Nominationtide has arrived!

The Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness wishes everyone a most blessed season of Nominationtide! For the next week, we will  accept saintly nominations for Lent Madness 2019. This holy season will run from Monday, April 23, at 8:00 am Eastern Time and conclude on Monday, April 30 at 8:00 am.

Nominationtide

As we highlighted in a recent post, there are several Pharisaic rules and regulations in place to successfully nominate a saint. For easy reference, we are reprinting them here:

  1. The nominee must, in fact, be dead.
  2. The nominee must be on the official calendar of saintly commemorations of some church.
  3. We will accept only one nominee per person.*
  4. You must tell us WHY you are nominating the one person that you enter.*
  5. Your deceased pet, as wonderful as she or he may have been, is not eligible.
  6. The ONLY way to nominate a saint will be to leave a comment on this post.
  7. That means comments left on Facebook or Twitter don’t count.
  8. Scott and Tim may or may not be open to bribes.

* This is a new guideline as the SEC has received huge lists from individuals in the past.

Based on long-standing and byzantine criteria, certain saints are ineligible. See below to insure you don't waste your precious nomination. Oh, and Jesus and Mary are never eligible. Obviously.

The Saints of Lent Madness 2018 (all ineligible)

Peter
Paul
Phoebe
John the Evangelist
Esther
Lazarus
Anna the Prophet
Michael the Archangel
John of Beverley
Martin de Porres
Dymphna
Gertrude of Nivelles
Thomas à Kempis
Maria Skobtsova
Genesius
Quiteria
Peter Claver
John Wesley
Edith Cavell
Eglantyne Jebb
Seraphim of Sarov
Isaac Watts
Catherine Winkworth
Isidore the Farmer
Phocas the Gardener
Wulfstan
Katharina von Bora
Mary of Egypt
Richard Hooker
Margaret of Scotland
Charles I

Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)

George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Florence Nightingale, Anna Alexander

From 2015 to 2017 (ineligible)

Stephen
Franz Jagerstatter
Amelia Bloomer
Augustine of Canterbury
Mechtild
Raymond Nonnatus
Martin Luther
Constance
Julian of Norwich
Sojourner Truth
Molly Brant
Egeria
Brigid
Vida Scudder
Albert Schweitzer
Absalom Jones
Columba

As you contemplate your nomination, you may want to take a moment to visit the Lentorium and order your Anna Alexander 2018 Golden Halo winner mug or purple Lent Madness travel mug. Both mugs are new, and they'll be shipping out very soon.

And remember, nominations are now like voting: just one per person. Let the Nominations for Lent Madness 2019 start rolling in!

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668 comments on “Nominationtide has arrived!”

  1. I nominate St Anthony of Padua. Through the years I have lost several items that were precious to me. I have asked St Anthony to intercede on my behalf in finding these things. He has always come through for me. He was a great preacher and theologian. He cared for the poor.

  2. I nominate Bishop Paul Jones, September 04 in the Episcopal Church Calendar.
    Paul Jones was Bishop of Utah until he was forced to resign due to being a pacifist and very vocal against war.
    He founded FOR-Fellowship of Reconciliation and EPF - Episcopal Pacifist (now Peace) Fellowship Lived 1880 - 1941

  3. I nominate Scholastica, 480 -543 AD.
    Twin sister of Benedict. Credited with opening a first Benedictine abbey for women. She’s invoked against rain and storms.
    I like her because I know what it’s like to live with a larger than life brother.

  4. I nominate Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard came into my life 2 months ago via a Bacci chocolate. The quote of the day, "Your light never leaves me and burns in my soul". I was intrigued, who was this woman. Now, I am amazed.

    Hildegard the Abbess, the Christian mystic, the composer, the phamacist/healer, the poet, the theologian, the lover of nature and all it's amazing gifts from God. In our current times of difficulties for women, for the earth and for all who reside upon it, her words remain powerful after nearly 1000 years. Her words help to rekindle the flames of a world that has gone cold with greed and selfishness.

  5. St Paul- I am nominating him because he started as a Pharisee and was converted on the road to Damascus. He is the author of 2/3 of the New Testament. Perhaps God can do more with people who have sinned and know what the fall is like!

  6. St. Hubert.. saw the light when hunting and gave up his riches. There is also some Italian saint with the same story, st Hubert came first. I find it fascinating that two saints share the same story of seeing a cross between a deers antlers.

  7. My nominee is Saint Columba (c.521-597 AD), Irish abbot, evangelist, missionary, scholar, soldier, & miracle worker. He's more than just the dispatcher of the LOCH NESS MONSTER! WAY more!
    Picture it. C.565 AD, Irish monk Columba was visiting the land of the Picts in the Scottish Highlands. He saw natives burying a man next to the River Ness who had been killed by a "water beast." Columba laid his staff across the body of the man who revived. C. Then sent companion Luigne to swim across the river to fetch back a boat. When beast approached Luigne, Columba made sign of the cross & said, "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once."
    The creature fled & C's men & the Picts gave thanks for the miracles. Immediately, the Picts were converted & baptized in the River Ness.

