Today in the Saintly Smackdown, we encounter a 19th century Canadian missionary and a 3rd century Roman martyr, as Henry Budd faces Cecilia. Will the entire nation of Canada rise up to vote for one of their own? Or will Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, strike a chord? Only the next 24 hours and your vote, will tell!
In yesterday's matchup, Moses the Black defeated John Wycliffe 65% to 35% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen where he'll face the winner of Raymond Nonnatus vs. John of Nepomuck.
Oh, and in case you missed yesterday's stirring edition of Monday Madness, watch it here. Tim and Scott give shout-outs to parishes and schools who are all in for Lent Madness 2017 (send us your photos!), discuss the importance of the comment section, and invite viewer mail. Yes, YOUR QUESTION for the SEC could be answered in an upcoming episode. Submit them via Facebook or Twitter.
Henry Budd
Sakachuwescam (Going-Up-The-Hill) was born to Cree parents in what is now Manitoba, Canada. He was baptized in 1822 by an Anglican missionary, who gave him the name Henry Budd (Budd is thought to be the surname of Henry’s father). Budd, his wife Betsy, and their children, as well as extended family moved to the Red River area where he taught at St. John’s parish school and served as a lay minister in the church. Budd proved a capable and enthusiastic teacher and a dedicated Christian serving the Cree community.
His success at St. John’s eventually led Budd to move with his family to W’passkwayaw (The Pas). He built a house church and held regular worship services. In June 1842, John Smithurst (another Anglican missionary) was overjoyed to see the result of Budd’s dedicated ministry: baptisms of 39 adults, 27 infants, and 22 schoolchildren. Pretty impressive numbers!
Budd was tutored and mentored by other clergy in the area, including Bishop David Anderson. Budd was ordained to the diaconate on December 22, 1850—the first person of First Nations ancestry to be ordained in the Anglican tradition in North America. Ordained a priest three years later, Budd served in Saskatchewan until 1867 and then resumed his previous ministry in The Pas. That same year, the local ministry board recommended reclassifying The Pas from a missionary station to one requiring a priest, preferably a First Nations pastor. Four previous English missionaries had failed to establish any thriving mission, complaining of “lack of evangelistic opportunities.” For all his success and exemplary ministry, Budd was paid half of what white missionaries in the same position made.
Budd was an eloquent preacher in Cree and English. His missions exhibited the highest standards of good management, self-sustainability, and outreach to the community. He translated the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer into Cree. He remained at The Pas until his death in 1875. His legacy includes the Henry Budd College for Ministry in Canada, which seeks to form Indigenous people for Christian ministry in the Anglican Church in Canada and to further the Christian expression of faith within the traditions of First Nations’ cultures and languages.
Collect for Henry Budd
Creator of the light, we thank you for your priest Henry Budd, who carried the great treasure of Scripture to his people the Cree nation, earning their trust and love. Grant that his example may call us to reverence, orderliness and love, that we may give you glory in word and action; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Cecilia
Cecilia harkens from the second century in Rome. Like many of the ancient saints, she is found somewhere in the mix of truth, legend, myth, and fiction. Whichever pieces of the story are “real,” they combine for a compelling picture of faith, belief, and devoutness to God’s calling.
Born to a wealthy Roman family, Cecilia was betrothed to a man named Valerian. Her family wanted her marraige to strengthen the bonds between the two families. Cecilia did not listen, instead insisting that she heard a chorus of angels calling her to a life of chastity and virginity. In the days before her wedding, Cecilia prayed, fasted, and sang, imploring God to protect her virginity. God sent an angel to protect Cecilia on her wedding bed. She told her husband that if he tried to consummate their marriage, the angel would smite him. Valerian could not see the angel, so Cecilia instructed him to walk to the third milestone on the Roman road, Via Appia, where his eyes would be opened. True to Cecilia’s word, an angel appeared to Valerian and his brother, and in short order, both converted to Christianity and were baptized. The brothers dedicated their lives to burying martyrs of the church who were persecuted by the local Roman officials.
While Valerian and his brother tended the dead, Cecilia preached and encouraged more than 400 souls to dedicate their lives to Christ. Her fervor attracted the wrath of the local prefect, and Valerian and his brother were executed, with the presiding prefect ordering Cecilia to be killed as well. They attempted to drown her. Then, they tried to burn the building down around her. An executioner was summoned by the prefect to behead her, and though he struck her three times, Cecilia remained in possession of her head. Three days later, she succumbed to her wounds and was buried by Pope Urban.
