sumner, founder of the Mothers Union.
St. Sergius of Moscow
Toyohiko Kagawa is a little known person in the US.
He embodied the Social Gospel movement in Japan, where so few understood his Christian ideas. Also wrote movingly about John’s Gospel–certainly has been part of my spiritual formation.
Yes, Kagawa! I met him as a child – he came to our house for dinner. Also I nominate Walter Rauschenbusch, another saint of the Social Gospel.
Yes, Kagawa would be excellent.
Alphage (whose day this is) seems like he could be a contender. And I would love to see Florence Li Tim Oi back in the Lent Dome.
Is that the same as St. Alphege. I nominate him, he shares my date.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, John Paul II Cecelia and Mother Theresa will be a saint as of September 4, 2016. Just don’t bracket JPII and Mother Theresa (Teresa?) against each other. LM16 was a killer for great people pitted against great people.
I was going to suggest Elizabeth Seton, too, first person born in America named a saint.
Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Teilhard de Chardin, Ignatius of Loyola and Mother Teresa
Clara Maas
St Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of cats, gardeners, and those avoiding mental illness. While we did enjoy Roche this year he was admittedly a dog person, and this Gertrude deserves equal time with the other one who went up against him. Do all the cat people, gardeners, and those avoiding mental illness agree with me??
Yes.
I second that!
Yes, Gretrude for sure.
Also, Elizabeth of Hungary, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks. I *was* going to say St. Luke, but apparently he’s no eligible. John Paul II is also a good choice.
Yes, Elizabeth of Hungary! I second that nomination.
Definitely Gertrude! From an avid gardener and crazy cat lady whose favorite aunt was Gertrude.
Yes
yes
Eric Little Olympic runner ,missionary killed by the Chinese in World War 2 Think Chariots of Fire
A second vote for the “muscular Christian,” Eric Little
It’s actually Eric Liddell 🙂 A very worthy candidate.
Jacopone da Todi ~ “who joined the Third Order of St. Francis. During this period, he gained a reputation as a madman, due to his eccentric behavior, acting out his spiritual vision, earning him the nickname he was to embrace of Jacopone (Crazy Jim). Examples of this behavior included appearing in the public square of Todi, wearing a saddle and crawling on all fours. On another occasion, he appeared at a wedding in his brother’s house, tarred and feathered from head to toe.” (Wikipedia)
He’s my patron saint!
Any relation to Christina the Astonishing? 🙂
Johann Sebastian Bach
Henry Martyn
Janani Luwum and the Martyrs of Uganda
Perpetua and Felicity
Great ideas all. I second all four of these nominations.
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne; Patrick of Ireland; Cornelia Whipple
I nominate St. Dunstan, of blacksmithing, organ-making, harp-playing, church reforming, and Glastonburian fame! At our parish of St. Dunstan’s in Atlanta, we have candlesticks of wrought iron, our baptismal font is a stone from Glastonbury, and our newsletter is called “The Bellows.” Did you know that Dunstan once bested the devil by grabbing his nose with his (Dunstan’s) blacksmith tongs? Did you know that he was taught by Irish monks–and you know how happy it makes the Lent Madness viewing public to vote for anyone connected with Ireland. There’s even a kitschy t-shirt for Dunstan Irish Beer available at Cafe Press!
St. Dunstan’s, Bethesda, MD too!
I would like to nominate John XXIII. He opened the door to ecumenism and helped bring about new liturgical possibilities.
Yes and amen!
Yes! You took the words right out of my mouth. (Or off of my keyboard.) I am quite sure that if it were not for Vatican II, the Episcopal Church would still be using only Elizabethan English. (Which is fine every once in a while, but not every day.)
I second the nomination of John XXIII; whatever fresh air has been brought into the Catholic Church by Pope Francis originated from his nostrils.
I also want to nominate Abraham Lincoln, saint, martyr, savior of the union, and exemplar of how politics should be conducted.
By all means!!
John XXIII gets my second.
One of my favorite saints in the Episcopal calendar is Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. His journey in faith took him on a path of many twists and turns. Eventually he went to China as a missionary where he became very ill. His condition became so physically severe that he could only type with one finger on a typewriter. With faith and persistence he translated a good portion of the Bible on that typewriter into a Chinese dialect for his people. At first this was a real struggle, but he persisted for 20 years. Eventually he realized God had made him fit for this labor of love.
I second SIJS!
One of my favorites, a complete inspiration.
Yes, thank you for nominating Schereschewsky….I had been wracking my brain trying to remember his name (and spelling).
I second the nomination of Schereschewsky. I seem to recall he was in the bracket some years back but didn’t advance very far in the competition, which was disappointing. What an amazing man of God.
I would like to nominate Brother Lawrence, Francis Asbury, and George Mueller.
Isaac of Ninevah (Saint Isaac the Syrian)
A courageous Christian woman, Miss Wilhelmina “Minnie” Vautrin,, Dean of studies at Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College, Nanking, China. She protected thousands of women from the Japanese during the “Rape of Nanking” She was a member of the Disciples of Christ denomination a missionary from Central Illinois.
I respectfully submit Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Also Paul.
I agree wholeheartedly. Bill and Dr. Bob have saved millions of people’s lives
agree: Dr. Bob and Bill!
Yep.
I’d second the nomination of St. Paul, but if he were included in the bracket, it would pain me to see him voted down in the first round. Folks don’t seem to like him much around here.
Benedict of Nursia
Adso of Montier-en-Der (important for all the Outlander fans of the world!)
I concur- Francis Asbury for a Great Awakening.
I nominate St Brother André of Montreal – a very pious man.
Bishop Leontine Kelly, and E Stanley Jones would BOTH be great representatives of the Methodist tradition.
I Would like to nominate:
Fredrick Baraga
Fredrick Baraga was born in village of Dobrnič, in the Habsburg Monarchy. Today it is a part of the municipality of Trebnje, Slovenia; by age 16, Frederic Baraga was multilingual—a skill that would serve him well in later life.
At age 26, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on September 21, 1823 in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas by Augustin Johann Joseph Gruber, the Bishop of Ljubljana. He wrote a spiritual book in Slovene entitled Dušna Paša (Spiritual Sustenance).
In 1830 Baraga answered the request of Bishop Edward Fenwick of Cincinnati for priests to aid in ministering to his growing flock, which included a large amount of mission territory. A year later he was sent to the Ottawa Indian mission at Arbre Croche (present-day Cross Village, Michigan to finish his mastery of the Ottawa, one of the Algonquian native languages.
In 1837, he published Otawa Anamie-Misinaigan, the first book written in the Ottawa language, which included a Catholic catechism and prayer book. After a brief stay at a mission in present-day Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1835 Baraga moved north to minister to the Ojibway aka Chippewa Indians at La Pointe, Wisconsin, at a former Jesuit mission in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior.
In 1843 Baraga founded a mission at L’Anse, Michigan. During this time he earned the nickname “the Snowshoe Priest” because he would travel hundreds of miles each year on snowshoes during the harsh winters. He worked to protect the Indians from being forced to relocate, as well as publishing a dictionary and grammar of the Ojibway language.
Baraga was elevated to bishop by Pope Pius IX and consecrated November 1, 1853, in Cincinnati at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral by Archbishop John Purcell. He was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, now the Diocese of Marquette.
On July 27, 1852 he began to keep a diary, written in several languages (primarily German, but with English, French, Slovene, Chippewa, Latin, and Italian interspersed), preserving accounts of his missionary travels and his relationship with his sister Amalia. During this time, the area experienced a population explosion, as European immigrants were attracted to work in the copper and iron ore mines developed near Houghton, Ontonagon, and Marquette, Michigan. This presented a challenge because he had few priests, and had to attend to the needs of immigrant miners and the Native Americans. Increased development and population encouraged the improvement of transportation on Lake Superior.
The only way to travel in winter was on snowshoes, which Baraga continued to do into his sixties. He was particularly challenged by the wide diversity of peoples in the region, which included the native inhabitants, ethnic French-Canadian settlers, and the new German and Irish immigrant miners. Difficulties in recruiting staff arose because of many languages; while Baraga spoke eight languages fluently, he had trouble recruiting priests who could do the same.
Baraga traveled twice to Europe to raise money for his diocese. On one trip he was presented a jeweled cross and episcopal ring by the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The bishop later sold these for his missions.
Baraga wrote numerous letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith describing his missionary activities. The Society published them widely as examples of its missions in North America, and they were instrumental in inspiring both Saint John Neumann and Father Francis Xavier Pierz to come to the United States to work. In time, Baraga became renowned throughout Europe for his work. In his last ten years, his health gradually declined; he became intermittently deaf and suffered a series of strokes. He died January 19, 1868 in Marquette, Michigan. He is buried there in the crypt beneath Cathedral of Saint Peter.
Yes, great choice!
Thurgood Marshall, Teresa of Avila, Harriet Tubman, Lucy, Catherine of Siena
YES to Thurgood Marshall!
Yes Indeed to Thurgood Marahall!!!!!
Another YES for Thurgood Marshall. And Mother Teresa.
Please consider St. Francis Xavier. I choose him as my confirmation name while a sixth grade Roman Catholic. I found him to be an exciting saint who died in the mission field in China in 1552. He was a founder of the Society of Jesus. His spirit is a constant in my life as an Episcopal Priest (and, known to you as the father of Bracket Czar Adam Thomas). My car’s license plate is WCFT for William Carl Francis Thomas.
Albert Einstein, recently memorialized in this icon:
https://www.trinitystores.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/art_image_full/RLABE.jpg
I nominate John Eliot, Puritan who translated the King James Bible into the Indian language and who help found several Indian villages before the French and Indian War.
I concur; I was born in one of those “villages,” Natick, MA, where in Eliot’s time only Christian Indians could own property.
Mother Theresa
Henri Nouwen
Joan of Arc
Mark the Evangelist
I would like to nominate Kelly Gissendaner. Her story is as inspiring as it is tragic.
Also:
Francis Asbury
Richard Allen
Fannie Lou Hamer
John Ball, of the Peasants’ Revolt. “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” Also Sydney Carter wrote a song about him (Saintly Kitsch!). In honor of John Ball, present rector at Trinity in St. Mary’s, MD, an old friend and mentor.
Yes, to John Ball – a great reminder of the challenge of Christianity to powers and principalities.
How about St. Isaac the Syrian? Love his ascetical homilies. Anyone who can preach that we must love even the devil in order to follow Christ is awesome. Of course he wouldn’t win the Halo with our electorate but exposing them to his Faith journey would be wild!
Thomas Cranmer. Whatever his faults…the Book of Common Prayer is one of the great books of the Western World.
Thomas Cranmer! Hugh Latimer! Nicholas Ridley!
Verna Dozier, please!
Yes! Yes! Yes! All the yeses!
I third this.
I have nominated Thurgood Marshall for the last two years now with no luck. This absolutely must be the year you select him! Thurgood Marshall for Golden Halo 2017!
Dorothy Day
I nominated St. Hubert. I was in his tiny episcopal church/one room schoolhouse in Bondurant, WY hears ago. I think any St. you merits bear skins on the walls should get a shot at the golden halo.
St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes
David of Wales
Christopher
Martha of Bethany
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thomas Becket
Swithun
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
Jerome
Henri Nouwen, St. Pasqual, Thomas Merton,
Catherine of Siena
I nominate Irena Sendler,the nurse and social worker who smuggled out 2,500 children out of the Warsaw get to during WW2,unbroken by the Nazis and Communist alike.
Fred Rogers, a truly saintly man. He liked us “just the way we are”. I often tell people that God is probably a lot like Mr. Rogers in that respect.
Definitely Mr Rogers!
Yay on Fred Rogers!
Agree with Mr Rogers!
Yes to Fred Rogers. He is my only nomination
Yes! Fred Rogers has been denied his place in the bracket too long! Just think of the cardigan kitsch!
I was going to nominate Fred Rogers when I got to the bottom of the comments but will do it here. He was truly a saint worthy of our times.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, on the 500th anniversary of the 95 Theses in 2017.
yes!
Modern monastics — Richard Meux Benson, founder of SSJE and Thomas Merton, whose feast day in HWHM is my ordination anniversary. 🙂
Theresa of Lisieux and her parents who are also saints!
This one is from leftfield!
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie – champion of the downtrodden. Wrote many songs about the displaced farmers, immigrants and the “common man”, His songwriting; “I Ain’t Got No Home”, “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad”, “Talking Dust Bowl Blues”, “Tom Joad” and “Hard Travelin’”; all reflect his desire to give voice to those who had been disenfranchised.
