The Elate Eight continues with an intriguing match-up between Margaret of Scotland and Enmegahbowh. One of the sub-plots of this round has been "What will Celebrity Blogger Heidi Shott possibly come up with for Enmegahbowh kitsch?" This will be answered today as these two pillars of the faith vie for the third spot in the Faithful Four.
Yesterday, Dietrich Bonhoeffer punched his ticket to the next round by ousting Jerome 74% to 26% and joining Mary Magdalene in keeping their Golden Halo hopes alive.
To make it this far, Margaret defeated William Temple and John Cassian while Enmegahbowh beat Thomas and David Oakerhater. Check out the updated bracket to see what's coming up in Lent Madness.
Meanwhile, back at Lent Madness HQ, Tim and Scott plot to launch an entire line of saintly kitsch. Kitsch-meisters? You bet! Speaking of which, check out our recent post Kitsch Cranks (which really should have been spelled "Kranks") and read about Lent Madness in the Huffington Post.
Hey, all you Margaret fans! How does one show one’s admiration for and devotion to (Queen) Margaret of Scotland? There are just too many options to show here, but I picked out a few for your consideration:
If she’s a queen, there must be a doll, right? And indeed there are several dolls one can purchase for your saintly queen doll collection. First, there’s this wooden peg doll, made to order, featuring the blonde queen (she was Saxon after all) holding a black cross and wearing a tartan sash (“not historically accurate but cute all the same”).
Or, if a wooden doll doesn’t seem cuddly enough, here’s a whimsical Margaret of Scotland Felt Saint Softie. This Margaret is holding her special book of Gospels that miraculously did not show any water damage after being dropped into a river and she is also wearing a special prayer on her back. I personally am planning to buy one of these!
Want to color your own St. Margaret? Download this coloring page and experiment with different queenly shades for her outfit and fingernails!
Or get a St. Margaret tote bag to carry all your St. Margaret stuff around with you. The same design is featured on a keepsake box to keep all your St. Margaret stuff safely at home.
Speaking of home, if your taste runs more to home furnishings than dolls and coloring pages, here’s a St. Margaret throw pillow for your sofa or favorite chair so that you can read your morning p
rayers and devotional books with the saint by your side. The same design can be ordered on a coffee mug, ornament, or keepsake box.
St. Margaret can also reign over your refrigerator from this handy (and lovely!) “attention-grabbing” magnet set. Order just one, or a pack of 100, so you can share with all your St. Margaret-loving friends! (Ye
s, it’s the same design as the pillow, but, hey, it’s “stained glass!” And you can also "Liven up any room or party with our fun, hip" St. Margaret tile coasters!)
Finally, while you’re out and about (visiting the St. Margaret Pub in Twickenham, say), show your Team Margaret pride and solidarity while wearing this great Team Margaret Hoodie and make everyone guess why there’s a shamrock on the front. Pair this with the Team Margaret doggie shirt for your canine companion for the ultimate in kitschy Margaret-wear!
Go Team Margaret!
-- Penny Nash
As predicted by a member of the SEC, commercial kitsch featuring Enmegahbowh, the first Native American to be ordained as an Episcopal priest, is scarce. In fact here’s a screenshot of an early attempt to turn up any product that would even begin to rival yesterday’s St. Jerome/Lion Reversible Doll.
Alas, “0 results found for “Enmegahbowh kitsch.”
Enter the fans! Team E supporter Mary-Elise Haug offered an assist by sending along a Not For Sale (and one-of-a-kind, we suspect) item honoring the “Providential Man” himself. This handmade doll depicting Enmegahbowh was on display in 2007 at the Native American Ministries Winter Talk Conference held in Jamestown, Virginia, to mark the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown.
Please take note that the stole he’s wearing is identical to the one in the icon displayed during the Saintly 16 round. Excellent attention to detail, Dollmaker!
Are we surprised by a sad lack of cheesy saint crap? No! John Johnson Enmegahbowh was a serious man serving his people and his Church during a very serious era of the American experiment. It’s not surprising that his kitsch-factor is low.
