Why is this day unique in the annals of Lent Madness 2017? It is the ONLY non-weekday battle of the season. Yes, we're amazing at math. Thus the first Saturday of every season includes the one and only weekend battle of Lent Madness (trust us - we've done the math).
Yesterday Henry Beard Delany romped to a first round victory over Aelred of Rievaulx 78% to 22%. He'll go on to face the winner of Anselm of Canterbury vs. Florence Nightingale in the Saintly Sixteen.
Enjoy your Sunday devotions on the First Sunday in Lent (make sure to tell everybody at coffee hour just how much you love Lent Madness) and we'll get back to voting first thing Monday Morning as John Wycliffe takes on Moses the Black!
Isaac the Syrian
Isaac the Syrian, also know as Isaac of Nineveh, was born around 630 in eastern Arabia. At a young age he entered a monastery, where he dedicated himself to asceticism—a practice of withdrawing from the world in order to build a deeper spiritual life. Having spent countless hours studying in the monastery’s library, he became a renowned theologian.
After spending years as a monk, Isaac was consecrated Bishop of Nineveh, but he didn’t enjoy his new office and abdicated five months later. He then relocated to the wilderness of Mount Matout, where he lived as a hermit in solitude for many years. It is said that he ate only three loaves of bread and some uncooked vegetables each week. Old and blind, he eventually retired to the Assyrian monastery of Shabar in Mesopotamia, where he died and was buried.
Isaac was a prolific writer whose sermons about the inner spiritual life and the work of the Holy Spirit are considered key to understanding asceticism in the early church. His manuscripts in Syrian Arabic have survived for many centuries in Greek, Arabic, and Russian translations. His teachings about God’s providence, faith, prayer, obedience, and neighborly love have inspired generations of Christians and continue to be translated and published in many languages.
Because he avoided weighing in on the theological debates of his day, he is venerated and appreciated in many different Christian traditions, including the Assyrian Church of the East, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the (non-Chalcedonian) Oriental churches. His feast is celebrated on January 28.
Collect for Isaac the Syrian
God of unsearchable wisdom, we thank you for the spirited life of our brother Isaac the Syrian, who wrote and prayed in companionship with you alone. Help us, like Isaac, relentlessly seek your wisdom and adore your face as you show it to us in the faces of our neighbors, family, friends, and all those who may be different from us. Amen.
Mechtild of Magdeburg
Born to a wealthy Saxon family around 1210, Mechtild of Magdeburg received the first of the daily visions that would come to her for the rest of her life at the tender age of 12. She called these her divine “greetings” from the Holy Spirit.
Leaving her family in 1230 “in order to dwell in the love of God,” she joined a Beguine community in Magdeburg, Germany. These intentional communities of the faithful stressed imitation of Christ’s life through religious devotion, voluntary poverty, and care of the poor and sick.
Dwelling in community in Magdeburg for forty years, Mechtild received spiritual instruction from the Dominicans. Mechtild’s confessor, Heinrich von Halle, encouraged her to write down her spiritual experiences and visions. From about 1250 until 1270, she wrote six of her seven volumes series, Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of the Godhead).
Mechtild’s descriptions of her daily visions are filled with passion. Besides being written by a woman when most women were neither literate nor educated, Mechtild composed her work in middle-low German while most religious literature was being written in Latin.
Mechtild’s devotional poetry is reminiscent of both love poetry and folk songs. Her books offer an account of the ecstatic, passionate experience of personal daily greetings from the Holy Spirit, in addition to her courageous condemnation of vices practiced by the clergy of her day. Mechtild’s writings were distributed widely during her lifetime and brought her much criticism— but her work was also deeply admired by and influential for other medieval mystics. Her writings indicate that Mechtild’s life was complicated by serious illnesses. In approximately 1270, blind and living alone, she was taken in by the convent of Helfta near Eisleben for the final years of her life. While in this community, the nuns cared for her, and she dictated her seventh book.
The exact date of her death in the late 1200s is unknown. Around 1290, Dominican friars of the Halle community translated the first six of her books into Latin. The feast of Mechtild of Magdeburg is November 19.
Collect for Mechtild of Magdeburg
Almighty God, we praise you for your servant, Mechtild of Magdeburg, through whom you have called the church to its tasks and renewed its life. Raise up in our own day teachers and prophets inspired by your Spirit, whose voices will give strength to your church and proclaim the reality of your reign, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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252 comments on “Isaac the Syrian vs. Mechtild of Magdeburg”
A match-up between two similar figures of the ecumenical spiritual tradition of the church, both of whom have been neglected until recent times (Isaac for cultural reasons, Mechtild because of gender).
In the end, I voted for Mechtild because of the way she expressed her spirituality in practical compassion toward others, rather than in asceticism f0r asceticism's sake.
I seriously appreciate "Lent Madness" for the way it encourages us to use discernment in evaluating various dimensions of the life of faith, each good in itself, vis a vis each other.
Living through a time of cut throat political competition, I appreciate a saint who stepped down from power. I cast my vote for humility. Thank you, Isaac.
Interesting...And this is a fun & enlightening activity
Methinks out SEC tried to rig the vote in their bios, which provided much more info about Mechtild than Issac. But you all, especially quoting from Isaac's works, have informed my choice. Isaac it is.
I appreciate Lent Madness for helping us learn of these holy people!
"our," not "out."
Still getting used to the keyboard on this tablet.
