Who will face Martha of Bethany for the Golden Halo? That's the question for today after Martha stung Gobnait 51% to 49% despite a late swarm (and a whiff of overzealous Gobnait supporters) to reach the Lent Madness Championship round.
To get to this point, Zenaida took down Apollonia, Nicholas of Myra, and John Chrysostom, while Pandita defeated Damien of Molokai, Marguerite d'Youville, and William Wilberforce. Whoever wins, the Golden Halo will be decided on Spy Wednesday, with the results announced at 8:00 am Eastern Time on Maundy Thursday. The end is near!
SEC Reminder: We know people get swept up in the fervor of Lent Madness, and sometimes they get so excited they want to vote a few times. Yesterday, we observed quite a few cases of people voting for one saint several times, often 20 or more times. When we catch these, we ban those IP addresses and, assuming we can ascertain with confidence the number of votes, we reverse the votes. Our goal is to make Lent Madness fair and fun for everyone, one person making one vote. We use a combination of manual and automated systems to watch this and yesterday, to try to get these as early as possible, we set our triggers pretty low. So if you find yourself banned, do let us know. And make sure you’re only voting one time per contest! Big Lent is watching...
Oh, and if for some crazy set of circumstances, you missed yesterday's final in-season episode of Monday Madness featuring our first-ever in studio guest, make sure to catch it here.
Zenaida
As the sun began to rise over the mountains, Zenaida, Philonella, and Hermione linked hands and bowed their heads in prayer. Lifting their words and hearts to God, they ask that they be filled with grace to serve today’s patients. Zenaida loved this opportunity to connect with her sisters before a busy day at their make-shift hospital. The sisters found that beginning each day with prayer helped them focus their care and practice so that they would not only minister to what ailed their patients’ physical bodies, but also called them to minister to their spirits.
The day was going to be a hot one. The dust from the caves made it difficult to keep the wounds of the patients clean. The sisters gave thanks regularly that the cave where they housed their “unmercenary” hospital had a mineral spring to aid in cleaning the patients. So many of the poor arrived dirty, malnourished, and dehydrated. The spring was a gift to their prac
tice that kept giving.
Despite the heat and dirt, Zenaida was excited. She had asked her cousin, Paul the Apostle, to come by. There was a patient who had asked to be baptized. This baptism was especially heartening as this patient had been convinced only magics, charms, and amulets could heal his illness. She knew through her studies that there were far more effective treatments available and that his true healing would only come through nurturing his whole person: mind, body, and spirit. Zenaida felt that she was helping him make a real breakthrough in his mental and spiritual health when he asked for the healing waters of baptism. He finally seemed to realize that no physical cure was sustaining without the gift of salvation.
Today, Zenaida felt the presence of the Holy Spirit strongly. So many of the patients thanked her and her sisters for the free healthcare they provided. She wished she could explain to them that the opportunity to share the love of God with others was worth more than any gold they could ever pay. In fact, Zenaida and Philonella had plans to take their inheritance and invest in building a hospital in nearby Demitriada. Zenaida knew she would have no need of her wealth as long as she could continue to serve the people of God. She was at peace.
Heavenly Father, we asked that we are called to be unmercenary like Zenaida and her sisters. That in our thoughts, words, actions, and lives that we consider giving freely of the greatest gift you have given us as humans: to love. Amen.
Pandita Ramabai
In 1858, Pandita Ramabai was born into a high caste Indian family who defied custom by educating her. When she was widowed, she could support herself with her scholarly skills. However, she saw other widows thrust into dire poverty. Ramabai believed that the way to improve the status of women and change her culture was to educate widows so that they could provide for themselves. She went to England and fundraised to this end. There, moved by Jesus’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, she became a Christian. “I realized...that...no one but [Christ] could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India.”
Upon returning to India, she began Sharada Sadan school and the Mukti Mission, which still operate today, teaching women trades so that they can support themselves independently. Her social activism was remarkable in her time, and her example of a life given to social transformation makes her deserving of the Golden Halo.
