In the fullness of time, the Supreme Executive Committee rests from its Lenten labors and begins accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2018.
In other words…
Welcome to Nominationtide!
For one full week, Tim and Scott will be accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2018. The nominating period will remain open through the evening of Monday, May 22. At which point the window will unceremoniously slam shut.
Please note that the ONLY way to nominate a saint is to leave a comment in this post. Nominations will not be accepted via social media, e-mail, carrier pigeon, brick through a window at Forward Movement headquarters, singing telegram, sky writer, or giant billboard along I-95. Also, at least officially, bribes are discouraged.
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 2017, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2016 and 2015, and those from the 2014 Faithful Four. Needless to say Jesus, Mary, Tim, Scott, and previous Golden Halo Winners are also ineligible. Below is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations.
It takes Herculean amounts of shade grown, single-origin coffee for Tim and Scott to put together the Lent Madness bracket.
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. To reiterate, being DEAD is part of the criteria.
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 2018 field of 32 awaits your input.
The Saints of Lent Madness 2017 (all ineligible)
Fanny Crosby
G.F. Handel
Sarah
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Joseph Schereschewsky
Nikolaus von Zinzendorf
Scholastica
Macrina the Younger
Amelia Bloomer
Phillip Melanchton
Franz Jagerstatter
Joan of Arc
Martin Luther
David Oakerhater
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Canterbury
Raymond Nonnatus
John of Nepomuk
Odo of Cluny
Theodore the Studite
Florence of Nightingale
Anselm of Canterbury
Henry Budd
Cecilia
Moses the Black
John Wycliffe
Mechtild of Magdeburg
Henry Beard Delaney
Aelred of Riveaulx
Stephen
Alban
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Florence Nightingale
From 2014 to 2016 (ineligible)
Thecla
Bernard Mizecki
Frederick Douglass
Molly Brant
Egeria
Brigid of Kildare
Columba
Albert Schweitzer
Julian of Norwich
Absalom Jones
Sojourner Truth
Constance
Vida Dutton Scudder
Kamehameha
Phillips Brooks
Lydia
Harriet Bedell
After the SEC culls through the hundreds of nominations at their annual spring retreat, the 2018 Bracket will be announced on All Brackets’ Day (November 3rd).
In the meantime, we wish you all a joyous Nominationtide.
St. Pachomius the Great =, another great monastic.
Today is his Feastday in the Orthodox churches!
St. Pachomius, yes!
I would like to nominate two women:
Dorothy Day
Simone Weil
I second these nominations!
I nominate St Katherine Drexel (1858-19555) of Philadelphia, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, dedicated to the education of Native American and African American children. Her feast day is March 3rd.
Oscar Romero
YES!!!
2nd Oscar Romero
I nominate Howard Thurman and Septima Pointsette Clark.
#LentMadness2018
Septima Poinsette Clark
Ella Baker
Harriet Tubman
Ida B Wells
Fannie Lou Hamer
I support all of these candidates.
I support all of these nominations!
St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
Yes, for Cuthbert!
I am another Cuthbert fan.
Me, too
Cuthbert, yes!
I agree! St Cuthburt.
As am I!!!
Ann Reeves Jarvis
Rosa Parks
MLK Jr.
Me too!
I support the nomination of MLK, Jr. and add Mother Marianne Cope, Fr. Damien, and Brother Dutton.
I nominate St. Botolf (also known as Botwulf of Thorney), patron saint of Boston and a dynamite hymn tune.
Me three!
Hey the Boston Celtics are doing well in the National Basketball Assoication. Real Pros, I don’t know if they’ll beat the Golden State Warriors in the finals, but we’ll see. The answer is blowing in the wind. God bless you, and may we agree on St Botolf or Botwulf of Thorney. Thanks for your nomination. I have to agree with you because the San Antonio Spurs are not doing well and they are going to lose to the favorite. These are real pros.
God bless you and anyone involved in this study,
Jonathan Burke
Go Cavs!! It’s Cleveland all the way.
It is in this spirit that I nominate St. George who is the patron saint of cavalryman and incidentally the boy scouts which came as a delightful surprise since my son will be earning his Eagle Scout badge in the very near future. St George was sentenced to death for failing to recant his Christian beliefs. You can throw in St. Agnes for good measure and pit the boy scouts against the girl scouts for fun!
Cuthbert
I agree. Cuthbert from me too.
Florence Li Tim Ok, the first woman ordained in the Anglican Communion. She has a fabulous story of her sneaking through enemy lines in WW2, to be ordained in Hong Kong and then back to her people. Also being caught up in the Cultural Revolution.
Florence Li Tim Oi — I fully support her nomination.
St. Mary of Egypt
St. Luke
St. Peter
St. Paul
Veronica
Henri Nouwen
#LentMadness2018
Amen!
Yes!
Second Henri Nouwen!
Charles F. Menninger, March 6 on the Episcopal Calendar
Pioneer in establishing a humane psychiatric treatment facility in Topeka, Kansas (1925), and advocating for better treatment and a more informed public policy in support of the needs of the mentally ill. Menninger was committed to treating the whole person, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
I second this nomination.
I Nominate St. Timothy to whom I was named after.
I nominate Martin Bucer (1491 – 1551) Because I think working toward ecumenical peace is vital to Christianity.
He is often referred to as the “Peacemaker of the Reformation.” He also taught at Cambridge by invitation of Thomas Cranmer. Bucer reminds us that it’s possible to be ecumenical and at times even be winsome. In his life we are especially reminded of Jesus’ words, blessed are the peacemakers. (Copied)
Pauli Murray
Please do not post my full name.
I enthusiastically second that motion! Besides Pauli Murray, I also nominate Catherine of Sienna if she is eligible. (Note to the SEC: could you put the list of ineligible names in alphabetical order next time? Please.)
Verna Dozier
Agree
Yes!
St. Zita of Lucca
I I would like to nominate Saint Kevin of Glendalaugh.
Saint Margaret (of Scotland)
Go Margaret!!!
I just finished reading Lilac Girls. Caroline Ferriday who helped the survivors of horrific experiences at Ravensbruck would seem to be a good choice as a saint. And she died in 1990.
Yes
Charles Spurgeon whose sermons and devotionals are still read, influencing so many lives.
I nominate Saint John Bosco
I nominate Fred McFeely Rogers of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood series fame.
Just reading this nomination makes me smile. He was right there with Bishop Curry in striving to teach us to love everybody.
Well said,
Regarding Fred
A loving heart,
He did his part to raise us all
Both great and small
In times of stress,
My house a mess,
He smiled at us,
Said, hey, don’t fuss
I like you just the way you are…
May all young parents hear this same wise counsel.
yes please!
Fred Rogers is also my nomination. I can’t think of a modern character more deserving of emulation.
Just give him the halo now!
I don’t know if Fred Rogers is on anyone’s calendar (Kalendar?), but I know there’s an icon of him. Does that count at all?
I also support St. Fred of the Neighbourhood.
Katherine Drexel
Catherine of Siena
Thomas Aquinas
Dorothy Day
Elizabeth of Hungary
St Anthony. Because so many are lost, and in honour of children killed in war.
Which St. Anthony? Of the Desert? Of Padua?
I would guess Anthony of Padua, since he is Patron of lost things and also of children.
Catherine of Siena
Brendan the Navigator
Bede
Cuthbert
Lioba
Wilibrandis Rosenblatt Capito Bucer
Catherine Winkworth
Lucretia Mott
Philip Romolo Neri, known as the Third Apostle of Rome, after Saints Peter and Paul, was an Italian priest noted for founding a society of secular clergy called the Congregation of the Oratory. I figure he’s a cinch, for he is not only “my” saint, but I’m sure the Supremes will appreciate anyone who is about Oratory (I know, it’s about prayer, but ….)
Martin Buber has got to be in somebody’s calendar. He’stoo saintly not to be.
Ignatius Loyola. Let’s vote for a Jesuit! The cardinals did.
Margaret of Scotlant
Such a well rounded saint, I second this nomination
Queen Emma of Hawai’i. She was the embodiment of servsnt leadership, working tirelessly for the poor and disenfranchised segment of Native Hawaiians. Also, she and her husband King Kamehameha IV were Episcopalians and did a lot to encourage the development of The Episcopal Church on the Hawaiian Islands in the 19th Century.
Good choice! I give second here!
Raoul Wallenberg
Yes! Yes!
Samuel Seabury
Billy Graham( don’t know if he qualifies since he is still alive)
Thomas Cranmer
Florence Li Tim-Oi, first woman priested in the Anglican Communion (1944)
St. Francis Mary Kolbe, who took the place of a husband and father and died in Auschwitz in his place. He is also the patron saint of ham radio operators
George Fox
On behalf of Christ Church Glendale, we nominate Abraham Lincoln.
He bested Martin Luther King Jr, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, David Pise, Bishop Philander Chase, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Desmond Tutu in our Lent Madness, pre-season contest “Who’s our Saint” for 2017.
We learned and wonder – who really really is a Saint ??
St. Susanna
Harry Holt of Oregon who found homes for hundreds of Korean orphans abandoned after the Korean war. He started, in the beginning almost single handedly, an organization that has found homes for thousands of children worldwide (Holt Internationl). He used up all his financial resources and, finally, exhausted his fragile health and died saving yet one more Korean baby. Is regarded as a saint in Korea.
I nominate St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory. Also known as a saint with a sense of humor.
Florence Li Time Oi – first woman priest in the Anglican Communion
Eva Mary Matthews, C.T. Foundress of the Community of the Transfiguration
Sister Constance Anna, C.T. whose work in China saved countless babies, cared for the desperate needs of coolies and trained many women in skills that allowed them to earn a living and survive.
Marian Rebecca Hughes – the first person to make religious profession in the Church of England after the dissolution of the monasteries
Cecil Francis Alexander, one of Anglicanism’s many great Victorian woman hymn writers
I wonder why there is a limitation that nominated saints must be in one denominational calendar or another. That keeps us from learning about many amazing saints whose simply haven’t been pushed through what are, sadly, political processes in our churches. Lent Madness has, from the beginning, gone where none have gone before. This would take us even further into the adventure of gaining relationships with many of God’s astonishing and grace-filled saints.
I have two of my heroes to nominate:
1. Alexander Men (1935-1990), an Orthodox priest born Jewish in Moscow, who was a teacher, evangelist, and theologian in anti religious Soviet Russia. During his lifetime he baptized thousands, wrote many books, founded schools and charities, He is credited with providing the basis of religious renewal in post Soviet period. He was a target of the KGB and was ultimately murdered by ax while walking from home to church. He said: “I find more meaning in the wing of a bird and in the branch of a tree than in five hundred icons. God has given us two books: the Bible and Creation.”
2. Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995), lifelong social activist and founder of Gray Panthers. From Wiki: Seeing all issues of injustice as inevitably linked, they refused to restrict themselves to elder rights activism, but focused also on peace, presidential elections, poverty, and civil liberties. Their first big issue was opposition to the Vietnam War. One of her famous quotes: “Old age is not a disease – it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses.” And another: ‘Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind – even if your voice shakes. When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say. Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants.”
Columba, Katherine Von Bora, Wycliffe, Anna, Lydia, Brigid, Chief Seattle, Elizabeth Fedde
Sts. Jacinta and Francesco Marto who had visions of Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Peace, are recommended for consideration.