Woody spend his final years in a hospital with Huntington’s Disease. His final poem My Peace which had music added by his son Arlo is the most beautiful songs.
I totally agree with you Scott. Here is what is posted above my computer:
“And the banks are made of marble with a guard at every door
And the vaults are full of silver that the workers sweated for.”
Woody Guthrie all the way~!!!
Absolutely! Woodie Guthrie.
Hildegard of Bingen
Yes to Hildegard!
Theophane Venard
Ignatius Loyola
Julie Billiart
Harry and Bertha Holt–an Oregon lumberman and pear farmer and his wife who, after the Korean war, heard about the plight of Korean children, fathered by American servicemen, who were abandoned because of their heritage. Toddlers were left to die. Parents of six themselves, the Holts adopted eight, and then began, all on their own, a program to help place children with “forever families.” Holt International now has branches all over the world, has placed and helped thousands of children. The entire Holt family sold their belongings to work for the children. Harry Holt, who had a bad heart, died in Korea and Bertha carried on the work past her 90th birthday.
Wonderful nomination. I second it enthusiastically!
I nominate Gladys Aylward–the missionary to China who stopped foot binding and saved so many children. She is famously portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in the somewhat romanticized “inn of the Sixth Happiness.”
Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, humanitarian, and an advocate of Native Americans; Rev Dr Martin Luther King; Henri Nouwen; Dorothy Day; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics and and advocate for those with intellectual disabilities; and Mahalia Jackson, the voice of Gospel music.
I love Gladys Aylward, too! Also St George of dragon-fighting fame and Tabitha/Dorcas brought back from the dead in Acts.
Mother Teresa
David Pendleton Oakerhater
Elizabeth Seton
George Mueller
Mother Theresa (Teresa?), St. Stephen, Dorothy Day, would love to see Li Tim Oi again; Jean Donovan, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, Sr. Maura Clarke and Sr. Ita Ford (can I nominate them as a group rather than individually, who could vote for one over the other three?), Harriet Tubman. These are all people I am familiar with but it is always wonderful to learn about unknown saints and exemplars of the faith.
I second St. Stephen.
Bl. Franz Jägerstätter
St. Moses the Black
John Kline
Ted Studebaker
St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Anthony
St. Dymphna, patron saint of incest survivors and those suffering from mental illness.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=222
Florence Li Tim Oi – first woman to be ordained an Anglican priest
Yes please!
My husband wants to nominate Irena Sendler. He tried posting here but apparently it didn’t take.
St. Patrick of Ireland
Justin Martyr, whose day is June 1.
St. Damien of Molokai
I agree with
Yes to St Damien of Molokai.
st
Yes!
Yes for Saint Damien of Molikai!
Ignatius of Antioch (first Bishop of Antioch; martyr; one of the Apostolic Fathers; wrote wonderful Epistles to the churches he was allowed to visit while being brought to Rome for martyrdom- killed by lions in the Circus Maximus)
Brother Lawrence
Hannah Whitall Smith, author of The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
E. Stanley Jones
JRR Tolkien, whose writing has made many and staying soul think of larger things including the fight between good and evil and their place in it.
St. Stephan
St. Andrew
I second St. Andrew.
Dorothy Day
St. Philip Neri
St. Pope John XXIII
Sister Blandina Segale
Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was a medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador. His mission expanded greatly from its initial mandate to one of developing schools, an orphanage, cooperatives, industrial work projects, and social work. Although originally founded to serve the local area, the mission developed to include the aboriginal peoples and settlers along the coasts of Labrador and the eastern side of Newfoundland. For his years of service on behalf of the people of these communities he was later knighted by the King in 1927. Grenfell is honored with a feast day in the Episcopal Church (USA) on October 9. “The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and serve.’ There can be no other meaning.”
Grenfell has been a hero of mine for years; his many published books point to his faith as being the source of his drive to volunteer to come to Canada and work for the people here. He was a real man. And a tower of faith.
Here! Here!
I would like to nominate Br Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, St Alban, and St Swithun.
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement
Henry Nouwen
Mr. Rogers. I learned from him while watching his program with my sons when they were growing up. What a good influence on so many.
Thomas Merton
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
St. Joan of Arc
Rosa Parks
I second Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. Anyone else here from St. Sam’s online mailing list from years ago? He was (at least there) the patron saint of “those who sit and type.” Also second Hildegard of Bingen. Would like to add Maximillian Kolbe.
Henry Appenzeller
E. Stanley Jones
John Wesley
Maximilian Kolbe
Hildegard von Bingen
Jerome
Teilhard de Chardin
Isaac Watts
Catherine Mowry LaCugna
Her work focuses on the theology of the Holy Spirit. God For Us changed the way the Trinity is encountered. Her passion was smothered by her early death.
raoul wahlenberg
Chiune Sugihara
Seconded – a great man!
Nomination for St. Pierre Toussaint who fought against racial and religious discrimination and even opened his home as an orphanage and refuge for travelers. He was declared by Pope John Paul II, the second step in canonization.
St. Dunstan
“Dunstan served as an important minister of state to several English kings. He was the most popular saint in England for nearly two centuries, having gained fame for the many stories of his greatness, not least among which were those concerning his famed cunning in defeating the devil.”
This was my first year of Lent Madness and I greatly enjoyed it and learned a lot. Thanks!! Being my own Bermuda Triangle (I can lose things sitting still!!) I would like to nominate St Anthony of Padua- Saint of lost objects and people.
Thanks for the wonderful image of being one’s own Bermuda Triangle!
Mother Teresa
St. Brendan the Navigator
Second that. One of my favorites. Also, what about St. Margaret of Antioch?
Saint and Bishop Hugh of Lincoln. Thurgood Marshall. Dorothy Day.
St. George or St. Michael
Patron saints of police officers. We could a little help.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/12/the_lone_politician_who_stood_against_japanese_internment.html
Pauli Murray:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/19/387200033/the-black-queer-feminist-legal-trailblazer-youve-never-heard-of
St. Mary, Untier of Knots
C.S. Lewis
Mr. Rogers
ooh, and Madeleine L’Engle.
Oh yes
I nominate Mary Ann Fargo, a member of the Church of the Holy Communion, NYC, who founded the Church Periodical Club in 1888. 128 years later the CPC is still “Changing the World, One Book at a Time”.
I nominate St. Nicholas, Gregory of Nyssa, Hildegaard of Bingen.
I nominate St. Hilary and Oskar Schindler.
I think all church musicians would vote for St. Cecilia, patron saint of music.
Michael the Archangel
Gabriel the Archangel
Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (1865-1947) was born to recently emancipated slaves on Butler Plantation in McIntosh County, Georgia. She became the only African American set aside in the order of deaconess in The Episcopal Church. But I recommend her not for that fact, rather for her holiness of life and steadfast ministry on behalf of poor whites as well as blacks in south Georgia. See http://deaconessalexander.georgiaepiscopal.org/ for more information.
St. Adelaide of Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_of_Italy
I nominate Lillian Hunt Trasher, 1887-1961, commemorated on December 19. Aka “The Mother of the Nile” Lillian was called to serve as a missionary in Egypt; she built an orphanage there–literally with her own hands–and over time cared for more than 25,000 orphans. She never knew where tomorrow’s food would come from but she never worried about it. Through times of war, political unrest, food shortages and more her constant motto was “The Lord will provide.” And the Lord never failed to provide. When a government official taunted her for riding on a donkey as very degrading for an attractive young lady, she tartly reminded him that a donkey was good enough for the mother of her Lord and was certainly good enough for her. There are many stories of her courage, determination, and unwavering faith. This remarkable woman is definitely Golden-Halo-worthy!
Father Damian of Molokai inspires me. His empathy towards those stricken with leprosy is similar to Constance and her patients.
I work with a lot of folks from India. I know that St. Thomas preached in India. I do not recall seeing any South Asians in competition in 2015 or 2016. I have met a few living saints among my Indian colleagues. I will do some research on this populatioin.
Please consider Pandita Ramabai! A remarkable woman and Episcopal saint.
Jean Vanier
Bill and Dr. Bob
Mother Theresa
Ditto on:
Bill and Dr Bob
Fred Rogers
Mother Theresa
St Damien of Molokai
St Jude
Mother Theresa
Jonn the xxiii
Patrick of Ireland
Catherine of Siena
Martin Luther, in honor of the 500th anniversary of the reformation in 2017
Charles Menninger, great supporter of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, to keep us mindful of those with mental health needs
I add Martin Luther as well.
I nominate in no particular order:
John Muir
Toyohiko Kagawa
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Henry Budd
St. Augustine of Hippo (Patron saint of brewers!)
St. Teresa of Avila
Sister Katherine Drexel
John Muir.
definitely
Since next year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, you could do a Reformation-themed Lent Madness, with Martin Luther and many of the other saints of the Reformation in various traditions. Non-Reformation but one of my favorites is St. Patrick.
Emagahbow “Stands before his people”
Vine DeLoria Tipi Sapa “Black lodge”
Jonathon Daniels
I agree completely. A modern martyr to Christian values
Once again, my nomination goes to Pandita Ramabai, champion of women’s education and emancipation in 19th century India. Her work improved the lives of Indian widows, child brides, temple prostitutes, and outcasts, among others, and brought the light of learning to untold numbers of women and girls. She was a traveler, a teacher, a poet, a scholar, a single mother, and a tireless social reformer, and is honored as a saint by the Episcopal Church.
Peter Maurin, Nelson Mandela, Dorothea Dix, Cecil Frances Alexander, William Stringfellow, Buddha
Ooh, yes, Nelson Mandela!
St. Margaret of Scotland
Yeh!
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Timothy
Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer. The Oxford Martyrs, they are.
The Rev. Fred Rogers.
St. Dunstan.
St. Anthony of Padua.
And my personal favorite, St. Christopher. Carried not only not only the whole world, but He who made it.
Oh Yes!!!!! Mr. Rodgers!!!!
I think that Sarah and/or Angelina Grimke would be a great person or people to nominate. In the early 1800’s, they were sisters from Charleston South Carolina that grew up Episcopalians. Sarah later became a quaker and travelled up and down the east coast speaking on the rights of slaves. She and her sister were some of the very first women abolitionists and women’s rights activists. Sarah Grimke spoke in public at a time that women had no rights. She was a pioneer of abolitionists
To the many, many great nominees so far, I’d just like to add:
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
Blessed Charles de Foucauld
Venerable Matt Talbot
Christian de Chergé (whose beatification process is in its early stages)
John Wesley, Henri Nouwen, and St. David
Pauli Murray!
I wish to nominate The Rev Endicott Peabody, who brought about reconciliation to Tombstone, Arizona, welcomed Wyatt Earp into his church, and went on to become headmaster of the Groton School. Among his students there were Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. He officiated at the wedding of Eleanor and Franklin.
A really interesting guy!!
St. Clement of Rome, St. Wilfrid of York.
Please stop the MADNESS.
I don’t want anymore updates on this post!!!!
I second the nomination of Father Damien de Veuster and would add Mother Marianne Cope each of whom was canonized for their selfless ministry to the lepers of Molokai.
well, since I can’t nominate either Scott OR Tim, I would like to nominate Enmegahbowh (One who Stands before his People), the first Native American to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States. He is an important figure in the history of Minnesota in the relations between whites and Native Americans.
John Mott and Emily Blach, 1946 Nobel Peace Price winner
I don’t know if she is considered a saint by the Episcopal Church, but I also nominate Minnie Vautrin, who worked so valiantly to protect the women and girls of Nanking during the Japanese atrocities there in WWII.
Prize.. not price… Geesh… Need more coffee.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels I don’t know if a “Witness for Civil Rights” qualifies, but he is a modern example that we can all respect.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell – first woman ordained in the US
Jonathan Edwards
Fred Rogers
I nominate Alfred Einstein, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II.
St Gertrude of Nivelles! Cats, gardeners, travelers, and those dealing with mental health issues! Also St Madeleine Sophie – who was very involved in girls’ education (and after whome I named my daughter). 🙂
I nominate Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm and author of the Biblical paraphrase The Cotton Patch Bible. His fight against racial intolerance and his commitment to the value of all people is right up there with the rest of the saints who enter the ring. I too add JOhn Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities worldwide, and Mary Moffat, one of the earliest missionaries to the southern part of Africa. SEnt out, if I am not mistaken by the Scottish Missionary Society.
