387 comments on “For the Golden Halo: Francis of Assisi vs. Brigid of Kildare”

1. Please see the note at the end of the write-up, just before the poll/results. The SEC found cheaters -- people who were voting as many as 121 times for Brigid. These people have been blocked, and their votes have been removed. There are some additional votes we are watching carefully. Our hope is that everyone gets one vote. To get your saint to win, encourage others to vote. Don't vote lots of times!

   1. NOOO!!! People never learn.

   2. Yes, she'll turn 13 in July, and she greatly enjoys the miracle of the Hanukkah turkey (or chicken or tuna or whatever is the choice meat of the season.)

      1. the miracle of the Hanukkah turkey has a nice ring to it.....could be a book title!

         1. LMHO (laughing my head off)

   3. Yes indeed -- as someone recently returned to the fold, so to speak, I have learned a great deal about the saints, some of whom I'd never even heard of, and enjoyed a lot of laughs along the way. Thanks for helping us all to keep a holy Lent!

2. Cheaters?? Grrrrrr!!! C'mon, folks! Just encourage your friends to vote. Pagans and beer drinkers might help Brigid lap Francis for real.

   1. Exactly. Makes me sad - even if they were unaware of the rule (!), it's kind of common sense that you can and, more importantly, SHOULD only vote once.

3. I must say that throughout this year's Lent Madness I've been troubled by the many comments that suggest the "sisterhood" has been voting as a bloc. To the extent any man can, I think I get it about the subjugation of women and, in this instance, its effect on the number of recognized saints. I was very happy to see three women in the Final Four, notwithstanding the possible effect of bloc voting on that outcome. But today we've witnessed flagrant multiple voting (and I don't think the perpetrators were necessarily Irish) and a commentator who states that she voted for Brigid because a man won the GH last year.

   Please, dear sisters and brothers, let's recover the truth that in Christ there is no male or female, and next year let's not divide Lent Madness into gender parties. It really does spoil the fun.

   I fear I will offend people with these words, and for that I ask forgiveness, but I just couldn't keep them back. That someone would vote against Francis of Assisi, of all people, because he was male is Just too much. That he would have made a lousy grilled cheese sandwich is a much better reason, and much more in keeping with what this is about.

   1. As a woman, I completely agree with your words, Davis. I haven't once voted on basis of gender and really see no reason to do that. Both women and men have pointed the way for us and, while there have been issues with women's voices being silenced across the years, I don't think "over-correction" is the answer. I voted for Brigid here because of her prayer, although I won't be unhappy if Francis wins the Golden Halo. Frankly, though, off the top of my head I have no idea if I voted for more men or more women, nor do I care. I thank you for your post.

      1. Amen!

   2. Correlation is not the same as causation. Some days I may have voted for the male Saint, some days the female. At this point, I really don't remember who received my votes 🙂 I approached each day's vote as a new blank slate. If one day my vote was based on anything, the next day that same reason could become the reason I didn't give a vote. It's simply madness!

      Among the various reasons that could have affected my decision process, I think the only consistent thought I used each day was, which Saint do I want to give a chance to move forward. All else is a swirling madness .. and I've enjoyed every minute for learning/thinking about/considering/wondering what from this Lent Madness will inform my life.

4. That the multi-vote problem surfaces prompts me to grieve for LM. But the overall vote numbers, over 7,000 as of 6:50 CDT, prompts gladness! Hooray for Lent Madness!

5. Why did Oliver say he voted for grilled cheese and perfect milk someone please explain to me what this means, and I vote for Francis for the golden halo #teamfrancis

   1. Charlie, go back to the bracket and read the previous writeups about Bridgid.

   2. Yeah, I was a little confused by that, too. I was assuming it was because she's the patron saint of milk maids and things, and supposedly could make butter, bacon and milk multiply, but am not sure what he meant.

      1. i could be wrong and i am not going back to the bracket right now, but it seems in the saintly kitsch round there was a toast imprinter thing with st. brigid on it???? hence the grilled cheese....

         1. i am totally wrong. no toast imprinter in her kitsch. so OLIVER, do tell where you got the idea that Brigid makes a great grilled cheese sandwich....

   3. Amen!

   4. Oliver didn’t want to do this but he has to pull in his UK/EU influences for this vote. We are going international and have until 8 am EST.

