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Nominations Open for 2014!

NominateNowNominations for next year’s field of 32 saints are currently being accepted by the Supreme Executive Committee.

As always, we seek to put together a balanced bracket of saints ancient and modern, Biblical and ecclesiastical representing the breadth and diversity of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Inevitably, some will disagree with certain match-ups or be disappointed that their favorite saint didn’t end up in the official bracket. If you find yourself muttering invective against the SEC, we implore you to take a deep cleansing breath. Remember, there’s always Lent Madness 2029.

The 2013 bracket was the first time we included nominations from the Lent Madness faithful and a number of your suggestions made it in. While the SEC remains responsible for the formation of the final bracket, we encourage your participation in the nominating process.

That’s not to say the (usually) benevolent dictatorship that is the SEC is showing cracks in its junta-like Lenten power. The only time true democracy rears its ugly head in Lent Madness is during the actual voting. However, nominations from the floor mean that if you are unhappy with the 2014 bracket you can transfer your angst away from the SEC and toward one another. As for us, we can always blame the ancient Greeks.

We may have play-in rounds again this year, depending on where the mystical dove lands on our blank bracket as we discern which saints to include. Play-ins allows everyone to get a small foretaste of the Madness that is to come as eight saints vie for four spots in the official bracket on to-be-determined dates. On the other hand, play-ins cause endless confusion for those who are new to bracketology.

As you discern saints to nominate, please keep in mind that a number of saints are ineligible for next year’s “saintly smack down.” This includes the entire field of Lent Madness 2013, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2012 and 2011, and those from the 2010 Faithful Four. Here is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations -- which you can do by leaving a comment on this post.

Also, please note that the saints you nominate should be in the sanctoral calendar of one or more churches. Anglican calendars are a bonus, but we're open minded. To a point. Fred Rogers is not eligible, despite the royal pleas of King Friday XIII. If you are looking for lists of actual saints, you might check here, here, here, or here, among other places.

Remember that when it comes to saints in Lent Madness, many are called yet few are chosen (by the SEC). So leave a comment below with your (eligible) nomination!

The Field from 2013 (all ineligible)
Hilda of Whitby
Thomas Tallis
John Donne
Macrina the Younger
Martin Luther King, Jr.
T.S. Eliot
John Merbecke
Lucy
Nicholas Farrar
Jonathan Daniels
Martha of Bethany
Luke
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Gregory the Great
Frances Perkins
Dorothy Day
Ignatius of Loyola
Absalom Jones
Harriet Tubman
Oscar Romero
Damien of Molokai
Florence Li-Tim Oi
Janani Luwuum
Martin Luther
George Berkeley
Benedict of Nursia
Theresa of Lesieux
Anne
Ignatius of Antioch
Samuel Seabury
Chad of Lichfield
John the Baptist
Martin of Tours
Agnes of Rome
Edward Thomas Demby

Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magalene, Frances Perkins

From 2010 -- 2012 (ineligible)
Emma of Hawaii
Margaret of Scotland
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Evelyn Underhill
Enmegahbowh
Jerome
Thomas Cranmer
Polycarp
Clare of Assisi
William Tyndale
Thomas Beckett
Constance
Perpetua
Vincent of Saragossa
Francis of Assisi
Julian of Norwich
Theresa of Avila

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267 comments on “Nominations Open for 2014!”

    1. I would like to nominate John Wesley, one of the founders of the United Methodist Church.

    2. Lawrence is a great suggestion. Anyone who claims the poor as the church's greatest treasure truly understands what church is all about.

  5. I believe that strong consideration should be given to those saints whose feast days fall on Sundays in 2014 and are too "minor" to have their days transferred to the following Mondays.

      1. Yes! Charles was nominated but not the little big man. My heart would be strangely warmed to see John in the mix.

  9. How about considering Emily Marlbone Morgan, founder of The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of their retreat center, Adelynrood, in 2014. This group of 800 Episcopalian women dedicate their lives to Intercessory Prayer, Peace and Social Justice and Simple Living. Find more about the retreat center and the Companions at their web site or Adelynrood.org.

    1. I had a very good friend and fellow church member say the same thing. I know it's all in good fun, and meant to be educational, but it's surprising how invested you get. And you look at some of the results and think, "Seriously? No, wait. Seriously?!"