    I nominate St. Columba for his lifetime of devotion & obedience to Christ, dedication to preaching the Gospel, founding of Iona & much more. Current issues of COPYRIGHT infringement & SANCTUARY continue today. He's patron of copyrighters, poets, & many more.

    St. Columba was:
    AN EVANGELIST:
    As a "pilgrim for Christ," Columba converted Pictish King Brude & much of Scotland. He sent monks throughout Europe & beyond to gain converts & establish churches. "He launched the monastic migrations of the 7th & 8th centuries that laid the foundations of our western civilizations."
    A SCHOLAR:
    He wrote 600 books + poetry. His Iona monks copied 1000's of books, preserving them for future generations.(Remember the OLD Xerox ad with the monks & the copier?)
    He trained as a monk under St. Finnian. He made a copy of F's Psalter of St. Jerome. Finnian claimed the copy. King Diarmaid ruled against C, so F got the copy. (1st war waged due to copyright dispute + another issue ensued.)

    WARRIOR:
    Columba, a descendant of Irish kings & a clansman, joined in war against King Diarmaid(&Finnian) when Diarmaid removed & murdered a man who had claimed SANCTUARY with C.
    Columba's forces defeated the king's. 3000 lives lost. (But C got his copy of Jerome's Psalter back.)

    PENITENT
    Columba was sent from Ireland never to return to reclaim 3000 new pagan souls to replace those lost. C agreed with & accepted this & brought many beyond the death debt.

    MIRACLE WORKER:
    LOCH NESS MONSTER miracles were not surprising to Columba's company because he was already worker of myriad miracles (Raising dead, water into wine, etc.) Miracles continued throughout lifetime.

    ONE OF 12 APOSTLES OF IRELAND:
    Confrere of numerous saints. Traveled. Brought back to Derry a copy of Gospels that had belonged to St. Martin.
    FOUNDER OF IONA:
    His abbey became a center of Gaelic monasticism for 400 years. Still is.
    GOOD GUY:
    Clan inbred Irish temper, mostly threats. Made penance for (justifiable) war. Said to be warmhearted, generous, lover of animals. (He sent LOCH NESS MONSTER away, didn't kill it. Still there, maybe. Probably?)
    St. Adamnan wrote Columba was, "angelic in appearance, graceful in speech, holy in work" with "holy joyousness that ever beamed...with which the Holy Spirit filled his soul."

    There's more. You can look it up. Times Book of Saints, ed. Ghezzi. Pocket Book of Saints, ed. Delaney. National Catholic Registry article by Angelo Stagnaro. Adamnan's biog. The Venerable St. Bede. Wikipedia will find most of these.
    Nominate St. Columba, please. I'll be proud to buy his coffee mug after everyone agrees & votes with me. XX'sBB's

  8. I nominate St Elizabeth of the Trinity (1890-1906), Carmelite of Dijon France.
    She was a near contemporary of St Thérèse of Lisieux, whose life and teaching helped her to become more trusting in the face of incurable illness, inner suffering, and intense persecution of the church by the French government.
    She has an important teaching of her own and needs to be better known.
    Her feast is on 8 November.

  9. I nominate Eric Liddell (Scotsman) missionary in China, and teacher at the Tiensin Anglo-Chinese College from 1926 until the Japanese occupation during World War II. Along with other Westerners he was held in a Japanese internment camp, where he ministered to his fellow inmates. He died in the camp in 1945. He is best known perhaps for his refusal to compete in the 100-meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics because it was scheduled for a Sunday, as well as for his subsequent first-place win in the 400-meter race for which he had not trained. His feast day is February 22.

    1. The film "Chariots of Fire" commemorates his refusal to run on Sunday and also the missionary faith of his family that supported him. It's a great film (full of track running and wonderful costumes) There is also a sub plot about the anti-Semitism his team mate Harold Abrahams experienced.

      1. Thank you. Yes, "Chariots of Fire" was released in 1981 - and includes the singing of the hymn Jerusalem - with the verses of the poet William Blake ("..bring me my chariot of fire"). There's another movie - "The Last Race" - made in China about Mr. Liddell's life post-Olympics, in China (where he was born). It was released in 2016, but I'm not sure if it made it to the market in the United States.