You beat me to it! I am eager to learn more about these newest of saints, albeit not in our (Episcopal) calendar.
John Mason Neal
Gotta nominate some of my favorite ancient saints..
Prisca
Sabina and/or Serapia
Andrew
Sebastian
Lawrence
Jerome
Several worthy candidates: James. possible brother of Christ [“Show me your works and I’ll show you your faith”]; a second of Abraham Lincoln; Jonas Salk, conqueror of polio; William Shakespeare, obvious writing skills and man of mystery; Robert E. Lee, misguided, but a man of character and deep faith {Episcopalian} beloved by his soldiers and all of Southern citizenry; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, no matter your politics provided hope and restored pride to millions of suffering Americans and people around the world; Mel Brooks , OK, so he’s Jewish but has had the courage to skewer evil and phonies for more than 70 hearts.
James, Brother of Our Lord.
I second that emotion!
Hildegard von Bingen
Watchman Nee
Amy Carmichael
Lucy!
Thomas Merton and Karl Barth, whose shared feast and death day (December 10) happens to be the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood (though I was only 14 in 1968 when they both died). They’re also pretty cool and rather different 20th century saints with wide influence beyond their respective communions. For an English saint: John Donne, priest, poet and contemporary of Golden Halo winner, George Herbert. For medieval: Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, poet, composer, scientist and counselor to rulers; Biblical: Joseph of Arimathea, who played a small but critical role in Jesus’ passion.
John Wesley
Bede
Cuthbert
Lioba
Ignatius of Loyola
Catherine of Siena
Brendan the Navigator
I nominate Father Ted Hesburgh for his role in the American civil rights movement and his relentless work in identifying prejudice around the world.
Father Hesburgh was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for his visionary work against elements of apartheid in America.
From the exhausting fact-finding missions to the final deliberations over wording, Father Hesburgh was acknowledged as the principal architect of the Civil Rights Act and served on the Civil Rights Commission from its inception in 1957 until 1972, when President Nixon replaced him after he criticized that administration’s civil rights record.
When President Barack Obama spoke at Notre Dame in 2009, he acknowledged the central role the Holy Cross priest, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, had played in this chapter of American history
John Wesley – Charles is on the ineligible list, but John isn’t.
I second Martin Luther King too.
St. Martin of Tours
Another good one! I’ll second this nomination, too!
Oh, and Brother Lawrence has just come to mind.
Yes to Brother Lawrence. A true saint of God!
I nominate Richard of St. Victor!
I recommend the following for consideration:
J.R.R. Tolkien
St. Thomas More
St. Maximilian Kolbe
St. Benedict
St. John Paul II
Catherine McAuley
St. Damien of Molokai
Would love to see St.Damien of Molokai. He was my inspiration on how to respond to the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980’s.
I nominate Jonathan Daniels and Ruby Sales
Bartolome de las Casas, 16th century Spanish friar and one of the first real advocates for human rights. He was the first to assert that the Native Americans being so hideously exploited by the
Spanish were people, too, and he spent his life working for their welfare.
Yes
Yes
Kateri Tekekwitha: was a young Mohawk woman who lived in the 17th century. The story of her conversion to Christianity, her courage in the face of suffering and her extraordinary holiness is an inspiration to all Christians.
Pierre Toussaint: The Venerable Pierre Toussaint was a former slave from the French colony of Saint-Domingue who was brought to New York City by his owners in 1787. There he eventually gained his freedom and became a noted philanthropist to the poor of the city.
André Bessette: Brother in the Congregation of the Holy Cross–porter and miracle worker of Montreal
Giuseppe Moscati: Saint Giuseppe Moscati was an Italian doctor, scientific researcher, and university professor noted both for his pioneering work in biochemistry and for his piety.
Dorothy Day: was an American journalist, social activist, and Catholic convert. Day initially lived a bohemian lifestyle before gaining fame as a social activist after her conversion.
Cyril of Alexandria: An Egyptian bishop and theologian, he is best known for his role in the Council of Ephesus, where the Church confirmed that Christ is both God and man in one person.
Definitely Kateri, Pierre, and Dorothy!!
I 2nd St. Cyril of Alexandria!
I nominate Ben Salmon for 2018 Lent Madness!
Please accept my nomination of St. Hildegard von Bingen (d. 1179). Justification: St. Hildegard is arguably one of the most significant personages of late Medieval Europe. On October 7, 2012, she was declared the 35th Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Hildegard was tithed to the church at the age of 8, and spent the first half of her life at Disibodenberg Monastery, in modern Germany. She was an extraordinarily gifted polymath, and was a renowned healer, musical composer, writer, medical scientist, and preacher. Her musical compositions are performed to this day. As a mystic, she experienced profound visions, which she wove into brilliant writings and illuminations. Her writing career was launched with the publication of “Scivias”, a book of visions which impressed Pope Eugenius III so much that he read excerpts of an early draft to his cardinals and bishops, commenting on their profoundness and illumination of orthodox doctrine. Her knowledge of the healing arts prompted her to write scholarly texts on medicine and science. She founded monastic residences at Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. Throughout her extraordinary life, she wove the greater sphere of cosmic influence in with the microcosm of the human body. Her poetry and literary talent speak for themselves:
“The Power of Wisdom”
Wisdom circles all things,
Comprehends all things,
And follows one path, which has life.
Wisdom has three wings:
One soars to the heights,
One exudes from earth
One flies everywhere.
Praise be to you, as befits you,
O wisdom.
St Angela Merici
Emily Morgan, founder of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross as well as vacation houses for working women and children in Massachusetts’ mills. Her feast day is February 27. I second MLK, Jr.
Yes, I have been to Adelynrood and it is wonderful
Thomas Cranmer who is one of the Oxford Martyrs. Their Feast Day is October 16. He wrote and assembled the first two Books of Common Prayer and the THIRTY NINE ARTICLES OF FAITH of the Anglican Church. Recommended reading for anyone interested in his life is, THOMAS CRANMER by Diarmaid MacCulloch; it is detailed and comprehensive. This is the same author who wrote THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY, which is the book used in the third year of EFM.
St Lucy of Syracuse
How about….Howard Thurman?
That would be excellent to see Howard Thurman learn more about this man who influence so many like Martin Luther King, Jr!
Fred Rogers
Father Damien of Molokai
I will second Mr Rogers like crazy.
I’ve already seconded St. Fred of the Neighbourhood. I’ll also second Fr. Damian.
St. Ronan – just because I’m curious about how Berkeley Divinity School at Yale came to have his name on their address. I second Robert E. Lee (misguided? Grant was the one who owned slaves at the end of the war) engineer and designer of St. Mark’s Church, San Antonio, TX, vestryman.
St. Peter Claver, died 1654, who spent his ministry in Colombia working on behalf of the African slaves brought in by the boatload to work in the mines. He met the slave ships at the harbor and provided food, drink, and comfort, and continued to advocate for their fair treatment, visiting the plantations where they worked. He regarded them as fellow Christians and strove to learn their languages and customs. He is credited with baptizing over 300,000 African slaves and was regarded as a saint in his own time. He was a willing servant of the lowliest.
Margaret Sanger
Henri Nouwen
+1 to both of these
I’d like to nominate Georgia Harkness for Lent Madness 2018.
Hilda of Whitby
I 2nd Hilda of Whitby! Excellent nomination. Incredible how she managed to keep the savage kingdoms of Saxons and Angles from war.
Benedict of Nursia (but not because of The Benedict Option)
Leopold Mandić
Hugh of Lincoln.
Johann Sebastian Bach…for his craftmanship…his contribution to church music…the deeply spiritual quality that distinguishes so much of his music..the enormous impact of the two Passions never duplicated by sucteeding composers…his devotion to scripture of which he was obviously well informed. Where would music , one of God’s miracles, be without Bach
Alfred the Great
Saint Cecilia
Saint Therese of Liseaux
Saint Serguis
Saint Gilbert (of Sempringham)
Absolutely!
Which St. Sergius?
Clara Barton
Walter Reuther
Abraham Lincoln
Catherine of Siena
Andrew
Juan Diego
Thea Bowman
St. Rose of Lima
St Martin Porres
Eleanor Roossevelt
I nominate William Wilberforce, one of my favorite saints. His passionate and uncompromising crusade for the abolition of slavery has been an inspiration to me all my adult life. Our world needs more leaders of “heroic greatness” today!
Ambrose
Karl Barth
Lucia
St. Peter the Apostle
Cornelius the Centurion
Silas
John Donne
Alphege
Joan of Arc
Barnabas
William White
Mary of Bethany
Martha of Bethany
Lazarus of Bethany
Paul Jones
Hildegard
Elizabeth of Hungary
Saint Agnes of Rome
St. Sava
I nominate Jean Vanier who is the founder of L’Arche. L’Arche provides group homes for individuals with intellectual (and often physical) disabilities or challenges. Caregivers work and live with these residents and provide excellent care and companionship with dignity. Monsieur Vanier resides in the original home in France. Here’s are two helpful websites; the second has a biography of Vanier.
https://www.larche.org/
http://www.larche.ca:8080/
Jean Vanier would be a worthy candidate someday, but he is still living.
Leonidas Polk, the Fighting Bishop. Bishop of Louisiana. Leading founder of the University of the South at Sewanee TN. West Point graduate and Confederate Army Corps Commander.
William of Ockham, born in 1285, died 1347.
Saint John the Baptist
Charlemagne
Louis IX, king of France, (Saint Louis)
St Rose of Lima, 1586-1617
Kateri Tekawitha, saint from the Native Americans. Died in 1680.
Saint Patrick.
For the SEC’s consideration:
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Dag Hammarskjold
I’d like to nominate St Dymphna, patron saint of the mentally ill! She’s my favorite.
Alternatively, Chiune Sugihara–he was a Japanese diplomat to Lithuania and a Christian in WW2 who saved thousands of Jewish people and families by fudging their paperwork to allow them to escape. He saw the danger that they were in, so he didn’t wait for his superiors in Japan to come up with an opinion or orders, and spent all of his time hand-writing and signing visas. Even when he was forced to leave, he was said to have still been furiously hand-writing and handing out visas to Jewish people at the train station. He spent most of the rest of his life doing menial jobs like selling lightbulbs door-to-door. No one in his neighborhood really knew what he’d done until he died and all these Jewish strangers and ambassadors showed up on his doorstep to mourn. He did it knowing that it would eventually be career suicide, which is a huge deal in Japan, simply because he had to protect these vulnerable people in some way, acting according to his faith. Like Franz Jagerstatter from the 2017 contest, I think he’s a saint for the 21st century.
I strongly second Chiune Sugihara – his unselfish actions should be better known to the world!
I also strongly second Chiune Sugihara (who was a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church). Many years after the war an interviewer asked him why he chose the course of action he did. Part of his response was “There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives.”
I second St. Dymphna! She was murdered by her incestuous father when she resisted his advances. While in flight from him, she founded a hospital for the poor. A saint for survivors.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=222
I also nominate St. Wilgefortis, patron saint of intersex and queer people, and another one who resisted a forced marriage:
http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2011/07/saint-wilgefortis-bearded-woman.html
Neat, I never knew about St Wilgefortis!
