New this year, we are pleased to offer a brief Opening Ceremony video for Lent Madness. It might not involve a cast of thousands like the Olympics, but it does feature two dead archbishops introducing a true Episcopal celebrity wearing a purple cassock. See, we win!
Isn't it just "astonishing" how many people have been looking forward to the start of Lent? Isn't it just "great" that Lent Madness has finally begun? The Supreme Executive Committee has fired the starting gun (don't worry, it's metaphorical) and...we're off! The 2014 Saintly Smackdown has officially commenced.
So, hang onto your halos as we begin whittling down our field of 32 saints. All are worthy (yes, they have already received their respective crowns of glory) yet only one will attain the coveted Golden Halo. There will be debates, ire, angst, rejoicing, and holy trash talking. Just remember, it’s all in the spirit of this season specifically set aside to grow closer to God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. On behalf of the Lent Madness team, we’re delighted you’ve decided to spend some of this holy season with us.
If this is your first year playing Lent Madness, welcome. You're in for a fun, informative, engaging, occasionally wild, ride. (Looking for a Lent Madness primer? Click here). If you're back for more heart-stopping saintly thrills, it's good to see you!
After you vote we encourage you to do three things: First, like us on Facebook. Second, follow us on Twitter (if you just can't get enough of the Madness, social media is the perfect way to continue the conversation). Finally, visit the Lentorium where you can purchase ebook versions of the Saintly Scorecard: The Definitive Guide to Lent Madness 2014 and other Lent Madness paraphernalia such as mugs. Your hairdresser, local barista, cousin, etc. will be thrilled with such thoughtful and wholly unexpected gifts.
Make sure you watch LentMadnessTV regularly for updates from Archbishops Thomas Cranmer and John Chrysostom, as well as the Supreme Executive Committee. Each week you'll find a video about that week's match-ups. Here's a video about the competition of Ash Week.
P.S. Here's a Lent Madness "Pro Tip" -- if you want to receive all the daily match-ups in your e-mail inbox, we encourage you to go to the home page and "subscribe" by entering your e-mail address (near the top right). This will insure you never miss a vote!
Basil the Great
In the early years of Christianity, much of what we take for granted was in flux. Exact points of belief were the source of schism and argument. In the 4th century, one of the great controversies was Arianism, or the belief that Jesus was subordinate to God and was not created with God the Father, but at a later time; therefore, Jesus was distinct from God. The initial Council of Nicea addressed the issue, but the debate would not rest.
In the region of Cappadocia, particularly, the Arian controversy threatened to divide the region. One of the priests in the region, Basil, stepped firmly into the fray.
Basil was one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, three men who, along with their sister Macrina, profoundly influenced Christian orthodoxy in the 4th century. Basil was born into a family of wealth and privilege and educated in the classic Greek style of the era and the Christian faith. When his sister Macrina used her wealth and status to establish a monastery, Basil himself traveled in the area of Mesopotamia and lived the life of a solitary monastic. He soon shifted his interest to a community of faith rooted in prayer and work. Assisted by Gregory of Nazianzus, he wrote a monastic Rule, which would become the foundation for Eastern monastic discipline.
He retired to a life of monastic living and writing, but was called out of retirement to defend against the heresy of Arianism. Through his intellect, profound and deep faith, and no small amount of political savvy, Basil did just as he was asked. In his On the Holy Spirit, Basil wrote that both the words of Scripture and the traditions of the Church require that the same honor, glory, and worship are to be paid to God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For Basil, correct worship would include the formula, “Glory to the Father with the Son together with the Holy Spirit.”
Basil lived what he preached. He never allowed his concern for proper orthodox belief to distract from his focus and work for the poor. He, in his life and after his death through bequests, built homes, hospitals, churches, and other support agencies for the poor and outcasts.
Basil died in 379 at the age of fifty. Two years later, the Second Ecumenical Council affirmed the Nicene faith as understood and presented by Basil and his supporters - the very same words we affirm today in the Nicene Creed.
Collect for Basil the Great
Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
-- Laurie Brock
Christina the Astonishing (also known as Christina Miribilis)
In 1172, in St-Tronde (Belgium), the body of a twenty-something orphan named Christina was brought into church, surrounded by a priest, her sisters, and other mourners, for her funeral mass. After the Agnus Dei, Christina rose from her open coffin and levitated into the rafters, where she perched like a bird as all the mourners except for the priest and one sister fled, amazed.