However, that’s not to say he wasn’t a funny guy. So, in lieu of sufficient kitsch, here are a couple of stories: In 1874 Enmegahbowh wrote with stunning poignance to the Office of the Indian Commission at 30 Bible House in New York to report the death of his great friend and fellow Christian, Chief Nabunashkong, aka, Isaac H. Tuttle.
In telling the story of Tuttle’s conversion and his role in it, Enmegahbowh revealed his mischievous side. As a mark of Tuttle’s new faith, he asked his Enmegahbowh to cut his long locks of hair, a symbol of his standing in the tribe. Enmegahbowh wrote:
“[Tuttle said] ‘If the Great Spirit has so big a love for poor Indian, surely Indian ought and must give back big love to the Great Spirit. Now dear brother,’ he said, ‘to be true to return my big love to the Great Spirit, I brought this scissors, to have you cut my hair locks which I shall throw away forever.’
“...When it was all over, he took wild, and threw his head in every direction, to see if any one coming to see him. I smiled, and pitied him greatly. ‘Friend,’ he ask, ‘what made you smile?’
“I said: ‘You look precisely like the baboon I saw at Barnum’s Museum in New York, some years ago.’”
Ouch.
Then there’s another story that tells of the feistiness of his wife, Biwabiko-gizig-okwe or Iron Sky Woman, (or Charlotte, if you must). It also indicates a measure of Enmegahbowh’s humanity, if not his good humor, and offers a fuller explanation about why he and Methodists at Fond du Lac parted company early in his ministry. The “Man Who Stood Before His People” also stood by his wife. Fair play to him! The story goes that in 1849 Iron Sky Woman and a fur trader got into an argument.
According to Owanah Anderson in Forward Movement’s 1988 volume, Jamestown Commitment: The Episcopal Church and the American Indian, “...a white man insulted En
megahbowh’s wife Charlotte and that Enmegahbowh knocked the man down and held him while his wife gave the worthless man a sound beating.”
Beyond the pricelessness of story, there is at least one thing for sale that offers a wonderful reminder of Enmegahbowh’s legacy. Holy Women, Holy Men credits him with training “many others to serve as deacons throughout northern Minnesota. The powerful tradition of Ojibway hymn singing is a living testimony to their ministry. His understanding of Native tradition enabled him to 
enculturate Christianity in the language and traditions of the Ojibway.”
For $.99 cents you can buy an MP3 and hear the Ojibwe Hymn Singers’ lovely rendition of “On the Beautiful Beyond.”
And finally, if you need a button to sport on your General Convention nametag, how about this? Unfortunately they only come in packs of 100.
-- Heidi Shott
The Supreme Executive Committee subtracted 80 votes from Enmegahbowh at 12:33 a.m. EDT, because of voting irregularity we discovered. The person(s) involved have been blocked from Lent Madness. Remember, we encourage you to spread the word about your favorite saints. However, voting 50+ times from one computer is not allowed.
Vote!
[poll id="30"]
73 comments on “Margaret of Scotland vs. Enmegahbowh”
During the last century in America the white man found the native peoples to be notoriously uncivilized. In an effort to civilize them the white man removed them from their lands and stripped them of their native ways and livelihoods. The same thing happened to the native Celts in Scotland as first Margaret and later her sons stripped the Celts of lands and livelihoods in order to civilize them. I think that we would all agree that using means such as these to force beliefs on another people is wrong and actually a bit unsaintly.
No one has picked up on this sobering point of view submitted by MaineCelt in the Queen Margaret v Wm Temple round:
For anyone moved to vote for Margaret merely because of Scottish affiliation, hold off. She wasn’t just a lovely do-gooder. She was also an aggressive advocate for the subjugation of Gaelic language and culture and she would have happily done away with the Celtic Church as a whole. Now, I know the distinct features of Celtic Christianity are a matter of great scholarly dispute, but I still say Margaret was an ungracious imperialist.
The choices are not going to get easier as we get closer to the Golden Halo. Today's matchup was another difficult one. For me, since Enmegahbowh had little kitsch and more explanation, the explanation swayed my vote. Anyone who trained more deacons has my vote.