I nominate Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church, who founded the Sisters of Charity and educated so many.
Another vote for Pauli Murray- lawyer, poet, author and first African-American woman ordained as Episcopal priest.
Hope is a crushed stalk
Between clenched fingers
Hope is a bird’s wing
Broken by a stone.
Hope is a word in a tuneless ditty —
A word whispered with the wind,
A dream of forty acres and a mule,
A cabin of one’s own and a moment to rest,
A name and place for one’s children
And children’s children at last . . .
Hope is a song in a weary throat.
Give me a song of hope
And a world where I can sing it.
Give me a song of faith
And a people to believe in it.
Give me a song of kindliness
And a country where I can live it.
Give me a song of hope and love
And a brown girl’s heart to hear it.
Pauli Murray
Dark Testament verse 8
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Blessed Giorgio Frassati
Maria Goretti
Apologies for my earlier off-calendar wish list. I’d like to try again, better informed. I suggest James Weldon Johnson, Washington Gladden, Joseph the Hymnographer, and Cecelia. Yes, I sing. Why do you ask? I’m a proud member of the Washington Gladden Society as well. Thanks for the holy fun.
I would like to nominate three saints for Lent Madness 2017:
Modern-day: Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family were inspired by their Christian faith to rescue Jews in Nazi-controlled Holland during WWII. She and her sister were ultimately imprisoned in Ravensbruck concentration camp where Corrie continued being a powerful witness to the Christian life. I don’t know if she “counts” as a saint, but I did find a biography of her on Faith of the Fathers Saints.
Historical: St. Francis Solano (16th century). He was a Franciscan friar who practiced strict habits of poverty. After much ministry in Spain, he was sent to South America where he was an effective evangelist among the indigenous peoples. He has a wonderful church and monastery dedicated to him in Lima Peru. One tale of his life is that he entered a gathering one Christmas Eve and played his fiddle with such joy that soon everybody there was dancing and celebrating.
Biblical: the Apostle Thomas. I think many people can identify with his doubting, but after he was convinced of the truth of the resurrection he became a powerful witness in the early church.
I would also like to suggest that in the first round of Lent Madness, half of the contests match saints of more or less the same time period against each other. In the other half of the contests, let Madness reign! But that way at least some early saints would progress to the Saintly Sixteen, and some of the more modern saints would be eliminated early rather than filling up the final rounds.
I love Lent Madness.
I like the idea of early round matching of saints from the same comparable time frames. The early saints did seem to not have much chance when matched to modern day saints with better documented histories.
I strongly support this idea!!!
I like this idea of more equable early match-ups too! I also second Thomas the Apostle. If my beloved state of Missouri had a patron saint, he would be it.
I’ll 2nd Henri Nouwen & Dorothy Day. Would like to add one more name from last week’s Daily Office: Edward Thomas Demby. As the first African American suffragan bishop in the United States, the importance of achieving that office was eclipsed only by the faith, scholarship, and suffering that accompanied it.
St. Jude, who has helped many of us in our ongoing embrace of lost causes. Also known as St. Jude the Obscure.
St. Dymphna, patron saint of those with “nervous disorders,” perhaps esp. epilepsy.
Jeannette Piccard, first woman priest in the Episcopal Church. Yes, she was the first of the 11 to be ordained on July 29.
I second the nominations of Merton, Muir, and Mandela–wow, three M’s!
Jean Pierre de Caussade gets my nomination because he went about a priestly life quietly and his writings were discovered so long after he had passed. Yet those words have endured! Like this:
“Those who have abandoned themselves to God always lead mysterious lives and receive from him exceptional and miraculous gifts by means of the most ordinary, natural and chance experiences in which there appears to be nothing unusual. The simplest sermon, the most banal conversations, the least erudite books become a source of knowledges and wisdom to these souls by virtue of God’s purpose. This is why they carefully pick up the crumbs which clever minds tread underfoot, for to them everything is precious and a source of enrichment.”
I nominate Deaconness Nellie McKim. She is not included in Holy Women, Holy Men but I consider her a saint. She was a missionary in Japan in the early part of the 20th century and was called to serve in the Phillippines. During the Japanese occupation of this country during World War II she was interred in one of the concentration camps there. She was very integral to and served as liason for the inmates at this camp. In addition retired Bishop Francis C. Gray of Northern Indiana was a child there & was a witness to her tireless efforts on behalf of those in need. For more information about Ms. McKim please contact Bishop Gray.
Florian, patron saint of firefighters. I have a beer Stein to add to the kitsch round, but the best source of kitsch would be the firemens museum in nova scotia.
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln
ALBERTUS MAGNUS
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Verna Dozier! Forthright, pull no punches, African American theologian who advocated for the call of the laity.
I nominate Fred Rodgers, Cuthbert, Thurgood Marshall, and Bishop Baraga of Michigan’s Upper Penninsula.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Florence Nightingale
Clara Barton
Thomas Clarkson
Mary Breckinridge
Florence Li Tim-Oi
Sr. Thea Bowman
Walter Reuther
I nominate Mother Teresa who will be canonized this September
YES!!!
St. Alban, the protomartyr of Britain
St. Pantaleimon, the unmercenary physician
St. Bruno
Hilda of Whitey
Edward King, bishop of Lincoln
Blessed Edward Pusey of the Oxford Movement
Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding
St. John Henry Newman
Margaret Anna Cusack
St. Damien of Molokai
St. Marianne of Molokai
St. John Bosco
I second Nicholas Ferrar.
St. Teresa of the Little Flower
St. John Paul II
St. Katherine Drexel
St. John Neuman
Sergius and Bacchus, paired saints!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergius_and_Bacchus
Bruce Cockburn, a modern poet
Cynthia Bourgeault, for her work in the centering prayer movement. Keating is awesome, but Bourgeault is so much more accessible.
Desmond Tutu, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pope Francis
Here’s a few more:
St. Isidore (San Isidro). Patron saint of computers
Augustine of Hippo
Raymond Nonnatus
Martin de Porres
Rose of Lima
Mechthild of Madgburg. She was the first to write her visions in German, rather than Latin, and she faced persecution from the religious authorities for her criticism of them. Some say that her work inspired hell in Dante’s Inferno and/or a character. Her writing is passionate and sensuous. She was taken in by the nuns at Helfta in her later years and one of her supporters was Gertrude the Great, which would also be a fine choice as well.
St Piran of Cornwall
St David of Wales
William Wilberforce
St. Benedict…St John eudes . St. Ann, st Elizabeth,,mother Theresa,
Can I add Brother Lawrence?
The Brother Lawrence in Romeo & Juliet??
I would like to nominate Julius Nyere, first president of Tanzania and first African head of state to leave office voluntarily. Devote Catholic who brought country together and never had a civil war. also never enriched himself.
Also suggest Thomas Merton.
Janani Luwum
St. Arnold of Metz, patron saint of brewers of beer.
Hildegard of Bingen
I would like to see the Saintly Archbishops Cranmer and Chrysostom back in the Lent Madness bracket.
Hildegard of Bingen
Teresa of Ávila
Martin Luther
Marguerite d’Youville – first native born Canadian to be canonized
St. Jerome, the Patron Saint of Librarians!!
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/malawi-fearsome-chief-terminator-child-marriages-160316081809603.html
St. Dymphna, patron saint of mentally ill.
Dorothy Day
Peter Maurin
Ignatius of Loyola
Hildegard of Bingen
Rutilio Grande
Thomas Merton
Mother Theresa
Teresa of Avila
I would like to nominate: Polycarp, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, Thomas Ken, James de Koven and John Keble. May one of these make it to the list! Meanwhile, Keep Calm and Lent Madness On!
I second Polycarp.
Cecelia
Madeleine L’Engle
Moses, indeed
Madeline L’engle for sure
Margaret of Scotland
Walter Raushenbusch
William Carey
Charles Sheldon
Anne Hutchinson
I would like to nominate Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic worker movement and already proclaimed, Servant of God.
Again Bp. Schereschewsky, Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, St. Edith Stein, Simone Weil.
You guys are terrific, and always put that little zest in Lent to inspire and affirm.
My nominees would be:
Thomas Merton
Thomas More
Dorothy Day
Henri Nouwen
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
Mother Teresa
Teilhard De Chardin
Francis Xavier
Ignatius Loyola
Martin de Porres
Jean Vanier – truly a living saint
Thomas Merton
St. Elisabeth of Hungary
Hannah Grier Coome (founder of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto, and pioneered the concept of rehabilitation therapy and holistic medicine)
Jean Vanier
Saint Scholastica
Saint Elizabeth
Perhaps we need Saint Valentine … so that we can think of that day with more than mere doilies and glue sticks, chocolate and roses.
I would love to know more about St Scholastica, and possibly her brother Gregory. I work at a Catholic College sponsored by a convent named for her, and I don’t know that much about her.
I was going to nominate CS Lewis but I see he has already won the halo (before my time)! The Screwtape Letters alone deserve a Golden Halo in my book. 🙂
Brendan the Navigator. ….he went where God called him.
Good heavens Jen, we must have posted at the same moment! I thought I would be alone with Scholastica! Karma!
Peter Claver, who worked with the slaves of Cartagena. Anyone about whom it’s been said, “Why doesn’t that troublemaking priest just go away” is worthy of Lent Madness!
Aphrodisius
Lucia
I nominate St Aiden
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose integration of science and faith, and especially whose understanding of the earth and the whole universe as sacred are so important if we are to survive.
Andre Trocme, pastor of Le Chambon, who inspired an entire town in France to cooperate and save thousands of Jewish lives during WWII. It is said that for Jews in those years, this small villag ein France was perhaps the safest place in all of occupied Europe. See “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There,” by Phillip Hallie, Harper & Row, 1979.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Yes to:
Mother Teresa
Endicott Peabody
Fred Rogers
Henry Nauwen
Madeleine L’Engle
John XXIII
Mary
Peter
Hildegard of Bingen
Teresa of Avilia
Ignatius of Loyola
Thomas Merton
Harriet Tubman
Maura Clark and Maryknoll Companions
In looking over a list of Holy Women, Holy Men: many names caught my attention and these are the one Chosen for nomination; John Muir because Earth Day is Friday, William Passavant because his work with deaconesses in the US and I like way Zelienople rolls off the tongue, Oscar Romero because he lived and died for his beliefs and values, Joseph of Arimethea because his discussion with his wife about giving his newly dug tomb to Jesus would make a great biographical anecdote; Florence Nightingale because I’m a nurse with a cat named Cassadra; Moses the Black because he is such an excellent example of why Jesus lived and died.
Junipero Serra
1712-1784
Let’s take a road trip. We are going to travel north on I01 from San Diego California, near the Mexican border, to San Francisco in northern California. As we travel, you will notice a particular landmark—a pole about 6 feet nigh, shaped like a shepherd’s crook with a bell suspended from it. These appear every 50 miles or so to remind travelers that they are following El Camino Real, the King’s Highway.
This highway has never seen the feet of a king; it was first trodden by the sandaled feet of a saint, Fr. Junipero Serra (canonized in 2015). This Spanish Franciscan was sent from his teaching post in Mexico City, New Spain to establish missions in Alta California.
Fr. Serra, along with Fr. Lasuen and Fr. Crespi did just that/ Their route took them along the Pacific coast, and established 21 missions a day’s journey apart—about 30 miles. The furthest inland they went was to establish Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, 30 miles from the sea.
The first mission was San Diego de Alcala founded in 1769. The very last mission was San Rafael Arcangel, built in 1817 to care for sick Indians. Fr. Serra himself died in 1783 at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel. This was Serra’s headquarters, and he is buried there.
All these missions had a church, living quarters and workshops for tanning leather, making candles, spinning wool and other crafts. Serra introduced citrus olives and grapes from Spain. These crops became the foundation for California’s citrus and wine industries. They also introduced sheep and cattle. Nearly all have a camposanto, cemetery, where the friars, Indian converts, and Spanish grandees are buried.
Most are still active parishes run by the Franciscans. Some, like San Juan Bautista, serve the migrant farmers. Others, like Santa Barbara have congregations of the affluent.
Not all of the gifts brought by Fr. Serra were so beneficial—smallpox and measles were also introduced to a native population that had no resistance to them. Fr. Serra also forced the Indian converts to live at the mission for fear of backsliding should they return to their villages. Thus, fam
Teresa of Avila
Martin Luther
Katharina Von Bora Luther
Philipp Melanchthon
Chief Seattle
John of Damascus
I second Martin Luther, Katharina Von Bora Luther and Philipp Melanchthon.
