"Ash Week" continues with an intriguing match up between two martyrs, Lucy and John the Baptist. It's a tough choice but please don't lose your head over the decision. The winner will get ahead and make it to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen. The loser will be metaphorically re-martyred. See, Lent Madness is easy: we present all of our choices to you on a silver platter.
In the very first match up of Lent Madness 2013, Jonathan Daniels soundly defeated Macrina the Younger to advance to the next round. We're pleased to report that voting was very heavy with over 4,500 votes cast. And if you're new to Lent Madness, make sure to check out the comment stream throughout the day and perhaps even leave one of your own. It's fascinating and informative to hear why people are voting a certain way and many share their own personal experiences with a particular saint. In other words, you're now part of a true online community of people seeking inspiration during Lent from an amazing and diverse group of spiritual heroes.
Can't get enough of Lent Madness? You're in luck because tomorrow is the one and only day in Lent that we'll have a weekend vote. The anticipated Battle of the Iggys -- Ignatius of Antioch vs. Ignatius of Loyola -- will take place on Saturday. In the meantime, keep spreading the word about Lent Madness! Share links with your friends of all denominations, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or walk around your neighborhood with a homemade Lent Madness sandwich board.
Lucy
Not much is actually known about St. Lucy (Santa Lucia in Italian) other than that she was born into a wealthy family in Syracuse (Italy) in the late Third Century and was martyred while still a young woman in the Diocletian persecution in 303.
Tradition has it, however, that Lucy, like many young women of her day, wished to remain a virgin rather than marry the pagan to whom her parents betrothed her. After Lucy's prayers of intercession healed her mother of a debilitating illness, her mother granted Lucy's fervent wish to remain unmarried and instead distribute her dowry to the poor in Syracuse. The erstwhile fiancé, however, was not a fan of this distribution plan and in his rage at her rejection of him denounced Lucy to the Roman Governor as a Christian. She was first taken to a brothel so that she might be forced to surrender her virginity, but the guards who came for her found her too heavy to move even when hitched to a team of oxen, so filled was she with the Holy Spirit. Still, she was imprisoned, tortured, and finally killed when she did not renounce her dedication to Christ and affirm allegiance to the Emperor.
Sometimes Lucy is depicted as holding a platter with a pair of eyes upon it. The story goes that Lucy’s eyes were either plucked out by her torturers or plucked out by Lucy herself in repudiation of her fiancé, who found Lucy’s eyes appealing. Some versions of the story have God restoring her sight with even more beautiful eyes. At any rate, she is the patron saint of the blind and those with eye diseases.
Her name means "light" and her feast day is celebrated by families in Northern Europe by dressing the eldest daughter in a white robe and placing a wreath with lighted candles on her head. Sometimes a village’s “Lucy” carries bread and coffee to all the homes in the village as a re-enactment of Lucy’s kindness to the poor in the distribution of her dowry. Her feast day is a day of special devotion in her native Italy, as well, where the emphasis is on food, particularly hot chocolate with grains of wheat (to represent her eyes) in it.
Lucy was a much venerated, very popular saint in the early Church, and her name is included, along with only six other women, in both the Roman and Ambrosian Canons of the Mass.
Collect for Lucy
Saint Lucy, your beautiful name signifies light. By the light of faith which God bestowed upon you, increase and preserve this light in my soul so that I may avoid evil, be zealous in the performance of good works, and abhor nothing so much as the blindness and the darkness of evil and of sin. By your intercession with God, obtain for me perfect vision for my bodily eyes and the grace to use them for God's greater honor and glory and the salvation of all men. Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. Amen.
-- Penny Nash
John the Baptist
He’s one of the reasons more Episcopal Churches are named St. John than any other name.
John the Baptist (not to be confused with John the disciple or John the Divine, author of Revelation – yes, like today there were lots of Johns back then…) was the son of a priest in the Temple – Zachary. His mother was Elizabeth, who was related to Mary, Jesus’ mother. Thus, John the Baptist was related to Jesus, perhaps his cousin. Many people believe John the Baptist was born in Ain-Karim, which is southwest of Jerusalem. This followed an apparition in which the angel Gabriel told Zachary and his wife that they would have a child, even though Elizabeth was past child-bearing years.
Many scholars believe John lived in the desert, perhaps as a hermit. He may have been affiliated with a group known as the Essenes, whose communal life was chronicled in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This pietistic, separatist group had removed itself from the evils of the big city, Jerusalem, in order to practice the Jewish faith with greater purity in a desolate, desert environment. We find expressions of this in John’s later preaching of repentance.
