Ever since Florence Nightingale was crowned with the 2017 Golden Halo, the anticipation over the 2018 Lent Madness bracket has been nearly unquenchable. Nominationtide produced a flurry of saintly suggestions from all over the the globe which were narrowed down at the Supreme Executive Committee’s secretive spring retreat.
Following last week’s bracket leak at the nefarious hands of the international hacking organization LentiLeaks, tensions were running high as the SEC prepared to release the official bracket. Fortunately increased cyber security prevented further leaks and we have arrived at All Brackets’ Day with the bracket — and the integrity of Lent Madness — intact.
Longtime Lent Madness fans will be intrigued to discover that this year’s bracket [click on the image to enlarge it] is broken up into four quadrants of similarly grouped saints. These include: 1) Biblical Saints 2) Monastics & Martyrs 3) Mostly Modern and 4) Miscellaneous. Who says the SEC isn’t open to innovation and the movement of the Holy Spirit?!
One common complaint we hear on All Brackets’ Day was recently echoed by an anonymous killjoy who happened past the Lentorium. “Why do you have to talk about Lent? It’s not even Advent yet!” Well, besides the fact that the All Saints’ – All Souls’ – All Brackets’ triduum is ALL ABOUT SAINTS, it’s because we are in the perpetual Lent business. If this “season creep” causes you anxiety, we suggest turning off the Wi-Fi in your home until Lent Madness begins on Ash Thursday (February 15).
We do hope you enjoy this annual festival of bracketology and we have two suggestions (besides Googling all the saints you’ve never heard of) to help you prepare for the Madness that is to come:
- Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest all the saintly matchups by pre-ordering the 2018 Saintly Scorecard. Just like last year, we are selling the scorecards individually or in packs of 10. To get the best price order three or more packs of 10, for an unbelievably low price of just $1 per scorecard.
- Pre-order your giant Bracket Poster.
And remember, it’s never too early to wish one another a Happy Lent!
I have been waiting for this day for months! All Brackets Day – one of my favorite November observances!
If nothing else it indicates the end of hurricane season.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall: who’s the [holiest] one of all?” — The Wicked Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Love the updates to the brackets and art work. This is going to look marvelous on our parish wall during Lent.
Can’t wait!!!
So happy to see Edith Cavell on this year. I go to Norwich, England each year, where she is a venerated local saint [along with Lady Julian]. Her grave/shrine is next to the great Norwich Cathedral. Hope all will read the bio of this marvelous woman who faced the firing squad during WWI. Such faithfulness deserves the Golden Halo!
BTW- I love the new format! Very helpful. I guess you guys listen to your following after all!
I am wearing purple today in observance of All Brackets Day!
Yay for Anna the Prophet!! Looking forward to Lent already!!
As always, you have created some agonizing choices for your faithful followers. But I suppose that suffering is what Lent Madness is all about in the spirit of the season.
I suspect the SEC even listens to Christmas music during Advent. Harumphffff…
St John The Evangelist in an epic upset.
Glad to see Esther in the bracket……..she was such a strong woman who stood up for her people in spite of the danger to her in doing so. She is one of five heroines of our Eastern Star organization!
Already creating campaign buttons for Peter Claver!
I like the new style and can’t wait until Lent Madness. My favorite saint is St. Brigid of Kildaire but I love learning about the others.
At last!
I’m overjoyed to see Charles I in the Bracket this year!
A much neglected saint!
Maybe this year I will figure out how to officially sign up at my church, winning….something!
whew, glad to hear integrity is intact. It is such short supply these days that I was worried someone or some group might have made off with the supply of the SEC. blessings. J hills
Sad that St. Photini (aka woman at the well) did not make it this year (again).
St. Dymphna FTW! I’m also partial to St. Gertrude, patron saint of cat ladies.
Let the campaigning commence . . . How about it fans of the ‘via media’? TODAY is Richard Hooker’s feast day and I’m thankful for his early endorsement of ‘reason’ in theology – HALO for HOOKER! HALO FOR HOOKER!
Already excited for Lent! And this year I’ll be worshiping at a CofE church, which should provide a new experience for this Anabaptist.
