It's here, it's here! No, not the final battle of the First Round -- though that's an important milestone in Lent Madness 2015. But the matchup everyone's been talking about (or at least Tim and Scott) since the inception of the bracket: Barbie vs. Ken! The 3rd century saint vs. the 17th century English bishop and hymn writer. The winner will face Egeria and the matchups for the Saintly Sixteen will be complete. View the complete (and updated daily) bracket here.
Yesterday, South African missionary and martyr Bernard Mizecki was able to accomplish something that a dragon could not: vanquish Margaret of Antioch. With a 57% to 43% margin of victory, Bernard advances to the Saintly Sixteeen where he will square off against Jackson Kemper.
Enjoy this last matchup of the Round of 32 and gird your loins for tomorrow's start of the Saintly Sixteen as Brendan the Navigator faces Thecla.
Barbara
Barbara is one of the fourteen Auxiliary Saints. Her story is difficult to reconstruct due to inconsistencies and obvious embellishments. She maintains her place on the Roman Catholic and Anglican lists of saints.
Barbara was born in the third century in either Heliopolis in Syria (or possibly in modern-day Egypt) or Nicomedia in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) to a wealthy pagan family. After the death of Barbara’s mother, her father was worried for her safety so he built a large tower to protect her and her virginity.
A traveling physician introduced Barbara to Christianity during one of her father’s extended absences. She believed the message and was baptized. While her father was away, she hired workmen to construct a third window in her tower to represent the Trinity. She also used her finger to etch a cross upon the wall. Upon her father’s return, Barbara explained the significance of the windows and told him of her newfound faith. Her father (in a rage) intended to give her over to the authorities, but she was miraculously whisked away to a mountain gorge. Her father pursued her and found a shepherd who refused to reveal her whereabouts. He eventually encountered another shepherd who betrayed her hiding place.
Her abuse at the hands of her father and the authorities was marked by many miraculous happenings. She was tortured mercilessly but every night her wounds healed while she was in her cell. The torches that were intended to burn her were miraculously extinguished before they could touch her flesh. At last she was dragged out naked to be paraded around the town with another martyr, Juliana. An angel was sent to cover their nakedness.
She was finally condemned to be beheaded. Her father requested that he be the one to strike the blow. On his way home after committing the dastardly deed, he was struck dead by a bolt of lightning. Because Barbara is associated with lightning, she has become the patron saint of firefighters, soldiers, and gunsmiths.
Collect for Barbara
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Saint Barbara triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember her in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with her the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- David Creech
Thomas Ken
Born in 1637 and ordained in 1661, Thomas Ken was a bishop, hymn writer, author, royal chaplain to Charles II of England, and one of seven bishops who (in 1688) opposed James II’s Declaration of Indulgence, which was designed to promote Roman Catholicism.
In 1663 Ken became rector of Little Easton, Essex, then rector of East Woodhay, Hampshire, and presbyter of Winchester in 1669. He published A Manual of Prayers for use at Winchester College in 1674.
Perhaps no story sums up the moxie of Thomas Ken as Royal Chaplain more than an exchange he had with King Charles II. Ken was asked by the king to cover up an indelicate matter. Charles requested that his consort (Nell Gwyn) be allowed to lodge with the chaplain so as to cover the king’s indiscretions. Rather than assent, Ken replied that it was “not suitable that the Royal Chaplain should double as the Royal Pimp.” King Charles admired Ken’s forthrightness. Later, when the See of Bath and Wells came open, Charles insisted Ken be elevated to the episcopal throne, saying, “None shall have it but that little man who refused lodging to poor Nellie!”
Ken was a famed preacher and even royalty begged for seats when he was preaching. His force of character and faith caused him great difficulty when King James II ascended the throne. He was one of several bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign the Declaration of Indulgence. He was later acquitted.