The need for such social transformation remains with us to this day. The United Nations, as part of its Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 has focused on girls' education because of the multiplier effect educating a girl has on a country’s economy.[1] Poverty, child marriage, and cultural traditions such as dowries are among the main obstacles to girls’ education.
According to UNICEF, “India has the highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 15,509,000. 27% of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday and 7% are married before the age of 15.”[2] Developed nations are not free of this problem. A Frontline investigation revealed that in the United States 200,000 legal marriages with at least one minor took place between 2000 and 2015. “
The vast majority of child marriages were between a child and an adult. The majority of married children were girls.”[3]
The effects of child marriage are striking. When a girl gets married instead of educated, her marriage has an imbalance of power and she is more likely to be a victim of domestic violence. Statistically, she will have more children she will struggle to feed, and they will be less healthy. She will likely not have the skills to be independent, and if her husband dies, she may become destitute. Pandita Ramabai sought to change this reality for women.
For her challenge to cultural and religious hierarchy, she was vocally criticized. Her conversion to Christianity put her at the center of a debate about Colonialism and Indian nationalism, where she remains for some to this day.[4] But one cannot argue that her education, her convictions, and her faith in the liberating love of Jesus have led her to change the lives of thousands of women, a work that continues in her name. In honor of all the women touched by Ramabai’s mission, let’s award her the Golden Halo!
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106 comments on “Zenaida vs. Pandita Ramabai”
Affordable Healthcare is needed in the US . Vote for Zenaida.
This was a particularly tough choice, but I went for Zenaida for a couple of almost unrelated reasons:
1. I've voted for Zenaida all along.
2. There have been fewer Golden Halo winners who were born before 1800 (3) than those born after (5).
Not that earlier saints are "better" or "more authentic", just evening up the numbers.
"They were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping, to be one, too."
Pandita Ramabai’s work continues in one of the world’s most populous nation, and her example inspires worldwide efforts to spread justice, compassion, and peace. She has my vote!
Yup, one almost never wins if one lived before the advent of photography!
Aargh, that comment was for you Verdery Kassebaum!
Lady Z for me!
I was hoping the comments of others would help me make a decision. Alas, most of you seem as torn as I am. After contemplation, I’ve decided to cast my vote for Pandita Ramabai since she was one person against the system, while Zenaida had the support and company of her two sisters.
Making difficult choices — the chief personal skill required to participate in Lenten Madness. At least information was provided to base the choices on. At the conclusion of the Madness, I will be hard pressed to return to my usual morning reading without longing for comments from other people. Will have to keep my eyes open for more unsung heroes of the faith as I read.
I did not vote Friday or yesterday--Monday. I noticed last night the email I use for LM wouldn't let me access it. Just now, when I replied and tried to post my vote for Ramabai an error flashed and my reply was gone. I haven't checked that email today. I have not used that email account for anything but LM since the first day. I'm not posting my other account here. I'm NOT a happy person.
You can always vote at directly on the website at LentMadness.org, as well as post comments, which is what I'm doing right now, and unless you want to get notifications of other comments & posts via email, it really doesn't matter what email you put in when you comment, it isn't like anyone other than Tim & Scott would see the address, if even then.
And no email address is required to vote, so unless you want to post a comment or get flooded with notifications . . . just use your web browser.
And contact your email service provider about your inability to access that email.
It let me post. I'll see if it will let me vote.
Zenaida! Not only did she and her sisters practice healthcare for all, her name has great significance for this clergy/musician. Zen=contemplation; Aida=main character of one of the most beautiful of operas! (No one ever said our reasons for voting had to make sense!)
My son and I have been choosing one person each day and today was tough. Inn the end we choose Zenaida for her free health care.
Really? Cheating on Lent Madness?? Do I laugh or shake my head In despair? Both? Yeah. Both.
It seems the Lord still insists on calling sinners to the church. We all need grace.
Zenaida because she cared for the sick in mind and body, at no charge, and because she is the forerunner of the many saints who toil in the Lord's vineyard by caring for others. I admire Ramabai greatly but voted for Zenaida for the example she sets for us all.
What a transformation grace has wrought
When My vote goes to a caste I was taught
Compared to Mine, is little bethought.
