Welcome to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen. Sixteen saints in Lent Madness 2016 have been sent packing and sixteen more remain as the struggle
for the coveted Golden Halo continues. Get ready for some high stakes, thrilling saintly action over the coming days. Click the Bracket tab to view the updated tournament bracket and see all the upcoming matchups (you do know it's updated daily by our unsung Bracket Czar Adam Thomas, right?).
Round One consisted of basic biographical information about the saints. Since there’s no need to rehash previously covered ground, the Round of the Saintly Sixteen is made up of what we call Quirks & Quotes. Prepare for some little known facts or legends accompanied by quotes either by or about the saint in question. As you make your decision, you can always review the previous rounds by again clicking on the Bracket tab and scrolling down. Simply click the link to the previous battle and voila! All the earlier information is at your fingertips.
Yesterday saw the conclusion of the first round as Barnabas defeated Elmo 72% to 28%. Apparently Barnabas did not include Elmo as he sang the irritating song about being "a happy family." Who knew?
Today it's two women, separated by 1,600 years or so, squaring off to make it to the Elate Eight. To get to this point, Helena defeated Monnica in the Matronly Meltdown (the very first matchup of Lent Madness 2016) while Constance defeated Dominic. Ladies and gentlemen, start your Saintly Sixteen engines!
Helena
Helena, mother of Constantine, church-builder and relic-hunter extraordinaire, had an early life shrouded in mystery. St. Ambrose says she was a stable-maid; others just hypothesize she was poor. And it is also not clear where she met Constantine’s father.
One story posits that the Roman emperor was on a military campaign through Asia Minor, when he chanced upon Helena who was wearing matching silver bracelets to his own. Constantius took this as a sign from God that they were meant to be. Aw.
Sadly, this bracelet-magic-feeling didn’t last. He either divorced her, sent her away, or just broke up with her in 289, after Constantine was born, because the emperor wanted a wife of noble birth. Helena and the baby Constantine stayed with the former emperor Diocletian during their exile, which couldn’t have been a pleasant experience, given his penchant for executing lots of people. It is for this reason that Helena is the patron saint of divorced people, and people in difficult marriages.
After Constantine’s ascension to power, Helena came into her own in the second act of her life. She went to Palestine and built churches, searched out relics, and used the imperial treasury for the relief of the poor.
She had the Roman temple Hadrian had constructed over Golgotha torn down. Underneath the temple, she and her team found the shards of many crosses. (This is not surprising--according to modern archeology, that site was used extensively as a crucifixion ground.)
Determined to figure out which was the cross of Christ, Helena had a dying woman brought to the site, and presented her with various pieces of wood. When she was miraculously cured by one piece in particular, Helena declared that they had found the True Cross. It was here that she had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built.
On her way back to Rome, Helena had several other saintly adventures. As she passed through Cyprus, a local monastery asked for her help in ridding the place of snakes. Accordingly, she imported several dozen cats, which have since multiplied in that place, and to this day, the monastery is known as St. Nicholas of the Cats.
It should also be noted that in classic British fashion, England also lays claim to Helena.
One story of her origins holds that Helena was actually the daughter of the English king, and she met Constantius when her father formed a strategic alliance. Further legends hold that she would frequently turn up back in her homeland. Over 25 wells and springs of water throughout Great Britain are named for her, and according to legend, she is credited with establishing several churches around Colchester.
No matter where she turned up, Helena spread generosity and strength to all she encountered.
Constance
The Hawaiians have a saying that "Eddie Would Go." You see, during the course of his life, Eddie saved over 500 people as a lifeguard. "Eddie Would Go" is plastered on cars throughout the Hawaiian Islands and is a universal response to questions of what someone should do in a situation. Long before Eddie was born, the people of Memphis could have coined the term "Constance Would Go." Imagine the horse and buggy crowd of the 1800s with bumper stickers declaring, "Constance Would Go." Eddie and Constance are heroic witnesses to the lives of those around them and those in need. Constance Would Go.
Think about this: Mosquitoes transmit yellow fever by biting their victims. Think of the Mississippi River as a grand breeding ground for these miniature vampires on the banks of the town of Memphis. In the first stages, symptoms are much like the flu: fatigue, malaise, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, and loss of appetite. If the body does not fight the infection, the patient enters into a toxic phase that causes organ damage, yellowing skin, bleeding from the nose, mouth and eyes, liver and kidney failure, and brain dysfunction. Remember, it is 1878 and modern medicine is not available to Constance and her companions. All they have is their love and care to give to the people of Memphis. Constance Would Go.
