668 comments on “Nominationtide has arrived!”

1. I would like to nominate Saint Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 – c. 577). He was one of the Apostles of Ireland. And his voyage is legendary! More people need to know about him.

2. Saint Lucy/Lucia. Just returning from a visit to Siracusa Sicily and she is the patron saint. She has two festival days. One where she is credited with bringing ships and quail to the city at a time when food supplies were low.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellitus St Mellifus, 1st Bishop of London And 3rd Archbishop of Canterbury for his persistence in bringing Anglo Saxons to Christ, even tho he was swimming upstream. For following God’s call to this arduous travel and work. Because he inspired conversion with persuasion vs resorting to for e (a new strategy in conversions at the time.) Because today is his Feast Day. And last but not least, because he miraculously saved the church of Canterbury from being destroyed by fire.

4. Father Walter Ciszek was the American-born son of Polish immigrants, He surprised his father with his intention to become a priest due to his involvement in gang activities. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1928 and volunteered as a missionary to serve persecuted Christians in the Soviet Union. Following his ordination in the Byzantine Rite, he established a Jesuit mission in eastern Poland in 1938. When the Soviets closed the mission with their occupation of the are in 1939, Fr. Ciszek devised a plan to join the streams of people entering the Soviet Union, which he did in 1940, settling in Chusovoy, a logging town in the Ural Mountains where he worked as a logged as a front to his discrete Christian ministry.

   Fr. Ciszek was arrested in 1941 and accused of espionage for the Vatican for which he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He spent five years imprisoned in Moscow, mostly in solitary confinement and was transferred to the GULAG in Norilsk, Siberia where he in the coal mines. Throughout his sentence, he continued to pray, to celebrate Divine Liturgy, hear confessions, conduct retreats and perform parish ministry. Upon release in 1955, he began writing to his sisters; his family and fellow Jesuits presumed he was dead. In 1958, the KGB moved him to Krasnoyarsk where he established mission churches under they were discovered and he was moved to Abakan. He finally received word from his sisters in 1963. Ciszek returned to the US as part of a prisoner exchange in October of 1963. He lectured, counseling, and provided spiritual direction at Fordham University until his death in 1984.

   If Fr. Ciszek is selected, I will write a polka in his honor.

   1. For more information on Fr. Walter Ciszek, check out this site: http://www.ciszek.org/ndex.html

      1. That should be http://www.ciszek.org/index.html

5. William Stringfellow

   Lay Episcopalians who through his books helps us live humanly in the midst of death. Loved that he led a Bible Study at his home as the fbi listened in.

6. Woe, I thought my post had gone through but there is no sign of it among the 251 up there now (only 11 when I wrote it up). Perhaps there is a block on British suggestions?
   Please can I nominate Benedict of Aniane who was a Benedictine monk, born 751 and died 821). He worked hard to achieve monastic reform throughout the 'empire'. I like him as he is said to have a gift for calming tumultuous thoughts in other people (with some success for me),when he met those with disturbed thoughts 'the tumultuous crowd of thoughts dissipated at his wholesome counsel'.
   He managed to standardise monastic practice and improve the observance and idealism in the West.
   I hope it gets through.
   Thank you

7. I would like to nominate St Jose Sanchez del Rio from Mexico because of his exemplary courage at such a young age. He was martyred.

8. I'd like to nominate Ephrem of Syria – a hymn writer and teacher of justice and of care for others and a man who lived at a time of conflict in his region. When opposing forces took over, Christians were exiled – twice. In his 50’s and resettled for the second time, an epidemic struck. The bishop asked him to organize feeding, housing, and helping those in need and he did – for the whole community. It is written that he asked the healthy to participate ‘to maintain the community’. Food was distributed. Hospitals were set up to care for the sick. He ‘extended the church’s care to the entire city.’ He wrote that ‘Christians were grafted onto Christ, the tree of life, through their responsiveness to one another’s needs.’ He wrote:

   One person falls sick – and so another can visit and help him;
   One person starves – and so another can provide him with food and give him life;
   One person does something stupid – but he can be instructed by another and thereby grow;
   In this way, the world can recover;
   Tens of thousands of hidden ways are to be found, ready to assist us.