    1. I second that nomination - patron of babies; blacksmiths; boatmen; cattle; chicken farmers; children whose parents are not married; children whose mothers are mistreated by the children's fathers; dairymaids; dairy workers; fugitives; infants; Ireland; Leinster, mariners; midwives; milk maids; nuns; poets; poor; poultry farmers; poultry raisers; printing presses; sailors; scholars; travellers; watermen, her outstanding characteristics include generosity and hospitality. She also said'"... I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity." "

      1. Yes please to Brigid. I think she'd be a strong contender in many areas, plus name recognition, plus, hey, she stood up to St Patrick. I can only imagine the coffee cups!

  13. St. Simeon Stylites, so as to be reminded of the central place of Syria in the Christian story.

    1. good suggestion; we should be so reminded. Also the kitsch would be wondrous to behold, I suspect.

      1. I hopped on here as a first time participant EVER and first timer this moment to Lent Madness. Had never heard of you guys (I am an RC, they don't let us talk to you Episcopalians... for fear that we will see the LIGHT and never return) and then my friend mentioned Lent Madness.... and oh my word, my eyes rolled back in my head in happiness, reading your site!!

        OK, so I got on specifically to nominate Kateri, so a big 10-4 on Kateri.
        PLEASE include her.

        Also, you gotta get St. Maria Goretti in there for the whole Take Back the Night, "No Means No" thing on violence against women.

        Finally... I am particularly fond of ....
        Chrisina the Astonishing
        (no really.... she's real.) Though she was furloughed along with poor St. Christopher, she is still the patron saint of the mentally ill.... and so a particular friend of mine!

        Humbly submitted,
        A closet Catholic with the big C

        1. Hi Carey,
          I was a RC myself, now I'm Episcopalian(all the worship, none of the guilt...)and can't imagine being anything else. But I digress.
          I first learned of Christina the Astonishing from a really neat book entitled "Saints Preserve Us! Everything you'll want to know about every saint you'll ever need", and she is one of my favorites also, after Fred Rogers that is. I continue to hold firm for Fred Rogers. SEC, I hope you're listening because I'm not shutting up about this!!!!
          anyway, thanks for reminding me of Christina.
          Go In Peace to Love and Serve the Lord,
          Madeleine

  20. I've got three:

    John Wycliff (I have always admired his bravery in believing that *people should read the Bible in their own language*!!)
    Nicholas Ridley (because he is the ancestor of one of my best friends)
    and Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (because he's got an awesome name!)

    So how does one lobby the SEC?? I'm sure with a little persuasion, at least one of my picks can make it into the bracket!

    1. I second Wycliff. The story I remember is the bishop used one of his shadier connections to collect all the first run, so he could burn them. Just happened the underworld connection was the same guy Wycliff used to smuggle them over in the first place. He gave the money to Wycliff, who used the bishop's own money to print the second edition. Oh, and the KJV plagiarized great chunks of his work.

    2. So how does one lobby the SEC?? Good coffee would be a start.

      However, I think Starbucks gift cards would have the opposite effect.

      Of course, the SEC could do a different type of play-in round. Require donations to Episcopal Relief and Development, with the saint getting the largest donation getting the nod. This way you could even do 3-on-3 or more.

  21. Another vote for the nomination of St. Jude.
    Also, please consider St. Christopher and St. Nicholas.

  23. St. George, St. Galgano, St. Fina, St. Joan of Arc - I think I've covered Italy, France and Turkey. Santa Serafina was from San Gimignano and her life was celebrated in frescoes by Ghirlandaio - she was a pious young woman who helped look after the poor; San Galgano was a crusader who tired of war, founded a monastery. St. Joan and St. George are well known.

  24. Brother Lawrence
    Simeon Stylites
    Athanasius
    Any of the Cappadocians, especially Gregory of Nyssa
    How in the world has Augustine not made the list yet?

  25. How about Mother Teresa? If we can nominate more than one then Meister Eckhart, St Teresa the little flower, and Phoebe.

  26. I nominate Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Lithuania in 1939 and a Christian convert, who obeyed his conscience rather than his superiors' orders and signed visas for more than 6,000 Jewish refugees so that they could travel through Japan on their way to safety. I can't find him on a calendar of saints, noting that I do not read Japanese or Hebrew and it is distinctly possible that I have missed his name, however I believe he belongs there.

    Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, lists Chiune Sugihara as Righteous Among the Nations.

    He is quoted as saying "I may have to disobey my government, but if I didn't, I would be disobeying God."

    http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html

    1. Actually, Chiune Sugihara is on the calendar of the Episcopal Church, under
      "The Righteous Gentiles", feast day July 16. A good nomination!

    2. I support this nomination - was just looking through the list of Righteous Gentiles for possible names!

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