We're back for the first full week of saintly thrills and spills! Today we get our first matchup in the Mostly Modern quadrant as Anna Alexander faces Peter Claver. Of course it's all relative -- Anna lived in the 19th century and Peter straddled the 16th and 17th centuries. But what's a few hundred years among friends?
On Saturday, Quiteria the nonuplet warrior defeated Genesius in a fairly close battle 54% to 46%. She will go on to face the winner of Thomas à Kempis vs. Maria Skobstova in the Saintly Sixteen.
For those of you who filled out brackets in advance, is it already busted? Or maybe a saint you really wanted to win has lost, causing you to lose all faith in humanity -- or at least in the Lent Madness voting public. Just a reminder -- it's not really about which saints win or lose (they've all received their Golden Halos) -- it's about encountering Jesus through the inspiring lives of those who have come before us in the faith. So buck up! And live to vote another day.
Anna Alexander
Anna Alexander was the first African-American Deaconess of the Episcopal Church. Deaconess Alexander was born around 1865 on Saint Simon’s Island in Georgia. Her parents, James and Daphne Alexander, were well-educated and emancipated slaves. Her father, James, believed education was the path to a better life for the people on the plantation, and he continued to teach Anna and her siblings in defiance of Georgia laws that forbade the education of slaves.
James and Daphne Alexander instilled in their daughter a strong belief in shared and communal responsibility and the idea that change occurs in the relationships built within our communities. As a result, Anna is credited with establishing an Episcopal church and school in Pennick, Georgia. The community initially met in an abandoned farmhouse and then in an old store, where they converted the whiskey counter into an altar. Faced with antiquated diocesan and societal laws, Anna’s mission church struggled financially, and Anna took up sewing, teaching, and other jobs to raise money to purchase land for a permanent church and school. Through her community relationships, she drew upon the financial support of her fellow brothers and sisters. Through their combined efforts, they were able to build the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and school.
At a Convention for Colored Episcopalians in 1907, Bishop C.K. Nelson named Anna a deaconess. During the time of her diaconate, it was virtually unheard of for a woman to be recognized as a leader in the church—especially an African-American woman. Anna’s hard work, devotion, and dedication to the Christian formation of black communities ensured that the voices of African-American Christians were heard throughout the Diocese of Georgia. Deaconess Alexander felt that anger about how society treated women and African-Americans was a wasted emotion and believed she could change her community through education and love. She exhibited this love through a devotion to Christian formation. Deaconess Alexander offers us an example of a life of faith rooted in a boundless love of others.
Deaconess Anna Alexander’s feast day is September 24.
Collect for Anna Alexander
O God, you called Anna Alexander as a deaconess in your Church and sent her as teacher and evangelist to the people of Georgia: Grant us the humility to go wherever you send, and the wisdom to teach the word of Christ to whomever we meet, that all may come to the enlightenment which you intend for your people; through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.
Peter Claver
Times of great evil are often opportunities for profound witness to the love of God. The deep evil of the transatlantic slave trade was just such a time, and it was into that moment in history that Peter Claver, SJ was born in 1580.
During studies in his home country of Spain, Peter joined the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits sent him out to be a part of their mission to the Americas. Peter encountered the horrors of the slave trade and through the tutelage of another Jesuit was introduced to ministry among the Africans who were being trafficked through the port of Cartagena, Colombia.
After being abducted from their homes in Africa, the victims of the slave trade became a commodity to their captors. They were packed inhumanely into ships, fed minimal amounts of food and water, and sailed across the Atlantic to the Americas. During the horrific journey, about a third of all African slaves died.
Each year, 10,000 slaves would arrive in Cartagena. As soon as a slave ship arrived, Peter descended into the hold—into the midst of the sickness, death, and suffering. He brought medicine, food, water, and words of comfort. As the slaves disembarked, Peter continued to minister among them. After six years of this ministry, Claver made his final profession as a Jesuit. He signed his name, “Peter Claver, slave to the Ethiopians [Africans].”
Peter continued his ministry among the slaves of Cartagena for thirty more years. In addition to his time in the port, he often traveled out to plantations so he could continue to care for the slaves.
During his four decades of ministry, Peter baptized at least 300,000 people. His ability to share the Good News of Christ was closely tied to his compassion and care for the physical needs of the victims of slavery. In considering the connection between preaching and service, he once said, “We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips.”
In the face of great evil and suffering, we may feel overwhelmed. Peter Claver reminds us of the profound difference that one person acting compassionately can make.
Collect for Peter Claver
God of grace and glory, we praise you for your servant Peter Claver, who made the good news known in Colombia. Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds of the gospel, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of your love, and be drawn to worship you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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308 comments on “Anna Alexander vs. Peter Claver”
This was the toughest choice as both were worthy of our vote, but I had to go with Anna, she "bloomed where she was planted".
