A day after the biggest whuppin' of Lent Madness 2013, we meet two more fascinating figures on our continuing journey toward the Golden Halo. At first glance, Nicholas Ferrar, an early 17th-century Englishman, and Harriet Tubman, a 19th-century African-American born into slavery, seemingly have nothing in common. But of course, that's the thing about Lent Madness -- even the most disparate saints all have Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.
Yesterday, poor Chad of Lichfield was left hanging as Florence Li-Tim Oi trounced him 84% to 16%. The wide margin was pretty consistent throughout the day as those who obsessively check the results every ten minutes know.
In other news, the Supreme Executive Committee released a statement condemning an attempt to co-opt the bracket format to elect the next pope. They will, however, be forming a bracket to elect the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Because that's different.
Nicholas Ferrar
Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637) was born to a wealthy English family during the reign of Elizabeth I. Educated at Cambridge, he traveled abroad because of ill health after his studies ended. His travels were not serene -- an encounter with a sliding donkey almost sent him over a German precipice, and his ship to Spain was chased by pirates. Returning home, he was called to assist his family in saving The Virginia Company, which had fallen upon hard times. He was elected to Parliament, but his efforts to save the company failed and it lost its charter.
At that point, Nicholas and his family determined to renounce worldliness and commit themselves to a life of prayer and godly living. About thirty of the family joined him at Little Gidding where he founded and led a unique religious community -- an experiment in Christian living that was neither cult nor cloister.
Ferrar was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Laud in 1626 so that he could lead the community in worship (although he never considered the priesthood). His mother restored the church of St. John the Evangelist (abandoned during the 14th-century outbreak of the Black Death) before restoring the manor house for the family’s use.
Once settled, the community was committed to constant prayer (members took turns praying at the altar to obey the command to pray without ceasing) and they recited the entire Psalter every day in addition to praying all the offices from the Book of Common Prayer.
They also fasted and offered alms to relieve the poor, worked in the community to educate and look after the health of the local children, and also wrote books on the Christian faith. Some of the community members learned bookbinding; one of their books, a commission of a Gospel harmony by King Charles I, now resides in the British Library.
Ferrar was a college friend of George Herbert and upon his deathbed, Herbert sent the manuscript of his book of poems The Temple to Nicholas, asking him to determine whether it was worthy to be published, and if not, to burn it. Ferrar published The Temple in 1633.
Ferrar died in 1637 and is buried in front of the church door of St John the Evangelist at Little Gidding. The community was later broken up by Puritans, who called it an “Arminian Nunnery” and threw the brass font into the pond. The font was rescued and returned to the church 200 years later.
Collect for Nicholas Ferrar
Lord God, make us so reflect your perfect love; that, with your Deacon Nicholas Ferrar and his household, we may rule ourselves according to your Word, and serve you with our whole heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Penny Nash
Harriet Tubman
The early details of Harriet Tubman's life are fuzzy. So far as anyone can tell, and as far as she could later remember, she was born somewhere around 1822 on a plantation in Dorchester County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. She was named Araminta Harriet Ross, and she grew up enslaved, working as a field hand.
During this time, while she was still in her early teens, she got into an altercation with an overseer, who was trying to catch a fleeing slave. She jumped in front of the escaping man, and in the melee, the overseer hurled an iron at her head. Harriet lay unconscious for several days, without treatment, and as a result, she suffered headaches, blackouts, sleeping spells, and hallucinations for the rest of her life.
For anyone else, this would have been a crippling setback, but for Harriet, the hallucinations were visions sent from God. They warned her of approaching danger, and assured her of God's love and care for her and her people. In 1849, she escaped her captivity, and headed north to New York and freedom.
Almost immediately, she turned around, and came back to bring her family out as well. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, making it unsafe for former slaves even in the northern states, Harriet was undeterred, and just ferried everyone on up to Ontario without skipping a beat. She earned the nickname "Moses" among the slaves, and the signal for her approach on the Underground Railroad was the song "Go Down, Moses." (Meanwhile, advertisements were still being posted for her capture, with her former owner describing her as barely 5 feet tall, 'very pretty,' and calling her 'Minty').
