After a madcap few days of saintly kitsch, we are down to the final battle of the Elate Eight. Today Albert the Great takes on Catherine of Genoa with the last spot in the Faithful Four at stake. The winner will face Absalom Jones in the next round.
To reach the Elate Eight, Albert took down Leo the Great and Empress Theodora, while Catherine bested Catherine of Bologna and Isidora the Simple.
Yesterday Ives of Kermartin defeated Arnulf of Metz 62% to 38%, meaning he’ll take on Benedict the Moor in the first matchup of the Faithful Four. Be sure to tune in first thing Monday morning as things really start to heat up in Lent Madness 2021. The end is drawing nigh!
Albert the Great
Anyone deemed “The Great” has no doubt had a lasting impact on the world. The ubiquitous legacy of Albert, known as The Great, or Albertus Magnus, is reflective of him and his many studies.
To say his influence was far-reaching is an understatement. In all, he was a man of God
and a man of science.
Do you like to garden? The tropical flowering plant Alberta magna was named for him. Native to South Africa, it’s also called the Natal flame bush. Its brightly colored flowers bloom in late summer and fall.
Do you look up and wonder at the stars? Have an interest in astronomy? An asteroid, 20006 Albertus Magnus, was designated for him.
How about printing and publishing? There’s the Albertus typeface, deemed in his honor. It can
be found on street name signs in the London borough of Lambeth where the Archbishop of Canterbury resides. It’s also used for The Hobbit movies.
He was a prolific writer, but you don’t need to read all 38 volumes of his work. You can enjoy his writings in smaller batches in such books as On Cleaving To God and On Union With God.
How about a sweatshirt from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT, whose graduates are much like Albert – authors, judges, educators, state and federally elected officials, and a former Ambassador to Ireland.
Or you can cheer Albertus Magnus Falcons from a New York state high school.
Ever heard of Aristotle? Studied his philosophy? In many ways, that’s thanks to Albert, who 
introduced the thinking and reasoning of Aristotle, along with a number of Arab philosophers, to a medieval Renaissance European audience.
Wear an Albert medallion or drink from an Albert mug.
Honoring the scientist in Albert, make a timely fashion statement by wearing an Albert The Great facemask.
Catherine of Genoa
The deep spirituality and mysticism of Catherine of Genoa led her to beautiful visions of purgatory – a place of transformative encounters with the presence of God. As we continue to bide our time working from home, this puzzle of a different sort of Purgatory (Purgatory, Colorado), can also bring us peace and joy much as Catherine’s visions did for her.
It could be that as vaccines are distributed you are feeling more comfortable with the idea of
going out on the town. Might I suggest these ever so fashionable Catherine of Genoa earrings as the perfect accessory? Perhaps some of the joy that Catherine experienced in the flame of Divine love will travel with you.
Catherine was a bringer of comfort throughout the pandemics and plagues of 15th Century Italy. Her work in the hospital allowed her to offer solace to many of those who were suffering during those dark days. We all need something to comfort us during hard times of our 21st Century pandemic. Give a big hug with and cuddle up with this stuffed COVID-19 microbe, knowing that caregivers like Catherine are still among us today.
Between her mystical writings on the love of God and her loving ministry to the physical needs of her neighbor, 
Catherine’s life was a deeply incarnate spirituality – a reminder that we cannot separate our physical self from the life of faith and discipleship. And should you need a reminder of this fact, you too can pick up an e-Bay verified, grade A relic from the physical remains of sainted Catherine.
Or perhaps, just as Catherine found herself lost and “hidden in the Divine heart,” we should also lose that little tidbit of Catherine.
Albert the Great vs. Catherine of Genoa
- Catherine of Genoa (54%, 3,191 Votes)
- Albert the Great (46%, 2,699 Votes)
Total Voters: 5,890
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By applying his skill as a scrivener
Buried knowledge did St. Albert disinter;
But the acme of fame
Was when they chose his name
For the typeface that’s used in The Prisoner*.