Juan Diego
I nominate Polycarp.
Offered an “out” instead of burning at the stake if only he would declare Carsar as Lord, he said:
“Eighty-six years I have served Christ and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Btw: so, when burning at the stake didn’t work, they killed him with a dagger.
I also second the nomination of St. Michael the Archangel, patron saint of police officers. I’m a police chaplain, who for 20+ years have observed the heroes who every single day risk their lives to serve and protect us. They need some good press. All we see are the bad cops. St Michael, watch over those who daily risk their lives to keep us safe.
Deaconess Anna Alexander
Dorothy Day
Woody Guthrie
Hildegarde of Bingen
Gertrude of Nivelles
St Dymphna
Nicholas Ferrar
Thomas Cranmer
Brother Lawrence
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (will be canonized in September 2016)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P. (Liberation Theologian)
Thomas Cranmer, for our BCP.
St. Mark
Saint Joan of Arc
St. Mary the Virgin (Blessed Virgin Mary), Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Founder of the American Sisters of Charity
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers
St. Hildegard von Bingen, Professed Religious of the Benedictine Nuns
St. Joan of Arc, French heroine and martyr
St. Teresa of Ávila, Spanish Mystic
Cornelius the Centurion
John Wesley, Priest
St. Patrick, Bishop of Ireland
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury
Henry Purcell, Composer
Samuel Seabury, First American Bishop
I submit Saint Patrick for 2017 Lent Madness
Benedict of Nursia!!!
Hildegard of Bingen
Edith Cavell
what does that mean?
Fred Rogers
Esther, Queen of Persia!
One more from yours truly…..
Hildegard of Bingen
Timothy
St. James. the Apostle. Lets have some people who are actually in the Bible.
I nominate Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple.
Pauli Murray!!!
If you don’t know who she is, I beg you to listen to the fascinating podcast about her from “Stuff Mom Never Told You” (from the “stuff you should know” crew!) Let’s hear it for the inventor of intersectionality!
Fr. Stanley Rother, murdered in his church in Guatemala for his solidarity with and love for the Mayan people.
Since Lent Madness is modeled on the March Madness basketball tournament. I nominate St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes.
I nominate St. Stephen, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and St. Agnes!
Martin Luther King, Jr. (How is it that he’s never won????) Then Philander Chase, Thurgood Marshall, Mother Teresa, Thomas a Becket, Bishop Henry Hobson of Southern Ohio, and Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York. I’m a firm believer in waiting until someone has entered into the realm of the Church Triumphant before bestowing saintly accolades on them. People elevate the living at great risk, such as Cincinnati having a dedicated street named “Pete Rose Way.”
A triple yes, for Pauli Murray.
I agree with a previous post that only those who are not longer with us in body should be nominated! No living saints, please.
I nominate St. Theresa of Avila
I nominate Mother Marianne of Molokai for her work with the Hansen’s Disease (lepers) patients.
Mother Theresa
Cosmos and Damien (together, is that permissible?)
St Anthony (St Anthony, St Anthony, please come around, something has been lost and cannot be found)
Blessed Jonathan Daniels (yes, yes, yes)
Verna Dozier (love her no nonsense attitude)
St. Stephen (that’s my church)
St. David (Cymru am byth!)
Br. Roger of Taize
I also support Brother Roger of Taize and Pope John the xx111.
Yes to Margaret Anna Cusack!
Please add:
Walter Rauschenbush (for his vision of bringing about the Kingdom of God through the Social Gospel)
Pope John XXIII
Teilhard
Considering the importance of this election year and the shenanigans that have been pulled and are being pulled I nominate Saint Chad.
Dunstan. He tweaked the devil on the nose with his saintly blacksmith tongs. Top that!
St. Gregory of Narek
Sts. Hripsime and Gayane
St. Odo of Cluny
St. Odilo of Cluny
St. Hugh of Lincoln
St. Bede
St. Swithun
Not on sanctoral calendar, but worthy:
Sister Lucia of Fatima
Fred Rogers
The Virgin Mary.
I nominate Columba of Iona who spread the Christian faith throughout northern England.
Also Hildegard of Bingen!
Ignatius of Loyola
Kevin of Glendalough
Joan of Arc
Teilhard
Teresa of Avila
Francesco Forgione – Padre Pio
Please considea St.Jude patron saint of lost causes and hospitals.
Joan of Arc and Ida B. Wells!
St Teresa de Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, St John of the Cross, St Therese of Lisieux
Isidore of Seville – patron saint of technology & the internet (also “The last scholar of the ancient world”)
St. Vincent de Paul – patron saint of charitable giving
St. Francis de Sales – patron saint of authors, writers, journalists
St. John Bosco – patron saint of teachers
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
St. Elizabeth of Portugal
(match up of the Elizabeths?)
Aelred of Rievaulx
Rose Hawthorne founded the Hawthorne Dominican Sisters in NY in the late 1800’s today they are still serving giving care to people with terminal cancer. She also was the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne of Scarlett Letter fame.
Desmond Tutu
Tutu is still with the Saints on Earth
So many good suggestions above. Please continue to lift up stories that reflect the diversity of our church – Verna Dozier, Pauli Murray, David Pendleton Oakerhater, Hiram Hisanori Kano, etc. Though he is not on an official calendar, Malcolm Boyd also comes to mind.
It’s about time to include a “Whimsical Apologist” who adopted porcupines at the Zoo, raised a pig named Francis Bacon, drove a motorcycle, knitted her own socks and had a eulogy read at her funeral written by C. S. Lewis.
Her explicitly religious works include themes on the importance of moral living in every area of human life, a plea for intellectual honesty and the sacredness of work done for the glory of God… (Glorious Companions, 2002)
I proudly nominate Dorothy L. Sayers
I would like to nominate our very own Philander Chase. He does have his own Day in our calendar.
S. Julie Billiart—founder of the Noddre Dame de Namur order.
Henry Beard Delany, born in slavery, became mason, teacher, architect, deacon, priest, archdeacon, bishop suffragan in North Carolina, beloved father of “Sadie” and “Bessie” Delany (among others), known through their book and play “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters First 100 Years”
St Thomas of Canterbury
Corbinian
Gertrude
Alban
Hugh of Lincoln
I don’t know anything about him, but I do like that name “Corbinian!”
I agree with Dorothy L. Sayers
St. Blandina
Pope John Paul the First
Rev. Fred Rogers
Florence Li Tim Oi+
Pauli Murray
St. Hiram Hisanori Kano
http://satucket.com/lectionary/Hiram_Kano.htm
I nominated her last year and I shall nominate her again this: Susanna Wesley, mother of former Golden Halo winner Charles and his brother John, along with 17 other children. Without Susanna and her faithfulness, influence and fortitude I would be so bold as to say that there would have been no Methodist movement nor any of the myriad of Methodist denominations today. Susanna’s influence in the lives of her children, her example of combining education, intelligence and faith while keeping things together for her parish priest Samuel on his several journey’s out of his parish and into such places as the poor house, Susanna proved herself a woman of faith was who was way ahead of her time. She even helped influence the acceptance of by her son John of women as preachers and circuit riders. So, for all these and so many other reasons I again nominate SUSANNA WESLEY!!!!!!!!! http://www.historyswomen.com/womenoffaith/SusannahWesley.html
I nominate Aldhelm of Malmesbury, innovator in Christian thought.
I’ve learned a lot just reading the suggestions! Gotta love LM!
My nominations, spanning the millennia
Lydia , Dorcas and Phoebe, since they’re commemorated together (If it has to be one I nominate Lydia, the first known European convert)
Ireanaus
William Laud
The Martyrs of the Sudan
I nominate Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who was a Jesuit Priest Scientist who wrote several outstanding works that incorporated and integrated Christian Theology and Modern Science.
st. john paul ii, st. john xxiii, gianna molla, macrina, felicity, perpetua, martin luther king jr., stein, john, j.s. bach, matthew, mark, william wilberforce, john newton, dunstan, thomas more, thomas beckett, j.r.r. tolkein, and st. john of shanghai.
also madeleine l’engle and mother teresa.
Soren Kierkegaard, Existentialist Philosopher
I nominate Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, humanitarian, and an advocate for Native Americans; Rev Dr Martin Luther King; Henry Nouwen; Dorothy Day; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics and an advocate of people with intellectual disabilities; and Mahalia Jackson, the voice of Gospel music.
I nominate Saint Jude
Saint Michael
I nominate Margery Kempe
The Book of Margery Kempe, which is dated between 1436 and 1438, is Norfolk woman Kempe’s story of her life, dictated to a scribe, and is widely seen as the first autobiography in English. The mother of 14 children, Kempe became a chaste pilgrim after experiencing religious visions, travelling to Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela while expressing her devotion to Christ through weeping and loud cries.
“It’s wonderful that the British Library has loaned the unique manuscript of The Book of Margery Kempe to the This is a Voice exhibition – not only did Kempe describe hearing voices and sounds but she also crafted a distinctive voice for herself. It is very touching that the Julian of Norwich manuscript is displayed alongside that of Margery Kempe: the two women – who can also legitimately be called two of the earliest women writers in English – met in Norwich, probably in the year 1413,” said Anthony Bale, professor of medieval studies at Birkbeck, University of London, who recently edited and translated The Book of Margery Kempe for Oxford University Press.
A nomination for Anabaptist saints: Menno Simons and Dirk Willems (Though there might not be a lot of saintly kitsch to be found).
More saints to consider:
Susanna Wesley, Maria Skobtsova, William Wilberforce, & Eric Liddell.
Brother Lawrence, Henri Nouwen, George Whitefield, Francis Asbury
I would like to nominate Elizabeth Seton, Martin Luther King, Moses,and Mother Teresa
Thomas Cranmer, Thurgood Marshall, John Wesley
Fr. Solanus Casey, OFM Cap. Hildegard of Bingen
I nominate Fred Rogers….and his dog.
Somebody had to do it.
I second the nomination of Fred Rogers!
I hope this is a voting mechanism – could not find any other nomination/submit button.
Please, please, please, take Mother Teresa’s name out of the realm of possible sainthood. The R.C. might have been fooled about her so-called saintly-ness, but let’s keep our anglican heads here. Teresa kept her patients in sqalour in spite of all the money she received. She also refused to comfort or minister to any dying patient who did not turn from their own religion and join the R.C. church. I found this quote: “The controversy surrounding Mother Teresa, …, is far from new. Her saintly reputation was gained for aiding Kolkata’s poorest of the poor, yet it was undercut by persistent allegations of misuse of funds, poor medical treatments and religious evangelism in the institutions she founded.”
Why Pope Francis endorses this woman is a mystery – up to now he has had my utmost respect.
When my husband and I visited one of Sr. Teresa’s facilities in 1989, we saw a little boy sitting on the floor, tied to the leg of a bed, weeping. He was tied with a rope, not medical soft restraints. When it became obvious that this disturbed us, he was untied – I don’t know for how long. His smile was radiant. I know, different cultures, different practices, but still …
Sorry, I mis-spelled squalour – can the ‘u’ after ‘q’ be inserted?
I also nominate Addis Mae Collins, Denise Mc Nair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley-The 4 Little Girls, victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL, 1963. Holy Innocents of the Civil Rights Era; and Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson/Rachel Robinson-whose cultural influence goes far beyond being the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball. Jackie spoke truth to power risking his livelihood and, often, his life. He did so with such dignity and grace. Rachel was Jack’s shelter in the turbulent racial storm. Her strength, conviction, and courage helped Jackie compete heroically on a racially tilted playing field. Furthermore, she has continued and furthered Jack’s legacy of education,social justice, and leadership through the founding of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. This dynamic tandem provides further evidence of the power of love over hate, good over evil, believing in “we” and not just “me.”
Pauli Murray
Sam Shoemaker
Moses of Ethiopia
Teresa of Avila
Jude (Thaddeus)
Juan Diego
Edward Bouvier Pusey
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas More
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas the apostle
Three nominations:
1. St. Patrick, a man ahead of his time, probably the first person to write about the evils of slavery, and a man who respected women
2. Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, who asked himself what Jesus would do if Jesus had been a medical doctor, and devoted his life to bringing the first modern health care to the fishers of Newfoundland and Labrador about a hundred years ago
3. Margaret Gaffney Haughery, born 1813 in County Leitrim, Ireland, died 1882 in New Orleans. A statue of “Our Margaret” in New Orleans is the first statue of a woman on public property erected in the USA. A poor, illiterate washerwoman, she became the owner of a very successful bakery, gave nearly all her fortune for the care of poor orphans in New Orleans, for whom she had great compassion, having been a poor and homeless orphan herself. Her husband and her only child died when she was still a young woman. She was truly a remarkable and saintly woman who deserves to be better known.