Despite this, Ken remained loyal to James through the so-called Glorious Revolution of William of Orange and his consort Mary. William and Mary demanded oaths of allegiance from all bishops. Thomas Ken and others (known as the Non-Jurors — the older meaning of “juror” is “one who takes an oath,” hence “perjurer” as “one who swears falsely”) refused to take the oath. This loyalty cost Ken his episcopacy. He was deprived of his See in 1691 and spent the subsequent twenty years of his life in retirement. Ken’s legacy remains strong and is given voice throughout churches all over the world when they sing “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” which Ken wrote as a setting for the Doxology.
Collect for Thomas Ken
Almighty God, you gave your servant Thomas Ken grace and courage to bear witness to the truth before rulers and kings: Give us strength also that, following his example, we may constantly defend what is right, boldly reprove what is evil, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Vote!
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238 comments on “Barbara vs. Thomas Ken”
I do wish you would not call her Barbie. that is so condescending today.
And I wish these fastastic, fantasmagorical, deranged, fairy tale women who weep and sob and fly and survive beheadings and the like would not be called mystic. That's certainly a misnomer when grouped with the likes of Hildegard, Julian and their ilk.
Here here
St. Barbara is the patron saint of artillery, a result no doubt of the lightning directed upon her father by a keen forward observer. As a field artilleryman my vote goes to her.
A man would be foolish to vote against someone who has the same name as his wife. Barbara it is!
As a graduate of the College of William & Mary in Virginia, I simply cannot countenance anyone who opposed their accession. So Barbara it must be.
In honor of the fidelity and steadfastness of so many abused and martyred women, I'm going with Barbara. Not that our lives in modern America are really comparable, but as a woman ordained in 10980 I had my call to ministry questioned often enough to feel that my spiritual and professional life was on the line. Also, I remember the abused women I saw in the ER all those Sunday nights...
St. Barbara all the way.
Thomas Ken is inspiring! His approach to faith seems more applicable to my life.
I've figured it out - if you want to be a saint, you have to be born to a "wealthy pagan family."
Wealthy pagan family, be a virgin, get locked in a tower, have sharp things like swords and teeth aimed at you — I'll never be a Saint.
Had to vote for Ken. my favorite Hymn!
It's just my opinion,but losing one's head for your faith trumps losing one's job every time. A vote for St Barbara! (although I agree that Ken's pimp comment is indeedworthy of the Dowager Countess-I can just hear her saying that!)
It actually took 2 saints "locked in towers" for me to recognize the same symbolism as the Rapunzel story. For the beauty of figurative language, I'm giving Barbara my vote.
Yesterday we had one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and today we have one of the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints. I am curious if it is the same 14 people - but the group is just called by different names?
I am just as curious. Who are the 14 Auxiliary Saints? And does that discredit Barbara, is she not a "real" saint?
Why boys always pull the heads off their sisters' Barbie dolls. Honoring the saint's father.
the girls do that, too! never thought of that. i like that!
Hilarious, y'all!!!
Saint Barbara is the patron saint of artillery men. Artillery thunders from the sky as does lightening. Saint Barbara is celebrated on her day by Artillery men. Perhaps. Saint Barbara should be the patron saint of abused children.
No non-Juring Bishops, no Scottish Episcopal Church Bishops able to consecrate Samuel Seabury as the first Bishop of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Every confirmed Episcopalian in the US owes the fact that they could be confirmed in the US to the existence of non-Juring bishops. So Ken it is. (And for the record I have no memory of ever willingly removing the heads of any Barbies, but if I did, I repent of it, since one beheading was one too many for Saint Barbara.)
2015 has been my first Lenten Madness and I've loved learning about so many saintly folks... I voted for Ken. Sorry, Barbie.
I had to vote for the hymnwriter! Besides the Doxology, Thomas Ken wrote "All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night", the words to the Tallis Canon which anyone who has sung in a choir has probably sung at some point -- including as a canon! It is one of my favorites, as is the Doxology -- the choir of which I am a member always sings the Doxology in parts as our table grace when we are having fellowship after rehearsal or at our annual end-of-the-year get-together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMQEuKYTLE
Barbara's my homegirl, despite the AWESOME quote from Thomas Ken. I even wrote a song about her!
https://soundcloud.com/clarityharp/cheshire-moon-the-tidal
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow (Doxology)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1rW2qLaeu0
I live in Santa Barbara, California and like to think the beauty of this place is in her honor.