   5. Hi William! Welcome to Lent Madness! See you next year?

6. St.Francis needs to be stopped and I hope Brigid stops him

   1. Why? What evil hath he done?

7. I don't know why Oliver said that

8. The real sin in casting multiple votes isn't in breaking the rules to get your saint on top - it's in what you do to all of that saint's fans. Imagine all of Brigid's supporters today, inwardly (or outwardly) cheering as their favorite saint rallied. Despite being behind all morning, she might just be able to do it! Only twenty votes away! But then you refresh your browser to check the score again. The post is just a little longer. (After checking the results so many times you really start to notice these things.) There's a note from the SEC. What was an increasingly narrow gap suddenly looks a little more insurmountable. Your heart drops. So much for that come-from-behind rally. That's the real sin in cheating: all the dashed hopes of the honest people who thought those votes were real.

   1. Corey, thank you. At one point they were only four votes apart and I was really excited that Brigid might win the Golden Halo, but that even if she didn't it was going to be neck-and-neck right down to the wire. I really was downcast when I saw the change, and very disappointed when I read why. Sad.

      1. Does this mean the voting is tainted?

         1. Phil, just above the vote tally is an update by the SEC explaining what happened.

         2. St. Francis is a perfect role model, and he's a great ecology saint.

9. St. Brigid... for her devotion to the poor, ability to multiply butter and bacon, as well as her simple and lovely words invoking the communion of saints.

   Not hating on Francis though because he's pretty cool too.

10. I encourage everyone to vote for Brigid- Francis has enough recognition, and she's a real saint herself.

11. It is so sad to see that people are voting more than once. Please don't botch this! It only makes things harder for Scott and Tim.

    I voted only once!

    1. I've commented a whole lot but only voted once!

    2. O yes, we've had Jewish cats, and still have a Wiccan cat - and we all celebrate Halloween out of respect for her former mother. And then there are our Christian cats - including Francis, Francine, and Brigit. After much discussion we voted (once!) for Brigid.

12. As one of the youth from the Episcopal Youth Event who helped to vote St. Francis onto the bracket in the first place, I have been with him the whole way and that is where my vote is going today.

13. I wonder if Francis is suffering from being so familiar. Isn't that a testimony to his universal relevance? I cast my halo hopes his way.

14. And certainly, the SEC should give TSSF (Third Order Society of St. Francis) a group discount rate on mugs! Support our Anglican lay religious!

15. I planned to vote Francis but couldn't decide. After taking all day and not knowing how close it is I voted for Brigid. What if they do tie after all?
    we are all richer for knowing the prayers. Thank you SEC. I look forward to getting the new mug no matter whose likeness it proclaims.

16. Had to go with Brigid to of Kildare, though I also love Francis of Assisi, but Celtic Irish wins out any day for me... Plus she is a woman, and I am from an old Irish family.

17. Both so very saintly, I had to ponder a bit on them, prayerfully. I had a conversation with my dogs . Then I remembered how after a little prayer to St Francis calmed my grand daughters when one of the dogs went missing. Shortly after Tanner was home.

18. Well may we say the Pope and her husband. Go Francesco!

19. I truly expected to be voting for Francis today, especially since I have organized our pet blessing for many years. He is indeed a genuine saint. But as I thought it over during the past 17 hours, I read the posts and changed my mind in the end. In memory of my beloved father, son and grandson of Irish immigrants, who loved a good glass of beer (and whisky, but that's another story!), although his beer of choice was Heineken, and to honor my mother who only nursed her last child of eight and regretted listening to the doctors who told a young mother of 18 that she shouldn't nurse her first, I voted for Brigid. She (if only as a composite of many previous people who lived good lives) brought the example of Christ to the Druids and protected nursing mothers. (By the way, my father often said that when he was young, pregnant women were encouraged to drink some Guinness occasionally for truly medicinal purposes, thinking that the beverage contained minerals and vitamins to strengthen them as they carried and nursed the babies. Once again, Brigid's spheres of influence overlap!)

    I also want to add my thanks to everyone who researched their saints, and wrote such thought-provoking stories and commentaries. A blessed Easter to all!

20. Oliver is wrong Francis will win and I don't think that Brigid would make a good grilled cheese sandwich and perfect milk and this KAM guy voted for Brigid but that Charlie guy was right and after Juan Diego lost I wanted Francis to win the #Golden Halo.

21. The Circle of Days, based on St. Francis' Canticle of the Sun, was always my children's favorite bedtime storybook, and even as surly teenagers, they still occasionally recite the lines. It has always been St. Francis.

22. Do you think people at Church may have all been voting on the same computer, and not realizing that it would look like they were cheating? If all the votes were for the same Saint, it seems like it was probably cheating, though; what's the odds of every parishioner agreeing on anything???? 😀

23. Brigid is my gal, but as a Franciscan, it is a hard decision.
    Sister Brigid, Little Sisters of St. Clare