Pauli Murray
Nominations
Hagar the Egyptian, mother of Ishmael see Delores Williams: Sisters in the Wilderness
George Fox
Prisca
Dom Helder Camara
The woman with a flow of blood (new testament)
Seattle chief of the Suquamish (1866)
According to tradition, the woman with the flow of blood was Veronica, who wiped the face of Jesus as he was going to Calvary. My wife’s Patron is Veronica.
Richard Rowland Kirkland known as The Angel of Fredericksburg. A Confederate soldier that faced gunfire from both sides to give water to the Union wounded. A fascinating story.
I nominate St. Gregory the Great, a monastic, a deacon, pastor and bishop of the Church of God and patron saint of musicians .
St. Gregory the Great who also sent St. Augustine of Canterbury to England as a missionary.
John Wesley
Athanasius
Desmond Tutu
St. Brigid
Bishop Tutu is not dead!
Good thing! 😉
And my husband nominates Sir Thomas More
I nominate Katherine Drexel who used her share of a family fortune to found the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and educate the most neglected children, especially in the US.
Also John Neumann, the “Little Bishop” began the parochial school system in the US, beginning in Philadelphia where he was the Archbishop.
Also Eleanor Roosevelt, a passionate advocate for racial equality in the US and human rights all over the world.
Finally I also nominate Frances Xavier Cabrini who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and many schools.
St Aethelthryth!
Blandina!
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
St. Margaret of Scotland
Yes! I would love to learn more about the “Pearl of Scotland”!
Thomas Cranmer
Yes please, Thomas Cranmer!
Fr. Mychal Judge (“the saint of 9/11”)
And a local (for me) one, which I know makes him a very bad nominee – Fr. Solanus Casey, who was just last week advanced another step in the RC canonization process. He was a member of the Capuchin Friars here in Detroit, and devoted his life to feeding the hungry at the soup kitchen which the friars still operate.
Charles Wesley
Radigund: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radegund
Said to have had a role as an international peace-broker.
Second!
St. Edmund, founder of the Edmundites
James the Brother of our Lord who was martyred, Perpetua who also was martyred
Archbishop Oscar Romero
A HUGE YES
Yes
Another yes!
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
David of Wales
Elizabeth of Hungary
St. Mark the Evangelist
Madeline L’Engle
Pauli Murray!!
yes! Yes! YES! Pauli Murray!
Yes to Pauli!
Ignatius of Antioch- Bishop, Martyr, Apostolic Father!!! 1st Bishop of Antioch (where followers of Jesus were first referred to as “Christians”). Writer of several important Epistles; killed by lions in Rome at the Circus Maximus. He was an old man (70’s?- old for those times); he was escorted by a company of soldiers from Antioch to Rome. His letter sent ahead to the Christians in Rome, telling of his longing for Christ and urging them not to interfere with his Martyrdom, is rooted in reality and eternity. His Feast Day is October 17.
St. Joseph of Cupertino is said to have levitated during prayer. He is the patron saint of air travelers, pilots and students.
-St. Bonaventure (Aquinas of the Franciscan order, beautiful theology)
-Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (cool name, early and influential mystical theologian)
-Sitting Bull and the Martyrs of Wounded Knee (killed for Ghostdancing. Had links to Episcopal Church)
John Vianney, Cur d’ Ars, parish priest
John Cassian, monk and theologian
Tertullian
Origen
I nominate Helen Keller.
St. John of Beverly, Bishop of Hexham and York (d. 721). He was known as a scholar, a miracle worker, and a contemplative. Because of one of his miracle stories he later became known as the “patron saint of the deaf and dumb.” In his early years John lived at the monastery under Hilda of Whitby. As bishop he ordained the Venerable Bede, who adored John and wrote quite a bit about him. Julian of Norwich was a devotee. She described him as “a kind neighbor of pure knowing.” Henry V attributed his win at the Battle of Agincourt to John. Also, the scholar Alcuin had an extraordinary devotion to John. For a while John of Beverly was considered the greatest of English saints, second only to St. George. I think he would be a great addition to Lent Madness for three reasons: 1) There is a renewed interest these days in the contemplative life which John embodied. 2) It would bring renewed knowledge about one of the great English saints who has unfortunately been largely lost to time. 3) There are lots of fun healing stories about his life and later his relics to spice up your LentMadness narratives.
Pauli Murray
Susanna Wesley, the Mother of Methodism (and NINETEEN children)
I nominate – Saint Mother Theodore Guerin
Saint Mother Theodore was a teacher, a founder, a healer, a pioneer. She was a person of deep faith who led others toward God.
https://spsmw.org/saint-mother-theodore/
Saint Mother Theodore Guerin is a GREAT nominee! To know her is to love her!
Second.
Paul P. Harris, founder of Rotary International, the world’s first service organization
As a Rotarian myself, this is an interesting choice. I’ve never seen any mention of Harris’s spirituality in anything emanating from Rotary. However, founding a service organisation with NO sectarian identification, he enabled attitudes to develop in many communities which later made the ecumenical movement possible.
I nominate Team China: Matteo Ricci, Francis Xavier, Lindel Tsen, Eric Liddell, and Pierre Telihard de Chardin.
St. Katherine Drexel
St. Rita of Cascia
St. Therese of the Little Flower
St. Philomena
Hilda of Whitby
Leonidas Polk
Fr. Hesburgh (Was it he who said, “The greatest gift a father can give his children is ito love their mother.”)
Simone Weil (that close to becoming a Christian!)
Cardinal Lustiger
St. Edith Stein
St, John Vianney (tried to revive the Church after the French Revolution)
St. Stephen
Pauli Murray
Phyllis Tickle – a modern-day prophet and visionary
Fred Rogers (he’s probably not on a calendar, but should be!)
William Gordon, Bishop of Alaska
I would like to nominate 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.
I would also mention Ananias of Damascus. I don’t know whether Biblical figures are required to be on an official list of saints. But I just love Ananias. God told him to go minister to a fellow named Saul and Ananias said, “Um . . . are you sure? Isn’t that the guy who’s here with letters to arrest us all?” But when God was definite about those instructions, Ananias went to the house and greeted his enemy with, “Brother Saul!” Wish I had that same enthusiastic compliance to God’s will.
I would also like to second (or fifth, or whatever) the nominations for Chief Seattle.
Dymphna, patron saint of mental illness
Bill Wilson, founder of AA & both deeply flawed and also incredibly gifted
And I second Margaret Sanger!
Amma Syncletica, or one of the other Desert Ammas. Thank you for asking!
St. Jarlath!
Matthias
Former PB John Hines, who led the Episcopal Church toward living what we preach.
Edith Cavell WW1 nurse and martyr
To the many great nominees so far, I’d like to add:
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
Blessed Charles de Foucauld
Venerable Matt Talbot
Pope Saint John XXIII
Christian de Chergé (whose beatification process is in its early stages)
John Bunyan
John Calvin
Thomas Traherne
I have just finished teaching about the Nanjing Massacre in Dec, 1937- March 1938. I nominate Miss. Wilhelmina “Minnie” Vautrin. She was head of the Education department and Dean of Student’s at Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College in Nanjing. She was a member of the United Missionary Association and is noted for her courage in protecting thousands of young women from Japanese soldiers and for her diary of the events in Nanjing that historians believe will eventually be recognized much like the diary of Anne Frank, for its importance of illuminating the spirit of a single witness during a holocaust or war. December 2017 will be he 80th anniversary of the Rape of Nanking and it is my belief that the Supreme Committee needs to add this outstanding Christian to the mix.
Dorothy Day
Henri Nouwen
J.S. Bach
Sadhu Sundar Singh
William J Seymour (of the Azusa Street Revival)
Hilda of Whitby
Hildegard von Bingen
Dag Hammarskjold
Henri Nouwen
Saint Jude is my nomination
The Reverend Glenn “Tex” Evans. Methodist Minister and founder of Appalachia Service Project.
Florian, Roman soldier, patron saint of firefighters and horses, lots of kitschy stuff, just look in any firefighters museum, can be paired off with the patron saint of police officers for the match between civil servant’s patrons
Belle Harris Bennett
I nominate John Muir, who, like John the Baptist, cried out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, and
Thurgood Marshall, a Justice Supreme
Pauli Murray
https://today.duke.edu/2012/07/saintmurray
John Milton
Die He, or Justice must!
Saint André of Montreal, was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a significant figure of the Roman Catholic Church among French-Canadians, credited with thousands of reported miraculous healings associated within his pious devotion to Saint Joseph.
BTW, on the subject of nominations congratulations to Scott on being selected to the final group of candidates for the position of Bishop of Delaware.
Yes
Bishop of Delaware? Wow! Congrats indeed, Scott! I hope, if you get the job, it won’t mean you’ll be leaving the SEC. Actually, it might give you the upper hand over your Archnemesis!
Bishop Henry Whipple.
Amazing work with Native Americans. Went to bat to President Abraham Lincoln for the Dakota who were going to hung (after corrupt trials) and for the overall treatment of American Indians in Minnesota. Still very revered by Native Peopke and he has a long reaching legacy. And he built the first church in the Episcopal Church in the US designed as as a Cathedral which will be 150 years old in 2019.
Please consider Eglantyne Jebb, in the Anglican (GB) list of saints and special people. She is celebrated on December 17th.
Apart from having a great name, she started the charity ‘Save the Children’ after dealing with post WW1 children in (I think) concentration camps in Austria. She also wrote the original definition of the ‘Rights of the Child’ that was later adopted by the United Nations.
Thank you, have a happy choosing time
Yours Brixham Beth
For consideration by the SEC, I recommend the following individual saints for your 2018 Lent Madness:
Karl Barth
Edith Cavell
Thomas Cranmer
St Margaret of Scotland
Henri Nouwen
Fred Rogers
Kateri Tekawitha
I nominate Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, the great Indian social reformer, champion for the emancipation of women, and pioneer in education. Her work on behalf of women was revolutionary, and even reached the ears of Queen Victoria. She is honored as a saint in the Episcopal Church on April 5.
Elizabeth Ferard – first deaconness in the Anglican Communion
St. Maximilian (c. 274-295 CE)
He was a martyr whose trial transcript was preserved. Son of a veteran, he was presented by his father as a “volunteer” in the Roman army under Diocletian and Maximian. He refused to serve due to his Christian faith: “You know very well what soldiers do.” Offered the choice of service or death; responded: “I shall not perish…” He asked his father to give his new clothes to his executioner. He became an early example of a Christian “conscientious objector”
Pauli Murray – a winner for sure!
I nominate Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. An amazing man whose tireless efforts helped bring peace to a racially divided nation!
Yes
He’s still alive!
Jerome
Hannah Grier Coome
Columba
Edmund James Park
Catherine of Siena
I nominate Bruno Groning. Please see this linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Gr%C3%B6ning.
There is no question but this was a man of God. Against much resistance, he managed to hold out his faith in God as the healer, not himself, when healing thousands of people.
His healing continues to this day, according to many followers of his message of God being the healing force.
I nominate Pauli Murray, the first black woman ordained in the Episcopal Church. She was a tireless worker for women’s rights, equality for blacks and all who were marginalized. See The New Yorker, April 17, 2017. I believe that she is a Saint (more than saint which we all are). The article in the New Yorker is interesting and powerful.