Christina then came down and told what had happened to her while she was “dead.” Angels had guided her into a dark place where she saw many people she had known, in torment. This was Purgatory. Then she was taken to Hell, where she saw others suffering. Finally, she was taken to Heaven and given this choice: stay in Heaven, or return to earth to make penances for those in Hell and Purgatory, that they might be released; and suffer to convert the living, too.
She chose to return. And, she said, “my life will be astonishing, like nothing you have ever seen.”
Christina, the patron of both the mentally ill and therapists, embarked on a life of extreme behavior. She became homeless, dressed in rags, begging for food. During intense prayer, she threw herself into fiery furnaces or into the frozen river for days, emerging unscathed. She recoiled from human contact and often was found perched in treetops, towers, and other remote places, because the smell of human sin was too much for her.
Her family, thinking her possessed, once had her captured and her leg broken by a thug in an effort to control her. Then they called a doctor. And then Christina escaped.
Yet she lived out her last three years obediently at St Catherine’s Convent where locals -- saints, counts, villagers -- came to her for counsel and confession. She died in 1224 at the age of 74.
In addition to being immortalized in plays, poems, and a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Christina’s original story was written down by a contemporary, Thomas de Cantimpre, a Belgian Dominican, based on eyewitness accounts from villagers and Cardinal Jaques de Vitry, who knew Christina. This astonishing woman was a great puzzle to everyone, who were never sure if she was a mystic or insane. Perhaps she was shattered by an encounter with the Divine.
She herself was convinced she was called to suffer for others, to be a different kind of witness. And that she was.
** Image of Christina the Astonishing by Cookie Scottorn. Used with permission.
Collect for Christina the Astonishing
Eternal God, in the example of Christina, we are reminded of the fine line between mysticism and mental illness. You gave to her a passionate spirit, a vivid mind, and the call to suffer for others. Through her example, may we be awakened to passionate and compassionate witness to your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Collect written by Nancy Hopkins-Greene.)
283 comments on “Basil the Great vs. Christina the Astonishing”
voting for Christina and the mysterious ways of Divine
I've always been drawn to the mystics and prophets, so I simply must vote for Christina the Astonishing. Plus, should I return in another life, I dearly wish to be a barn swallow and swoop. It seems to me the CtheA already got do do that -- wow!
I'm already astonished-- I thought the voting would be more of a landslide for Basil. Good on you, Christina. And what a passionate and compassionate life you chose. Thank God for this patron to the souls west of normal. Still, though I don't like pesto, I'm still voting for Basil. Goodness to all, and "God in Three Persons," his work reaches down through the ages to help Christina and me and many souls yet to arrive.
Off to a great and thrilling start! Basil for me today because of his calm willingness to minister to the poor, and continued that work after his time on earth was ended. And Christina IS astonishing!
What a way to start! Though I voted for Basil, I see why Christina was included.
"was not created with God"? Since when was God created? Jesus I can understand, but God, no. Meanwhile, I was going for Basil, since his contributions to Christian Theology and to his fellow man are well known, but I think it's going to have to be Christina. Insane? Quite probably, but have you considered some of the OT prophets? Mystic? Almost certainly.
Just had to vote for Basil (after all, he is Great!). But I must admit reading Christina's story made me consider the fine line between mystery and what we call mental illness.
I love Lent Madness! One thing: You said in the bio of Basil that Jesus "was not created with God the Father. . ." I think co-eternal with God the Father would have been a better choice since God is uncreated and eternal. I haven't read all the comments, so this may already have been pointed out. Just a thought.
She had me at "perched in the rafters."
Ditto, Rev. Ruth!
Which is the greatest challenge: applying logic to help frame emotion and devotion, or applying emotion and devotion to redefine what is "logical"? Both profound but a vote here for Christina in support of all who work in mental health.
like!
After reading about both Basil & Christina & reading all the comments, I am still a bit unsure, but after giving it a bit more thought and praying, Basil did win out!! This is only the beginning of a wonderful Lenten Time. Thank you.
As an Associate of the Society of St Margaret [of Antioch], I'm accustomed to some rather wild tales and am not surprised by what I read as attributed to Christiana Mirabilis (surely not Miribilis?), but Basil was a founder of monastic orders like mine, and he was a great champion of orthodox theology. Even though I did decades of volunteer work with the mentally ill (and otherwise challenged), I have to go with Basil for his authentic and lasting accomplishments rather with Christina for her fanciful flights.