With thousands of people dying in Memphis, despite the ministrations of the sisters, a new problem arose: the growing orphan population. It is said that Constance and her Companions would go through the city searching for the orphans to place them in an asylum to care for them as their parents had passed. At one point, a mob of adults confronted Constance and her Companions out of fear that these orphans would spread the yellow fever to families who were living near the asylum. Wrapping her faith in God around her like armor, and brandishing her faith like a sword, she called out to the mob saying, "Sirs, is it possible that you would have us refuse to these children the very protection you have obtained for your own? We do not propose to make a hospital of the Asylum; if any of the children are taken ill with the fever, they shall be carried immediately to our Infirmary at the Church Home." The mob would bow before her resoluteness and allow the children to pass to the safety of their new home. Constance Would Go.
Constance and her companions held firm five goals during the Yellow Fever Epidemic:
To feed the hungry,
To care for the sick,
To minister the dying,
To bury the dead,
And to care for the orphans.
On September 5th, 1878, the yellow fever would claim new victims: Constance and several of her sisters. It is said that while she lay dying, she would pray: "O God, make speed to save; O Lord make haste to help us."
Constance Would Go.
PS from Anna: We fully expect the SEC to add bumper stickers with "Constance Would Go" to the Lentorium following this year's bracket.
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185 comments on “Helena vs. Constance”
Jesus said to Simon Peter "Feed my Lambs" to God he said, "Constance would go"
How fun. Constance and Helena live on in two religious communities for women in the Episcopal Church. The Community of Saint Mary. The Sisters of Saint Helena. May they both blossom and flourish. Thanks be to God for their witness.
Amen.
Having voted for Helena in Round One, I'm going with Constance today. One reason is the darker parts of the Legend of the True Cross, Piero della Francesca fresco cycle of which is in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy. To my knowledge they haven't yet appeared in these conversations. Perhaps the most troubling part is this, to be found (with the rest of Piero's stunning paintings) at wag.hu:
"6. Torture of the Jew
1452-66
Fresco, 356 x 193 cm
San Francesco, Arezzo
At the end wall of the chapel, around the stain-glass window and below the prophets were placed the Burial of the Wood (on the left) and the Torture of the Jew (on the right). These two stories were painted by Piero's main assistant Giovanni da Piamonte, who used the cartoon by Piero.
Having achieved his victory, Constantine determined to find out more about the mysterious cross. His mother, Empress Helena, set out for Jerusalem to learn what she could. There she questioned all of the Jewish scholars, and when she sensed that information was being withheld from her she threatened to have them all burned. At that a man by the name of Judas, who knew where the cross was to be found, was sent to her. He would not reveal the secret, however, so Helena had him thrown down into a dry well. After six days without food he begged to be released. We find this scene in the middle register of the choir wall. Judas has only halfway emerged from the well. One man holds him by the hair while two others pull him out with the help of a winch set up behind the well, from which a rope has been tied around his body."
No further comment is needed, I trust.
As an alumna of St. Helen's Northwood (UK) I fully expected this to be a no-brainer for Helena,* but Constance's story is so compelling I have to vote for her.
(from the school song: "...Empress and Queen, o Helen,/ To all in need a friend indeed/ Our praises are ringing, St Helen!"
I have always been fascinated with Helena, and the story of the cats almost swayed my vote for her today. But, I had to cast my vote for Constance! To lay down one's life is the ultimate sacrifice.
I've always loved Helena, but today I had to GO with Constance
I did too, Oliver. I hope that people would say about me, "Mary Lou would go." We need that bumper sticker or magnet next year!
I am in the sad process of divorcing and admire Helena's perseverence. My vote is for Helena.
I hope the Lentorium meisters are prepared for lots of people wanting the bumper sticker "Constance Would Go!" My husband and I want one apiece. This sticker might prompt the curious to enquire about this amazing woman and then we can provide the back story.
Eddie? Eddie who? I missed something. Who in the world is this Eddie?
The first part of today's essay about Constance mentions his story. Here is more detail: http://www.eddieaikaufoundation.org/eddie.htm
Go to YouTube and you'll find several clips from an ESPN documentary on the Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer Eddie Aikau. Or look him up on Wikipedia. He lost his life at sea in an effort to save others. Touching and tragic biography.
Once again, as a nurse and an associate of the Community of St. Mary, Go Constance!! Can't wait to order my bumper sicker!
Constance still gets my vote -- risking her own life to tend to the sick!
These choices are maddening! Both of today's saints shared the same faith and did marvelous things on account of that faith. This contest seems more and more a matter of deep moral discernment. On that basis, I had to go with Constance (her name so apt) and her faithful ministry in the midst of great danger, including to herself. But I still admire Helena for how she used her power and her money, at a ripe old age, to do great things for God--a personal inspiration for me, who have only very modest power and money but do share her age.