   Ephrem was known also for respecting the spiritual leadership of women at a time when other voices in the church had less charitable views. The Eastern church is said to call him 'the songbird of Paradise' in recognition both of his prolific hymn writing and of his lived belief that we are here to care for one another.

   Ephrem seems a model made for our troubled times. Maybe we would be helped by knowing more about him.

9. I nominate Pelagius (c. AD 354 - 420) . The essential of all of his teachings was that men and women had freedom of will. For this great heresy, he was persecuted continually by Augustine of Hippo and the Roman establishment who believed in predestination and that "man" was polluted by original sin and therefore had no free will in the matter. When he visited Rome in 380 he found the laxity of moral standards to be distressing and he believed that the moral fiber of the society had been disrupted because people believed that if acceptance into Heaven was already predetermined then who cares what you do on earth? Pelagius was a major bridge between Christian thought and Celtic philosophy and he devoted himself to spreading many of the ideas that we hold dear in the Episcopal Church today.

10. I nominate St. Dominic Guzman: Founder of the Order of Preachers, a contemplative order with a mission to use the fruits of contemplation to feed their teaching. The order is dedicated to education and preaching.

11. I would like to nominate St. Joseph of Nazareth. While he is well known as the husband of Mary & the step father of Jesus, and a behind the scenes contributor, I thought perhaps with all the resources available to you , you could provide more insight on this remarkable man.
    My interest is due to the fact I was born on St. Joseph Day, it was my father"said name day & we celebrated the Italian feast day in our house. Also, my maternal grandfather was named Nazareth.

12. Saint Marguerite D'Youville - A woman who lived with so many tragedies but put her energy into helping others. She lived during the early days of Montreal, Canada. She helped the poor and the sick. She started the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart which is still active.

13. I nominate Ignatius of Loyola. I and many many others across many generations have experienced God's formation of our lives through his spiritual exercises. And, what a story!

14. I nominate Frideswide. My systematic theology professor named his Dachshund after her. His reasoning was always excellent so I’m sure your writers will find gold in their research.

15. Roland Allen. He was an Anglican missionary to Africa who criticized and challenged the colonialism of the church's contemporary missionary style, contrasting it with St. Paul's style of immediately setting up local control. He's in Holy Women, Holy Men and A Great Cloud of Witnesses (8 June). He's also one of the dancing saints on St. Gregory of Nyssa's walls, if that counts. Personal kitsch is probably scarce, but I suspect that there's a lot of generic missionary kitsch around.

16. I nominate Balaam, "the Donkey Whisperer" who is celebrated as a "Gentile Prophet," is referenced in the Revelation to John, is acclaimed by Jospehus, and whose prophecy is poetic. (Literally.) A saint who reminds us to find holy wisdom in unlikely places.

17. St. David. Any ascetic who makes the monks pull the plow to save the animals is tops in my book.

18. I started looking around for a saint to nominate. I was thinking I would investigate the Irish saint names used on the Aer Lingus jets, but a chance click on Amazon Prime led to watching a show about St. Peter of Morrone, a.k.a. Pope Celestine V.

    As pope, he didn't do too well, lasting only a few months. He issued the decree that said resigning was possible and then promptly used it for himself.

    I'd be interested to learn more about the man and his legacy, from before he was pope and then while pope. One thing I think possible to learn from his papacy is that not everything in life will go A-okay, and that's okay! But if you do find yourself in a failure, then choose to move on and not wallow.

    Also, I saw with some quick searching that some other popes resigned, but reasons mentioned included politics. I suppose failing with politics could be said to have made Peter's resigning a political resignation, but he chose to do it (according to what I read) vs. forced by politics to resign (i.e., I'll give you want you want, but only if you give me something I want).

    I wonder if Peter's writing the decree and following through so many hundreds of years ago set up Pope Benedict XVI's resignation. Of course, I don't know why Pope Benedict wanted to resign, but if he was even thinking about it, surely knowing he wouldn't be first could have helped, so possibly a decision so long ago had impact today. Just possibly, one might say it gives a reason for Peter's failure as pope if it helped a future pope?