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, homes for mentally challenged and volunteers, across the world;
and St. Brother Andre of Montreal, a humble doorkeeper who initiated the building of the great St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal – many miracles attributed to him, sainted last year.
I would like to nominate Charles Simeon. A good Evangelical Anglican…..plus…
anyone who can be locked out of their church by angry wardens and parishioners and still not need anger management training is in my book a Saint. (He’s also in Lesser Feasts/HolyWomenHolyMen/and God’s roll call scroll/etc)
My nominees:
Dr. Martin Luther (The German Reformist)
Dr. Martin Luther King (known by all, and already nominated by some)
Cesar Franck (19. Century french composer of wonderful Religious and Organ music)
St Andrew (The Apostle)
St Raphael (The Archangel)
My nominations are:
Thomas Tallis
Florence Nightingale
Lassie
So sweet! Lassie was a saint!
ST. CYPRIAN
MOTHER TERESA
I nominate St. George, and Mr. Rogers.
I don’t see two of my favorites, Saint Cecilia or Saint Jerome, on the list! Patron saints of music and librarians, respectively.
St. Dismas — the patron saint of being in the right place at the right time!
St. Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes
I nominate St. Cecelia
Theresa of Avila
Dorothy Day
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Damien of Molokai
Mother Theresa
John Wesley
Susanna Wesley
Patrick
Fred Rogers
Mary Mackillop (19th c. Scots-Australian, founded the Josephite teaching order, excommunicated by her bishop for reporting a paedophile priest, reinstated by the pope once he learned the full facts, canonised by Benny 16 a few years ago)
John Flynn (early 20th c. Australian Presbyterian minister, on the calendar of the Uniting Church in Australia, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, pioneered the provision of health care in remote areas of Australia)
Note: I’d be happy to do some of the research/writing if necessary, particularly re the two Australians.
Please consider Saint Hripsime (alternate spelling: St. Rhipsime) who was one of the first Christian martyrs of Armenia. (Later, in 301 AD, Armenia would adopt Christianity as a state religion and be the first nation in the world to so.) Born into nobility, Hripsime is also known as Saint Arsema by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and Saint Ripsimia by the Greeks.
Her “claim to fame” is that while living with a group of virgin nuns in Rome she caught the eye of Diocletian. Threatened with violence when she wouldn’t “give it up” for the Emperor, she and the entire community escaped to Alexandria, not only so Hripsime could avoid his advances, but also so the nuns could remain free from persecution of their Christian beliefs. The group eventually ended up in Armenia, where according to one version of the story, Diocletian who had continued to pursue Hripsime, sent a letter to the pagan Armenian King Tiridates III, demanding he either send her back or keep her for himself. Tiridates summoned Hripsime, and when she came before him, he immediately fell in love with her and wanted to marry. She wouldn’t “give it up” for him either and refused to be sent back to Diocletian as she, along with her fellow nuns, were betrothed to Jesus Christ. Around 290 AD, Hripsime was tortured, had her tongue cut out, blinded, beheaded and cut into pieces. Shortly after, the rest of the nuns were executed as well.
It is said that after the persecutions, King Tiridates and his soldiers turned into wild animals roaming the forests of Armenia. He was healed by St. Gregory the Illuminator who, at that time, was undergoing a conversion of his own. Thirteen years later, under St. Gregory, Armenia would adopt Christianity as it sofficial religion.
Saint Hripsime church in Armenia was constructed in 395 AD on the site of her execution. Tiridates and St. Gregory constructed a martyrium where they placed the remains of the nuns. Today the church houses the catacomb of Hripsime. The current structure, completed in 618, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Her feast days include:
September 29 (Roman Catholic Church)
September 30 (Orthodox Church)
October 9 (Coptic Orthodox Church)
October 9 (Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church)
June 4 (Armenian Apostolic Church)
St. Hripsime for Lent Madness 2017!
It is so hard when we have those already “canonized” pitted against those who are less known or at least less recognized. What about a whole contest made up of those who haven’t already been awarded a “golden halo” by more official bodies?
Aidan of Northumbria – Patron saint of my Episcopal College Ministry. He stirred things up!
Bishop William Gordon (Bishop of Alaska) – he was creative in getting around his see and in ‘retirement’ fully supported camp ministry
Fred Rogers – he likes us, just the way we are
Phyllis Tickle – a modern-day prophet
I second the nominations of MLK Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, and would like to put forward a few myself: Samuel Seabury of apostolic succession and Revolutionary War fame; St. Raymond Nonnatus, patron saint of midwives and guard against gossip; and my personal favorite, Fanny Crosby – the blind author of so many inspiring hymns – Blessed Assurance, Near the Cross – there’s a lot of them!
Brother Roger Schütz founder of the Taize Community
another great one might be Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Fr Michael McGivney founder of the Knights of Columbus and a parish priest with a good idea
Fr. Michael McGivney won’t be popular with many followers of this website, but I definitely second your nomination!!
Augustine
Which one? Hippo or Canterbury?
Let’s do both. The Battle of the Augustines!
I would like to nominate St Bernadette of Lourdes, Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen.
St. Genevieve, Elizabeth Ann Set on, and St. Anne, mother of Mary.
In honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, how about Katharina von Bora–the wife of Martin Luther?
St. Patrick
Hildegarde of Bingen
St. Stephan of Mar Saba
Roland Allen who inspired us to rethink missiology and to value the ministries of clergy who are formed on the local level.
Clarence Jordan
St. Andrew, brother of Peter…? Became a “fisher of men”…
Saint Julia….. My namesake, understand she was martyred for her belief in Christ. Fig & let her compete!
Dig not fig…..
Maya Angelou
I’m happy to second, or fourth, or forty-fourth the following:
Florence Li Tim-Oi+
The Rev. Fred Rogers
Bro. Lawrence of the Resurrection
Susannah Wesley (once saw an excellent one-woman play about her)
Dorothy Sayers (because people should know more about her than just Lord Peter)
Andre Trocne (because I’d like to learn more about him!)
And thanks to Tim and Scott and the commenting community for making my Lent such a delightful -and fun- learning experience! A glorious Eastertide AND Nominationtide to all!
Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf
Jan Hus
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Ignatius of Loyola
Sadhu Sundar Singh
John Woolman
Therese of Lisieux
I second Count von Zinzendorf and Jan Hus.
Fred Rogers
Dorothy Day
Oscar Romero
Henry Nowen
Theresa of Avila
Florence Li Tim-Oi
Bishop Jackson Kemper (he had such a great ground support he needs another run)
Dorothy Day. Clearly the most inspiring person of the 20th Century, although not a “Saint” yet in the Catholic Church. Not only does Pope Francis like her, she scored very favorably among many Americans. (Full disclosure: I had the good fortune of meeting her one time. And, have “thought” of myself as a “Catholic Worker” for more than 45 years — and now I’m in my 60’s.)
If only I could live the Gospel like her…
Haven’t yet seen this one: Eleanor Roosevelt. I hear some folks are preparing to submit her for consideration to Holy Women Holy Men next time round. Lent Madness can jump start the process.
Giuseppe Verdi
Sr Joan Chittister
Sr Helen Prejean
Fannie Lou Hamer
I second/third/maybe fourth St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. I’ve been thinking of how he carried young Jesus over the water as I’ve been listening to news of families displaced by flash flooding.
Macrina the Younger: Eldest of nine children, daughter of two saints. Three of her brothers, whom she brought up, educated and led into holy lives, are also saints. Her brother Gregory of Nyssa, a noted theologian, was astounded by her insight into the mysteries of faith. She founded a convent which welcomed women of all social backgrounds. A worthy candidate for the Golden Halo.
St. Walburga. The Abbey of St. Walburga is a truly sacred place in Colorado.
She has my vote. The Abbey brings peace to everyone who visits.
Bishop James Theodore Holley
I nominate Therese of Liseaux. Wise beyond her years, understands and adapts John of the Cross and memorizes the Imitation of Christ so she can internalize it. What a girl!
As a living descendant of St. Arnulf of Metz (d. 640 AD) I would like to put his name forward and suggest that another year’s Lent Madness be comprised of saints with known progeny so that all of us living descendants can fight it out amongst ourselves. Still haven’t figured out why he became a saint; his best miracle was filling up a beer keg when the parishioners that were charged with returning his mortal remains to Metz ran short and someone had the bright idea to pray to Arnulf to help them out of their quandary. Beer beats loaves and fishes, right?
fred rogers would be great as well!
Gregory Spinks, Episcopal priest in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, who through his compassion for one homeless, abandoned child, started an orphanage.
I nominate Biddy Bridget Mason, what a story!
Biddy Bridget Mason (1815-1891) was born into slavery and given as a wedding gift to a Mormon couple in Mississippi named Robert and Rebecca Smith. In 1847 at age 32, Biddy Mason was forced to walk from Mississippi to Utah tending cattle behind her master’s 300-wagon caravan.
After four years in Salt Lake City, Smith took the group to a new Mormon settlement in San Bernardino, California in search of gold. Biddy Mason soon discovered that the California State Constitution made slavery illegal, and that her master planned to move them all to Texas to avoid freeing them. With the help of some free blacks she had befriended, she and the other slaves attempted to run away to Los Angeles, but they were intercepted by Smith and brought back. However, when he tried to leave the state with his family and slaves, a local posse prevented his flight. Biddy had Robert Smith brought into court on a writ of habeas corpus. She, her daughters, and the ten other slaves were held in jail for their own safety until the judge heard the case and granted their freedom.
Now free, Mason and her three daughters (probably fathered by Smith) moved to Los Angeles where they worked and saved enough money to buy a house at 331 Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. Biddy was employed as a nurse, midwife, and domestic servant. She was one of the first black women to own land in the city of Los Angeles. She had the gumption to use part of her land as a temporary resting place for horses and carriages, and people visiting town paid money in exchange for the space. This can be considered the first “parking lot” in Los Angeles!
Knowing what it meant to be oppressed and friendless, Biddy Mason immediately began a philanthropic career by opening her home to the poor, hungry, and homeless. Through hard work, saving, and investing carefully, she was able to purchase large amounts of real estate including a commercial building, which provided her with enough income to help build schools, hospitals, and churches. Her financial fortunes continued to increase until she accumulated a fortune of almost $300,000. Her grandson, Robert Curry Owens, a real estate developer and politician, was the richest African-American in Los Angeles at one time.
Her most noted accomplishment was the founding of First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, now the oldest church founded by African Americans in Los Angeles, where she also operated a nursery and food pantry. Moreover, her generosity and compassion included personally bringing home cooked meals to men in state prison.
In 1988, Mayor Tom Bradley had a tombstone erected at her unmarked grave site and November 16, 1989 was declared “Biddy Mason Day”. In addition, the highlights of her life were displayed on a wall of the Spring Center in downtown Los Angeles, an honor befitting Los Angeles’s first Black female property owner and philanthropist.
Thank you Morris Spinner for sharing this with the page!
from facebook, “If someone’s in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2006 or A Great Cloud of Witnesses, they’re in. We’d consider Holy Women, Holy Men for this purpose, even though it’s defunct as an official resource. Basically, if a person appears in an official listing for a church (of any denomination), we’ll look at the nomination carefully.”
In this case I would like to nominate Dorothy Sayers
I think Benedict of Nursia is a worthy nominee because of his deep influence on Anglican spirituality and ethos. His rule of simplicity, stability, and amendment of life along with ideas about the role of community in the Christian life, grounded in the rhythm of daily prayer are central to our way of our self-understanding as Episcopalians.
Eugene V. Debs who cared about and worked tirelessly for equality for working people of all races. Ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. Passionate and humble.
I second the nomination of Pope John XXIII.
Additionally:
1) Thomas the apostle, who, by demanding evidence of the resurrection, asked the questions I would have asked. He was willing to believe, but only if it was true.
2) Thomas Aquinas, who translated theology into the new philosophy of his day. We in the 21st century are called to this same task of expressing the truths of the gospel in terms of the philosophies of our own day.