Bishop Frederic Baraga, the ‘Snowshoe Priest.’ (If you choose those, ask me about some local lore; I grew up with the Shrine of the Snowshow Priest lurching over the cliffs between my town and another on the shores of Lake Superior.)
Florence Li Tim Oi
Benedict of Nursia
Thomas Merton
Henri Nouwen
Polycarp
William Temple
St. Brendan of Clonfert. “Brendan the Navigator.” I nominate him because of his strength, adventurous spirit, witness to Christ in others and because we need a good Irish Saint to win the Golden Halo.
Lucretia Mott
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, first ordained woman 1860’s in upstate New York (Congregational) Check out the story of how she got her theological education. (Sister in law to first woman doctor in US)
Fred Rogers — yes another fan
George Fox
Julia Ward Howe
Anna Jarvis
Ann Reeves Jarvis
St. Mary of Egypt
Holy Martyr Photina (the Samaritan woman at the well)
St. Seraphim of Sarov
St. Cuthbert
St. Peter the Aleut
St. Herman of ALaska
Echo St. Photina
Dorothy Day
Thomas Merton
John Donne
Sophie Scholl
Woman at the Well — Saint Photini: http://www.antiochian.org/st-photini-samaritan-woman
St. Teresa of Kolkata
Mother Teresa
St Athanasius of Alexandria
St. Rose of Lima
St. Botolph!
Jonathan Daniels marched with Matin Luther in Selma.
Jonathan Daniels also saved the life of Ruby Sales a young woman of color who has continued to the work of justice and peace for all people. Jonathan was a young Episcopal priest who graduated from EDS
St. Jane Frances de Chantal, martyr
Sergius of Moscow
September 25
St. George
Oscar Romero
Ruth OT
St Thomas NT
St Patrick
Pope John 23rd
Richard Hooker, anglican priest, died 1600. Feast day November 3
Oscar Romero
Pope John XXIII
Ruth OT
St. Thomas NT
St. Patrick
St. Dunstan
Eric Little missonary olympic gold medalist. Martyred in WW2 think chariots of fire guy!!!
Sophie Scholl, Lutheran student executed for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at her college.
I nominate St. Jane de Chantal. She was an incredible working for Our Lord Jesus as a Visitation of Holy Mary
Sister and eventual Superior. This congregation of women that was co-founded by Jane and Bishop Frances de Sales met the need for women who wanted a life of religious commitment, but due to age and responsibilities of childcare and extended family were not able to enter a more austere community. In this somewhat austere living the women were able to become prayerful women of God as semi-monastics while extending works of charity to the poor. Jane continued her service to God founding new houses and carrying on the Salesian charism in it;s manifestation of Visitation Order. My religious Community, The Sisters of St. Gregory has much the same charism serving in the world, but not of it.
I would like to second or third a nomination for Fred Rogers. He left a legacy of kindness for children and families. Early educators are still influenced by his work and the organization which carries on his work.
Father Michael Mcgivney founder Knights of Columbus on fast track to Saint hood
St. Cyprian of Carthage
I nominate
1) Elizabeth of the Trinity
2) Columba Marmion
Charles Chapman Grafton, 2nd Bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac… one of the first 3 founding members of Society of St. John the Evangelist (Cowley), one of the promoters of the Eucharist as the primary Sunday worship service.
Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob SmithC co-founders of Alcoholics anonymous and savers of millions.
Rose Hawthorne Lathrop aka Mother Alphonsa founder of Hawthorne Dominican Sisters who are still 100 plus years later still caring for terminal cancer care. She is also on the track for Saint hood.She is the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne the Scalet Letter author
I nominate Dominic de Guzmán
I would like to nominate St. Maria Skobstova. She is a Russian Orthodox saint. This is one of her meditations that is most famous: “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.”
She is the guiding light of the Orthodox social justice movement. You can read more about her here: http://www.pravmir.com/the-challenge-of-a-20th-century-saint-maria-skobtsova/
I second Raoul Wallenberg. I don’t know if he’s on any of the church calendars, but he is a Righteous Gentile among the Nations.
So I got some help and went to http://listverse.com/2011/01/30/top-10-truly-badass-saints/. Because Lent Madness needs more badasses. And from them, I picked St. Quiteria, because I really want to see what the celebrity bloggers can do with an all-female “nonuple warrior gang.”
I would like to nominate St Illtud. He is a fifth century saint whose church can be visited today. He was famous for being the teacher of a whole lot of slightly younger saints, such as Sampson, David (Dewi) and many others. He was also non violent in a violent age.
If not Illtud, one of the others from the ‘age of saints’ in Wales.
Julie Billiart
Damien of Molokai
Kevin
I’d like to nominate Sister Blandina Segale. Born in Italy,and coming to the US as a child, as a religious Sister she worked with the poor, sick, immigrants prisoners, and Native Americans in CO and NM. She had a connection with Billy the Kid. She displayed courage, tough-mindedness and a deep faith in service to the less fortunate.
St. Andre Bessette!
Abraham Lincoln – a saint among Presidents and a biblically-based orator and healer.
St Faustina kowalska
Thomas a Becket
I nominate Pelagius. The true answer the Augustian morality.
St Therese de lisieux
I nominate Fr. Junipero Serra, the Franciscan friar from Spain who founded the state of California and our major cities. If you are tired of getting this nomination every year, put him among the 32 and make him ineligible in the future, or a Golden Halo winner.
1) Perpetua and Felicity: tortured and executed for their faith as Christian women in 203 CE.
2) Symeon the Stylite: ascetic bringing fasting and silent worship to a whole new level 390-459 CE
3) Pope Clement I: patron saint of mariners 99 CE
4) Agatha of Sicily: virgin martyr for determined profession of faith 231-251 CE
5) Saint Sebastian: conversions and protests 256-288 CE
Albert Schweitzer
Ignatius of Loyola – Founder of the Jesuits
Elanor Roosevelt
I would like to nominate Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700) for next year’s bracket. She founded a teaching order in New France. Her feast day is January 12th.
St. Timothy, please. You know, the one who had to fetch “the robe, and above all, the parchments.”. That guy.
First, thank you SEC for accepting my nomination of Fanny Crosby last year. She didn’t reach “halo” status but she had a good run and her remarkable story was shared with the Lent Madness faithful, which was my genuine aim.
Second, here are some saintly combinations that present interesting match-up possibilities:
St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Lawrence of Rome – both labeled the of patron saint of librarians/scribes (along with St. Jerome), and both were martyred in fairly spectacular fashion.
St. Alphonsus Liguori and Ephrem the Syrian – both “doctors of the church” according to some traditions, interesting, yet obscure saints about 1500 years apart and operating in very different parts of the kingdom.
And finally, St. Juan Diego and St. Bernadette Soubirous – both are venerated in the Roman calendar and both had unique Marian experiences that inspired generations of devotees. The newly-sainted children, Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima fame brought this match-up to mind.
Thank you SEC for your studied consideration and good luck in your caffeine-fueled deliberations!
Elisabeth Romanov
John Wesley
Wow! So many great suggestions. I would like to nominate C.S. Lewis and Isaac Watts. I also think Fred Rogers is a wonderful idea.
P.S. I also support the nominations of:
Ruth
St. Catherine of Sienna
Richard Hooker, assuming the designation of a Lesser Fast in his honor counts!
St. Dymphna – interesting story, great courage
I nominate Mother Theresa .
Sam Shoemaker
Mother Mary Jones (labor leader).
Jane Addams
Mother Marianne of Molokai or St. Damian DE Veuster
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Church reformer who held the devil by the nose with a pair of tongs.
http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/05/stories-of-st-dunstan-4-dunstan-and.html
I nominate St. Joseph – (in my humble opinion) he never gets enough attention – Imagine being an “adoptive dad of the savior of all creation” As a step-parent, I feel his pain. Just for a moment, imagine the difficulty of grounding the don of God – just sayin’ (and got those of you who would remind me that JC never sin, remember that other kids in the neighborhood did – and that Jesus needed to get used to being slandered.
Correction: Son of God not don of God (although the Italians do claim St. Joseph and his pastries on March 19th…
I would love to see Joseph (my Patron) back in the Bracket! Years ago, my wife and I were in Rome on his Feast Day. We attended Mass, which was followed by a procession.
As they started down the aisle carrying the image of Joseph, an old woman cried out “Vive San Giuseppe!” and the congregation shouted back “Vive San Giuseppe!” Then we all followed his image out and processed through the streets of Rome, singing all the way. What a blessing from God.
Samuel Seabury
I concur with Florence Lim Ti Oi, Verna Dozier, Simone Weil, Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day and a hearty yes to Fred Rogers (that one makes me cry).
St. Julia…..
St. Brendan of Clonfert. “The Navigator..” It’s time for an Irish Saint to win the Golden Halo.
I nominate St. Polycarp
At his martyrdom, Polycarp was told by the magistrate, “Swear and I will release thee: revile Christ”
Polycarp’s reply was, “Fourscore and six years have I been serving him, and he has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
I wish to nominate Mother Teresa.
*Aidan of Lindisfarne who brought Christianity to northern England.
*William Hobart Hare, bishop to the native Americans of South Dakota.
I second nominees Pauli Murray and Jonathan Daniels
I’d also like to nominate James Theodore Holly, first African-American Bishop in the Episcopal Church and Bishop of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Pierre Telihard de Chardin
Frances Joseph Gaudet
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen
Father Damien of Molokai, Hawaii
Agnes Sanford, Healer
The Midwives in Genesis
The Cistercian Martyrs of Algeria
St. Hilda of Whitby
Dorothy Day
I would like to put forward the name of: Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. Without this marvellous invention, we’d still be waiting for the upgrades to the Bible, as they were transcribed by hand.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dorothy Day
Sophie Scholl
Simone Weil
Elizabeth I
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray
One more – The Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray, Jr.
Pandita Mary Ramabai
I add my support to the nominations of Madeleine L’Engle, Mychal Judge, J. S. Bach, Thomas Merton and Henri J. M. Nouwen. . .and add George MacDonald. This last was one of the chief inspirations of C. S. Lewis and the insight, wisdom and spirituality in his many unspoken sermons puts most modern preachers to shame.
I would like to nominate Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Episcopal seminarian and civil rights martyr.
St. Jacinta of Fatima and/or St. Bernadette of Lourdes. Might make a lovely arduous match up.
St Agnes
Clare of Assissi
I nominate in this order:
Henri Nouwen,
St. Katherine Drexel,
Hildegard of Bingen,
St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, and
St. Margaret of Scotland
As a chaplain, I often quote Fred Rogers to patients who are afraid that God must be mad at them (or why do they have whatever it is), and as former nanny I am so glad the kids I was with were able to have him as part of their lives. I learned a lot from him, maybe more than they did!
Please add Mr. Rogers to the list!
I would like to nominate St Thomas, Origen and Tertullian. (not sure if he qualifies as a Saint, though.)
Charles de Foucauld….. a modern saint. We need to learn more of those born closer to us….
1. A child from a Christian home (1858 to 1873)
Charles de Foucauld et sa famille
Charles was born in Strasbourg, France on September 15 1858 and was baptized two days after his birth.