(*see http://www.fontsinuse.com/uses/8920/the-prisoner-1967-tv-series)
Ah, such a clever usage of “disinter”! It brings to mind my family’s deliberate mispronunciation of “misled”…I often wonder how anyone manages to learn English at all! That said, kitsch or no kitsch, my vote will be for Catherine, a mystic who also walked the walk in her care of the poor and sick.
My father always said, “He was missled.” Giving us another opportunity to say, “Daaad!”
I was an adult before I knew it was mis led, not missled. As a writer and an editor I always hid this failing until I saw your comment. Thank you.
“Disinter”…. great!
The Prisoner… in incomprehensible series of ever there was one! All I remember is that ball.
Me too!
Excellent and creative write-ups, as always. It may have been best to leave out the covid toy, however, given the ongoing seriousness of the pandemic, especially for those hundreds of thousands of us who must grapple with the untimely death of loved ones.
Amen, padre. Miss you!
I gave my daughter that covid “toy” with a graduation hat to remember the unique circumstances of her graduation year. I love “GIANTmicrobes” offerings – especially the copy of the brain cell of “The world’s smartest Mom” which hangs in my bedroom. 🙂
Albert, please. Science must win.
Albert for me!
Ok I’ll admit it, I voted for the stuffed COVID19 microbe. Tough choice tho. Kudos to both celebrity bloggers and their creativity!
I feel a bit sad when the kitsch round is over. Even though they are not advancing, I can’t resist just one more bit of shopping for Camillus, Nino, and Melangell kitsch. 🙂
Love that facemask of Albert, the patron saint of scientists!! Even though Victor Frankenstein deems him an inspiration, I still have to vote for him. 🙂
For Melangell, how about a shirt from the only university in the U.S. whose mascot is the hare, also known as the jackrabbit?
https://jackrabbitcentral.com/shop_product_detail.asp?catalog_group_id=NTY&catalog_group_name=VW5pc2V4IEFwcGFyZWw&catalog_id=1477&catalog_name=VGVlcw&product_name=VC1TaGlydCBieSBOZXcgQWdlbmRh&pf_id=22753&type=1&target=Default.asp
And the artist at South Dakota State managed to make this hare look like a Fierce Bad Rabbit to boot.
You go, girl!!
My inner Lutheran demands I not vote for the guy who got Aristotle mixed up in theology. E.g., in Luther’s characteristically understated style of arguing:
Luther thus sets his own view in opposition to the Aristotelian one in the Disputation Against Scholastic Philosophy when he writes that “We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds”, so that as a result “Virtually the entire Ethics of Aristotle is the worst enemy of grace”
Philosophy and Theology belong together, and they were a single discipline for a long time. Each informs the other. Each informs me.
The beautiful teaching that purgatory is where we are able to expand our lovr of God and not dwell separate from Him for all eternity is a blessing to all who believe their loved ones are separated from God after completing a suicide. I must vote for Catherine to honor those in my life who have felt this desperation.
Nothing amusing about COVID.
I love learning of Purgatory, in Colorado, and that Catherine had visions of the afterlife’s version. My vote went for her.
Okay — Albertus Magnus certainly left a greater footprint on faith and thought. But I am going to do something I rarely do here, and let gender sway my vote. With all of the fine candidates, we ought to have a woman among the Faithful Four! It should have been Egeria, but Catherine got my vote today.
Besides, her beautiful vision of purgatory is a grace-filled, sorely needed, and deeply healing gift to humankind — wretched sinners all.
I vote for Catherine, for she demonstrates that you can be both a contemplative and an activist, something we too easily forget. All this time, and I never made the connection between Albertus Magnus and the Albert the Great! I knew I should of taken Latin, but it wasn’t an option in public school.