John’s public ministry started when he was around 30-years-old. The Gospels tell us that John preached a harsh message, calling his hearers a ‘brood of vipers’ and imploring them to repent and start anew. John also understood his role to pave the way for Jesus, declaring he was not worthy to untie the sandals from the Messiah’s feet. John would go on to baptize Jesus in the River Jordan. During this event a dove came down from heaven and the voice of God was heard announcing that Jesus was God’s son.
Following his ministry of baptism, John remained critical of those who did not fear God. He was eventually imprisoned by Herod for correctly accusing the leader of taking his brother’s wife. During his incarceration, John began to have doubts, at one point sending some of his followers to Jesus to confirm he was really the Messiah.
John was needlessly executed after a young dancer named Salome so impressed Herod with her performance that he promised her anything – and, at the urging of her mother, she chose John the Baptist’s head to be served on a platter.
John inspired many of his followers to trust Christ when he designated Him "the Lamb of God." Some of those followers were Andrew and John, who came to know Christ through John's preaching. John is described in the New Testament as the last of the Old Testament prophets and the precursor of the Messiah. His feast day is June 24th and the feast for his death is August 29th.
Collect for John the Baptist
Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Chris Yaw
Vote!
UDPATE: The Supreme Executive Committee has found several instances of voting irregularity in this poll. At this point, three addresses have been cast into the outer darkness of Lent Madness. We have adjusted the vote totals by removing 35 votes for John the Baptist. Remember: in Lent Madness, we encourage you to mobilize your friends to vote. But we frown mightily on those who vote more than once.
[poll id="41"]
245 comments on “Lucy vs. John the Baptist”
Have to vote for Lucy 'cuz I remember that great Beatles song: "Lucy has the Eyes of Diamonds"! Oh yeah!
Having been raised Presbyterian, I must choose a Biblical saint!
Went with Lucy, had to, my surname gives it away. The blog slights her by not mentioning her medieval appearances in Swedish winters, carrying food across frozen lakes to villages where people were starving. Her light graces every candle we use in church and every Taize service. It shines through the Lux Aeterna of Morten Lauridsen's choral setting. In the Paradiso, Dante sees her as "illuminating Grace".........John the headless is,by contrast, the patron of every repressed, self-mortifying, harsh chiliast. Jesus life and ministry are deeply life affirming in ways that John's was not. John the Baptist isn't a Christian martyr. He represents a spiritual dead end, followed only now by a small sect in Iraq (and England) that follow him instead of Jesus and baptize themselves every single Sunday in the Euphates. Check out the youtube of the Uppsala Luciafest with hundreds of women in procession and joy and light and you will vote for LUCY.
thank you for mentioning Lux Aeterna. I was unfamiliar with the piece and delighted to discover it. This Lent Madness is truly a voyage of discovery and I am only 2 days in.
Also - check out Lauridsen's settings of "O magnum mysterium" and O Nata Lux. (Grab some Kleenex first. Just saying.)
Failing eyesight--plus a Scandanavian wife--means Lucy gets my vote. John the Baptist, after all, got to show up in an opera, while Lucy only gets to be a fire hazard one day a year.
John the Baptist was one of the most important figures in Christian history. He ushered in the ministry of Jesus and had the great privilege of Baptizing our Lord. He took the lesser role to point the way to the Savior of the world. He knew how to preach the Word! It helps me in my human frailty to know that even John the Baptist had doubts about who Jesus really was...just like I do in my weaker moments.
Given that Lucy is supposedly connected to sight and I have glaucoma I'm voting for her. Still in all it wasn't really that easy given John's position in the church.
Had to go with Big John on this one.
Maybe I just missed it, but can anyone tell me what is the day for the Feast of St. Lucia.
I can hardly wait to dress up my oldest daughter in a white robe with a wreath and candles on her head.
Richard, Lucy's feast day is December 13th.
Thanks!
So I expect your vote for Donne when the time comes?
Had to go with Lucy. My husband is totally blind, so naturally I would vote for the patron saint for the blind. Go Lucy!
Poor Lucy isn't the patron saint of anything but Jamestown, NY an classic television. Oh! I'm sorry. I had the wrong Lucy. I was thinking of *this* St. Lucy:
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/c0.0.378.378/p403x403/430909_4603376115406_38691418_n.jpg
anyone who wears a hairshirt and eats locusts wins for me
One of the things that amazes me about the women martyrs like Lucy who fought to remain virgins is that to them, freedom as women meant freedom from sex. Ironic when to so many girls and women in modern times, freedom as a woman is defined as the freedom to have sex- a quest for freedom that can so easily become frantic and indiscriminate. I go with Lucy as an inspiration to girls and women everywhere, including me, who badly need this example!