“My God, we should all sing your mercies: Son of a holy mother, I learned from her to know you, to love you and to pray to you. Was not my first memory the prayer she made me recite morning and evening: ‘My God, bless father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, grandmother Foucauld and my little sister’?…”
But his mother, father and paternal grandmother all died in 1864. The grandfather took the two children, Charles (6 yrs) and Marie (3 yrs) into his home.
“I always admired the great intelligence of my grandfather whose infinite tenderness enveloped my childhood and youth with an atmosphere of love, whose warmth I still can feel.”
On April 28 1872, Charles made his first Holy Communion. He was confirmed the same day.
http://www.charlesdefoucauld.org/en/biographie.php
Pauli Murray
Jonathan
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Samuel Seabury
Mother Theresa
Jan Hus
Hugh Latimer
Pauli Murray
Florence Li Tim Oi
Yes! Thank you, Supremes, for this fun and inspiring way to increase our knowledge of Saints!
My list:
1. Florence Li-Tim Oi
2. Archbishop Oscar Romero
3. St. Cuthbert
4. Junia, first woman bishop (that we know of)
5. Dorothy Day
6. Thomas Cranmer
7. St. Seraphim of Sarov
Richard Allen
Francis Asbury
Susanna Wesley
Dorothy Day
John Eliot, missionary to the Indians, Natick, MA
His translation of the Bible into Algonquin(?) made it possible for them to hear Scripture in their own language.
Charles Freer Andrews (Deenabandhu)
Anglican priest and Mahatma Gandhi’s closest British friend. He helped the poor and spoke out against racism.
As it says in Holy Women, Holy Men:
“Affectionately called ‘Christ’s Faithful Apostle’ by his friend, the Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Freer Andrews dedicated his life’s work to relief and justice for the oppressed and poor in India and around the globe…His Indian students and colleagues, with whom he had grown close, referred to him as Deenabandhu, or ‘Friend of the Poor.’”
https://standingcommissiononliturgyandmusic.org/2011/02/12/february-12-charles-freer-andrews-priest-and-%E2%80%9Cfriend-of-the-poor%E2%80%9D-in-india-1940/
Hildegard of Bingen! She was a composer, writer, mystic, and abbess
St. Isidore the farmer; St. Pasqual
Desmond Doss showed devout faithfulness to God’s word and great courage of conviction – a saint for our times. He was a Seventh-day Adventist combat medic and the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor for service above and beyond the call of duty in WWII. His only weapons were his Bible and his faith in God. He risked his life repeatedly to save his fellow soldiers, who bullied him, called him awful names, and cursed him for reading the Bible. The military tried to court martial him for refusing to carry a gun, but when they failed, he refused to leave the army during time of war, believing his duty was to obey God and serve his country – – in that order. Desmond Doss lived the golden rule, “…do to others what you would have them do to you…” (Matthew 7:12). In every military operation while others were taking life, he was busy saving it. He never considered his own safety and repeatedly ran into the most violent fighting of the war to treat fallen comrades and carry them to safety. When Americans were ordered to retreat from the fierce Japanese defense of a steep rock cliff in Okinawa in 1945, less than a third made it down, and the rest were left for dead. Doss disobeyed orders and charged back into the firefight to rescue as many as he could, carrying them on his back, one at a time, all the way down the treacherous cliff, then climbing back up to get another one, while praying each time, “God just let me get one more.” His resolute faith and unflagging courage saved at least 75 lives that day (some accounts say he saved 150). Several days later during an unsuccessful night raid, Desmond was severely wounded when a Japanese grenade landed in his foxhole. He treated his own wounds as best he could, then was hit by a sniper’s bullet that shattered his arm. He insisted that his litter-bearers rescue other men first before him, again choosing to risk death so that others might live, and refused to leave without his Bible. After the war, all those cold, wet, sleepless nights in the Pacific caused him to develop tuberculosis, and he spent most of the next six years in hospitals. His left lung was removed along with five ribs, and he died at the age of 87 when his remaining lung failed in 2006.
I nominate St. Genesis, the patron saint of actors. Legend has it that he set out, as an actor, to prove that this “Christian” thing was a hoax – and ended up becoming a believer. I wear his medal in every production in which I perform – keeps me from falling off the stage, but not necessarily from forgetting my lines.
Genesius for me! I used to be very involved in Theatre and I, too, wore his medal whenever I performed.
I nominate Harvey Milk, Caesar Chavez, and Clarence Jordan (writer of the Cotton Patch Gospels).
St. John Bosco
St. Pope John Paul II
St. Theresa of Kalcutta
Isaac the Syrian, for his intoxicated love of the God who is love, and Philoxenus of Mabbug, just because I like his weird name.
Edith Clavell, WW I nurse and martyr
Eric Liddell, WW II missionary and martyr
Fred Rogers
Raoul Wallenburg
How about St. Expedite?
https://saintexpedite.org/about.html
#LentMadness2018
Florence Li-Tim Oi, Hildegard von Bingen, Junia, Mary and Martha of Bethany as a duo.
I nominate St. Mark the Evangelist, author of the first gospel!
Also, Damien of Molokai.
I nominate Jane Addams and Dorothea Dix. Jane was a pioneer in helping the poor in growing cities, and Dorothea was a pioneer in the care of the mentally ill.
I wish to nominate Roger Schütz. Brother Roger Schütz (born in Switzerland) was the founder of Taizé, a monastic community, in Burgundy France. There he welcomed thousands of young pilgrims, until his murder in 2005. He was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. He spent his life inspiring young people, and working for the reconciliation of the different churches of Christianity. Although he never abandoned his Protestant heritage, both Popes John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, gave the sacrament to him, in contravention of canonical prohibitions.
Also, I would like to nominate Marco d’Aviano, who in 1683 calmed the fractious European allies, enabling them to defend Vienna from the Ottoman Turks. That was the last time that the Turks tried to take over Europe.
My nomination is for Saint Christopher – who, legend or not, as a cool story and at least one cool parish named for the same (in Springfield, VA). I am happy to tell you all I know about this fellow, good and bad…and there is plenty of both!
Go, Christopher! My parish (in Oak Park, IL) is named for him.
I’ve done the research, and yes, Christopher is a real person, as real as Mary or Charles Wesley. He was a martyr and his feast day is July 25. And the story about him being removed from the Calendar–THAT is the myth!
Pauli Murray
G.A. Studdert Kennedy — Anglican priest and poet. He served as a chaplain on the western front in WWI. On the front lines he was known for giving what comfort he could along with a cigarette and searching for the wounded even while under fire.
In his poetry he struggled to reconcile his faith in the God of Love and Peace with the bitterness of war.
Some of his poems: http://dailylight.net/simple/www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/dasc/TUB.HTM
I recommend: Solomon in all his Glory, The sorrow of God, A Christmas Carol, Indifference, and At a Harvest Festival. The last is used in the USA Episcopal Hymnal 1982 #9 and Hymnal 1940 #156 (Awake, Awake to Love and work).
Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Studdert_Kennedy
Second the nomination of Woodbine Willie. Fr. Kennedy was a great and holy man, a true exemplar of the Anglican genius!
Fred Rogers . A pioneer in television with vision.
Francis Elizabeth Caroline Willard, Methodist, educator and author, first president of a women’s college in America, first dean of women at Northwestern University when her college became part of the University following the great Chicago Fire, left education to “do all” for the cause of women through the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union where she worked tirelessly first for safe homes in the face of the alcoholism that followed the Civil War, as well as in the labor movement, for the ordination of women, and for women’s suffrage. Susan B Anthony considered her a mentor. Her theory of co-ed cation was the focus of my dissertation, she was so extremely famous globally in the 19th century that there is plenty of Lent Madness material. The primary reason Willard is a forgotten to many now is the failure of Prohibition. We don’t teach temperance history in middle Scholls American studies, although she does get mention in standard texts for her participation in the labor movement
Carl Jung, who gave us the model for reality that has changed my life and that of many, many others. Such healing work!
In no particular order from HOLY WOMEN, HOLY MEN and the Bible:
Hilda, Abbess of Whitby
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Judith
The Venerable Bede
Catherine of Siena
Mary and Martha of Bethany
Thomas Cranmer
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Phoebe
I was also in agreement with many others suggested, esp. Pauli Murray and Florence Li Tim Oi.
St. Rocco
St. Anthony
Please consider these nominations…
Julia Chester Emery – feast day Jan. 9 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Chester_Emery
Anne Hutchinson -feast day Feb. 5 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson
Anna J Cooper – feast day Feb. 28 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._Cooper
Howard Thurman
Franz Bibfeldt
Big big thumbs up for Howard Thurman! Who was Franz Bibfeldt?
St. Dymphna
Eric Liddell, the Olympic athlete of “Chariot’s of Fire” fame, who was also a missionary and who was an amazing witness in WWII prison camp.
Blessed Fra Angelico
John Wesley
Father Damian
Mary Mackillop – Australian nun who founded the Sisters of St. Joseph – excommunicated after she complained about a priest abusing children – held her ground and was reinstated by Rome – canonised a few years ago
John Flynn – Australian Presbyterian minister who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service in the early 20th c. – brought reliable emergency medical care to remote Australia – in the calendar of the Uniting Church in Australia
(I’d be happy to offer my services doing the write-ups for either of the Aussies or for John Wesley – or for any other likely candidates.)
Two nominations:
Ida Wells
Jael
I nominate Peirre Teilhard de Chardin who published works which attempted to make sense of our Israelite-Judeao-Christian spirirtual heritage in the light of our modern scientific discoveries, particularly in regard to Evolution. Many have been spiritualy energized by his ideas and carried his thinking further.
1. Bertha 0f Kent: Frankish princess who married (pagan) Aethelbert, King of Kent, on the condition that she could continue to practice her faith and bring a priest with her. Aethelbert consented, they married, and she prayed continually for the conversion of England. It was only years later that Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Kent in 596. Bertha was responsible for her husband’s welcoming reception to Augustine which allowed Augustine to settle and preach there.
2. Christina Rossetti, poet: Many of her poems have themes of Christian faith.
3. Anne Hutchinson: member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; banished for holding Bible studies in her house (attended by both women and men) and her ideas/beliefs about faith and doctrine that differed from those accepted by the Puritan leaders.
St. Isidore the Farmer (1070-1130)
Written by Daniel G P Gutiérrez, Presiding Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
In March 1622, many were surprised by Isidore becoming a saint. He founded no order, nor did he write a single book. He was a simple farm worker who spent his life tilling the land, mostly for the same wealthy landowner. With his wife, Maria, he bore a son who died in childhood.
Isidore knew the hardship, toil, and sorrow that are very familiar to many. He went to worship daily and prayed continuously in the fields, displaying the simple and profound faith shared by many in this world. It was said that angels could be seen assisting Isidore in the fields as he plowed. Though he had very little wealth, he became known for generosity and hospitality, especially to the stranger or the lonely. He died on May 15, 1130.
Father Stan Rather,
martyred in Guatemala for continuing to provide pastoral care to the indigenous population after being forbidden to.
Hilda of Whitby
Thomas Merton, for what Robert Inchausti has called his “subversive Orthodoxy;” for making contemplative prayer available to non-monastic Christians of every denomination; for his extensive, beautiful writings, including his poetry; for his essays on the perilous spiritual state of the modern world, and resisting evil non-violently by confronting it with truth, and love; for his contribution to Vatican II and for opening many doors to interfaith dialogue.