When the war came, Harriet signed up. She became a cook and a nurse for the Union army, then when that proved unsatisfying, a spy and a soldier, leading Union troops onto Southern plantations to free the slaves, and lead them in revolt. (She did all this without being paid at all -- being black and a woman was not a recipe for getting paid by the US government at the time). After the war, she went back to her home in New York, where she became active in the struggle for women's suffrage. She helped write a book about her life, which ameliorated her financial situation somewhat. However, being Harriet Tubman, she immediately turned around and donated her financial holdings to the local AME Zion church and demanded that they open a home for the aged and infirm.
To the beginning of her life, through the end, Harriet lived by one rule -- so that no one else would have to suffer as she had.
Collect for Harriet Tubman (and some other people)
O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth, and makes us free; strengthen and sustain us as you did your servant/s [Elizabeth, Amelia, Sojourner, and] Harriet. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Vote!
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118 comments on “Nicholas Ferrar vs. Harriet Tubman”
Harriet undoubtedly promises better kitsch, but I'm just a sucker for a deacon with no interest in the priesthood.
I loved learning about Ferrar, but Harriet has always been a heroine of mine, and who can resist a female Moses, so I had to go with her!
Thanks once again to the SEC for giving us an opportunity to learn about more of our "saintly" ancestors. Never really knew anything about Nicholas Ferrar and his story is definitely inspiring in this time of Madison Avenue driven consumerism. That being said I had to go with Harriet Tubman who daily faced re-enslavement and death to bring hundreds to freedom.
Tough one. Living simply because you lost all your money vs. risking your life because the voices in your head keep telling you to. Hmm.
Curses on the SEC for giving us impossible choices this year! I wanted to vote for Harriet because of her heroic, even miraculous, work for freedom and justice for slaves, even when it meant endangering her life. But I have had a love for Little Gidding ever since I first read T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, the last of which is a reflection on Little Gidding. Referring to this place, he wrote "You are here to kneel where prayer has been valid." I figured that Harriet would have the majority vote so I voted for the underdog, Nicholas Ferrar.
I'm a longtime fan of George Herbert and his friends at Little Gidding, but Harriet led an amazing life of self-sacrifice. She gets my vote today.
Being a United Methodist and Harriet being associated with AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Zion, I had to vote for Harriet!
My sense is that a lot of us are viewing these saints through 21st century lenses. Hence the more contemporary ones seem to be ahead in the voting. Women seem to be winning over their male counterpart in general. Am I right or am I mad?
Have to go with Tubman. Ferrar and his family reached out in far more limited ways and not as part of an effort to change not only people's lives but a whole society. And after all, this IS the 21st Century--we can't help being in this age.
Expect that Harriet Tubman will (and should!) win today, but I have to cast my vote for the pre-neo-monastic Nicholas Ferrar!
Have to admit Eliot's Little Gidding forced my vote because "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" .... and of Lent Madness
This was a difficult choice for me, as Harriet Tubman is a fabulous woman, and endured great hardships to do great deeds of mercy, but I was so entranced by Nicholas' determination to "pray without ceasing", and to use what he had to take care of those in need that I finally gave him my "Seal of Approval"!
Among the many interesting tidbits to be found on the Little Gidding website, http://www.littlegiddingchurch.org.uk, are statements that Ferrar's was the first religious community established in England since the Reformation, and that recent scholarship concludes that the "alleged ransacking of the church" by Puritans didn't actually occur. Not to take issue with the Pope (or is Scott the Pope and Tim the Antipope?) of Lent Madness, you understand, I'm just saying . . . .
Little Gidding is hard to find, even with a GPS device. But if you follow the opening lines of the poem, you get there easily. Eliot may have gone down to defeat; a vote for Ferrar in Eliot's honor, then.
Many years ago. my Jewish-Episcopalian daughter, as a 4th grader at a Catholic grade school had to dress as a saint. She wanted a female Episcopalian and with help from MKS, our beloved female priest, chose Harriet Tubman. As she stood at Mass, in her Goodwill clothes, clutching her Dad's Lionel train engine, the Roman Catholic priest could not figure out who she was among the Saint Annes, Theresas and Roses.
I has to go with Harriet. She became a hero of mine when in grade school. I even remember doing a paper on her. For me she is defiantly a saint!!!
Still pissed that you pitted both Luther's together. Both should still be moving up in the brackets! Wah, wah, wah!!!