I voted for John, but I'm going to hold Lucy up to the teens I work with as a great example. Thank you for pointing out Lucy's strength and search for freedom of sex!
When I think of which saint I'd want to minister to me at my bedside, it's a no-brainer. St. John would scare me to death with his sturm und drang while St. Lucia promises to fill my room with Spirit & Light. Shine on, Lucy. Shine on!
Though I've had my corneas peeled back, I would never look at them with distain as Lucy seems to is so many icons. It seems ungrateful. John, I fancy, was grateful even for his entirely unkosher locusts, though I'm sure honey roasted locusts aren't quite as bad as one might think. (Not that I'm lining up to try them, mind.) All the same, I can't go with the underdog this time (I was all about Macrina!). And besides, I have the beginning of Godspell in my head.
I've been clergy for a Swedish Church. How the Swedes love this saint of the Church! So much so that the oldest girl of the family is volunteered and willing to wear a wreath of light candles on her head. Thus she's got my vote ... St. Lucy pray for us! AMEN!
Jamestown, NY ... I lived there when I was a boy ... the home of St. Lucy the Lesser!
To live your life as one who knows that he is not the light, but is willing to testify to the light... what greater witness can there be?! Plus he's got locusts and camel's hair. And he is unafraid to call people out ("brood of vipers"). Sorry, Lucy. JBap all the way!
Voted for Lucy. I'm inclined to pull for the underdog here. Someone said she had no connection to Jesus -not biblically- but her actions (not particularly the eyeball gouging) of serving the poor and being unmoved (pun intended) by those who did not agree with her convictions, she certainly was a rebel for the same causes as Jesus.
I am pulled toward a courageous prophet who tells us to Repent-- which, as I preached recently-- means to see things from a different perspective. Anyone who teaches us to see things from a Christ perspective gets my vote! Lucy gets a pity nod for the lack of vision, but John gets the vote for losing his head.
Lucia, for sure. A woman who stood up for her right to define her life before God for herelf.
ok, i did not vote for the martyr today - go lucy!
I have to go with John. Lucy may have been brave and faithful, but John made a major contribution to Christianity as
proto-confessor.
Do I detect a scheme my the SEC to put the cat among the pigeons by pitting a female saint against a male saint in these early brackets! Not fair!
One doesn't need eyes to see the light of Christ. Lucy is an inspiration! Go, Santa Lucia!
If it were anyone but Lucy, I would have vote for John. However, I'm half Swedish, so we celebrated St. Lucia's Day growing up, complete with white robe, red sash, and wreath (and I'm the oldest, so I got to dress up). I'm in seminary now and her feast day falls during finals. So I've continued the tradition with hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. Nostalgia and family tradition is hard to ignore, even if I am Baptist 😉
It has to be the Forerunner, the hinge between Old and New Testaments, the one who leaped in Elizabeth's womb in the presence of his cousin and savior, the one who unleashed a manifestation of the Trinity through his ministry on the banks of the Jordan, the one who prepared the way.
Gotta go with Santa Lucia! Her feast day was my diaconal ordination and more importably my god-daughter is named Lucy!
Besides John was a large smelly, hairy man who ate locusts and wild honey. Look in any church today and you'll find a priest like him, nothing special there. Now Lucy however...
Currently being involved in Christian education, I'm looking for sheroes. Lucy's choice to give her all for her faith is important to me.
Lucy: a) because St. Lucia buns are so yummy (and I'm heading down to defrost one from last year after I type this);
and b) because key information about JB's beheading was left out -- that is, Salome's mother was Herodias, the wife of Herod. The same wife that JB told Herod he shouldn't have married. Not just some random mom, y'know?
Suze Cate !!! Glad to see you voting! Well, got to go with Lucy. Anybody with any kind of eye problems will think highly of her although the rest of her bio is.....shall we say...... interesting? But one might say she stood for a virtuous way of life....stood rather than the all too common alternative nowadays. In the final analysis, virtue will have it's own rewards...being featured in LENT MADNESS as one example.
Yes! I've worn my St Lucy medal since my wife gave it to me with my most recent eye surgery. As Dolores says, people with eye problems think highly of dear St Lucy.
I really wanted to go with John the Baptist, the man who served as Jesus' Anger Translator (calling for video in the style of Key and Peele). But, today I had to go with Santa Lucia. In part to atone for completely ignoring Macrina yesterday, and also because I have a soft spot in my heart of the feast of Santa Lucia.
I wanted to go with Lucy, but it's just hard to beat the trump card of John the Baptist. Besides, that bit about the hot chocolate with wheat berries to represent the eyes kind of creeped me out. I wouldn't be irate if she won in an upset though. Right now they are neck and neck!