Is Katarina von Bora who I think she is? I’m glad she’s getting some deserved credit! (Former nun; Luther’s wife.)
Ready to Rock! On my office wall and I have never been so excited about Lent in my life. I live for this.
This looks exciting. I look forward to learning about unfamiliar (to me) saints. As the years have gone by, we’ve gone through the well-known ones. However, unlike Dancing with the Stars, the choices have become delicious, not ridiculous (I call it “Dancing with People you May Have Heard Of “now.)
What a fun Lent we shall have. Thank you. And let’s not forget April 1 is Easter. That should elicit a few hilarious memes. (Ha Ha. Not Dead, April Fool)
Couldn’t help but notice that some saints are in much smaller letters than most of the others. Is this some sort of bias on the part of the SEC? Or is it because you ran out of large letters?
You have posted the bracket as a jpg. Which means that blind people using the voice over option on our computers are …well, in the dark. All we get when clicking on the picture is a long string of numbers and letters signifying nothing.
Gentle supreme leadership, when you post anything on line as a picture, please also post the content so that some of us cane get the information.
Fortunately, my sainted and sighted wife, read the list of nonentities to me.
Tom Van Briunt
MARGARET, MARGARET, MARGARET! Great to see the name saint of our church, and a personal favorite.
If the Biblical Michael is the archangel Michael, I don’t think he should be on the list, since angels are not human beings and by nature of their perfection have an unfair advantage over all mortals in this contest. True, we speak of “St. Michael,” but that simply comes from an older English that applied the term “saint” more widely to mean “holy,” as for example the church of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate in London. Will St. Sepulchre be in one of the brackets next year? That would truly be Lent Madness!
Love, love, love the new quadrant format. Thanks so much.
Great idea to shake things up with a new format. I like it!
What is this world coming to?! It isn’t even Advent yet and already we have next year’s bracket being released! (I was hoping LentiLeaks would leak the whole bracket last week!!!)
I have often had a hacking episode after eating lentils.
We’ll, I’m ready..
Looks like fun. Looking forward to another great year. See you then.
I love that you are using St. Gregory’s Dancing Saints. I don’t love that it is making me homesick for San Francisco.
It has been a great triduum for me: attended a beautiful Evensong on Wednesday, baked Soul Cakes with grandchildren yesterday, and today’s release of the bracket. I don’t think it could have been a better three days!
I may be one of those ‘Nothing Christmas until after Thanksgiving’ militants, but I am just fine with All Brackets Day. Makes sense to me! I hope someone catches those blasted Lentileakers!
Hooray for Phoebe the Deacon! 😀
Thomas a Kempis is also one of my favorite writers.
Lots of interesting and inspiring folks represented – several names I don’t know – I look forward to learning about them. Thanks for putting this together.
Another cradle Anabaptist (oxymoron!) who has dived into Episcopal waters. Loved Lenten
Madness last year and have tried to spread the word. I just want to say, for the future, can
we not have at least one or several Celtic Christian saints? Someone mentioned Brigid of
Kildare, but there are others (beyond Patrick). But maybe they have been featured many times
in Lemts before? Volens- nolens, I love this alternative to March Madness!
I like the artwork, but I find it confusing that it includes saints that are not in the brackets. The mind naturally assumes that the saints listed above in the brackets will be in the pictures below. But that is not the case.
Charles I?
Stuart?
Habsburg?
In either case, strange nominee.
I love Lent Madness. Each year I introduce it to more people. I can hardly wait. I have already ordered score cards and brackets.
Very interesting mix this year — looking forward to Lent already
Brilliant idea to group the saints in category quadrants! Should help prevent the modern ones from always beating out the ancient weird ones! Well done! 🙂
Yay! Happy All Brackets’ Day! Like the new groupings. Looking forward to Lent!
Love the dancing saints! Looking forward to Ash Thursday.
You guys rock!! I noticed several of my favorites in the four categories.
Peter and Paul in the first round? C’mon. Really?
And it’s NOT Eleanor Roosevelt. Huh.
Richard Hooker for the win!!!
Like the idea of quadrants. Looking forward to the battle.