19. Fred Rogers His humble message of acceptance and kindness is much needed today. He was non-judgmental and brought children and their parents to positive messages in earthly and personal ways. He was a telecommunications giant.

20. I enthusiastically recommend Charles de Foucauld - aka, Charles of Jesus. He's officially considered a martyr by the RCs, feast day is Dec. 1. He was a Frenchman who, after a party animal sort of life, became an ascetic mystic and lived most of his adult life in the deserts of North Africa. He was in love with Jesus, who he desperately tried to model to his Muslim neighbors by living and working alongside them, sometimes even doing their laundry. He bought one man's freedom from slavery. He learned Arabic and Toureg. He built a fort for his village to keep them safe from the military unrest of WW1. He also loved solitude and often spent time away from village life out alone in the desert mountains. He was killed by accident by a teenage bandit, which doesn't sound like a martyr's death but most other Frenchman had left Algeria for the safety of home. Charles, however, would not leave his beloved friends - even though he also believed they were -- cough -- heathen savages, 19th century European male that he was. And yet, one of his neighbors is remembered to have said, “How terrible it is to think that such a good man will go to hell when he dies, because he is not a Muslim!”

21. I nominate St. Melangell, the Patron Saint of Rabbits, Hares & the Natural World. She has an interesting (though obscure) story and a lovely (though also obscure) church in Wales, near where her saga unfolded. In this day and age the Natural World needs all the help it can get, so it would be wonderful if Lent Madness could help spread the word through this compassionate Saint.

22. I nominate Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a "contestant" in 2013, as I remember.
    According to Wikipedia, "Jonathan Myrick Daniels (March 20, 1939 – August 20, 1965) was an Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist. In 1965, he was assassinated by a shotgun-wielding construction worker, Tom Coleman, who was a special county deputy, in Hayneville, Alabama, while in the act of shielding 17-year-old Ruby Sales." Though I lived through the 1960's, and was familiar with the Civil Rights movement, I had never heard of Jonathan until I read about him the first year I participated in Lent Madness. With the recent resurgence of open prejudice, anger at those who are "not one of us", and increased violence against people of color, I think Jonathan Daniels, a martyr who threw himself in front of an African-American teenager, needs to be better known.

    1. I agree!

23. I nominate Pandita Mary Ramabai. Born into a Hindu family in India, she converted to Christianity and fought for the rights of women and children in India against all odds. Nevertheless, she persisted. More on her here: https://www.facebook.com/DailyOffice/photos/a.854029014640174.1073741827.170539296322486/189503494426066/?type=3&theater

    1. Alas, I didn't read through all of the nominations before nominating Pandita Ramabai and I now see someone else has already nominated her. Since there doesn't appear to be any way to change my nomination, I hope someone else will nominate my second choice, Julia Chester Emery. She did the work of the Church by running the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Episcopal Church for 40 years. The saints of God are just folk like me. More on Julia -- https://www.facebook.com/DailyOffice/photos/a.854029014640174.1073741827.170539296322486/306257796083968/?type=3&theater

24. I nominate St. Benedict (480-543), the Father of Western Monasticism, He founded twelve
    communities for monks in Italy that kept alive the art and culture deterioration following
    the decline of the Roman Empire. St. Benedict wrote "The Rule," a manual teaching and
    showing the brothers how to live together in harmony, "preferring nothing whatsoever as the
    love of Christ." It is one of the great books of spiritual wisdom; the world's first international,
    best-selling, self-help book--successful withing monastery walls and without. Many books have
    drawn upon Benedict's wisdom: how to run a business, raise a family, cope with illness, and other
    living skills. Not bad for a 1500-year old book.

25. Saint Nomination

    Toyohiko Kagawa (1888 – 1960) was a Japanese Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist.