Because: Georgia. And because she is still being called a Deacon-ESS in 2018!
But she was a deaconess . . . not the same thing as a deacon - women couldn't be deacons, remember??!
When I read about Anna Alexander, I am mediately thought, “Oh yes, I’ll definitely vote for her.” But then I read about Peter Claver, and thought I could easily vote for him too. In the end, I voted for Anna because her story spoke to my personal journey. “... change occurs in the relationships built within our communities...” is a powerful statement. One we should all heed. Go Deacon Anna Alexander!
Let's get serious brothers and sisters! We are Episcopalians not Roman Catholics with all respects!!!!!!!
I would like to see a tie for them!
This is a fascinating interesting race for the halo, hearing of saints I would have never known!
Actually the Lent Madness community is nondenominational.
Thank you for that reminder, Davis.
Some of us are neither. I'm a retired United Methodist clergy. (offspring of the Church of England via the Wesleys)
Both stellar role models for message of love and compassion. I voted for Anna as namesake, woman, but mostly her push for education, a passion for me.
It's only 9:00 in the morning real (mountain) time, and already thousands have voted and well over a hundred people have commented. I was so torn between these candidates I seriously considered not voting rather than choose. I did vote, but I'm not saying for whom. Praise God for these splendid saints!
“We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips.” This is why I voted for Peter Claver
Baptizing is great, but The Rev. Anna did real works. Bless Anna
Really toough decision for me today. "Deaconess Alexander offers us an example of a life of faith rooted in a boundless love of others." But "We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips.." Both sentiments I can really get behind. In the end it was "Deaconess Alexander felt that anger about how society treated women and African-Americans was a wasted emotion and believed she could change her community through education and love. " We certainly could use less anger and more education and love today.
Another tough one. If you really think about they both went out to spread the good news of Jesus, and they both struggled against slavery in their own respecte ways for their generation. While there is much to recognize Peter for, but I chose Anna because I felt closer to her and her struggles to do God's work.
Great reasoning, though, Oliver!
This was a hard one. St. Anna & St. Peter are both so inspirational. Wanted to vote for both!
Peter did what no one could or would. Slavery is alive and well on this earth. Slaves are cleaning our shrimp, picking our coffee and chocolate beans, mining our diamonds and 50,000 sex slaves are brought in to the US, I can't remember if that's daily or annually, but it doesn't matter and there's more, much more. Many are paying attention and buying free trade products. Why aren't we doing more to change the system? Why aren't free trade signs all over our favorite grocery stores? And department stores. Are we wearing clothing made in the USA? Are our churches using only free trade coffee? At least. Are child slaves making our clothes? Are we doing enough to prevent slavery? Peter gave them a God and actually saved their lives. Then he went and checked on them. And that's not enough? I voted for Peter. I'm not doing enough to fight slavery, either, but the shrimp I had the other night never saw a slave or forced laborer--as far as I know. The cleaning service I use, pays well and has excellent health insurance and are considering a pension plan--according to the cleaners. Anna did wondrous things and used her gifts and good fortune to the fullest and made life better for many. She was a powerful example and must have been amazing to have impressed the male leadership of the church at that time to the point they ordained her a deacon. If she processed down the aisle, I'd bow to her. I really would.
You and I are both on the same page, Oliver.
I’m sure they were more productive slaves as a result of his ministry.
Well said
Great points, thanks!
Thanks Belle and Judy Bye, both, for your comments today!
“Peter gave them a God.” Is that how it’s done? Someone gives you a a God!
While both saints are deserving of our gratitude and praise, I voted for Anna Alexander. In a time a time of the horrendous slaughtering of our children, I need Anna's wisdom and courage to 'be the change' that provide safety to our children and unite our nation once again. Ms. Alexander reminds me that love, respect and compassion will drive the change...not anger.
Since my church in Diocese of Texas was started in a beer hall have to go with the lady who used a whisky bar as an alter.
Good point, Christina.
we need MORE like Peter in this day and age.. sadly wish we could more like him in givt as well thank you Oliver for your insight
It was a hard decision, Oliver, but I voted for Peter also!
Wins the Internet! #TeamAnna!
I voted for Anna because she bucked the system deeply ingrained long after Peter. Hurray for bucking the systems.
Another difficult choice. I have two reasons for voting for Peter: for one, he was behind (go for the underdog when in doubt); for the other, he was--as someone else noted--a product of his time. Peter lived about 300 years before Anna, when slavery was so common (and had been common for centuries) people probably didn't even think about it as oppression.
What he did was to work within the system, bringing as much comfort and assistance to the captives as he could under the circumstances. He first demonstrated the love of God before telling of it.
"We must speak to them [the slaves] with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips."
Would that our own lives would speak so loudly.
Now this was a tough one. Both served well.