3) Thomas More (even though he opposed what would become the Church of England), because he held to his religious beliefs about the church in the face of strong political pressures from the king.
4) Father Damien of Molokai, for caring for lepers at great cost to himself.
I seem to be fond of people named Thomas.
Bertha of Canterbury, 6th C. Frankish princess who married Æthelberht, pagan king of Kent, on the condition that she be allowed to bring with her her chaplain (some sources say he was a monk, others that he was a bishop) so that she could continue in her Christian faith. St. Martin’s Church, which still exists, was rebuilt by her from the ruins of a Roman church, and as I recall you can still walk the path that Bertha walked each day for decades to St Martin’s Church to pray for the conversion of England. Pope Gregory I did not send St. Augustine to Canterbury until 596 on a mission to convert the English. That Augustine found them so ready to convert was in large part due to the high regard the people felt for their Christian queen who had already lived among them for many, many years. Æthelberht himself was baptized in 597 (date disputed?), and many of his subjects followed him in this. Æthelberht gave Augustine land to build a church, which became Canterbury Cathedral. For all of this we have God to thank, working through Bertha to prepare the way for Christianity in Kent and the Anglo-Saxon world — and the rest, as they say, is history
Scrolling through the lists, I was inspired to put forth one more name I dont think I’ve seen here–St. Martha.
James Madison for his enormous contribution in the development of our constitution,an extraordinary document that launched an extraordinary political system that has given us a land of sucgreat promise.
Some suggestions from the Australian calendar.
Feb 6 The Martyrs of Japan 1597; April 11 George Augustus Selwyn, first missionary Bishop of New Zealand; June 3 The Young Anglican and RC martyrs of Uganda 1886; September 20 John Coleridge Patterson Bishop of Melanesia, Missionary and Martyr (1827-1871);
Desmond Tutu, Eleanor Roosevelt, Peter, Martin Luther King, and sure why not Moses?
Saint Sebastian. I named my son for him!
I nominate Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley; and Henri Nouwen
I would second the nomination of Susanna Wesley. She is an excellent choice. See http://www.path2prayer.com/article/1041/revival-and-holy-spirit/books-sermons/new-resources/famous-christians-books-and-sermons/susanna-wesley-mother-of-methodism/susanna-wesley-i-am-a-woman-letter
Paul
Some suggestions from the Australian calendar
Feb.6 The Martyrs of Japan crucified at Nagasaki 1597
Feb 27. George Herbert Parish priest and Poet1593-1633
April 25 St. (John) Mark who gave us St. Peter’s story
June 3 The young Anglican and Roman Catholic martyrs of Uganda 1886
July 26 Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
July 31 Joseph of Arimethea
August 31 John Bunyan, Preacher and spiritual writer, 1628-1688
September The Martyrs of New Guinea 1942
September 20 John Coleridge Patterson, Bishop of Melanesia , missionary and Martyr, 1827-1871
October 29 James Hennington Bishop and Missionary, Martyr in Uganda 1847-18885
William Laud
St. Brendan
“Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God’s wisdom, nor our infirmity God’s omnipotence.”
+St. John of Kronstadt
Thomas Merton
St. Benedict of Nursia
St. Scholastica
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. John Paul II
Charles deFaucald
A second to the nomination of St. Scholastica, twin sister of St. Benedict. She is known as the original founder of women’s “Benedictine” (“Scholastican”???) religious communities. Whose ideas were whose? Hmmmmm…
Second to Thomas Merton!
I would like to nominate the Rev. Theodore (Ted ) Hesburgh; ex-Notre Dame president.
Fabian, Roger Williams, Thomas Cranmer, Henry Beard Delany, Edward Thomas Demby.
St. John Baptist de La Salle. French priest, educational reformer, and founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
I nominate St. Peter and Teresa of Avila
I know some of these are already nominated and I add my “yes” to them. Some may have been but I didn’t have time to look at the whole list. My nominees are:
Fred Rogers
Martin Luther
Abraham Lincoln
Gerard Manley Hopkins — 19th century British poet and priest
John Woolman He was a Quaker in the 18th century whose work led to the Quakers abolition of slavery as the first group in America to do that. He also did good work with the native Americans and with sailors on merchant ships (a group subject to deplorable conditions and piracy). I have nominated him every year. One of the lesser names in our history of the fight against slavery but a very great man.
Father John of Kronstadt
Anther nomination: Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643), Puritan of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who held and led Bible studies in her house (not permitted, since she was a woman), was part of the Antinomian Controversy, put on trial, excommunicated and banished, moving with her family and supporters to what became Rhode Island. She had a very sad end, not that many years later, the details of which can be found by anyone interested — or by everyone reading Lent Madness if she is chosen to be among the 2017 saints!
I second the nomination of Ida B. Wells. A teacher, journalist, writer, she wrote the truth about lynching and put her own life on the line. She worked for the advancement of women and equal justice in the law.
Hannah Grier Coomes, founder of Sisters of St. John the Divine, 1921
Mollie Brant (Konwatsijajenni), Matron among the Mowhaks, 17956.
Brother Andre of Montreal.
Watchman Nee
and
Fenelon
Artemisia Bowden -developed St. Philips College, San Antonio, Texas. She just became a saint last year. Stepped out in faith in 1902 to travel from NC to Texas at the request of Bishop Johnson. Amazing woman!
Elizabeth Lange, Founder of the Oblate Sisters in the US, the first black order which was founded in the 1830s during slavery to educate freed slaves, care of orphans and nursing the ill during cholera epidemic in Baltimore.
See the April 13, 2016, issue of “Christian Century.” The article by Philip Jenkins, “Making saints in Africa” includes many African martyrs worthy of nomination. “Yet the continent is profoundly underrepresented in its umber of canonized saints, and rising churches ae struggling to achieve proper recognition.”
Vincent de Paul (Holy Women, Holy Men p. 607)
Elizabeth Seton (HW, HM p. 157)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Respectfully, I would like to nominate Joel Emmanuel Hägglund — better known as Joe Hill, martyr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill
The psalmist celebrates Joe’s life:
I nominate The Rev. Hiriam Kano from Nebraska. He is the first Asian American on our calendar. Days after the attack of Peril Harbor, he was put in custody by the FBI on the steps of his church and taken to an Internment Camp where he continued offering his sacramental and pastoral ministry. He was a strong advocate for Immigrant rights.
Saint Swithun! Depicted with a bridge in his hand and eggs at his feet. (He restored them to wholeness after bridge builders broke them.) If it rains on his feast day, legend says it will rain for forty days afterwards. He requested to be buried outside the Cathedral so raindrops from the eaves would fall upon his grave. He is invoked in time of drought. Perhaps this is why people wanting an excuse to hang out in a bar say. “I’m celebrating Saint Swithun’s Day!” Fascinating saint! (In my humble opinion.)
I nominate Pasqual Baylon, patron saint of cooks and kitchens, sheep and shepherds! Canonized by the French pope in Avignon France. Worshiped in small enclaves in the new world, such a New Mexico and Mexico.
Telemachus, martyr and hermit, who singlehandedly ended the gladiator games.
Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Peter, and Hildegard of Bingen are my picks!
San Calogero of Sicily, a saint of the early church in both the Catholic and Eastern churches. He has many legends that attach to him. and he is, by tradition in any event, a saint of color.
I would like to nominate Judge Samuel Sewall who is the only Salem Witch Trial judge who repented publicly of his part in the trials. After his public confession, he spent the rest of his life in seeking redemption and because of this wrote one of the first anti-slavery traits in America; became an advocate for better treatment of Native Americans, and an advocate for better treatment of women in Puritan America. His descendant, Eve LaPlante, wrote a fascinating book on him “Salem witch judge” which tells his amazing story. I don’t think he is in any church calendar, but he should be!
I put forward for nomination:
Sao Padre Pio de Pietrelcina
interesting and inspiring life story culminating in feast day Sept 23
patron of civil defense volunteers and adoloscents
(our young people need all the help they can get!),
AND some sources also list him as patron of stress relief and January blues (!!!)
His great advise: “Pray, hope , and don’t worry.”
St. Edith Stein AKA St Tgeresa of the Cross
Martin de Tours
I have been in the SEEL program all year in Portland (Ignatian spirituality), so I feel honor bound to nominate Ignatius of Loyola. (As a Jesuit, though, I feel I’ve read an awful lot by Teilhard de Chardin this year. If Teilhard gets the nod, perhaps he should be paired against Gerard Manley Hopkins.) Yes, Dorothy Day. Although if this really is a group of modernist social workers, then perhaps Dorothy Day will follow in the footsteps of Frances Perkins and sweep, although I’m willing to take that chance. LOVE the idea of Michael the Archangel in the mix, although I fear he will sweep the boards. Shouldn’t he be paired with St. George of England, who also slew a dragon? Yes, J.S. Bach!!! Pair him with Handel. Play the soundtrack of “Messiah” all during Lent Madness. Gandhi. I’m tempted to say pair him with Mohammed. I’d love to see Mohammed here, although I’m not sure that would be understood as an ecumenical gesture. Can’t wait until Oscar Romero is eligible again. Rilke, Rilke, and Rilke again. I do notice a slight bifurcation in our choices between social activists and martyrs. So let me just add Dante and Chaucer, and perhaps Chaucer can accompany us one of these days on our annual “posting” to “Canterbury.”
I nominate St. Fiacre, patron saint of gardeners.
John the Baptist
St. Anna
St. Photine
St. Paul
St. Mark
Hugh of Lincoln
Aelred of Rievaulx
St. John of the Cross
Evelyn Underhill
1 – The Rev. Pauli Murray, civil rights lawyer and first African American woman ordained in The Episcopal Church.
2 – Anne Bradstreet, Puritan, first published poet in North America with great things to say about her relationship with the Divine. Especially in her undated letter to her children.
3 – Jonathan Myrick Daniels, martyr for civil rights, Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 526. I produced a news story about his recognition at the 1991 General Convention for KPFA radio. As I recall, it was the fastest anyone had been added to the list (then “Lesser Feasts and Fasts”).
4 – Archbishop Janani Luwum, martyred in 1977 by Idi Amin. Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 228.
Mondo thank yous for LentMadness. This was the first year I participated and I thoroughly enjoyed it (and learned a lot).
Corrie Ten Boom I may not be a great speller but she rocked in the prayer. Thank God for all things even lice
I nominate Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne. I have always been inspired by the stories of his relationship with the local king, and also with the poor.
John Wesley
I can’t believe that Eglantyne Jebb has not been nominated. A remarkable woman, she founded Save the Children in response tot he plight of children after the First World War, and wrote the document on which the UN Declaration of the Right s of the Child is based. She was arrested in Trafalgar Square for handing out leaflets depicting starving Austrian children. She defended herself in court, and although found guilty, the Crown Prosecutor publically paid her costs. Remembered in the Church of England on 17th December.
I would also like to nominate Hilda of Whitby,
and Adomnan of Iona, who wrote Columba’s biography and the Law of the Innocents, the first document designed to guarentee the safety of non combatants in war.
They have been proposed, but I would second the nominations of
John Muir
Jonathan Daniels
People really need to know more about these two people on account of their importance for earth care and for racism.
Thank you,
Charles
Benazir Bhuto, Florence Nightingale, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther, and Elizabeth Fry
I nominate Hudson Stuck: priest and archdeacon, missionary, explorer and mountain climber.
Stuck came to Texas from England in 1885. He worked as a cowboy and then as a schoolteacher in south central Texas before he went to the University of the South in 1889. Ordained to the priesthood in 1892, he became dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in 1896.
As Dean, he founded a night school for millworkers, a home for indigent women and St. Matthew’s Children’s Home. He worked to get the Texas legislature to pass the first law prohibiting child labor. And he regularly spoke out against lynching, which sadly was quite popular at the time.
Stuck moved to Alaska in 1905, where he became Archdeacon of the Yukon and the Arctic, a territory that covered 250,000 square miles. Stuck and fellow missionary Charles E. Betticher founded numerous schools and missions to serve the native population across the territory.
In 1907 Hudson founded St. John’s in the Woods, a mission on the banks of the Koyukon River, some 500 miles from where it flows into the Yukon River. That was no day trip! And yet women missionaries made the long and arduous journey to serve there. One of them was Harriet Bedell, who made it all the way to the last round of Lent Madness in 2014, only to be defeated by Charles Wesley. That connection alone should give Hudson Stuck a place on the 2017 bracket.