That orthodoxy is currently giving me fits myself. Is orthodoxy also eternal?
Well, a Congregational church near me votes annually on the text they will say as a creed for the year. I suppose that's an alternative to "eternal orthodoxy".
Christina gets my vote....I can relate. 🙂
Christina the Astonishing is in good company, e.g. St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663), said to be able to levitate and even fly. Still, I couldn't face Dream Team (Systematics class at Perkins School of Theology) if I didn't cast my vote for St. Basil.
Hmmm, let's see..... Correcting and protecting an accurate view of Christ for all generations to come, or girl flying in rafters? No contest for me...it's all Basil.
not sure yet how I'll vote - I am not a fan of defining God (as in creeds), but I admire Basil's work for the poor, and the notion that Christina sacrificed Heaven now for service to others.
However, am I the only one who sees the National Cathedral's Cannon in a blue (not purple) cassock?
Looks blue to me, too.
and to me as well.
Hi Sharon! there are many many many shades of purple, ranging from those who have more blue to the more playful shades that have more red. Happy Lent!
But I digress. It does look pretty blue!
It's a photo thang. My mother has a purple plaid that always looks blue in photographs. I have faith that the good man's garment truly is purple.
It's Cathedral purple. Beneath stained glass.
Blue.
And to me, too.
Came across blue on my screen, too.
It sure looked blue to me!!
Looks like Sarum Blue to me (maybe recorded during Advent?).
Christina for me....we have all heard of Basil...it is important to keep the memory of people like Christina alive!
I so wanted to vote for Christina, but I have seen too many people cloak their bizarre behavior in religious language, so I chose Basil because of his immense generosity.
Vote for Christina and you will be astonished. Basil has enough accolades and is soooo predictable. Christina lifts your spirits and helps you to fly.
I did vote for Basil, but reading the wonderful write of about Christina absolutely lifted my spirits. Fly, indeed!
The Dream Team consists of Dr. William J. Abraham and Dr. Bruce D. Marshall. Thank you, gentlemen, for kindling my interest in church history and doctrine, and therefore my love for Lent Madness.
While Christina gets points for -- well, for being astonishing, and for having her own song -- my left brain is directing me to vote for the candidate with a more believable hagiography...so Basil the Great it is.
Being the 999th voter . . . I guess if I had waffled on my vote a little longer I could have been the 1000th voter. I knew nothing of Christina before today, so that almost led me to vote for her. We seem to have no room in our lives today for outside-of-the-box holiness. But the foundational importance of the mystery of the Trinity to my faith made me cast my vote for Basil in the end.
Everyone likes an underdog, and this is a classic first-round high-seed/low-seed match-up, but I cannot bring myself to vote for Christina the Unbelievable. Really. Unbelievable. And what about that collect? "...fine line between mysticism and mental illness..." Really?!! Maybe, sometimes, but is that really a helpful sentiment for the seriously mentally ill?
How could I not vote for someone who "levitated into the rafters, where she perched like a bird..."?!?! Astonishing!
The Romanish thought of Purgatory made me not vote for Christina.
Newbie here and not sure what to press to "vote", so I'll leave a comment and hope it gets in the pile. Gotta love Christina whose faith gave her wings, but I'm thinking that Basil's sacrifice of coming out of retirement to attend political religious in-fighting is pretty heroic. Going with him for standing firm for what he believed and helping to articulate it so others could then see the choice.
click on the little circle next to the saint's name, under both bios
I always have to go to this URL in order to vote.
Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
https://www.lentmadness.org/2014/03/basil-the-great-vs-christina-the-astonishing/
Christina for me. Got to go with someone who goes out of their way to suffer for others. There were and are others that choose to suffer in poverty for others but she went beyond that...
I know Basil is a hero of orthodoxy, but I'm a sucker for a good Medieval saint's legend.
Christina gets my vote!! Not only did she turn down a leisurely eternity in Heaven in order to serve the poor(can relate), she was a rugged individualist!
YOU GO CHRISTINA!
This is of course, in absence of him who should be in the lineup.......
As one who leans more Arian than Trinitarian, I side with Christina the Crazy Woman. Jesus, too, was called crazy. Christina, as you fly about, save us from the vampires being worshiped by the younger generation. Btw, have you sold your movie rights yet? Who's your agent?