In the fullness of time, the Supreme Executive Committee rests from its Lenten labors and begins accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2018.
In other words...
Welcome to Nominationtide!
For one full week, Tim and Scott will be accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2018. The nominating period will remain open through the evening of Monday, May 22. At which point the window will unceremoniously slam shut.
Please note that the ONLY way to nominate a saint is to leave a comment in this post. Nominations will not be accepted via social media, e-mail, carrier pigeon, brick through a window at Forward Movement headquarters, singing telegram, sky writer, or giant billboard along I-95. Also, at least officially, bribes are discouraged.
As you discern saints to nominate, please keep in mind that a number of saints are ineligible for next year’s “saintly smackdown.” This includes the entire field of Lent Madness 2017, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2016 and 2015, and those from the 2014 Faithful Four. Needless to say Jesus, Mary, Tim, Scott, and previous Golden Halo Winners are also ineligible. Below is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations.
It takes Herculean amounts of shade grown, single-origin coffee for Tim and Scott to put together the Lent Madness bracket.
Also, note that the saints you nominate should be in the sanctoral calendar of one or more churches. When it comes to nominations, the SEC has seen it all over the years: people who are still alive, people who are not Christians, non-humans, etc. While these folks (and animals) may well be wonderful, they are not eligible for Lent Madness. To reiterate, being DEAD is part of the criteria.
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.
And 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! The 2018 field of 32 awaits your input.
The Saints of Lent Madness 2017 (all ineligible)
Fanny Crosby
G.F. Handel
Sarah
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Joseph Schereschewsky
Nikolaus von Zinzendorf
Scholastica
Macrina the Younger
Amelia Bloomer
Phillip Melanchton
Franz Jagerstatter
Joan of Arc
Martin Luther
David Oakerhater
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Canterbury
Raymond Nonnatus
John of Nepomuk
Odo of Cluny
Theodore the Studite
Florence of Nightingale
Anselm of Canterbury
Henry Budd
Cecilia
Moses the Black
John Wycliffe
Mechtild of Magdeburg
Henry Beard Delaney
Aelred of Riveaulx
Stephen
Alban
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Florence Nightingale
From 2014 to 2016 (ineligible)
Thecla
Bernard Mizecki
Frederick Douglass
Molly Brant
Egeria
Brigid of Kildare
Columba
Albert Schweitzer
Julian of Norwich
Absalom Jones
Sojourner Truth
Constance
Vida Dutton Scudder
Kamehameha
Phillips Brooks
Lydia
Harriet Bedell
After the SEC culls through the hundreds of nominations at their annual spring retreat, the 2018 Bracket will be announced on All Brackets’ Day (November 3rd).
In the meantime, we wish you all a joyous Nominationtide.
527 comments on “Nominationtide Is Here!”
Richard Allen
Francis Asbury
Susanna Wesley
Dorothy Day
John Eliot, missionary to the Indians, Natick, MA
His translation of the Bible into Algonquin(?) made it possible for them to hear Scripture in their own language.
Charles Freer Andrews (Deenabandhu)
Anglican priest and Mahatma Gandhi's closest British friend. He helped the poor and spoke out against racism.
As it says in Holy Women, Holy Men:
"Affectionately called 'Christ’s Faithful Apostle' by his friend, the Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Freer Andrews dedicated his life’s work to relief and justice for the oppressed and poor in India and around the globe...His Indian students and colleagues, with whom he had grown close, referred to him as Deenabandhu, or 'Friend of the Poor.'”
https://standingcommissiononliturgyandmusic.org/2011/02/12/february-12-charles-freer-andrews-priest-and-%E2%80%9Cfriend-of-the-poor%E2%80%9D-in-india-1940/
Hildegard of Bingen! She was a composer, writer, mystic, and abbess
St. Isidore the farmer; St. Pasqual
Desmond Doss showed devout faithfulness to God’s word and great courage of conviction – a saint for our times. He was a Seventh-day Adventist combat medic and the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor for service above and beyond the call of duty in WWII. His only weapons were his Bible and his faith in God. He risked his life repeatedly to save his fellow soldiers, who bullied him, called him awful names, and cursed him for reading the Bible. The military tried to court martial him for refusing to carry a gun, but when they failed, he refused to leave the army during time of war, believing his duty was to obey God and serve his country - - in that order. Desmond Doss lived the golden rule, "…do to others what you would have them do to you…" (Matthew 7:12). In every military operation while others were taking life, he was busy saving it. He never considered his own safety and repeatedly ran into the most violent fighting of the war to treat fallen comrades and carry them to safety. When Americans were ordered to retreat from the fierce Japanese defense of a steep rock cliff in Okinawa in 1945, less than a third made it down, and the rest were left for dead. Doss disobeyed orders and charged back into the firefight to rescue as many as he could, carrying them on his back, one at a time, all the way down the treacherous cliff, then climbing back up to get another one, while praying each time, “God just let me get one more.” His resolute faith and unflagging courage saved at least 75 lives that day (some accounts say he saved 150). Several days later during an unsuccessful night raid, Desmond was severely wounded when a Japanese grenade landed in his foxhole. He treated his own wounds as best he could, then was hit by a sniper's bullet that shattered his arm. He insisted that his litter-bearers rescue other men first before him, again choosing to risk death so that others might live, and refused to leave without his Bible. After the war, all those cold, wet, sleepless nights in the Pacific caused him to develop tuberculosis, and he spent most of the next six years in hospitals. His left lung was removed along with five ribs, and he died at the age of 87 when his remaining lung failed in 2006.