Gosh, I'm sure not having a lot of luck this year. ;P
First 3 days, and every one of my picks seems massively outvoted. Though I guess the day's not done yet.
I visited Magdeburg last year. The church, a partner of our diocese, invited partner churches on a pilgrimage of justice and peace. It was a fascinating and moving experience. I can't recall Mechtild being mentioned though, so I cast my vote for her, in thanksgiving for the generosity and hospitality we received.
I voted for Mechtild because she wrote with her heart as well as her intellect, and she did not let her apparent lack of knowledge of Latin stop her. "Understand of the people" applied then, just as it did during the English Reformation, and as it still does now, and always will.
Mechtild of Magdeburg was an easy pick for me. My grandmother was born in Magdeburg--while not exactly saint like she was an interesting person. She had an etching of the Magdeburger Dom that hung over her fireplace as long as I could remember. When we went to Magdeburg in September 2015 we visited the Dom several times. It is the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany. They started building it in 1209--it took 300 years to build. I am thinking that Mechtild probably visited the Dom--it is cool to walk in a place where a saint has trod.
Isaac, because of his immense labor and lasting influence. Also, Syrians need all the help they can get these days.
Mechtild of Magdeburg made manifold majestic and marvelous manna for morning muse.
Nice alliteration!
I voted for Isaac because he relinquished the position of bishop, and returned to what he was best suited for. We should all be that wise. It was telling for me that his works are still relevant today.
My 12-year-old son and I cancelled each others' votes out. He liked Isaac because he appealed to many different traditions, and I liked Mechtild because she wrote in a language that could be understood by many.
My name is Zoey, I am six. I voted for Mechtild today because she's blind and because she is a girl. Today I voted for Girl Power. Thank you.
(Typed by mum but in Zo's words).
Thank you for being part of our community, Zoey. We welcome you (and your mum!).
I appreciate visionaries and an early woman writer in her own tongue. My mother had an older friend (or possibly relative) who was named Sister Mary Mechtild and with whom I carried on a correspondence when I was 9 and 10. Perhaps she and my aunt Sister Miriam Doyle (OLVM) and the many other nuns and priests in my life are part of the reason why today I am one of those clergy feeding at the trough 🙂 Mechtild for me!
I also voted for Mechtild. The fact that she made significant religious impact as a female back in the Dark Ages is remarkable. In addition, I am impressed that her writings were originally written in the language of he people, and ironic that the churchmen of the time then translated them into Latin:)
I vote for both; each has an equal valued contribution to their respective communities. I would not devalue/disrespect one for the other. But this is not the the main game plan, is it .
Waltzing Mechtild for me.
As a child, I had a goat named Matilda, named for the song, "Waltzing Matilda" with was very popular during WWII. Her milk helped me to become much healthier.
I voted for Isaac because I have a dog named Isaac. (Who could imagine a dog named Mechtild?)
A toughie! But I want to honor the Syrian branch of the church - there will be other women and Europeans. Isaac. Apparently we are few but proud!
I did not read your comment, or the voting results, before casting my own vote. I definitely commend your motives, But I felt more spiritually more moved by the example of Mechtild. Is there any option for nominating Isaac as maybe a Lenten equivalent of "St. Congeniality"? Maybe St. "Keep-the-faith-alive"?
OK this will sound cranky, but I'm uncomfortable with the women who vote for her "because she's a woman" or deacons who vote "because he/she's a deacon", etc. Would we be comfortable with a man who voted for him "because he's a man"?
I agree with you totally. I am a woman, but I voted for Isaac. I felt the fact that his writings so well explained the aescetic life, and were so necessary for the knowledge of that life that they imparted, that I had to give him my vote.
How admirable to follow her heart and spirit to write/dictate seven books of her divine greetings from the Holy Spirit! Bless the nuns who cared for her, and the friars who translated her works.
I doubt anyone will read what I say, but I shall comment nonetheless. I voted for Mechtild because her life included others: her monastic order cared for the poor and sick, and her writings were "in the vernacular" where she lived.
I readily concede that Isaac lived an exemplary life of ascetic monasticism, but I come away with the sense that he "lived apart from" rather than "lived with" us not-so-saintly folks.
These days, our injured, hurting world (and church) needs more saints reaching *out* to include the wounded... but those saints who live the inner life of contemplation and intercessory prayer are also deeply needed.
I appreciated your thoughts, Karen. Thanks for contributing. While I voted for Mechtild, I was seriously torn by this match up. The contemporary church could use a good dose of Isaac's writings on following Christ and not taking sides.
I read and appreciate your thoughtful comment.
She seems capable of powerful intercessory prayer. Would that more fans of FC Magdeburg would invoke her assistance to promote the team to 2.Bundesliga!
Mechtild of Magdeburg has an asteroid (873) named for her as does Freddie Mercury (Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury), well worth a vote.
Looks like Mechtild of Magdebur is winning this round, also when does this round ends?
Bekka 10 yo
Welcome, Bekka.
I don't know whether the voting ends at midnight or when they put up the next slate.
I'm a Pentecostal, so of course I voted for Mechtild. You had me at the Hily Spirit!
I'm with her.
I was impressed that Mechtild was literate at a time when so many women weren't, and that she was encouraged by her priest (a man) to make a written record of her visions in the language of the common people where she lived. And she wasn't stifled when her writings stirred up controversy!
I voted for Mechtild primarily because she had visions/visits from the Holy Spirit. That faith and certainty in what she saw is a faith to be envied.