Stuck also started the Church Periodical Club to provide reading material to the Americans who lived in Alaska. This ministry continues today to provide Prayer Books, books for seminarians, educational materials, medical textbooks, agricultural manuals and books for those in local and global mission.
I would like to nominate Peter Abelard. I know, I know, he is not on any liturgical calendar (at least as far as I am aware). Blame St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s anti-Ableard propaganda campaign, but he was an outstanding theologian. I discovered Peter Abelard many (way too many) years ago in college, and fell in love with the man (“historical necrophilia” as a favorite author terms it) and his theology. The concept of the Paraclete, the comforter, has helped and strengthened me in difficult times my whole life since. I love his Sic et Non — who else in the 11th-12th centuries would have had the nerve to point out where church fathers contradicted themselves (or appeared to), even while teaching how context can be used to subtly reconcile them? His ideas that it is not wrong to question, that good intentions weigh in the balance, that the cross was most important as a teaching of love — these matter, and deeply. And then there are the hymns he wrote for Heloise and her nuns: O What Their Joy and Their Glory Must Be can reduce me to tears. So, on what would be his feast day if anyone but me celebrated it, I nominate Peter Abelard. As he himself would have thought (humility NOT being one of his virtues), he is worth bending the rules for.
For your consideration:
Chief Joseph, Nez Perce
Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee
I recommend Anna Julia Cooper, wrote Voice from the South in 1892; she was born a slave in North Carolina; educated in an piscopal school, went to Oberlin, became educator and feminist
St. Norbert
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?
It might get ugly and I personally don’t approve of the uses to which he’s been put of late, but his story is interesting and he’d make good cannon fodder (sorry) in the first round.
Catherine Winkworth – translator; commemorated in Episcopal calendar (along with John Mason Neale) Aug 7 and Lutheran one on July 1 for bringing German hymnody to English-speaking world…among other things. Unsung (ha) heroine in the fine-print credits of many of the hymns I grew up with.
Henry Budd – first First Nations priest in Canada; commemorated 2 April in ACC prayer book, Dec 22 (with Lottie Moon) by ECUSA. http://www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/-anglicans-celebrate-175th-anniversary-of-devon-mission
Catherine Winkworth- excellent idea. I second that.
Anselm of Canterbury and I submit a (favorite) quote. “Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved. ”
-Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033 – 21 April, 1109)
Eupsychios of Caesarea (d. 362)
Got married, got “inflamed by zeal”, got a mob of fellow Christians together and trashed the pagan Temple of Fortuna, got his head chopped off by Emperor Julian the Apostate. Soundtrack for write-up: the epic “O Fortuna” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4. Also a chance to discuss the original “Wheel of Fortune”. (Commemorated on Eastern Orthodox calendar, April 9)
Joachim:
Anne’s husband, Mary’s dad, patron saint of father/grandfather/great-grandfather figures, as a nod to all the people who want to nominate ineligible televised father/grandfather/great-grandfather figures and a way for them to properly channel their devotion; commemorated July 26.
(Mr Rogers was great of course; so was Mr. Dressup here in Canada. But I think they would both be the first to explain how important it is to follow reasonable rules, even when you’re having fun. If both could be the first. Whatever. You know what I mean!)
I’d love to see a bracket entirely composed of “holy twins” — competing Thomases who have done so much to define our faith: St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas a Kempis, St. Thomas Becket, St. Thomas More, and some of the creators of “Thomases” who have changed how we think about our society — Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), Mark Twain (those two brilliant observers of American society, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, as well as his brilliant indictments of American imperialism).
Hugh of Lincoln
Thomas Beckett
John XIII
Aidan
Bede
Alcuin
John Henry Hobart
Pope John XXIII
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (or just “Padre Pio” as he is more usually known)
Edith Stein
Charles de Foucauld
Charbel Maklouf
Margaret of Cortona
Dear highly exalted Supreme Executive Committee,
I would like to submit a name that is not, as far as I know, on any church’s calendar of saints. She is, however, known and studied – Hadewijch, a Beguine. She is a model for lay women – holy, unprofessed as were all Beguines, mistrusted by her society but living a life of benefit to that society. She was a mystic of great spiritual depth, who left a significant body of correspondence. I understand the rules, but suggest that there might be a process for someone known, studied and generally acknowledged as saintly…. what do you say?
Lynn Sinnott
Yes! Absolutely. I proposed Peter Abelard, who also is not on any calendar I know of but whose theology and beautiful hymns enrich us. Hadewijch is also important. I think both deserve inclusion.
Believe it or not, Hadewijch made it into the bracket in 2015! https://www.lentmadness.org/2015/02/hadewijch-vs-juan-diego/
John Muir, for remarkable achievements of preservation of God’s natural creation;
Dr Martin Luther King, for his immense influence with civil rights;
Harriet Ross Tubman, “Moses of her People” and the new $20 bill recognition;
Jonathan Myrick Daniels, civil rights martyr;
John Wyclif, for contributions to the Protestant Reformation;
George Frederick Handel, composer extraordinaire.
How can one possibly choose??!!
Aethelthryth and Elisabeth von Thüringen
Mother Theresa, MLK Jr., St. Theresa the little flower (she’s the Saint of discernment), Elizabeth of Hungary, John of Patmos, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm of Canterbury, and Jesus!!
David Pendleton Okerhater
The first Native American Deacon
Nominate:
David Pendleton Okerhater.
The first native American Deacon
A very worthy saint for consideration
I nominate St. Stephen, not just because our church is named after him but because he is considered by many to be the first martyr of Christianity, was mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. He was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who got a lot of important people in various synagogues pretty mad about his teachings. He was accused of blasphemy and at his trial he made a long speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, who, as we all know would later himself become a follower of Jesus and write a lot of letters with long run on sentences. And, because I think he would look really good on a mug.
I agree – St. Stephen!
And another deacon, David Pendleton Oakerhater.
It’s Earth Day, so I am adding to the nominations for John Muir!
Henry St. George Tucker, former missionary to Japan, head of the Red Cross to Asiatic Russia, and then Presiding Bishop…not a relics and miracles saint, but a Communion of Saints variety, do-er and thinker
This Nominationtide I must propose
St. Dunstan, who tweaked the Devil’s nose
With blacksmith’s tongs,
Feared not the wrath of king nor priest,
But enjoined them to live humbly and to teach
Both heart and hands of the common folk
To improve their position.
Scholar, Artist, Politician
He used all his skill to commission
Restorations
Of buildings torn down,
Of a priesthood turned ’round,
Of respect for a Crown and the people it served,
To improve their position.
Love the poem! Very clever.
I would like to nominate Father Ted Howden.
He was an Episcopal priest who chose to stay with his men and joined them in the Bataan Death march when the American soldiers were surrendered to the Japanese by our government during WWII. HE COULD HAVE RETURNED TO SAFETY AND HIS FAMILY because he was an officer and a chaplain. He would not desert the souls in his care. He died in captivity because he gave his little bits of food to others who were also starving so that they might live. In the Diocese of the Rio Grande we celebrate his life on Dec. 13 th. He cared for all the men irrespective of their religious beliefs.
I nominate Gregory of Nyssa because of his doctrine of endless growth in Christ
I also nominate Anselm of Canterbury, the Venerable Bede, Aidan, and the early martyrs Perpetua and Blandina.
Thomas Merton
Pope John XXIII
Teilhard De Chardin
I nominate St. Aldhelm of Wessex – creative minister and sacred bard. Born in southwestern England in about 640, Aldhelm became a scholar famed all the way to Rome. He built the Abbey of Malmesbury into a center of learning and founded churches and other monasteries. But he didn’t just sit in his study writing Latin tracts for other clergy. He turned the life of Jesus and other Bible stories into Anglo-Saxon bardic songs. Then he went out with his harp and performed these songs where people gathered—in the marketplace, on the riverbank, on the bridge leading into town. To give his message even more pop, he would mix in funny stories, riddles, and popular songs. Aldhelm used his art and his sense of humor to reach people where they lived and worked, in ways they could relate to and understand. Plus, he never stopped being badass. When he was made bishop of the new diocese of Sherborne, he was 65. But not only did he remain Abbot of Malmesbury—by popular demand from his monks—he dove into the new work. He got a cathedral church built. He traveled around Wessex taking care of his flock. Four centuries after his death, historian William of Malmesbury reported that people in Wessex were still singing Aldhelm’s songs. His works are still alive. Just last year, poet A.M. Juster published a translation of Aldhelm’s poetic Latin riddles.
Two that I don’t think have been nominated yet…
Marguerite Porete
Thomas Berry
Anselm of Canterbury
Richard of Chichester
I’ve seconded lots of other people’s nominations by now, but here are a few of my own:
Priscilla and Aquila
The Prophet Jeremiah
St. Edmund, King and Martyr
Amelia Bloomer
St. Nicholas of Myra, the miracle worker: a true model of generosity and charity. (Not Santa Claus).
Caryll Houselander
Caryll Houselander (1901-1954) was a British mystic, poet, author and counselor to many people both in person and through her correspondence. “She became perhaps the most popular
spiritual writer of her day, sought out for her guidance, and
dearly loved by her intimates. Out of a mostly miserable childhood
came a vision of redemption that continues to stun us into fresh
awareness of possibility with its startling beauty, its hope and
its humanity.” (Robin Mas)
One of her book covers describes Miss Houselander’s interests as working with children, wood carving, drawing and painting, and the study of Jungian psychology, Hebrew, and Russian spirituality.”
st father damian de veuster of molokai; st mother mary cope also worked on molokai; joseph dutton also molokai;
henri nouwen; thomas merton;ignatius of loyola;karl rahner;
theresa of avila; blessed soon to be sainted Mother Theresa; st john of the cross;
john henry cardinal newman; chesterton; simone weil; anne frank; alfred delp;
blaise pascal; gerard manley hopkins; ee cummings; cassian; teilhard de chardin;
benedict and scholastica; dorothy day and peter maurin; ts elliott; bede griffiths; jean vanier;
kath drexel; mother seton;andree bissette
St. Giles
Did someone mention Santa Claus?
john wyclif
Joan of Arc
I agree!
Pope Francis, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Job, Ruth, and absolutely Howard Thurman!
Saint Cecilia the patroness of music
Saint Cecilia,
Mary and Martha of Bethany. Just don’t pit them against each other.
Macrina
With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation approaching next year, I’d like to humbly offer the Supreme Executive Committee an idea. As I virtually prostrate myself before you, I beg that you focus on those saints and holy people who have sought to reconcile Christianity instead of dividing it. With that in mind, I’d like to nominate a two 20th century saints who have sought to heal the divisions of Christianity in very creative ways:
1) Br. Roger of the Taize Community in France (I nominated him a week or so ago in a separate posting.)
2) Chiara Lubich who founded the Focolare Movement to promote universal brother-and-sisterhood among Chrisitans
Thanks,
Joe
Theodora (Byzantine Empress, married to Justinian)
Quiteria
Catherine of Sienna
Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the cross)
I was going to nominate CS Lewis but see he is ineligible as a past Golden Halo winner. Any plans to put him on a mug?
St. Columba and St. Moluag (my “Lughaidh” in Scottish Gaelic) arrived in Dalriada (Ireland and Western Scotland) at exactly the same time (562 or 563) and each chose to set up a community of monks. We know much more about Columba of Iona than Moluag of Lismore but they were competitors. Doesn’t sound very saintly, but it’s rumored that Columba and Moluag actually raced their coracles toward Lismore to claim the island for their own. Seeing that he might lose, Moluag cut off his finger and threw it ashore so that his “blood and flesh” could claim the island first! I went in search of St. Moluag last year on the tiny isle of Lismore and found his ancient abbey – his church (St. Moluag’s!) is still active today. Moreover, Moluag established his center for education and support of the mission on the very ground that was devoted to ritual by the Picts – a warrior clan so fearless than the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall to keep them out of Britannia. Let’s give St. Moluag his due and consider his swashbuckling tale in the 2017 Lent Madness race – who knows?! Maybe Moluag will sacrifice another finger to win!!
Eric Liddell
I nominate Hudson Stuck who shares April 22 with John Muir (and Earth Day). Hudson has a great story – flipping a coin to decide whether to go to Australia or Texas, being a cowboy before going to seminary, returning to Texas and championing “muscular Christianity” as the moral conscience of North Texas before deciding to go to Alaska to minister to the miners, loggers, and natives. And last but not least organizing and coleading the first successful ascent of Denali. He’s got it all!!