About 1,300 years later, in 1569, the church exhumed her body and found it to be incorrupt—without decay, the first saint to be found in such condition. The feast of Saint Cecilia is celebrated on November 22. Cecilia is the patron saint of music, in commemoration and honor of the heavenly chorus she is said to have heard each time she prayed to know and do God’s will in her life.
Collect for Cecilia
Saint Cecilia, heroic martyr who stayed faithful to Jesus your divine bridegroom, give us faith to rise above our persecutors and to see in them the image of our Lord. We know that you were a musician, and we are told that you heard angels sing. Inspire musicians to gladden the hearts of people by filling the air with God’s gift of music and reminding them of the Divine Musician Who created all beauty. Amen.
UPDATE This morning at about 11:45 EST, we became aware of voting patterns that are against the rules of Lent Madness. We discovered some 546 votes for Cecilia cast from a computer in Austin, TX, apparently at St. Andrew's Episcopal School (according to IP address databases). These votes have been removed, and the address in question has been banned. Please remember: vote once only! If you can encourage your friends to vote, that is wonderful. But do not attempt to cheat the system by using a single computer to vote multiple times. Big Lent is watching.
UPDATE AGAIN: A student has admitted gaming the system, apology has been accepted, and we've restored voting to the school in question. Please don't try to cheat. It's Lent, for Pete's sake!
[poll id="176"]
375 comments on “Henry Budd vs. Cecilia”
A real conundrum. Who to vote for? Cecelia , patroness of musicians everywhere, or Henry Budd, an example for all indigenous peoples? Because of his example I had to pick Sakachuwescam
Cecilia, because it is such a lovely name!
The spiritual depth of First Nations people was and is an awesome thing for me. The fact that early Christian missionaries taught, trained and raised up leaders in their communities from early times gives depth to the Church in those tribal nations today. Mutual respect, support and commitment are needed to sustain the work of the Church and, more importantly, the faith of the people that Henry Budd ministered to so many years ago!
Really?? -- 4 Anglican missionaries failed because there weren't any evangelistic opportunities there??? Yet Henry Budd managed to baptize 88 individuals. Maybe that should be a lesson that if we are going to help in converting anyone, we need to meet them where they are, not just tell them the right way to do things. Henry Budd reminded me a little of the story of David Oakerhater. Who better to minister to the Native American populations than one of them? Cecilia, like many early martyrs, doesn't have a biographer who could research books and articles to substantiate her story. Much of what we know of all the early martyrs, the first apostles and disciples is also based on legend and stories handed down in the oral tradition, if we know even that much. These are not reasons for thinking they don't deserve to be in Lent Madness. The Anglican Church has long honored saints for the lessons they can teach us. If we look at the BCP, the only saints who have "St" before their names are those who were the earliest followers of Christ -- the apostles and disciples. They have the major feasts of the year. The rest do not carry that designation. Unlike the Roman Catholics, we don't have a long list of criteria to determine who is and who is not qualified to be a saint. Much better that we can honor those who went before us and can show us the way.
"If we are going to help in converting anyone, we need to meet them where they are, not just tell them the right way to do things." And that's just why I'm excited that Augustine of Canterbury is coming up!
This was a tough call. Coming from the Red River of the North (Fargo, ND) I could identify w/ Budd's story of life and faith on the prairie.
NOTE: This morning at about 11:45 EST, we became aware of voting patterns that are against the rules of Lent Madness. We discovered some 546 votes for Cecilia cast from a computer in Austin, TX, apparently at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (according to IP address databases). These votes have been removed, and the address in question has been banned. Please remember: vote once only! If you can encourage your friends to vote, that is wonderful. But do not attempt to cheat the system by using a single computer to vote multiple times. Big Lent is watching.
UPDATE: A student has admitted gaming the system, apology has been accepted, and we've restored voting to the school in question. Please don't try to cheat. It's Lent, for Pete's sake!
As someone who once lived in my ancestral homeland of Texas and did voter registration there as a deputized registrar and was involved with the League of Women Voters in Dallas and was a precinct delegate in the 2008 Primary and clerked in the 2008 General Election I can say that voter fraud is extremely rare in Texas (despite what the Voter ID proponents would have you believe). So thanks for catching this wayward youth and nipping this over voting tendency in the bud before s/he is old enough to vote in our civil elections. I hope s/he has learned a lesson.
Vote Early (so you don't forget until it is too late)
Vote Often (elections are not just once every four years)
BUT
Vote only one ballot per election!
Are you able to edit this to remove the name of the high school from the main post? I love sharing this daily with my teen daughters and I'd love to do so without reservation today. I appreciate your consideration. I feel the general points of the message speak for themselves without a specific name, and though my girls go to public school, the school in question is a well respected Episcopal school with minors learning all kinds of life lessons and representing many individuals and families. Peace be with you and with us all.