Franciscan Richard Rohr from whom I have learned much sometimes says that “and” is the most important word in the name of the institution he founded, “The Center for Action and Contemplation.” Since, as you point out, Catherine lived a life of both action and contemplation she gets my vote today.
Good point, Jack! I think you’ve tipped the balance. Much as I respect Albert and science, today it’s Catherine, for whom I voted last time also.
Does anyone know where I could get Albert’s books “On Clinging to God” and “On Union With God” mentioned above? With so many today, both Christians and others, denying the validity of science, I am intrigued by anyone who managed to be both a scientist and a theologian. Go Albert the Great!
Try Amazon
No, don’t try them. Try supporting local independent booksellers instead.
Did you know you can look up books on WorldCat.org, the worldwide catalog of library catalogs, find the ISBN numbers and other publications information, and then order them via your local independent bookstore so that you both support a local business and keep more of your money in your own local community? And you might even save some money (especially if you can just use your library card to borrow it from your local library).
And if you don’t have a local independent bookstore you can visit in person, then at least shop online via Powells.com (Portland, Oregon’s famous independent unionized new & used bookstore) or Bookshop.org (“Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.”) instead.
Furthermore, overall independent bookstores tend to treat their employees much better than Amazon does . . . (I have heard stories directly not just in the news). I try to put my money where my values are and I strongly encourage others to consider doing the same as much as possible.
Amazon is so easy and so tempting. But I try to order from independent bookshops. It’s a little more work, but not much.
copying down this info for future reference – thx!
If you wish to order online On Cleaving to God is available via Bookshop.org, but alas On Union with God is currently on backorder via them, but is available via Powells.com (I’d put a link here but the site doesn’t like multiple links in one comment, but if you go to Powells.com and put “On Union with God” in the search box at the top, it’ll show in the top three results).
You can also look up the local independent bookstore nearest you using your favorite search engine, then call them and see if they have the books in stock or ask them to order them for you to pick up. (I had my local bookstore order a copy of Catherine of Bologna’s The Seven Spiritual Weapons for me and it came in pretty quickly.)
You might want to explore BioLogos for a meeting of science and theology. It was founded by one of the top biologists in the world, Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project and now directs the National Institutes of Health. Their mission is to “invite the church and the world
to see the harmony between science and biblical faith.” biologos.com
Albert was Great, but Catherine seems closer to God. I vote for Catherine of Genoa.
Looking up a little more info on Catherine of Geneo, I discovered on one website (franciscanmedia . org) that she is “Saint of the Day.” Had to vote for her.
Genoa* (can’t blame autocorrect for this one).
I love the Catherine earrings and also Catherine, she has my vote.
Go, Catherine! Sainthood-wise, I’ll take her embodied faith and mysticism over rarefied scholarship and support for a violent crusade anytime. And I’m a big fan of scholarship. (I don’t dig the Covid plush toy, but I’ll take the earrings!)
Agree with village priest: we need a woman in the final round. So many good candidates throughout this Lent Madness, and this Catherine is a worthy representative of them all.
Oh, well played, David Hansen, with the Purgatory, Colorado poster! Both bloggers are on their game today with this droll swag. I love the typeface and the Hobbit poster. I’m not sure what the Latin or Italian is atop that fragment of “Catherine,” but I think I can just make out “decompose.” Surely nothing inauthentic would be out on e-Bay! As for the stuffed covid-19 “pet”: that’s just wrong. As would be a smiling goggle-eyed syphilis spirochete. I can’t choose between the kitsch. Both sets are inspired. Good job, bloggers. A tip of the hat to Scott Rauch for the irony in “Luther’s characteristically understated style of arguing.” Haha. But since Luther wrote (in his understated way), “It is far more important to consider what the common people need for their salvation than what St. Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Augustine, or anyone else [St. Benedict!] has established as a rule,” pretty much dissing every form of authority except his own, I think it’s worth re-considering Aristotle as an authority, for his emphasis on balance and moderation, finding the “mean” (something the “common people” might need today?). And while Albertus might not be the greatest model for combatting anti-semitism in Christian history (neither is Luther), he does remind us that science and theology are not inherently at odds. And in an era of desperate populist demagoguery, seemingly “devoted” to the rejection of science, reason, and human discourse as anything other than a repository of hateful slogans, I will vote for the theologian-scientist. In addition to alighting beautiful visions and flaming hearts, Purgatory must allow for people to encounter the natural world with their senses, and that is the genesis of science.