    Why Toyohiko?
    1) He stayed committed to Christianity, despite being disowned by his extended family, whose members were repulsed by his faith.
    2) In imitation of Christ, he served the poor, lived among the destitute in Japan, and traveled to the U.S. to study ways of eliminating poverty.
    3) He established schools, hospitals, churches.
    4) He was arrested by the Japanese government again and again for his activism on behalf of workers during labor strikes.
    5) He organized relief work following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.
    6) In 1940, he made a public apology to the people of China for Japan's invasion, an act which again landed him jail, and was labeled treason by many of his fellow Japanese.
    7) He traveled to the United States in a futile attempt to prevent war between America and Japan. And, having survived the war, became an adviser to the transitional Japanese government.
    8) He advocated for women's suffrage.
    9) He developed an economic theory for Japan, as expressed in the book "Brotherhood Economics." His theory proposed that the Christian Church, the cooperative movement, and the peace movement unite in a 'powerful working synthesis' to provide a workable alternative to capitalism, state socialism, and fascism.
    10) And, finally, first and foremost, he was not interested in the fine points of Christian doctrine: Tohohiko believed and committed his life to the idea that Christianity in action, in imitation of the works of Jesus Christ on behalf of the vulnerable, was the profound truth behind Christianity.

    On Monday, April 23rd of this year, the Episcopal Liturgical Calendar celebrated Toyohiko Kagawa as a "Prophetic Witness in Japan."

26. I nominate Hannah Grier Coome, the once-reluctant but ever-adventurous founder of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto, Canada. Born in 1837, married in 1859, widowed in 1878, Hannah was travelling to England following the death of her husband when she was asked to found the first Canadian Anglican religious community. She wasn’t even a nun! But she accepted this distinct calling from God, and set off to do her novitiate training in Peekskill, NY. Two years later, on September 8, 1884, Hannah earned the distinction of being professed as a sister and simultaneously named Mother Superior of a community. Hannah’s and SSJD’s great legacy is that they pioneered rehabilitation health care when the medical profession of the day poo-pooed it. Today, St. John’s Rehab Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility in Toronto that treats soldiers and civilians who have suffered catastrophic injuries. Go Hannah!

    1. Great story! Thanks for sharing!

27. The following is NOT a Saint nomination: for one thing, Antoinette Tuff is still alive; and, for another, she doesn't even have an entry on Wikipedia, much less a commemoration on a church's calendar.

    I just think more people should know about this bravehearted, compassionate Christian woman.

    In August of 2013, Antoinette Tuff, a bookkeeper at an elementary school in Decatur, Georgia, demonstrated extraordinary compassion and courage when faced with a distraught gunman, a young man armed with an AK47 rifle and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition. Antoinette managed to convince him to allow her to call 911, and, for the next 25 minutes, acted as a mediator between the police dispatcher and the young man. Tuff shared stories of heartbreak from her own life to help calm him down -- a recent divorce, a son with multiple disabilities. At one point she said, "It's going to be all right, sweetie," she said. "I just want you to know I love you, though, OK? And I'm proud of you."

    Ultimately, with Antoinette by his side, the young gunman finally surrendered. Not a single person was wounded, much less killed.

    Antoinette attributed her brave compassion, her ability to see beyond superficial differences, including race (the gunman was white, and Tuff and most of the students at the elementary school were black), to her Christian faith.

    Here's a link to more info about Antoinette Tuff's story:

    https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/us/georgia-school-shooting-hero/index.html

    Hurrah for Antoinette Tuff! Someday, 100 years from now, may she be commemorated on some church calendar somewhere, and ultimately be a contestant in the Lent Madness Tournament.

    1. Talk about "living your faith." Antoinette Tuff is truly a saint.

    2. Mother Hannah rocks. The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine continues to be a progressive women’s order, true to its roots but adapting to changing times when it makes sense.

28. Hugh of Lincoln.

29. Sorry, I see you require a "Why" added to the nomination. Hugh of Lincoln, because:

    "As a bishop, he was exemplary, constantly in residence or travelling within his diocese, generous with his charity, scrupulous in the appointments he made. He raised the quality of education at the cathedral school. Hugh was also prominent in trying to protect the Jews, great numbers of whom lived in Lincoln, in the persecution they suffered at the beginning of Richard I's reign, and he put down popular violence against them—as later occurred following the death of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln—in several places."

    (Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_of_Lincoln )

30. St. Wilfrid (Wilfred), feast day October 12