“You have been taught not as you ought,”
I fall to my knees at grace’s juggernaut.
Though some may think each Lent that we but play this little game
For many others, our lives are truly changed.
Thanks for sharing that!
Thanks for sharing that!
I think it is sad that, assuming that the people who are participating in this are churchgoing and supposedly honest people, some of them would try to cheat to make the saint they wanted win.
I appreciate everyone's comments and the creativity of the poems, songs, limericks, etc. But seriously, folks, I am in AGONY over this decision tonight! Both Zenaida and Pandita have SO much to honor and respect, and are both Golden Halo - worthy! Sigh. I will probably agree with those who argue that saints pre-photography may have some bias against them, and I also think that health of body, mind and spirit must be had before one can even contemplate education, etc. So Zenaida for me. Arrrrgh!
I loved "Three Saintly Maids" and after a day of playing Telephone Ping-Pong with Educational Testing Services Inc. for a new job as an at-home scorer that I just did receive the wonderful laughter Three Saintly Maids brought was such a huge stress-relief and thanks so much! I also couldn't help but wonder, Scott G. having read that Educational Testing Service has a main office also in Cincinnati, is this organization like this there too?? I think I made over 10 phone calls to different departments with various questions and tech problems with their sites and was batted around to the point that when I finally got ahold of someone at the end of the day it felt like victory- after which, I was then sent to another department. Add to that spending 25 minutes with the phone on speaker phone waiting for a department they had called "Pearson People Services" and the recorded voice sounded like a little girl with a very high, almost squeeky voice! She had Scott S., at my house also wondering if she had worked at Disney Land fat some point in her life for a while before landing a job at Pearson/ETS.
Also, lol, I couldn't help but wonder if it's some sort of a weird initiation they have for remote new hires, especially when they find out none of their offices are located in places like Idaho and they can then Really pour on the bureaucratic style of communication in a new person's four hour shift! IE- making a continual practice of never letting the new hire know in phone-calls to them as to what the right hand or the left are doing!
On tonight's vote now that - While last night was quite easy as I also had a neighbor in a former apartment who was the son of one of the local honey-companies in the area plus was very supportive of Gobnait's work tonight was a challenge. Not only have I started a small job with an Educational Testing Service but all my aunts except for one who was a Nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise, ID for many years. Having no insurance as well and having also benifited from a group called "Women's Health Check" who got me in immediately when a Mammogram showed stage 3 breast cancer on my left two years ago. These, and several other thoughts on tonight's choice all began to creep in and the choice which had been Zenaida immediately began to become a little tough. I also had a funny incident while Grocery shopping where Gobnait was concerned so was even more baffled that the cheaters chose our poor bee-keeper Saint. I and my significant other who, sadly also has a hard time with religion in general after his parents died and a few other reasons, had been grocery shopping and there in a mid-aisle was a large display of Honey Nut Cheerios- very normal and mundane, but it was what transpired next that set me chuckling. On the front of the display lined up so that the message was repeated at Least five times where the facing of cereal boxes was concerned was the sentence "Save the bees"! To top this off the message jumped out at me on all the boxes. This was also Before voting btw- I thought- "Hello Saint Gobnait, giggled a little bit again then went on my way. Scott S., my significant other who also doesn't like Lenten Madness, plus now also thinks he's an Athiest ever since his parents passed away several years ago and is very hard headed however, proceeded to give a look reserved only for people he thinks are overly strange. But- siiigh- although I also tried to explain about Gobnait he also was absolutely Not interested, scowled as much as Gobnait was portrayed doing in "Three Saintly Maids" then walked off down the aisle in a huff changing the topic immediately. Oh well... tried to share some laughter and introduce him to the Lent Madness we all love dearly! Maybe it just wasn't God's time yet. 🙂
I'm still curious how one gets ones photo attached to their name here in the comments section.
To attach a photo to your comments, you create an account with wordpress.com and upload a photo from your computer there. I don't remember whether there are any additional steps to "connect" wordpress to this site - sorry about that! Good luck with the digital trial.