  10. After graduating from seminary, Paul Jones moved to the missionary diocese of Utah and worked for the same wages as an elevator attendant. He was a prominent Christian Socialist and pacifist, and eventually became the bishop of Utah. Because of his opposition to World War I, Bishop Jones was brought before the House of Bishops, which recommended Jones take a leave of absence based on his opposition to government policy. Jones resigned his see, a witness of peace and nonviolence. After taking a teaching position at Antioch College, he wrote: "The leadership of today is the prize of successful conformity to the world as it is. Leadership with God takes one into those currents where creative changes are taking place. It means catching something of his vision of the world and letting him work through one, sharing in the work of deepening the richness of human relations, revealing the reality of human brotherhood and not caring what one's portion may be so long as one has the consciousness of being a fellow worker with God."
    For several decades, the Episcopal Church's liturgical calendar has remembered Bishop Jones on September 4.

  11. I nominate St. Isidore of Seville. Named by Pope John Paul II as patron of the internet, he is also patron of computer users and techies. A learned man, he was called "The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages" because of the encyclopedia he wrote which was used as a textbook for nine centuries. He united a divided Spain (Catholic Romans and Arian Goths), making Spain a center of culture and learning, and a teacher and guide for other countries threatened by barbarian invaders. He required seminaries to be built, founded schools that included every branch of learning in the curriculum, wrote a Rule for religious orders and completed the Mozarabic liturgy. Increasing his charities in the last months of his life, "his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside."

    To quote from the Franciscan Media website:
    "Our society can well use Isidore's spirit of combining learning and holiness. Loving, understanding and knowledge can heal and bring a broken people back together.......But people who are swamped by riches and overwhelmed by scientific and technological advances can lose much of their understanding love for one another."

  12. St. Aldhelm of Wessex – He was a scholar famed all the way to Rome, but he didn’t just sit in his monastic study writing Latin tracts for other clergy. He set Jesus’ life into Anglo-Saxon bardic songs and then went out with his harp and sang them in the marketplace. And he made up riddles, which have recently been poetically translated! http://www.amjuster.net/ald-dis He’s not only admirable, he’s fun!

  13. I nominate Saint Martin of Tours for next year's madness. Let's be real here in the saint matchups; to have a soldier in the competition is really going to be a much watched and followed knock-out event. And, he is a soldier of compassion; you know the cloak story and how he shared his with a beggar in a snowstorm no less. It is time to raise the excitement bar and accept my nomination for Saint Martin of Tours!!

  14. I would like to nominate Saint Rose of Lima. I think Saint Rose should be the winner because she is the patron saint of Peru and of all South America.

  15. I nominate St. Wolfgang of Regensburg for Lent Madness 2020. I want to nominate him because of his work to reform the church in Germany in the 10th century. His works brought new life to the church in Germany, especially in Bavaria and Austria.

  16. I nominate Saint Abraham of Kidunaia. He was a wise hermit that was born into a rich family. He had everything he needed to live a rich and full life, but he gave it up. He told his wife that he couldn't marry her on his wedding day so he can commit himself to God. He was willing to make sacrifices to spread the good news of the Lord.

  17. Nomination: St Rose Philippine Duchesne
    I chose this saint because though she had wealthy beginnings she was able to open up two schools and help the people less fortunate than her. She opene3d up a free school in Missouri and a school for Indians as a woman in the mid-1800s.

  18. I would like to nominate St. Joseph of Nazareth because he sacrificed so much for Jesus and Mary.

  19. I nominate St. Cecilia. She should be nominated because I love her dedication to God. Even though she was about to be persecuted, she still had faith that God was going to make sure that she would go to heaven with God.

  20. I would like to nominate Saint Mother Teresa because she was a leader. She founded "The Missionarites of Charity" to look after abandoned babies and to help the poorest of the poor. She helped others more than she helped herself.

  21. I would like to nominate SAINT HELENA of the True Cross. I would like to namoinate this saint because of the huge role she played in the spread of Catochism and she discovered the Cross of Jesus. She was also the mother of Constantine the Great.

  22. I nominate Pauli Murray because not only was she the first African-America woman ordained as an Episcopal priest, but was also a civil rights activist, lawyer, author, and feminist; she was a leader and a role model to all.

  23. I would like to nominate Saint Therese of Lisieux because of her undying devotion to her faith even since she was a little girl.

  24. I would like to nominate Saint Theresa of Alvia. After she became a nun, she fell ill with malaria. But, she never gave up on God and the work she had to fulfill for him. Throughout her journey of sickness and even after, she never gave up on herself and God. She is a true example of perseverance and having trust in God.

  25. The Saint that I would like to nominate is Saint Anne. I chose Saint Anne because she is very kind and she is one of the saints that I look up to.

  26. I would like to nominate Saint Rose of Lima. I want to nominate Saint Rose of Lima because of how devoted she was to God and to prayer in her daily life.

  27. I would like to nominate Saint Paul the Apostle because he was one of the earliest Christian missionaries. I also think that he would be a great nomination because he was one of the most popular disciples.

  28. I would like to nominate Saint Patrick for the Lent Madness 2020. I would choose Saint Patrick because he is the patron of Ireland. It is also funny since my parents got married on Saint Patrick's Day.