Ladies and gentlemen, it's the moment you've been waiting for since the lighting of the New Fire at the Easter Vigil: the unveiling of the 2013 Lent Madness Bracket! We received many, many nominations -- thanks to all who took the time to prayerfully submit them. The Supreme Executive Committee took the process of selecting saints very seriously as you can tell from this video. However, as it says (somewhere) in the Bible, many are called yet few are chosen.
Click here to view the bracket in all its glory (special thanks to Bracket Czar Adam Thomas). We're excited to release the bracket in conjunction with Lent Madness Day at General Convention, which we're petitioning to become the first-ever worldwide holiday (negotiations with the UN are ongoing).
One of the new features is the inclusion of four "play-in" matches. These will take place before the official kick off on Ash Thursday (February 14, 2012). The concept is simple -- two saints do battle, one advances to the 32-saint bracket, the other rues the day and plots to get in next year. The first play-in match will take place today, July 6th, starting at 8:00 am with voting being closed on July 7th at 8:00 am. This will be forever known in the annals of Lent Madness as the Great Battle of the Gregorys as it pits Gregory the Great versus Gregory of Nyssa. It will be epic.
If you happen to be in Indianapolis for General Convention, stop by the Forward Movement booth to meet Tim and Scott, have your picture taken with a giant cardboard cutout of last year's Golden Halo winner Mary Magdalene, tell us how annoyed you are that Saint XXX didn't make it into the bracket, and generally revel in the Kingdom of Heaven-like aura that is Lent Madness. If you're not in Indianapolis (and don't feel too bad since it's 100 degrees here), we'll look forward to seeing you online!
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8 comments on “2013 Bracket Announced!”
St. Lucy vs John the Baptist? The Eyes vs The Head? I think the horseradish in the cocktail sauce at St. Elmo's got to you guys...I warned you.
Skye and Hope recognize one person on the list -- Lucy! They aren't quite sure why you chose her because she is kind of mean to good old Charlie Brown. I told them it looks like we need to hit the books because there must be a saintlier Lucy out there....
Martin Luther vs. Martin Luther King, Jr., yes?
Dear Hope and Skye, Lucy gouged out her own eyes so she wouldn't be tempted to be proud of her beauty. I loved this story so much when I was a little girl. All I could think (enviously) was: "imagine being that pretty".
I do hope people won't be silly about things like this is 2013 as they were in 2012. Surely we can allow for some extreme behaviors in saints of yore. There's more than one way to be a badass. Goodluck, Lucy v the Baptist. You'll need it, girl! #evilbracket
Also, love the idea of the play in rounds, but aren't you afraid of running out of saints? Guess not with the addition of a zillion new HWHM's.
Very, very vexed at having to choose between John Donne and TS Eliot. Really, SEC? And almost worse is having to pick one of two saints whom I quite dislike in Therese of Lisieux and Martha of Bethany.
I can see I am going to have another agonizing Lent and will have to work extra hard to maintain Christian charity. Well, all for the best.
Not all of us are of the same denomination With the fame of Lent Madness continuing to grow across Christendom, the dynamic duo just may have to schedule time to attend other national gatherings in future years.
Those play-in rounds are truly brutal.
But, SEC, I am vexed that you omitted J.S. Bach this year. Didn't he get a LOT of write-in support? And isn't one of the SEC a musician....? What does a polyphonic evangelist need to do to get some LM love?
One thing I love about Lent Madness is that you never have to worry about saints getting injured in practice.