Anna and Peter are both winners, whoever wins our little popularity poll. I voted for Peter because he descended into Hell and toiled there for half his life. Not just the physical hell of the slaveholds, but the mental and emotional hell of confronting the horror of slavery, and the humanity of the enslaved, every single day. Who among us could have borne that?
Peter’s response to the time and place in which he found himself was radical, sacrificial actionwithin the framework of what he could and could not change. To blame him for not speaking out against the institution of slavery, much less for not working to end it, is quite unfair. Apart from whether he personally would have been fitted for such a task, or was in any position to undertake it, doing so not only would have been fruitless but likely would have barred him from the abundantly fruitful vocation that he did choose and in which he persisted.
Thank you for that compassionate and reasoned response.
Yes sir!
I love Saint Simons Island and its lovely Christ Church!
I need to visit again soon!
Peter may have become an unwitting cog in the slave trade. The traders come into port and Peter would supply the slaves with valuable food and medicine. The traders then get a better price for the slaves.
Where does that lead as moral guidance? To letting them starve for its macroeconomic effect?
I’m sure you didn’t mean that, of course. You’ve given us a fine example of the sad fact that often, by entering a situation, we find ourselves forced to participate in it willy-nilly.
Amen, Davis. The man who was made to help Jesus carry his cross was also a cog, and I'm sure Jesus was grateful for his help nonetheless.
Another hard choice today, but I voted for Anna. I could as easily have voted for Peter... which only goes to show what a richness we have in our choices each day! Thank you, SEC!
What a difficult choice. Thankful I only have to vote for one, and am not making a life and death choice. In the end I chose Anna because in my opinion she faced the greater obstacle- being a black woman in the south. And yet, she persisted!!
I voted for Anna especially since I am a candidate for ordination to the diaconate
Tough choice today! Tougher than many I've seen in the past. I think that, in my mind, Anna beats Peter because of the fact that, as a black woman, she had a rougher road than Peter, as a white Jesuit, had.
Disappointing to hear that this would be about race. A hard job is a hard job. Race will cease to be a hot point when we stop using it as a justification. Anna is worthy of winning this round because of her persistent initiative and creativity to fund her own ministry. She doesn't need any extra help to win this round!
I am wondering if in the 17th century Peter would have been considered "white" in our contemporary sense. Peter was serving slaves in the early 17th century, at a time when racial ideology was just beginning to be formed. It seems that the ideology of race and racism was being actively constructed from the late 17th through 19th centuries. And of course Jim Crow extended well into the 20th century. We are still struggling with the legacy of racism today, and US immigration policy is a flashpoint of racist ideology, with raw, recent commentary about who is or is not from a "shithole" country.
There's an interesting article on the construction of "whiteness" at https://www.cwu.edu/diversity/sites/cts.cwu.edu.diversity/files/documents/constructingwhiteness.pdf
The author states: "By the 1660s, in the interest of supporting the agricultural economy of the South, slave codes were enacted in Virginia and Maryland. For Blacks, the slave codes extended the status of chattel slave from indentured status to slave for life. It was by the institutionalization of slavery that the power of the masters was secured by the adoption of 'race' as an overriding principle of organization throughout [American] society. . . [B]y 1863 [the Emancipation Proclamation], the 'race' die had been cast."
The French Code Noir was decreed in 1685 applying to African slaves in the Caribbean. Then it was applied within north America in Louisiana in 1724 until Louisiana joined the US in 1803. The French code aligned slave children's status with that of their mother: if the mother was a slave, so were the children; if the mother had been freed, the children were free.
Constructions of racial ideology are ongoing including what it means to be "black" or "white." To me that encompasses what it means as well to be " indigenous," "native," or "immigrant." I would like to think that both Anna and Peter offer us models as our "ancestors" (to use a word applied to Audre Lorde, a poet who died not long ago) for trying to break at least some of the cruel chains of economic systems that link unequal social and cultural institutions in order to destroy human possibility.
I agree
I voted for Peter, and although Anna expressed the futility of anger, and Peter that "we must speak with our hands", both of them showed their faith by their actions. I guess my vote reflected that Peter touched more people in a very basic way.
This match-up is truly unfair. Two individuals who did inestimable good among people of African descent, in different times and places. I think I'm going to flip a coin.
They're both fine choices, and I'll be happy with either, but I voted for Anna because that choice resonated with me more. I love that she founded a school!
A later match-up between Simon Peter and Peter Claver would be fun, though. ...
I voted for Anna because of this: "Deaconess Alexander felt that anger about how society treated women and African-Americans was a wasted emotion and believed she could change her community through education and love." Truly inspiring!!
This wasn't an easy one...and so early in the race! I almost voted for Anna after I read her bio, and thought I should at least read about Peter. Peter was an easy choice because it can be so hard to minister to so many who are in a hopeless situation, with no end in sight. Thank God he persevered.
Let’s remember that Anna was not herself far removed from slavery. What she would have endured in her life time cannot be compared to Peter.