Had to go with the (at this hour) underdog, Nicholas Ferrar. The work of such a community to live the gospel is certainly more understated than the heroic work of Harriet Tubman - but it is a powerful example for many that a full life of faith and service is not necessarily a life of great external heroism, but may be a life of quiet self-offering day after day.
The Lord is indeed glorious in his saints - so again I'm having trouble deciding.
Maybe by midnight....
One of the really cool thing about this enterprise is that it demonstrates that there's not just one way to be a saint. There are mystics and activists and poets and preachers and hermits and people who form communities and individuals who just plug along. The hymn may be old-fashioned, but it's true--"the saints of God are just folk like me. And I [hope] to be one, too."
Well said!
I agree! The fact that someone who both slid off a mountain and was chased by pirates followed by obsessive psalter reading is included in our role models for Anglican living is frankly awesome. Speaks to our wackiness.
And, it's just a rough road being up against Harriet Tubman for saint of the year.
Aside from the fact that Harriet thought her hallucinations were sent from God, I do not find any connection between Harriet and religious faith in the biographic entry. I know some may find this pedantic, but I do think a saint should display some faith connection.
now I am regretting my choice and feeling very sorry about not even considering a faith connection. Harriet Tubman was an amazing woman-it is fortunate for everyone that the voices in her head were instructing her to free slaves rather than…well…I unwillingly think of Son of Sam.
On the contrary, I believe that Harriet Tubman had a very strong faith. We all hear God in different ways, and she followed what she believed God was calling her to do. . . as do most of us. Perhaps you forget that Harriet Tubman was a slave -- she did not have the same opportunities for education or to worship in church that free people did. Maybe this article will shed some light that may be missing in the biographical notes above:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/activists/tubman.html
Thank you again for providing us this unique opportunity for education. I truly believe it is impossible to make a wrong choice in any bracket..........
Presented with the lives of two saints, it would seem that when the voter commits to one of them, they then feel compelled to spend a lot of time and effort trashing the other.
That's the clear thrust of many of the posts. In a situation where both of the people are giants, albeit in differing manners and in differing times this hardly seems what Our Lord would desire.
No doubt some wag will try to say it is all in good fun.
Meh. I find this sad.
I have not noticed any SERIOUS trashing of anyone. I am a retired teacher and I learned LOOOONG ago that if you can make learning fun was one way to win many students over. For years, I've heard clergy talk about Lenten discipline and reading about the Saints. We've oft thought that this was something we SHOULD do but NEVER do. Lenten Madness has got far more people involved than ever. And it is fun.
Thank you John. As a teacher of English in community college, I absolutely endorse your comments. I was reflecting the other day how "softly" a dispute had been handled in the comments. When compared to other discussions, I do not think this is "trashing." I see many people ask for information.
Tubman for me! God bless her for her sustained courage and love.
Harriet, but with mixed feelings
I grew up in New England, and we were taught the inside story about the Pilgrims. They were not very nice people. So, I am very sympathetic regarding anyone that had a run in with them.
I am saddened by the sarcastic tone of some of the comments about Nicholas Ferrar. Have we really forgotten so much of our church history that we can consider an Anglican who died only three years prior to the English Civil War to have been somehow unfamiliar with danger and persecution? These daily match-ups needn't be an opportunity to denigrate any of these holy people, but rather an occasion to celebrate them -- and an opportunity to educate ourselves.
A sliding donkey? I need to hear the rest of THAT story! Nevertheless, I voted for Harriet, because she stood up for her fellow man despite huge risks to her own welfare, because it was the right thing to do.
Nicholas Ferrar used his wealth to care for his family, and widows and orphans. He had prayers and psalms said round the clock. Sounds like faith and action.
Harriet Tubman rescued escaping slaves. When she had money, she gave it to people in greater need.
I'm voting for Nicholas because he sustained reading the Daily Office. Something I find difficult to do on a daily basis.
Just thinking that your comparisons aren't as parallel as they might be. To maximize equal opportunity, competitive brackets, some martyr v. martyr, activist v. activist, contemplative v contemplative categories. I loved the mother v son and Martin v Martin madness. Hmmmm, maybe the next competition should be seeded and pre-published for some CCD analysis and odds-making! Nothing fuels learning like a bit of competition.