St. Nicholas
St. Cuthbert
St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order or St. Dominic Savio, who was his student.
(Yes, I am of Cuban descent and both of these saints hold a special place in our hearts and I am ex-Roman Catholic.)
I was thinking about including St. J. Bosco in my own list. I love chocolate syrup!
Funny you should ask on May 15, the feast day of St. Isidore, the farmer. The farmer who leases my land is planting it as I type this, as are the neighbors. Surely the parton saint of these hard-working custodians of the land deserves a golden halo.
My husband would like to nominate Noah of Genesis fame and I would like to nominate, Junia, New Testament apostle. Thanks!!
I nominate John Dewey. He developed an education model that we still use today. He stood up for public education and women’s rights.
St. Polycarp, an early martyr in Rome who waved his hand with impunity at the Roman emperor. He has no chance of winning I am sure but his story should be better known!
Saint Ansgar- The first legate to Scandinavia
Teresa of liseaux
Mother Theresa
Hildagarde von bingen
julian of Norwich
Harriet Tubman
Philip M. Hannan, Archbishop of New Orleans, deceased.
Katherine of Alexandria
St Quiteria
St. Rachael
St. Sarah
I nominate
William Stringfellow
Pauli Murray
I nominate
William Stringfellow
Pauli Murray
My nominees are:
Gregor the Great (the pope after whom the Gregorian Chant was named)
Cesar Auguste Franck, organist of St Clothilde in Paris, composer of wonderful liturgical and organ music, and a very pious man
Anton Bruckner, another great organist and composer and very pious man
Dr Martin Luther King Jr (nominated by others!)
How about Olivier Messiaen? But I second the nomination of Cesar Franck and Anton Bruckner.
Saint Ildefonsus (San Ildefonso; Hildefuns), feast day 23 January
J.S. Bach
I nominate st ann the grandmother of jesus. I also agee with veronica being nominated.
I’d love to see Thomas a Kempis and Thomas Aquinas go head to head.
How about Saint “Aussie” Mary MacKillop?
Hilda of Whitby
Hildegard of Bingen
Julian of Norwich
Ælfflæd of Whitby
Ælfthryth of Crowland
Æthelburh of Faremoutiers
Æthelburh of Barking
Æthelburh of Kent
Æthelthryth
Eadburh of Bicester
Eadburh of Winchester
Eadgyth of Aylesbury
Eanflæd
Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
Seaxburh of Ely
Werburgh
Wihtburh
Do I notice a pattern here, Raewynne? Lovely name, Raewynne, by the way. First time I’ve encountered it.
Mother Teresa, recently canonized! Declared to be the “saint of the gutters” before the crowds at the Vatican. Pope Francis described her as: “She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity. She made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.”
St. Peter
Teilhard de Chardin
Saint Faith of Agen
Saint Expeditus
Pauli Murray. So recently added to Holy Men, Holy Women that she wasn’t included in my copy when I had to fact-check the wonderful New Yorker article where I discovered this remarkable woman: exciting, courageous, tireless, and inspirational.
I would like to nominate Julia Tutwiler. She was an advocate for women’s education and was instrumental in the admission of women to the University of Alabama. The school of social work, the main library and a dormitory (originally for women) carry her name. She was the president of the State Normal School in Livingston (now the University of West Alabama) and established another Normal School in Montevallo to train teachers. She also lead the movement for changes in Alabama’s prison system and the establishment of prisons for women. A converted Episcopalion, social justice and progressive thought underlay all of her work. For example, she used bible reading in literacy education in Alabama’s prisons and personally donated bibles to inmates.
I nominate: Gregory of Nysa, Gregory the Great, Catherine of Sienna, Cuthbert, Ausan, Jan Hus, Teresa of Avila, Athanasius,
Aidan not ausan
I hope all of these are eligible:
Thomas Tallis,
William Tyndale,
St. Bede,
St. Dunstan,
St. Lawrence,
Thomas Becket,
Jan Huss,
Thomas Cranmer,
Hilda of Whitby
St. Benedict
All should be, except of course the schismatic Thomas Cranmer. Otherwise I wholeheartedly second the nomination of Thomas Tallis
I agree with those who nominate St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne!
I also nominate St. Mungo, patron of Glasgow Cathedral, because I would like to learn more about him.
Cheers!
I nominate Saint Olav, patron saint of Norway and namesake of St. Olaf College.
(I’m slightly prejudiced– I’m an alumnus and former faculty at St. Olaf and I have visited Olav’s presumed resting place at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.)
I second this nomination! Hurray for St. Olaf!
Please, please, please!!! Gertrude of Nivelles deserves a chance at Lenten Madness Glory. She is the patron saint of cats, travelers, gardeners and the mentally ill. Her feast day is March 17.
I would like to nominate 4:
Willie M. “Bill” Pickett, American western cowboy – 1870 to 1932.
John Chapman – 1774 to 1845 – orchardist and nurseryman, member of the Church of Swedenborg.
Father Damien, born Joseph de Veuster in Tremelo, Belgium, on January 3, 1840- ministered to lepers in Hawaii.
William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers – 1879 to 1935
Thanks to the SEC for all their hard work! Great ministry!
Dame Juliana Berners, OSB for my fly-fishing husband
Lawrence
Anna Ellison Butler Alexander
Susan Trevor Knapp
I nominate:
Adomnan, biographer of St Columba and abbot of Iona who introduced the first law protecting innocents in times of war.
Eglantine Jebb, Anglican, who founded Save the Children and wrote the charter on which the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child was based.
Hildegard of Bingen.
St Guinefort, for dog lovers everywhere. 🙂
Saints Cyril and/or Methodius, Ignatius of Loyola, Bede the Venerable, George Fox, Saint Patrick, Saint George, Saint Mark the Evangelist, Matthias the Apostle, Athanasius, John the Baptist, Gregory the Great, Clare of Assisi, Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Vincent de Paul, Edward the Confessor, Martin of Tours, Samuel Seabury, Isaac Watts, and Ambrose of Milan
I nominate Katie Luther
Former nun, participant in the reform movement
Married to Martin – helped Luther form marital teachings
Administrator and manager of the monastery
Provider of hospitality to the many students and visitors to the monastery
Maker of beer!
Called by Luther “My Lord Katie.”
I nominate St Longinus
I would like to nominate Brother Roger, the founder of the Taize Community.
I nominate Mr. Rogers.
Teresa of Avila because I’m having a really hard time making it through Interior Castles and would like to hear about her from different perspectives. She would be an interesting candidate.
I nominate St Gurtrude of Nivelles. Benedictine abbess. B 626 – D 659, Feast Day, March 17 Patron Saint of cats, mental illness, traveler, gardners & against rats
On behalf of my cats Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker Gilbert and Anna Livia Plurabelle Gilbert, I second the nomination.
St Thomas. After a recent sermon at our church. I no longer see him as Doubting Thomas. Instead I see him as the Disciple who
was the truth seeker.
Janani Luwum, Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and Martyr under Idi Amin.
In a previous Lent Madness (can’t remember the year) Janani lost to Oscar Romero (who, I see, is getting several nominations this year). Well, I think it’s time for a rematch. Like Oscar, Janani courageously stood up to institutionalized Evil and paid for this courage with his life. His murder never received the extensive press coverage that Oscar’s did and he is relatively unknown. His story should be told again.
I would like to nominate Juliette Gordon Low, good Episcopalian and founder of the Girl Scout movement in the USA.
I’ll gladly second!
I nominate the Reverend Dennis J. Bennett, who played a huge role in the Episcopal Charismatic movement. He authored several books, relating his personal experience with baptism in the Holy Spirit, how one can welcome the Holy Spirit, and how to live and relate to others in a spirit filled way. He was asked to resign at (the very large parish of) St. Mark’s Episcopal in Van Nuys, California due to the press coverage of his experience, and continued his ministry at St. Luke’s in Seattle, Washington
I support Pauli Murray……..
I would like to add Shirley Chisholm, a raised Barbadian like myself. a Politician I would love to be. I christian I am. A woman to grow into.
Born November 30, the same date of my island’s independence 50 years ago. 1966-2016.
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrant parents from the Caribbean region.[4] She had three younger sisters,[5] two born within three years after Shirley, one later.[6] Their father, Charles Christopher St. Hill, was born in British Guiana,[7] lived in Barbados for a while,[6] and then arrived in the United States via Antilla, Cuba, on April 10, 1923, aboard the S.S. Munamar in New York City.[7] Their mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York City aboard the S.S. Pocone on March 8, 1921.[8]
Her father was an unskilled laborer who sometimes worked in a factory that made burlap bags, but when he could not find factory employment instead worked as a baker’s helper, while her mother was a skilled seamstress and domestic worker who had trouble working and raising the children at the same time.[9][10] As a consequence, in November 1929 as Shirley turned five, she and her two sisters were sent to Barbados on the S.S. Vulcana to live with their maternal grandmother, Emaline Seale.[10] There they lived on the grandmother’s farm in the Vauxhall village in Christ Church, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse that took education seriously.[11] She did not return to the United States until May 19, 1934, aboard the SS Nerissa in New York.[12] As a result, Shirley spoke with a recognizable West Indian accent throughout her life.[5] In her 1970 autobiography Unbought and Unbossed, she wrote: “Years later I would know what an important gift my parents had given me by seeing to it that I had my early education in the strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak and write easily now, that early education is the main reason.”[13] As a result of her time on the island, and regardless of her U.S. birth, Shirley would always consider herself a Barbadian American.[14] Regarding the role of her grandmother, she later said, “Granny gave me strength, dignity, and love. I learned from an early age that I was somebody. I didn’t need the black revolution to tell me that.”[15]
Beginning in 1939, Shirley St. Hill attended Girls’ High School in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, a highly regarded, integrated school that attracted girls from throughout Brooklyn.[16] St. Hill earned her Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College in 1946, where she won prizes for her debating skills.[9] She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
St. Hill met Conrad O. Chisholm in the late 1940s.[9][17] He had come to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1946 and would later become a private investigator who specialized in negligence-based lawsuits.[18] They married in 1949 in a large West Indian-style wedding.[18]
Shirley Chisholm taught in a nursery school while furthering her education,[9] earning her MA in elementary education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1952.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm
Jonathan Daniels, Jonathan Daniels, Jonathan Daniels! My other choices include: Cesar Chavez; Julia Chester Emery; Verna J. Dozier, and James Solomon Russell. All worthy candidates for the Golden Halo
Martin Luther King, Margery Kemp, Abraham Lincoln
Saint George!!
I nominate Pauli Murray.
St Phillip 1st century deacon
St Joseph of Cupertino: The Patron Saint of Pilots and Astronauts
MLK Jr
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle — French priest, educational reformer, and founder of the Christian Brothers
Saint Isidore the Farmer
John Henry Newman, Edward Pusey and the members of the Oxford Movement. (For the Anglo-Catholics out there.)
Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross
Bayard Rustin
Walter Rauschenbusch, William Carey, Adoniram Judson
I nominate Jonathan Myrick Daniels, seminarian and martyr 1965
He lived the gospel and championed the people, especially civil and voting rights. ” the faith with which I went to Selma has not changed: it has grown. . . I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection. . . with them the black men and white men, with all life in him whose name is above all names . . . we are indelibly and unspeakably one”
Truly a saint for our time!