Alas! The theological status of Purgatory is in limbo.
According to Dante, Limbo is the expanse of nothingness before one even enters Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. Limbo is “nothing,” somewhat as though Wallace Stevens had ended a poem with “the only place for ‘is’ is IS.” But then we would have to deal with posts about ISISIS.
While I’ve escaped the virus and am now fully vaccinated, it has taken a toll of listlessness on me. One of many manifestations of that has been a lack of interest in the Madness; I haven’t been waking up, as in past years, eager to open the LM page and dive into the debate. So I’m going to let my respect for Albertus Magnus (I too attended college in New Haven) bow to the comforter of the sick and needy. Win or lose, I shall remember Catherine as I carry on my family tradition of baking the Genoese torta pasqualina for our Easter dinner.
SO GLAD to see you back! And glad you are safe and well. Post the recipe for us all!
Anyone who has a typeface named after him or her is okay with me.
There is no Dahlvig font, but there is a Dahlvig at the helm of IKEA, and it is a veritable font of do-it-yourself furniture kits. (Font, fount, something like that.)
St Celia, you are REALLY on top of your game today! I didn’t think you could get any higher before. Thank you for your humour and very well-stated opinion. I shall follow your lead, though it’s hard not to concur with another voting for the last woman left in the bracket.
You are so sweet.
David Hansen you now have to answer for the lost time I spent going down the rabbit hole of relics for sale on Ebay. Unbelievable! And of course they are all authentic. Thank you for expanding my horizons. As Jeff Foxworthy says of his family swiping shower caps off the unattended hotel housekeeping cart “Christmas Gifts!”
I can’t believe Neva Rae failed to mention those five lakes they named in honor of Albert.
A virus is not a microbe. A virus is an entirely different entity
and is not classified in any of the 6 kingdoms of the Linnaean Taxonomy.
Go Albertus Magnus! Down with misused Kitsch.
I love the saintly kitch round! I wish we had an opportunity to enjoy saintly kitch on all of the saints in the bracket!! It just makes me sad that it’s only reserved for eight.
Is that Albertus Magnus mask real or photoshopped? Amazing. And David Hansen appears to be seriously into relics this year. I do love the kitsch round.
Hard choice between Albert and Catherine: head or heart?
Having obtained an MA in Medieval Studies (concentration in church history, Bible and canon law), my vote goes to Albert. But I appreciate deeply Catherine’s thoughts about Purgatory: perhaps we might consider “Life” as a purgatory for attaining the Summum Bonum, starting with compassion for our fellow humans …
Is it wrong to vote for Catherine because she’s the last female standing?
Absolutely not!
A comet, a plant, and a typeface? Swayed by the kitsch, my vote goes to Albert. I am sure he will not be swayed by my vote, but his prayers for our month long series of events on the science and theology of the climate crisis will be most welcome. 🙂
Hey, Fiona, a bit more detail on your plans? Local, or national, open to visitors?
Yes! Do tell more! On Zoom? Open to all? My father, a nuclear physicist who could not reconcile science and religion, prepared me to welcome approaching subjects from ALL sides. Who knows who will be swayed by the pairing?
I know a number of clergy who are climate activists who would love to attend a series of events on the science and theology of the climate crisis.