I'm an American who lived in Newfoundland and Labrador for 25 years and knew many unsung Christian workers in northern Canada. I had to vote for Budd.
I enjoyed learning more about Cecilia through Anna Fitch Courie's delightful write up but my vote today swings to Henry Budd. I think it is important to honor a First Nation priest who clearly faced obstacles throughout his career.
Right On! Meant to mention how much I enjoy Ms. Courics work❤
I am a musician but found more merit in the life of Henry Budd.
Here I am in Gisborne, New Zealand voting for Henry Budd all the way. Attending the Ordination of The Rev. Don Tamihere as the next Bishop for the Maori people. Surely I will receive the award as I am more than 10,000 miles away from the headquarters of the supreme executive committee's and their cyber police who dealt with the fraudulent voters of Texas. Go Budd!
I suspect your vote is most distant, unless of course someone on the ISS beams down a vote via Houston.
So, this morning I sang a sunrise song to Cecilia and the vision that came to me was the news photo of the tattered Episcopal Church flag among all the tribal and First Nations flags at Standing Rock. So I voted for Budd.
Finally, I seem to have voted for the winning said at last!
Time to honor the hard work if this Native American missionary. And a Canadian, too! Eh?
Saint Cecelia may be pointing us the way. With music we can bypass the semantics and the superficiality of secondary process thinking and become more aware of our basic orientation in emotion, and "right brained" motivation. Ya gotta sing!
I loved learning about Henry, one of those amazing hidden saints. Also my vote represents a vote for all those people who never were or are not given equal pay for equal work.
I want to vote for Henry, but my niece has just given birth to Cecilia and that is also my mother's middle name. My vote must stay in the family.
Yes, this was a tough choice once I read Henry Budd's story, but I'm going to stick with my original pick of Saint Cecilia in honor of my beautiful departed grandmother, who was a loyal member of Saint Cecilia's Guild at St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Germantown in Philadelphia.
Could you post American continent entries against each other and European entries against each other?
That might make for a fairer contezt.
But not all are American or European! See Moses the Ethiopian and Augustine of Hippo and Proto-martyr Stephen the Deacon and from past years Francis+ Li Tim-Oi who should have won a Golden Halo (#ShePersisted in her faith through WW2 & Mao's China) and Mary Magdalene who did. And this is not a complete list of the non-Euro-American Saints who have been bracketed in Lent Madness. (Let's leave the "are Celts Europeans" discussion for another day.)
I was certain I was going to vote for Cecilia until I read about Henry. I am Canadian and have never heard of him. His bio impressed me and swayed my vote.
I miss Oliver---- 9 years old
I voted for Henry Budd, since we actually know a great deal about him and his wonderful Christian faith and ministry. Just about everything we know about Cecilia (precious little) is legendary. She was probably a great and inspiring Christian martyr, and as patron saint of music and musicians is a favorite of mine, but I felt compelled to vote for the saint we have more historical knowledge of, and in honor of our great neighbor Canada.
I was torn because both stories are compelling but I'm a musician and that made the choice. the children's choir at my church is called St. Cecelia's choir!
Henry Budd for me!
Well, my life is very much "Life is music, the rest is just details", so I had to vote for Cecilia, but I am glad to see Henry Budd giving her a good challenge!
Like many, I voted for Henry Budd because his story moved me. To persist when being discriminated against for no more reason than he is First People, is inspiring. Too many have been given short shrift just because they are part of a marginalized group. Time to change that long standing custom and pay homage to those for whom it is too late, and change all vestiges of current custom.
On the other hand, I want to recognise the patron saint of music, having been a choir member for most of my life, and still enjoy music above all the arts.
I have noticed over the years that Celtic figures do well. Why?
Although Cecilia appears to be a delicate soul, he is one tough cookie! Cecilia all the way!
Is it possibly because so many of the folks following Lent Madness are of celtic background? Methinks that is very likely. Think what happened with Brigid. We all love St Francis but pit an Italian with a celt and suddenly its about origins, not saintliness. Fun though, regardless.
Who knew that missionaries got paid? In any case, HenryBudd's native name seems appropriate. The criterion (note spelling of singular) of reality beats the criteria of myth and legend. Q.E.D. Henry made it to the top.
I have to vote for Budd because I know for sure he was reall. He had a hard row to hoe and he really did it.
In the hopes of promoting a kinder and gentler internet world, please consider removing the name of the school in question and the name of the saint for which the votes were cast. I feel that better models the values your game hopes to spread.
Thanks!
"like"