Juan Diego
I nominate Fred Rogers, Pierre Teilhard deChardin, and Dorothy Day.
After weighing comments and careful consideration on my own, I would like to nominate this list:
St. Luke
Henri Nouwen
Margaret of Scotland
Eric Liddell
Raoul Wallenberg
Brother Lawrence
Hildegard von Bingen
Cyril of Alexandria
St.Patrick
John Calvin
Fred Rogers
St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
My husband and I sing sacred choral music in the two groups in which we have sung or continue to sing. When we sang under the direction of the Director of Choral Music at a local university, we performed many such works. Once, the director divided us into men’s and women’s groups; the women sang one of the works by Hildegard von Bingen. She was a woman light years beyond her time in many ways. Her music is not at all easy to sing. Although we were all tested and tried singers, we could not hold the pitch on this acapella hymn. It took three of the university students, the ones with perfect pitch, to hold a drone note by which the rest of us could sing. (The men got off much easier that time!)
If any of you love to sing, I strongly encourage you to join a Choral Society near you. There is a new one in Estes Park, Colorado, called the Estes Park Oratorio Society if you happen to live in that direction. We don’t but are satisfied with the Chorale in our area.
St. Xenia of Saint Petersburg, St. Herman of Alaska, St. Seraphim of Sarov, G.K. Chesterton, Oscar Romero, W.E.B DuBois, Sadhu Sundar Singh (If he isn’t on the Episcopal Church list of saints, he should be), Saint Charbel Makhlouf, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Martin Luther King Jr., Bartolome de las Casas, Florence Li Tim-Oi, Thomas Merton, Toyohiko Kagawa, Pandita Mary Ramabai
Can I nominate a Discordian saint? 😀 If so, Emperor Joshua Norton!
Also, if Fred Rogers isn’t on any church’s calendar of Saints yet, he really ought to be.
I SECOND EMPEROR NORTON LIKE MAD
He did stop a riot once by reciting the Lord’s Prayer between the two groups of potential combatants!
Dom Helder Camara
Oscar Romero
Ignatius Loyola
Alcuin, Deacon & Abbot of Tours
I would like to nominate Presiding Bishop William White, Bishop John Henry Hobart, Bishop Hugh Latimer, Bishop Nicholas Ridley, Richard Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, John Wycliffe, and last but definitely not least, my hero Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
MATTEO RICCI, S.J. OCTOBER 6, 1552 – MAY 11, 1610. MISSIONARY TO CHINA. SUCH AN INTERESTING MAN. SHOULD I WRITE MORE ABOUT HIM?
((WHEN SO MANY HAVE READ/SEEN “SILENCE” ABOUT JAPAN. THEY WILL BE AMAZED BY WHAT RICCI DID IN CHINA.))
GENERATION OF GIANTS BY GEORGE H. DUNNE TELLS THE STORY.
THANKS…elb
I nominate Corrie ten Boom who did so much for the Jewish people during WWII. Also I think Martin Luther King Jr is worthy of consideration for Lent Madness 2018.
Good idea. I second corrie, the prisoner . . . And yet, the hiding place. . .
Geert Groote, founder of the Brethren of the Common Life.
Ever here of Thomas Aquinas? Trained in the Brethren.
Also, although the movement didn’t survive to 21st century, the Common Life sounds very much like New Monasticism!
Oops.
I meant Thomas a Kempus! Author of Imitation of Christ. Much more readable than Aquinas and more devotional.
Sorry 🙁
Brother Andre!
St Boniface patron saint of Germany
Aidan of Lindisfarne
I nominate Lillian Hunt Trasher, aka “Mother of the Nile” who built an orphanage in Egypt — literally, from brick she and some of the older children made. From around 1910 to 1961 she cared for nearly 25,000 children and displayed enormous trust in God to provide whatever was needed from day to day, especially food.
I also second the nomination of Jonathan Daniels. Ruby Sales was mentioned as well, but this beautiful woman is still living and thus ineligible.
Nominations for Lent Madness
Justin Martyr circa 165 (defined the faith in the post-apostolic era) and I once read much if his Apology in Greek. His writings are a treasure trove of Church worship practice, biblical interpretation, Jewish-Christian relationships and early patristic logos theology.
Paul Jones, 1941, missionary bishop of Utah, man of conscience persecuted by our own church for his pacifist beliefs (we need to be reminded we can mistreat one of our own)
I’don’t be glad to advocate more for either man.
I nominate our oft derided Saint Thomas, AKA the Twin. He wasn’t there when Jesus revealed himself to the others, so why the bad rap? His faith was confirmed by empirical evidence. Isn’t that a felicitous blend of science and religion?
I nominate:
Thurgood Marshall
Flannery O’Connor
Adoniram Judson
I nominate John Woolman, a Quaker from Mt. Holly, NJ. Gotta keep up the Jersey connections.
I 2nd Oscar Romero, and would like to add Artemisia Bowden, African American educator, founder of St. Philip’s College in San Antonio. She was raised to Sainthood in 2015. Go Texas!
Bishop William Hobart Hare
Monnica
Junia
Mother Teresa
Taylor Hudson
Jim Elliot
Woops that’s Hudson Taylor not Taylor Hudson
With all the challenges on airlines today, I nominate Joseph of Copertino
I would like to nominate Jane Haining – a Scottish woman who through trying to protect her Jewish Students in Budapest was killed by the Nazi’s.
The Rev. John Roberts, whose feast day is February 25. He lived among the Shoshone and Arapaho people on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming for many years, working with them, and living among them even after he retired. http://satucket.com/lectionary/john_roberts.htm. (and we have more information about his ministry in Wyoming.
I would like to nominate:
the Trappist martyrs of Atlas
Maria Gabriella Sagheddu
Titus Brandsma
Manche Masemola
Nominations (courtesy of Exciting Holiness First Edition)
Seraphim of Sarov Russian Orthodox
George Fox Society of Friends
Gilbert of Sempringham
Catherine of Sienna
Christina Rossetti
Etheldreda
Ignatius Loyola
Catherine Booth Salvation Army
John Bunyan
Thomas Traherne
Elizabeth Fry Prison Reformer
Margery Kempe
Charles de Foucauld
Saints Sergius and Bacchus – there are quite a few parings of saints, and I think theses guys definitely deserve to be in the Madness as such!
I nominate Ida B. Wells!
If one has to be in a sanctoral calendar, how would one go about petitioning for Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) to be added? This is a serious question. Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister, and I believe a truly Christ-like individual. I feel he should be recognized as a saint – unless there’s some reason he hasn’t yet been?
First off, look and see whether he’s commemorated by any part of the Body of Christ. One of the TEC criteria for an addition to the sanctorale is an ongoing local “cult” of the person to be commemorated by the larger Body of Christ. Start a commemoration at your parish and keep it going for the duration. Your diocesan would have to approve, but that would get the ball rolling.
Thank you, sir – That’s helpful. 🙂 I guess I’ll soon see whether anyone else shares my admiration for him…
I nominate Richard Hooker, William White, John Henry Hobart, Jeremy Taylor, John Wycliffe, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer. Go Lent Madness! 🙂
I am proud to nominate the following two Saints:
Saint Lucia – The eyes have it.
Saint Aphrodisius – Bishop of Beziers, a juicy story about his decpitation. We love that,don’t we? He sheltered the Holy Family on their flight into Egypt.
Good Luck SEC on picking only 32 of all these great Saints!
Nominations (courtesy of the ELCA sanctorale via Wikipedia)
Harriet Tubman
Toyohiko Kagawa Renewer of Society (Look this guy up, he’s amazing)
Esther
Chief Seattle
Ruth
Birgitta of Sweden
Dag Hammarskjold
Martyrs of El Salvador (Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan)
so happy to see Dorothy, Ita , Maura and Jean’s names here! I have had a devotion to these 4 friends since I was a teenager and even at one point applied to the Maryknollers out of love for their example
Been holding these names for a year, since I missed last year by a couple of hours….so
I nominate now, Paul Jones, Bishop and Peacemaker – Feast Day Sept 4, Dorothy Day – “saint and troublemaker”, Jonathan Myrick Daniels – Feast Day Aug 14
I also like Howard Thurman and Harriet Tubman too.
Thank you so much for Lent Madness!! and thank you SEC!!
Nominations (courtesy of the Anglican Church of New Zealand’s FATS)
Sava of Serbia
(George Herbert) AND All Saintly Parish Priests Wink Wink Nudge Nudge
Gabriel Archangel
Saints and Martyrs of the Americas Wink Wink Nudge Nudge ie CESAR CHAVEZ!!!
William Law
John Vianney Cure de Ars
Saints and Martyrs of the Anglican Communion Wink Wink Nudge Nudge
By virtue of the authority granted by the New Zealand commemoration of All Saintly Parish Priests, by the specific mention of Cesar Chavez in the instructions for Saints and Martyrs of the Americas, and by this clause in the instruction for Saints and Martyrs of the Anglican Communion (“Then there are the others who patiently and faithfully served Christ
in their day, some of whom suffered for their commitment. All these
are commemorated for their part in the life and witness of the An-
glican Communion.”) I hereby nominate:
Cesar Chavez
Charles Williams Author Mystic
Conrad Noel Vicar of Thaxted
Stewart Headlam Parish Priest Social Reformer
Kenneth Leech Parish Priest Social Reformer Mystic
More to come . . .
Fred Rogers. I doubt that the Presbyterian church has a sanctoral calendar, but if they did, he’d be on it. His influence for good was enormous and still ongoing.
Dr. Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, Feb. 28, 1865-Oct. 9, 1940, who, as a medical student in his native England, asked himself what Jesus would do if Jesus had been a doctor. He decided Jesus would take medical care to people who had none. He arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1892 and gave his whole life to the service of Labrador and the northern peninsula of Newfoundland. I am an American who lived there for 25 years. He is still revered there. He was a man of deep faith who said he preferred “Well done” to “Correctly thought.” He had enormous energy and courage, traveling long distances by dogsled in winter and hospital ship in the short summer. He founded a network of hospitals, nursing stations, schools and home industries that survives in a modified form to this day. He is depicted in the Physicians Window in the National Cathedral in Washington, and he is listed in Holy Women, Holy Men, with his feast day being Oct. 9. The Collect:
Compassionate God, whose Son Jesus Christ taught that by ministering to the least of our brothers and sisters, we minister to him; make us ever ready to respond to the needs of others, that, inspired by the ministry of Wilfred Grenfell to the sick, and to seafarers in Labrador and northern Newfoundland, our actions may witness to the love of our Savior Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever.
I have seconded (or thirded…) many of the nominations. Lots of good ones. Will make it hard to vote later on!!
The widest possible definition of a saint is somebody who is in heaven, which is why we celebrate All Saints. But the narrower definition insists on recognition of sanctity by the Body of Christ. Under that definition, a saint is somebody in heaven who is recognized to be in heaven by a collective within the Body of Christ in some public and legislated manner.
That recognition can, in my opinion, be either as an individual, or as a member of a specifically recognized class of people. We, for example, commemorate the Martyrs of Uganda whether we know all their names or not. A Martyr of Uganda is automatically commemorated in the sanctorale.