Go, John, Go! Anyone who "barbers" has my vote! To kitch or not to kitch--that is the question--today I'll go for the kitchless big E--and, of course, his better half!
oops--can't spell today--it's kathi--too much lenten discipline at the gym!
Well, actually Jim and I have been beating that drum all day! Thanks for your support!
Ceud mile taing! Gaidhlig gu brath!
Dude.....in english please? not too many of us speak gaelic.....
Jim and dr.primrose have swayed me. GO DEACONS !!!!!!
(sorry for the yelling)
en - muh - GAH - boe
Very easy to pronounce. However his name is difficult to spell correctly.
It's about 4 pm and the difference in votes is three. A real nail biter!
After the hearty laugh reading about Emmagabowh and the scolding I'd be sure to get from my sister and BIL in Minnesotta, if I did not vote for hi I voted for him. Do like Margaret though. Hard choice.
Okay: with a Scottish maiden name (Baillie, admittedly Lowlanders), one might think that I would choose Margaret...but I am going with Enmegabowh. Admire them both, but have to choose someone who made a huge leap of faith to become part of God's new work in this country among the people of the First Nations.
A word to the Kitsch-meisters: I'm not convinced that the two stained glass depictions of Margaret are in fact depictions of She the Scottish Queen. The peg doll, the felt doll, and the coloring page all show her with some sort of crown, while the first stained glass image depicts a woman with a palm branch, traditionally associated with martyrdom -- and that would fit Saint Margaret of Antioch (patroness of the Society of Saint Margaret). The second stained glass image depicts someone with a semi-pre-Raphaelite coiffure...maybe the headband is meant to depict a diadem or tiara-type thing, but as I say, not nearly as convincing as the headgear on the first three images. Anyone for fascinators?
You could do the kitsch blog in time for Pentecost, under the heading "Stuff that really ought to be burned...".
Heh.
I'd have to vote NO on a fascinator...since the last Royal Wedding, those have been ruined for me. But I think I'll be casting a vote for the Native American missionary and his missionary wife. The lack of kitsch may have been a determining factor...not gonna lie.
Skye gets the family vote tonight and she went for the Iron Sky(e) Woman's husband.
A haiku for Iron Sky Woman...
Mrs. John Johnson
let white folks call her Charlotte--
God spoke her real name.
Mary, my dear - Such a haiku prodigy. xo
Enmegahbowh doll looks a lot like F. Murray Abraham... go Team Margaret~!
What a nail biter... is there instant replay to show over night (eastern time) lead changes ?
How can you not vote for E... that charming doll that looks eerily like Dr. Spock with out the ears!!! Wish there were more than 1 so I could order one!!!
linda.....are you sure you don't mean MR. Spock as opposed to DR. Spock?
live long and prosper,
madeleine
For Minnesota! For the Episcopal Church! For Enmegahbowh (en-muh-GAH-bo)!
Go, Enmegahbowh!!
So sorry to learn that an enthusiastic Enmegahbowh voter was stuffing the ballot box. The mail-biter was so much more fun before we suffered the setback due to cheating. On behalf of Minnesotans and faithful Enmegahbowh fans, I apologize. (I sure hope it wasn't a Margaret fan trying to give us false hope!)
There was a surge of 50+ votes just before I posted the notice. When I noticed that, I found another of about 30 from earlier.
It's still very close!
Voting for E. "Local Boy Does Good!" Headline news.
Loved the haiku Mary!
I just got up for work & saw there had been
ballot stuffers again. How disappointing.
Enmegabowh had been winning, now he's done.
This worthy man did not deserve such dishonesty, even in our little game.
Wow.
Also disappointed by the ballot stuffing - it's not as if this is the Mega Millions jackpot.
I have to say I'm really impressed by that Enmegahbowh doll....
Go Enmegabowh!
Also really disappointed that someone cheated. How could you! We're talking about Saints here! (and I was rooting for Enmegahbowh). Sigh.
This gets problematic for me because I love the Celtic Spirituality. I however was Confirmed in St. Margaret of Scotland, so I guess sentiment wins out here.