I nominate St. Genesis, the patron saint of actors. Legend has it that he set out, as an actor, to prove that this "Christian" thing was a hoax - and ended up becoming a believer. I wear his medal in every production in which I perform - keeps me from falling off the stage, but not necessarily from forgetting my lines.
Genesius for me! I used to be very involved in Theatre and I, too, wore his medal whenever I performed.
I nominate Harvey Milk, Caesar Chavez, and Clarence Jordan (writer of the Cotton Patch Gospels).
St. John Bosco
St. Pope John Paul II
St. Theresa of Kalcutta
Isaac the Syrian, for his intoxicated love of the God who is love, and Philoxenus of Mabbug, just because I like his weird name.
Edith Clavell, WW I nurse and martyr
Eric Liddell, WW II missionary and martyr
Fred Rogers
Raoul Wallenburg
How about St. Expedite?
https://saintexpedite.org/about.html
#LentMadness2018
Florence Li-Tim Oi, Hildegard von Bingen, Junia, Mary and Martha of Bethany as a duo.
I nominate St. Mark the Evangelist, author of the first gospel!
Also, Damien of Molokai.
I nominate Jane Addams and Dorothea Dix. Jane was a pioneer in helping the poor in growing cities, and Dorothea was a pioneer in the care of the mentally ill.
I wish to nominate Roger Schütz. Brother Roger Schütz (born in Switzerland) was the founder of Taizé, a monastic community, in Burgundy France. There he welcomed thousands of young pilgrims, until his murder in 2005. He was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. He spent his life inspiring young people, and working for the reconciliation of the different churches of Christianity. Although he never abandoned his Protestant heritage, both Popes John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, gave the sacrament to him, in contravention of canonical prohibitions.
Also, I would like to nominate Marco d'Aviano, who in 1683 calmed the fractious European allies, enabling them to defend Vienna from the Ottoman Turks. That was the last time that the Turks tried to take over Europe.
My nomination is for Saint Christopher - who, legend or not, as a cool story and at least one cool parish named for the same (in Springfield, VA). I am happy to tell you all I know about this fellow, good and bad...and there is plenty of both!
Go, Christopher! My parish (in Oak Park, IL) is named for him.
I've done the research, and yes, Christopher is a real person, as real as Mary or Charles Wesley. He was a martyr and his feast day is July 25. And the story about him being removed from the Calendar--THAT is the myth!
Pauli Murray
G.A. Studdert Kennedy -- Anglican priest and poet. He served as a chaplain on the western front in WWI. On the front lines he was known for giving what comfort he could along with a cigarette and searching for the wounded even while under fire.
In his poetry he struggled to reconcile his faith in the God of Love and Peace with the bitterness of war.
Some of his poems: http://dailylight.net/simple/www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/dasc/TUB.HTM
I recommend: Solomon in all his Glory, The sorrow of God, A Christmas Carol, Indifference, and At a Harvest Festival. The last is used in the USA Episcopal Hymnal 1982 #9 and Hymnal 1940 #156 (Awake, Awake to Love and work).
Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Studdert_Kennedy
Second the nomination of Woodbine Willie. Fr. Kennedy was a great and holy man, a true exemplar of the Anglican genius!
Fred Rogers . A pioneer in television with vision.
Francis Elizabeth Caroline Willard, Methodist, educator and author, first president of a women's college in America, first dean of women at Northwestern University when her college became part of the University following the great Chicago Fire, left education to "do all" for the cause of women through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union where she worked tirelessly first for safe homes in the face of the alcoholism that followed the Civil War, as well as in the labor movement, for the ordination of women, and for women's suffrage. Susan B Anthony considered her a mentor. Her theory of co-ed cation was the focus of my dissertation, she was so extremely famous globally in the 19th century that there is plenty of Lent Madness material. The primary reason Willard is a forgotten to many now is the failure of Prohibition. We don't teach temperance history in middle Scholls American studies, although she does get mention in standard texts for her participation in the labor movement
Carl Jung, who gave us the model for reality that has changed my life and that of many, many others. Such healing work!
In no particular order from HOLY WOMEN, HOLY MEN and the Bible:
Hilda, Abbess of Whitby
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Judith
The Venerable Bede
Catherine of Siena
Mary and Martha of Bethany
Thomas Cranmer
Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Phoebe
I was also in agreement with many others suggested, esp. Pauli Murray and Florence Li Tim Oi.
St. Rocco
St. Anthony
Please consider these nominations...
Julia Chester Emery - feast day Jan. 9 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Chester_Emery
Anne Hutchinson -feast day Feb. 5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson
Anna J Cooper - feast day Feb. 28 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._Cooper
Howard Thurman
Franz Bibfeldt
Big big thumbs up for Howard Thurman! Who was Franz Bibfeldt?
St. Dymphna
Eric Liddell, the Olympic athlete of "Chariot's of Fire" fame, who was also a missionary and who was an amazing witness in WWII prison camp.
Blessed Fra Angelico