Also, those of us here in Hawaii have the added opportunity to see two distinct theological perspectives on the relationship of human and creation. Christianity = dominion over/stewardship of (depending on the translation you use). Hawaiian spirituality = kinship relationship. “The Earth is my sibling” comes from Kalo being the first-born son of the gods, planted in the ground when he died (stillborn?), and now feeds his younger sibling, humanity.
I look forward to the day that a mystic wins LENT MADNESS. The writings they have left behind have provided peace, enlightenment, and guidance for millions.
Today I voted for the kitsch, and Catherine’s got it. The Purgatory puzzle was a hoot, and I laughed out loud at the Covid toy. I must be demented, judging by the other comments on this bit of kitsch, but I think humor is sometimes a useful weapon. Great job, David, except eww to the St. Catherine toe-jam in the relic case!
Amen, Susan. (see below)
Relics. So gross. SOOO GROSS!!
Agree! I loved the covid plush toy. Laughter has always been a mechanism for dealing with fearful things, allowing us a sense of being able to cope. Plenty of cancer humor around.
Rediscovery of Aristotle is so fundamental to humans developing science, technology, such control as we have (or misuse, alas) of the natural world–and Albert was deeply faithful. I don’t think I could fail to vote for Catherine for anything less.
I admire Catherine, and wish her view of Purgatory had prevailed over te Romish oner ejected in the Articles, but I relate to Albert and his broad scientific approach. Even Sheldon with his avowed atheism saw in physics a way to discover the face of God.
Yes! A “Big Bang” reference! Love it!
Thanks Susan. Now can you tell me about the Annunciation painting you use as an avatar? I am quite taken by Mary’s pose and expression.
It’s Ecce Ancilla Domini by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Susan can tell you more.
Oh, Albert, you are indeed great, but Catherine’s Kitsch is even greater. Huzzah for the saints and the bloggers and the opportunity to laugh loudly and think deeply.
As the dinosaur i the BC comic strip was wont to say,”Gronk!” That’s my reaction to today’s choices. They are equally worthy, both having made great contributions to the life and work and understanding of the church then and now. How did I make my choice? Would you believe I wrote out to the two names on a piece of paper,put them in a bowl, closed my eyes and chose one? Catherine it is today.
As a physician who is also a priest, I want to vote for Catherine. As a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists, I want to vote for Albert. ALAS. But whoever wins, I’m content.
That is exactly why March Madness is so fun!
I had to vote for Catherine of Genoa because, what is up with that stuffed COVID-19 microbe!!? Also, I want those earrings.
Well it’s back to the ladies today. We can’t have an all male Final Four, we must be inclusive. So let’s put this Albert in the can too & go with Catherine of Genoa.
(Also in honor of Catherine of London, Princess Kate is great.)
Oh no, yet another difficult call! Great kitsch for two very deserving saints. The mystic/doer vs the melding of science and theology. I must contemplate on this conundrum.
Who can argue with the namesake of a typeface?
While my heart is drawn to Catherine’s mystical love of God and call to action in local hospitals (or medieval equivalent thereof), I am so fed up with so many of our fellow citizens’ rejection of science — not wearing masks, unwilling to take reasonable precautions, denying climate change, etc. — I could just scream. And not a saintly one at that. Catherine of Genoa my heart yearns for a quieter time when you could be my saintly light, but right now I just feel like we need respect for science.
Catherine ministered through a pandemic with little to no concern for herself and placing the needs of the suffering ahead of her needs. She is truly a saint for our 21st century suffering Saints. P.s. oddly enough I like the little microbe
You had me at earrings!
Gaen your sentiment reaches my soul. Thanks for your write-up. It’s nice to know there are folks who don’t hoist the “I don’t want anyone telling me what to do” banner. And consider others. Albert for me on this one.
I VOTE FOR CATHERINE OF GENOA.
Covid plushy for the win!
I voted for for Cathrine even though Albert is a distantly-related ancestor.
I always enjoy the Saintly Kitsch round, but this year it has been exceptional! Well done, Celebrity Bloggers!