The Anglican Church of New Zealand commemorates classes of people such as saintly parish priests or the holy men of the Old Testament or for that matter, any Anglican who patiently and faithfully served Christ in their day.
I think that triggers the “recognition” clause for members of those classes.
Looking at the recognition process, recognition begins at a geographically local level. I would suggest that locality be open to non-geographic bodies such as websites or social media. Create a Fred Rogers for Saint Facebook page. Hash out lectionary readings and a collect. Using interactive and collaborative apps, commemorate his day. That should count.
Laurence, deacon and martyr (spell it with a u this time). Tough, sarcastic, and a trickster!!
So many great saints have already been nominated! Here’s my list, some of which are duplicates of saints already mentioned in the posts of others:
Clare of Assissi
Monnica (feast day: May 4)
Jonathan Myrick Daniels (feast day is in mid-August)
Henri J. M. Nouwen
St. Joseph
I’m eager to see the who we get to meditate upon in Lent Madness 2018! Best wishes to the SEC as they cull through our suggestions, and thanks to Tim and Scott for asking for our input!
Thomas Cranmer
I would like to add my nomination for Pauli Murray, the first African-American woman ordained by the Episcopal church. There is a fascinating article on her in the April 17, 2017 New Yorker magazine. Her feast day is July 1. And while we are at, how about Thurgood Marshall whose feast was May 17th?
Charles Stuart, the Royal Martyr, aka Charles I.
A highly controversial figure, despised by many as a tyrant, revered by many as a saint.
It can’t be denied that, as a king, he was a disaster. But as Defender of the Faith he was invaluable. A prisoner of Parliament, he was offered his life if he would consent to the abolition of the episcopate in the Church of England. This he refused to do, and as a result he was beheaded. By his death Charles preserved the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons in the Apostolic Succession, for the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and the entire Anglican Communion. He truly is a Martyr for the Faith once delivered to the saints.
And I know you like him, Scott.
I’d like to nominate St. Josephine Bakhita. She was born into a wealthy family, but was kidnapped and sold into slavery. She later became a nun. She is the patron saint of Sudan.
Thomas Merton-
St. Fiacre of Breuil (patron saint of gardeners)
Fred Rogers
Perpetua and her companions
St. Joseph
Anna and Joachim (separately or together–unbeatable couple)
Richard Allen
Maximillian Kolbe
Olga of Russia
Millard Fuller
Martin de Porres
George Fox
William Penn
John Woolman
Good King Wenceslaus
How about Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo?
I nominate St Swithun who was Bishop of Winchester from his consecration in October 853
until his death on 2 July sometime between 862 and 865
Corrie Tenboom and Mother Theresa
Mother Theresa
I nominate 3 people
John Woolman, an American Quaker sometimes called the Quaker saint
Fred Rogers
19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (religious poetry)
Phyllis Wheatley — first African American published poet (some poems religious in nature)
Well, I nominated four!
I add my voice to all the nominations for Thomas the Apostle (who would surely be the patron saint of Missouri if we had a patron saint) and Thomas Cranmer.
I would like to nominate:
Corrie Ten Boom
( and Betsie Ten Boom)
Martin Chemnitz
Howard Thurman
I nominate Henri Nouwen. His spirituality and compassion for all is an inspiration to those who struggle to do God’s work.
I hope it’s okay to nominate two. I previously nominated someone, but also think this woman needs consideration. She was a modern day slave! Her name was Eudicia Tomas Pulido (Lola). A Christian, domestic worker from the Philippines, she is well described in this article written by the son of the family she was enslaved by: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/ I hope you will consider her life one of martyrdom and sacrifice for others — and you will help make her a saint!
i have a bunch for consideration: Fr Damian DeVisteur, St Mary Ann Cope, Joseph Dutton – all workers on Molokai; Ruth and Naomi; St Philip Neri;Emily Dickinson; Henry Thoreau; St Jutta; St Pope John 23; Henri Nouwen; Dorothy Day, Egeria; Queen Emma of Hawaii; hans urs von balthasar;gk chesterton;St Rita of Cascia; St Joanna the Myhrbearer; St Philip Neri; Pandita Ramabai – Indian Christian and Reformer; Dorothy Day; Egeria;; Howard Thurman; Rachel Carson – environmentalist; St Anselm; Thomas Merton; Henri Nouwen – thank you for considering them
I nominate St. Jarlath. An Irish saint from the 6th century. We need both “old” and “new” individuals in Lent Madness.
John Knox, John Calvin and J.R.R. Tolkien.
I want to nominate two of my favorite saints:
St. Margaret of Scotland, patron saint of my long time church and whose prayer cell I have visited in Edinburgh and St. Hilda of Whitby who, though defeated in the election stayed true to the decision for the Roman rites. She must be pleased at the Celtic views now prevailing in many of our Episcopal churches.
I nominate the following, if I may:
St. Boniface
St. John Baptist de la Salle
St. Fidelis of Siigmaringen
St. Peter Chanel
St. Louis Grignion de Montfort
St. Catherine of Siena
St. Athanasius
St. Nereus
St. Achilleus
St. Damien de Veuster
St. Pancras
St. Isidore
St. Rita of Cascia
St. Justin
St. Charles Lwanga and Companions
St. Ephrem
I confess going through the RC’s missal for the past two months. They all sound most intriguing to me.
Thank you very much, SEC. I so greatly enjoy Lent Madness every year.
St. MArianne Cope
Brother Joseph Dutton
Saint Damien
Queen Emma of Hawaii
Nominations:
1. Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) – her family helped many Jews escape during WWII and were imprisoned for their actions. Israel has named her “Righteous Among the Nations”
2. Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961; the ELCA commemorates him on September 18th) – Secretary-General of the UN who died in a mysterious plane crash while on his way to a peace-keeping mission and author of “Markings”, his “white book” of negotiations with himself and God. Posthumously awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
3. Eric Liddell (1902-1945; TEC commemorates him on February 22nd) – more than “Chariots of Fire” – missionary to China who lived his faith while in a Japanese civilian internment camp
4. Venerable Catherine McAuley (1778-1841)- founder of the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland who used the inherited wealth of her guardians to fund services, including education, for the poor, focusing on women and children
5. Abraham Lincoln
Blessed Catherine MacCauley
Hugh of Cluny
Hugh of Lincoln
St. Dismas
St. Hripsime – Third century Armenian martyr
Robert Hunt – First Anglican priest at Jamestown, Virginia
St. Blaise
St. John Henry Newman
Fred Rogers (“Santo Subito!”)
Hooray for Fred Rogers! What a wonderful ministry he chose as his life’s work!
First want to again lodge a vote for opening Lenten Madness nominations to all people of faith. As a Jew who loves (and votes!) every year with my kids, I feel duty bound to point out that the great spiritual masters of history have inspired and informed Christians (think Gandhi inspiring MLK) and vice versa. Just saying…
But now on with my nominations for the coming year (and yes all 5 were Christians and are now very much dead)
1. Rose Hawthorne-daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne founded a proto-hospice home for people dying of cancer. She was a direct inspiration to the work of Dorothy Day and many a Catholic Worker spent time in service with her order. Her motto (taken from St Vincent de Paul) “I am for God and the poor.”
2. Mother Maria Skobtsova: lived a life with so many wild twists and turns it sounds straight out of a novel. Eventually she dedicated herself to a life of service to the poor as an Orthodox nun writing that she wanted a life of “complete absence of even the subtlest barrier which might separate the heart from the world and its wounds.” When the Nazis took over France she worked on the behalf of Jewish refugees and was eventually arrested and sent to Ravensbruck where she died in the gas chambers.
3. Fr Christian de Cherge: Dedicated his life to living in solidarity, prayer and friendship with his Muslim neighbors in Algeria. When it became obvious that this would mean his death at the hands of extremists if he persisted he not only stood fast to his mission but offered his forgiveness to his future murderers, writing: “you too my last minute friend…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 all. Amen! In sh’allah.”
4. Pere Jacques Bunol-the real inspiration for the priest in the film “Au Revoir Les Enfants” (Louis Malle was a student of Pere Jacques.) When his clandestine efforts on behalf of Jews were discovered and he was sent to a concentration camp he made a point of befriending communists and other non Christians for he felt a particular common bond in their shared concern for the poor and was inspired by their bravery. One communist wrote later “One felt the presence of Christ in this priest.” When his camp was liberated he worked himself literally to the point of death caring for the liberated prisoners and died weeks later.
5. St Alphonsus Rodriguez-For 40 yrs he manned the door for a Jesuit community. Literally he just opened the door…but his heart and spirit were so great that slowly an entire city came to love him and no less a saint than Peter Claver who served and fought on behalf of enslaved people pointed to simple St Alphonsus as the inspiration for his heroic efforts. When he died everyone from the viceroy and nobility to the poorest of the poor attended his funeral.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels, St. Botolph/Botwulf of Thorney, St. Photini-the woman at the well, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Andrew, St. Quiteria, St. Thomas, Joseph of Arimathea, J. S. Bach, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Catherine of Siena, Hildegard von Bingen, Alfred the Great, Gregory the Great, Martha and Mary of Bethany, Hagar, Anne Hutchinson, Eric Liddell, Franziska Jagerstatter, Martha and Waitstill Sharp. Thank you.
Thomas Bray
Saint Philip Neri, patron saint of humor and joy (feast day coming up, May 26)
Brother Juniper, the Lord’s Jester (feast day January 29)
Saint Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of lost causes (feast day October 28)
Saint Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of aviation, astronauts, mental handicaps, test taking, students (love the combination! feast day, September 18)
Blessings upon your discernment!
Margaret of Scotland
William Robert Hare
Cardinal Clemens August von Galen
The Bishop Who Took On the Führer
Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2005.
The Lion of Münster’s episcopal motto was nec laudibus nec timore—neither by flattery
An article appeared in the May. 19, 2017, print edition of the Wall Street Journal
I nominate indigenous saints from Canada –
Gladys Cook – residential school survivor http://www.anglican.ca/about/departments/cir/video/gladys/bio/
James Settee – indigenous pries in northern Saskatchewan -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Settee
Charles Pratt – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Pratt_(Askenootow)
And a missionary among indigenous people in Canada
John McKay – http://anglicanhistory.org/canada/sk/payton1974/10.html
These faithful, though largely unsung, saints of the church, I respectfully submit for your Supremely Excellent Consideration (SEC).
Marion
Now that the eleventh hour is approaching, I’ve decided to stuff the Nomination Box!
George
Elizabeth Romanov
Maria Skobtsova
Veronica
Samuel Seabury
Thomas Cranmer
John Mason Neal
Edward Bouverie Pusey
Damien of Molokai
Paul Jones
Benedict of Nursia
Martin of Tours
Johann Sebastian Bach
Paul Jones
Robert Hunt
Dismas
Isidore
John the Baptist
Hilda of Whitby
Maximillian Kolbe
Olga of Russia
Anne, Mother of Mary
Joachim, Father of Mary
I nominate Harriet Tubman. Let’s annoint her with a halo before she gets on the $20 bill.
I nominate Fred McFeely Rogers. An ordained minister, Mister Rogers’ ministry of gentle warmth spoke to so many children, and he was a strong, lifelong advocate for better television programming for children.
I have many favorite quotes from Mister Rogers. One of them is, “”Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”