The careful attention to detail that the Empress Helena put into building the churches in Jerusalem is still with us today. On one side of a hill, she built a basilica like structure where people faced forward. This was for the Liturgy of the Word and for teaching. On the other side of the hill, she built a round structure for the Liturgy of the Table. All eyes faced the table and the body and blood of Christ. Legend has it that she built these two churches on each side of the hill where the cross of Christ had once stood. A worshiper began with the liturgy of the word, processed past the place of the cross, and then partook of sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood at the Liturgy of the Table. This is who Helena was. She still has an effect on the church of today. (For more of the story, see the Lesser Feasts and Fasts Book of 2003, pg 366)
Answering the call to go...getting up out of a comfortable (one assumes) home to go meet the needs of the sick, the dying, and the poor, hungry and orphaned, and staying to eventually die of the illness she fought....that is truly saintly. "Constance would go"will be my ideal when faced with a decision of whether to go serve, or stay home. Thanks for this well written inspired commentary!
I so agree with you, Leamarie.
Piero's fresco cycle is based on tales from "The Golden Legend" by Jacobus de Voragine.
Not every story in "The Golden Legend" should be accepted as historical fact. Many of them are pious fictions and the Legend of the True Cross has the strong ring of Fairy Tale.
Of course; but the saints we're voting on, especially those of antiquity, are as portrayed by the stories that surround them. I'd never heard the version of finding the cross presented in today's bio and thought the version with which I was familiar should be added. We can take each of these stories into account or discount it, but the saintly candidate has, as it were, to live with the whole body of his or her legend.
You wrote "…the saints we're voting on…are as portrayed by the stories that surround them."
I wouldn't put it quite that way. I would say "The saints are who they actually are. There are true stories about them and sometimes stories that aren't true."
As for the different versions of finding the cross, my experience was just the opposite of yours: the one presented with the write-up is what was familiar to me.
Thanks for enlightening me about the legend. I may have encountered it elsewhere, but the fresco cycle is really my only source. Maybe I've spent too much time in Arezzo and not enough in the wider world.
The proper relationship of legend and and fact is a fascinating subject, isn't it? And of course it permeates Lent Madness. Your formulation works best where, as in Helena's case, there's a reasonable body of more or less verifiable fact with legendary accretions. It's harder to apply it, though, to a case like Elmo's, where wild improbability is all we have. The bios seem to me to invite us to treat all of it as true for electoral purposes.
Incidentally, the prize relic of the Church of St. Francis in Cortona is a piece of the True Cross in a gorgeous reliquary. The church itself is the first one dedicated to Francis outside Assisi and was built by Brother Elias, Francis's lieutenant and a Cortona native. The not implausible story goes that Elias visited Constantinople and there acquired the relic: I think I read that he was given it by the Emperor, but that part may not be verifiable. Of course the story says nothing about the provenance of the splinter before it came into Elias's hands; nor does the fact that he was a gifted (some would say "self-") promoter assist the credibility of the I-got-it-in-Constantinople" segment.
Constance for me- her tale borders on Biblical for all that she and her sisters did for the sick!
He dumped he
She not only survived, she flourished.
It's not easy.
Go Helena!
Typo
He dumped HER not he
It's Constance for me!
My cats will never forgive me if I don't vote for Helena.
I voted for Constance because she really fought through hard times while the yellow fever was running ramped. Even though it was dangerous she still helped dying and sick people.
It takes an extraordinary person to have me voting against someone whose post features cats. Constance was an extraordinary person.
i agree
Two worthy saints who tug at my heart. I wish they were battling for the Golden Halo!
Instead of a "Constance Would Go!" bumper sticker, I would prefer a tee-shirt. And wear it downtown and have people stop you and ask what the quote was all about. I can imagine wearing this on Duval Street in Key West. It would be laugh out loud funny.
LOL is right. I like your plan!
Both saints are worthy winners, but it's Helena the church-builder for me. Even today her devotion and leadership is remembered by Christian communities throughout the world.
Blackberry and Mouse made me vote for Helena. They pretty much rule the household.
My daughter who is 8 years old and I voted for Constance because she made sure the orphans weren't sick.
Don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but here's more of the very dramatic story of Constance and her companions (a.k.a. the Martyrs of Memphis, as you know), see http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/religious/constance-and-her-companions/ It is a truly inspiring story! I find it most interesting that Constance is now "in competition" with the Grandmother of St. Constantia (a.k.a. Constance). And, as one who suffers mosquitos every summer, I will now remember the tireless dedication of Constance and try not to grumble so much about the little bloodsuckers.
I love the miracle stories, plus the other facts, so I voted for Helena. I also figured that Constance would win.
Hard choice today. Really admire Helena, but Constance's standing up for the orphans, her care for the sick and dying, and her words while she lay dying changed my mind. I was also touched by Eddie's story.
Constance Would Go! She went--twice. I would also like a bumper sticker. Thank you, Anna.