Ken for me.
Another version of the Tallis Canon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olZC043rdTc
Barbara for me today. The fantastic elements of her story are just a given for almost any saint of her era. And she was martyred for her faith -- didn't have the option of retirement, poor girl. Also beheading seems to be making an unfortunate come-back in the 21st century, so the thought of eternal life after it is very comforting.
Tron today - I tend to be swayed by historicity and was leaning heavily towards Ken, and the line about refusing to be a pimp for the king really almost had me. But I have a friend Barbara who works in Women's Studies who came to Christianity from another background and so in her honour I have voted for Barbara.
All in all, a completely under-whelming series of whacky women. Did you use up all the documented, saintly, effective women last year? Not only disappointing, but a little insulting.
As a Barbara, I have to vote for her. Barbaric, Barbarism = these words were used because the foreigners were those who spoke in 'Bar bar' sounds. When I was a kid, I remember that the church said that St. Christopher and Barbara were not real people. I was disappointed, but there are so many Barbaras and Christophers around there are many saints carrying their names.
Who told you they weren't real? None of us lived then, and I'll just bet there were bona fide people whose lives got these stories started!
I'm thinking it's just a writing style. It annoys me too and I wish there was more "hard" information about some of these saints, but maybe that says more about me than about or forbearers and their writing styles.
Yes, I agree. I think when you are murdered by your own Father, your life does not need a lot of embellishing for maximum effect. I think pretty much any woman who lived before the 18th Century, and was brave enough to embrace Christianity knowing full good and well what was probably going to be the upshot, gets my vote. And as for Ken, refusing to shelter Nellie, left her precisely where?
Gail,
No doubt Charles found another shelter for "poor Nellie". She was the King's mistress, after all, not some homeless beggar.
Influenced by the daily witness of my firefighter son and those who've preceded him as well as the love that I have for my late cousin Barbara, I did vote for her.....mainly because of her witness and her sacrifice.
Probably were many actual people whose lives got these stories started but they didn't survive beheadings etc. Soooo how much do we know about them and how seriously should we take these stories when we KNOW they're at least partially "embroidered"? Where does the embellishment begin and/or end? How can we pattern our day-to-day lives today after a life that is not real?
But everyone on this board is here because we are all trying to pattern our lives after someone who did a lot of fantastic things that are not in our day-to-day experience, don't we? 😀
But I'm not about to sek to weep and sob my way into heaven not to storm the portals there of holding my super-glued on head or be desirous of leaping intoa tank of ravenous seals even if I could find such a tank. Teaching in the vernacular of the community, saying "no" to improper requests, going out and about in the lands unknown to spread the Gospel, writing a journal telling of the wonderful happenings in the Holy Land — those are things worthy of emulation, at least in my estimation.
I am in total agreement. After reading Barbie's bio and reflecting on what she went through (even if only a small fraction is true) Ken's seemed somewhat lackluster. Barbie definitely gets my vote, but I must say that it took some chutzpah for Ken to refuse to pimp for the king!
My son just pointed out that Bishop Ken's feast day is the 20th and Gregory the Illuminator's is on the 23rd. Lent Madness--"saintly smackdown," or a sly way of educating our youth?;-)
Have you seen pictures of "poor little Nellie????"
Thomas definitely exercised restraint, to say nothing of "moxie."
My son is a volunteer firefighter. That makes the decision an easy one.
How about some women saints worthy of serious consideration?
I suspect the percentage of women saints in Lent Madness if larger than the number of women in the House of Bishops. Just a thought...
Ooh, touché!
We could use more "not pimping" for power. I think Congress and lobbyists should take note of Thomas Ken.
Stephen Lane - right on!
Amen and Amen!
Here here.