If someone has not already nominated her, I suggest Hildegard von Bingen, a/k/a St. Hildegard.
I (enthusiastically) SECOND PAULI MURRAY (!) and Jonathan Myrick Daniels. I nominate Chiune Sugihara, who I haven’t seen on this list yet.
Also…one of my favorites….saint and martyr, Joan of Arc. As well as all the usual saintly qualities she had, Leonard Cohen even wrote a song about her!
I nominate my parish’s patron, St. David of Wales. What more can you ask of a saint than wearing leeks in his hair? Our priest was bald, so on St. Davids Day, he had to tape!
I would like to nominate St. Therese of Liseux, Saint Simeon, Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Mark
Yes to Dorothy Day, Pauli Murray, and Fannie Lou Hamer!!
Has Elie Wiesel come up yet?
Anne Hutchinson was a pretty courageous woman as well!
Saint George, please 🙂
How about Isaiah whom Jesus so often quoted.
Also Howard Thurman
Fanny Crosby – hymn writer
Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila
Manche Masemola – South African martyr
Richard Hooker – 16th cent. theologian & writer on polity
Maria Skobtsova, aka “Mother Maria of Paris”, a Russian orthodox saint. She died a martyr at Ravensbruk concentration camp. Here is a good website to help you in determining whether you want to pursue this nomination: http://incommunion.org/st-maria-skobtsova-resources/
And here is my favorite quote by her:
“The way to God lies through love of people. At the Last Judgment I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, nor how many bows and prostrations I made. Instead I shall be asked did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners. That is all I shall be asked. About every poor, hungry and imprisoned person the Savior says ‘I’: ‘I was hungry and thirsty, I was sick and in prison.’ To think that he puts an equal sign between himself and anyone in need. . . . I always knew it, but now it has somehow penetrated to my sinews. It fills me with awe.”
I would like to see the Four Chaplains (the Dorchester chaplains) included. While not Episcopalians, I believe that their courage, nobility, and compassion for fellow human beings during times of crisis or even mortal peril is something we should aspire to, regardless of denomination/religion.
I would like to nominate St John Vianney, the Cure’ D’Ars. He didn’t make a big splash on his world, but a great many people found him to be a wonderfully-faithful parish priest. He was so open to truth that some who came to him for confession and absolution, but who were not fully-truth-speaking in their confession were simply and quietly warned against trying to lie to God. His love and humility and willingness to go beyond expectations in his pastoral service are challenges to those of us who try to serve as parish priests.
I nominate St. Margaret of Antioch and St. George of England.
maximillian kolbe
padre pio of petracina (sp)
brother Roger of Taize
Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg.. All saints (lower case) need a Saint (upper case) to remind us that seemingly small contributions are important.
Harvey Milk
Desmond Tutu
Hildegard of Bingin
St Scholastica
St Cecilia
Yes, to all the above!
I sort of thought at least two of these were in earlier-years’ brackets, but they’re not on the list of ineligibles, so…
Aidan of Lindesfarne
Brendan of Clonfert (the Navigator)
Columba of Iona
Is Guy Fawkes a saint?
St. Mark
Joan of Arc
Beckett – Thomas not Samuel
Good ones, all. In more ways than one!
Father Damien of Hawaii
Maximilian Kolbe
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Nino of Georgia
D’oh! I was right the first time – Columba was in the bracket THIS YEAR, and Brendan was last year! How could I forget that already? So they’re probably out, anyway, but if not, maybe another shot? Or how about St. Malachy, St. Aiden of Lindesfarne, and Oliver Plunkett.
Dorothy Day
Thomas Merton
Mother Teresa
Thomas the Doubter
Teresa of Avila
Pope John XXIII
Rosa Parks
Henri Nouwen
Coretta Scott King
Thomas Cranmer
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Prince
Pope John Paul I
My apologies if these are repeats — the following would make terrific bracket contenders:
St. Philip Neri (feast day, May 26) – He maintained humility through humor!
Brother Juniper (feast day, January 29) – “the renowned jester of the Lord,” St. Francis himself punned, “Would to God, my brothers, that I had a whole forest of such Junipers.”
Mister Rogers (future National Holiday? March 20?) – In seminary, Fred Rogers learned that there are two kinds of Christian leaders: “accusers” and “advocates.” He chose to be the latter.
As Mister Rogers was a Presbyterian Minister, he may not yet be on any sanctorial calendar — so we Presbyterians will get right on that! Meanwhile, there has been a national petition…
Never thought I’d say it, but I can’t wait until next Lent! Blessings all!
St. Jude Thaddeus (feast day, October 28) – the Patron Saint of Hope and impossible causes
Yes, yes, yes, yes. We need more senses of humor in the brackets!
And The Rev. Fred Rogers, of course.
I nominate St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio –the Seraphic Doctor, the great Franciscan scholastic and mystic. He has got some beautiful theology that the Episcopal Church could do with hearing more about. I also nominate Angela of Foligno because she was in a miracle where she ate the skin of the leapers she and her companions were washing and it was eucharistic… very medieval, in a good way.
I nominate Mary McKillop. The only official Australian Saint.
Florence Nightingale
Joan of Arc
Martha of Bethany
Mary the Mother of Christ (although I may have read somewhere that St. Mary is not eligible because she is a slam-dunk!)
It has been a few years since this saint was in the running, so I humbly submit her name for consideration this go round: St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Peace be with you! And Happy Lent!
Gertrude – cats, gardens and mental health – great recipe!
The Rev. Dr. James DeKoven.
Who do you know that was nominated more than once to become a bishop, and denied.?
A beloved Episcopalian and tractarian.
I nominate Saint Ann, for without her and her faithfulness we would not have had the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I also nominate Saint Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandmother of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
James Chisholm
Definitely something of an underdog choice, since I don’t know how many folks would have heard of him aside from members of his former parish (St. John’s, Portsmouth VA) or die-hard fans of “Holy Women, Holy Men” (September 15)… but that’s kinda why I want to nominate him. It’s my small way of saying that it matters to me that there’s someone on the calendar of saints who’s just as easily mistaken for quiet, unassuming, and “meh” as I am. It makes it a lot easier to believe that I can do great things too.
I would like to nominate:
Emily Malbone Morgan, founder of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (she is on our calendar – Feb. 26)
Episcopal Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Bishop of Minnesota. Outstanding advocate for Native Americans.
Saint Lucy
I would like to nominate Martin Luther, who may have founded the Lutheran church–His enemies called them Lutheran, not Dr. Luther.
I wish to nominate two relatively unknown saints who have special meaning for me:
St. Gemma Galgani – loosely, the patron saint for back pain
More strictly, the patron saint of those of us with spinal cord injuries
and other spinal conditions
St. Dymphna – patron saint of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and psychiatric conditions
Just thoe thoughts…
I nominate Helen Keller and/or Anne Sullivan.
Virginia Dare and/ or Pauli Murray
Virginia Dare
Pauli Murray
Saints Sergius & Bacchus (as a pair), widely venerated by gay Christians. And in the same vein, the nameless Ethiopian eunuch converted by Phillip. For modern representation, Rev.Mychael Judge, “gay saint of 9-11”
St. Raymund Nonnatus (just in case you throw out the nomination of Mr. Roger’s dog).
Since its going to be 2017, the 500th year of the reformation, It would be nice to have either Martin Luther or James Tyndale. I nominate them.
Opps thats William, not James
St. Damien of Molokai, St. John the Baptist, and his mother, St. Elizabeth, who gave Mary support, encouragement, shelter and acknowledgement of the importance of the great sacrifice she was making.
I nominate Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Servant of the Servants of God. Gregory, besides his wise administration of the Roman See and strong action to improve social and political conditions in Italy in his time, himself wrote lives of many saints including Benedict and was a key influence in spreading monastic life, as well as providing important teaching in his pastoral theology, homilies, letters and Biblical commentaries. He influenced liturgy and church music as well and of course is endeared to Anglicans for sending Augustine and others to England to re-establish Christianity there after the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
Some of these folks are “official” calendar saints, some on their way to being so and others will likely never be so recognized but they’re all in Robert Ellsberg’s “Daily Saints” …and bottom line I just think they’re beyond wonderful:
Christian de Cherge (who wrote to his murderer: “yes for you too, I wish this thank you…may we be granted to meet each other again, happy thieves in paradise, should it please God, the Father of us both…in sh’allah!”)
Raoul Wallenberg
Mev Puleo
St Marcella (who preferred “to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse”
Rutilio Grande
Jean Donovan
St Maximilian Kolbe
Fannie Lou Hamer
Mother Mary Skobtsova
Peter Maurin
Rose Hawthorne
On behalf of the St. Benedict Study Group at St. Hilary’s Episcopal Church in Hesperia, I nominate Mary Ann Bickerdyke.
So many saints, such a small bracket. Here are my submissions for this year in addition to the ones I seconded above. Some that follow have already been mentioned, but instead of reading all 600+, I decided to cut to simply list some. I will recommend others next year, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Mother Katherine Drexel
Pope Gregory the Great
Pauli Murray
Phoebe Palmer
Nellie McKim
Polycarp
Fr. Herman of Alaska
Fr. Virgil Michel
Dag Hammarskjold
Martin Luther, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Dorothy L. Sayers, St. Isidore, St. Dunstan, Hildegard of Bingen, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Anthony of Padua, The Dorchester Chaplains, St. Mary MacKillop, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Jude. Thank you.
-John Calvin, who, more than anyone since his time, is responsible for the flourishing of freedom, equality, and democracy in the modern world.
-St. Gregory of Narek, recently named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis, whose prayers are beautiful and moving
-Roger Williams, an advocate for a healthy relationship between religion and politics as well as racial reconciliation (and, I might add, a Calvinist)
-Mother Theresa, whose witness makes clear the image of God (and Christ) in the most abject
I’d also love to see the following return to LM, so I can have a chance to vote for them again, and hope they get a little farther than in their previous appearances!
-J.S. Bach
-Hildegard von Bingen
-John Wycliffe
-Martha of Bethany
William West Skiles, Deacon in Western North Carolina
There are over 600 comments, I’m hoping I’m not redundant, but I nominate John Muir. His passion and connection to nature were instrumental in the development of National Parks, one of the world’s greatest ideas. He grew up being taught that man was above nature, but spending time in the American wilderness convinced him that we are a part of God’s large, joyous creation, but not in charge of it. He wrote eloquently about his own connection to God through nature. He was a conservationist before there was a need for such a thing, well ahead of his time. After marrying and building a successful large farm and family, his wife sent him back into the wilderness at age 50, saying the farm was not worth his life, and supporting his advocacy and passion for wild places, saying he was the only one who could convince the 19th century world of the necessity of untouched nature, which the United States has been extravagantly blessed with. If he makes the bracket, I’ll volunteer to blog him.
I did a Find in page, I’m not alone in supporting John Muir. I also would support Harriet Tubman and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
Saint Barbara because it is rainy with thunder
Ignatius of Loyola
I nominate Saint Kentigern, also know as Saint Mungo. He was a missionary to what we know as Scotland, primarily in the Clyde River area and he had a special bond with animals as well as people oppressed by the pagan rulers in the late 6th century. His crypt is in Glasgow Cathedral.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Episcopal seminarian & civil rights activist/martyr who took a bullet for an African-American girl in 1965 –‘Greater love hath no man than this….’
Saint Isidore the Farmer, patron saint of farmers, laborers, and the city of Madrid
Theodore of Tarsus
I like someone who can bring order to chaos and do it in the “twilight” of his life. Besides his bio in Lesser Feasts and Fasts tells us “According to Bede, Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English obeyed…” Now that’s a major accomplishment!
I nominate Aloysius Stepinac.
Sanctoral calendar? Really they all need to be updated! None of my saints– most of whom I know personally and they are also mostly dead–are not on some sanctoral calendar other than mine and they should be –so I am left with no choice but to nominate St. Barbara–she died for her faith. I liked the part where the person who killed her was struck down by lightening. Also her popularity has faded so all of us “Barbaras” are of a certain age and frankly we need a new crop.
Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Carmelite nun, convert from Judaism who died at Auschwitz.
Important philosopher who studied empathy. Worked with Husserl and Heidegger.
Feast: August 9
Saint Andrew
George F Handel
I nominate:
St. Andrew
St. Stephen
David Pendleton Oakerhater
Harriett Tubman
Thurgood Marshall