Nominations for next year’s field of 32 saints are now being accepted by the Supreme Executive Committee. Yes, for the next week we invite you to revel in the joyful, anticipatory Season of Nominationtide.
But before we get to the main attraction, we encourage you to visit the Lentorium. You can prove your love for Lent Madness by loading up on Lent Madness merchandise, including the ubiquitous Lent Madness mug featuring 2015 Golden Halo winner Francis of Assisi, the novel pint glass featuring Silver Halo winner Brigid of Kildare, or the de rigeur purple Lent Madness t-shirt.
And now, on to the main event: the call for nominations for Lent Madness 2016!
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 2034.
While the SEC remains responsible for the formation of the final bracket, we encourage your participation in the nominating process. As in past years, we might even listen to some of your suggestions.
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 previous Golden Halo winners, the entire field of Lent Madness 2015, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2014 and 2013, and those from the 2012 Faithful Four. Here is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations — which you can do ONLY by leaving a comment on this post. Did we mention that the only way to make a nomination for Lent Madness 2016 is to leave a comment on this post?
Also, please note that the saints you nominate should be in the sanctoral calendar of one or more churches. We’re open minded. To a point.
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!
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi
The Field from 2015 (all ineligible)
Gregory the Illuminator
Brendan the Navigator
John Keble
Thecla
Francis of Assisi
John Wycliffe
Balthazar
Cecilia
Bernard Mizecki
Margaret of Antioch
Margery Kempe
Jackson Kemper
Bede
Cuthbert
Molly Brant
Swithun
Hadewijch
Juan Diego
Dorcas
Frederick Douglass
Egeria
Hildegard
Barbara
Thomas Ken
Dionysius the Great
Irene the Great
Brigid of Kildare
Elizabeth
William Laud
Kamehameha
Teresa of Avila
David Oakerhater
From 2012 — 2014 (ineligible)
Basil the Great
Lydia
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Bedell
Anna Cooper
Phillips Brooks
Julia Chester Emery
Jonathan Daniels
Hilda of Whitby
Luke
Dorothy Day
Li-Tim Oi
Oscar Romero
Emma of Hawaii
Margaret of Scotland
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
After a mysterious process of bracket discernment at the upcoming SEC Retreat, the 2016 Bracket will be released on All Brackets Day, November 3, 2015. You have until Ascension Thursday, May 14, to make your nomination. In other words, your time is up when Jesus goes up.
For now, we wish you a joyous Nominationtide.
Update:
Thanks for your nominations! Nominations for Lent Madness 2016 are now closed. But stay tuned - All Brackets Day, and the grand unveiling of next year's bracket - is November 3.
443 comments on “Accepting Nominations!”
I would also nominate Henry Spaulding and Marcus Whitman who, along with their wives, Eliza Spaulding and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, traveled on the first wagon train on the Oregon Trail to perform missionary work, and bring medical services, to the Nez Perce of the Oregon Territory, in 1836. Eliza and Narcissa were the first European women to cross the Rocky Mountains. The Whitmans were martyred in the Whitman Massacre, after a misunderstanding led the Native-Americans to believe that they had intentionally brought the measles for which they were treating children, with them.
St Nino, Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia, a woman who helped found the church in Georgia.
Although previously mentioned, I will second
St. Jude Thaddeus
Thurgood Marshall
Frances Jane (Fanny) Van Alstyne Crosby
I nominate St Walpurga for consideration!
Thank you for what you do...
I nominate St. Elmo, patron of sailors and abdominal pain (and furry red monsters?). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_of_Formia
Saint Drogo - Patron Saint of Coffee and has a WONDERFUL story and special skill
Saint Thurgood Marshall should have a chance to vie for the Golden Halo! Put him in, Coach!
I'd like to nominate Saint Mary Mazzerello. She became the spiritual counterpart to Saint John Bosco of Turin. Little known, she was a contemporary of Saint John Bosco, and became the first Superior of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, founded under the advisement of Saint John Bosco. This order provided education to poor girls, just as Saint John Bosco was providing education to poor boys.
What a lot of good suggestions. Don't envy the team having to pick the candidates from all these. Please add a non-Cristian, Ghandi, to your list of nominations.
I nominate Florence Nightingale, whose birthday on May 12 marks the culmination of the annual Nurses' Week in the U.S. Her dedication to nursing and healing was inspired by her faith.
I would also like to nominate the Samaritan Woman at the Well, for her belief and her evangelism to the people of Samaria.
sorry, blame my computer for the spelling.
Clare of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Martha of Bethany, St. Thomas-Apostle, John Chrysostom, St. Aristobulus, Harriet Starr Cannon, Harriet Tubman, and St. Gobnait-female Irish saint. She was said to keep bees! Thank you.
Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but from Holy Women, Holy Men, I vote for the following:
Thomas Becket James Weldon Johnson
Phoebe Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Andrei Rublev Martha of Bethany
Junini Luwum Vida Scudder
Thomas Cranmer Samuel Isaac Joseph Scherechewsky
John Muir Teresa of Avila
Dame Julian of Norwich William Temple
Thurgood Marshall Richard Hooker
I did check the ineligible list which had several of my favorites, but I intend to be with you for more than a year, so I will keep them for another year.
Judy Z+
Athanasius, without whom we may not recognize the Trinity, Thurgood Marshall, and St. Stephen- to represent for all Deacons!
Now that St. Francis of Assisi has won his well-deserved golden halo, I would like to nominate St. Francis Solanus. He has a lovely church and monastery dedicated to him in Lima, Peru. One of the stories I recall from our tour was that he came into a Christmas celebration playing the fiddle, and his joy expressed in that music was so contagious that all present danced and rejoiced.
nomination of new saints:
Ephrem the Syrian (of Nisibis and Edessa) (d.373) Syriac Biblical exegete and poet
Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) - Syriac Biblical exegete and poet
I would like to nominate St. Stephen - Deacon and first Martyr of the Church. I think anyone that gets stoned the day after Christmas should be a front runner!
Peter the Apostle, as an example of a flawed man girding the church for the future.
James the Less, author of the book of James.
John Locke
Thomas Hobbes
Rev. John Witherspoon
I am curious about San Andres. He has the dubious distinction of having a major earthquake fault in California named after him. I don't know why. Also, is San Andres the same saint as St. Andrew?
When there's a lot of shaking going on around the state, it is often San Andres' Fault. Of course, he has a lot of sidekicks.
Looking forward to the new slate of saintly candidates for LM 2016!
We nominate Queen Liliuokalani, last Queen of Hawaii, and devoted Anglican, whose prayer from her imprisonment, O Kou Aloha No, is still sung weekly at eucharists in Hawaii.
Quick translation: "Your loving mercy is in heaven and your truth is perfect. I live imprisoned in sorrow; you are my light; your glory, my support. Behold not with malevolence the sins of humankind, but forgive and cleanse. And so, O Lord, beneath your wings protect us and let peace be our portion now and forever more.”
submitted by Len and Lindsay Freeman+
Aethelthryth of Ely--who was married twice but remained a virgin (to paraphrase Aelfric and Bede) and was founding abbess of the double monastery at Ely.