Congratulations! You have successfully made it to day two of Lent Madness 2021. If Lent Madness is part of your Lenten discipline this year - and we sincerely hope it is - you're doing great so far! Our competition continues today with an intriguing matchup between Miguel Pro and Constantine. You might say there are PROS and CONS to be weighed as you decide for whom to cast your vote.
In yesterday's opening matchup, Camillus de Lellis trounced Matthias in a Biblical beatdown 71% to 29% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen. If you'd like to see an updated bracket, you can simply visit the Bracket Tab each day. Bracket Czar Adam Thomas updates it daily for your viewing pleasure. He also shares links to each previous battle, which comes in handy when you seek a refresher in the later rounds.
Speaking of brackets, in case you missed the incredible peg doll video featuring all 32 saints in this year's bracket created by the talented team at the Cathedral of St. James in South Bend, Indiana, you can watch it here. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and revel in two minutes of joy that we could all surely use.
Finally, don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the ONLY Saturday matchup of Lent Madness as Tarcisius takes on Egeria.
Miguel Pro
José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez was born in 1891 in Guadalupe, Zacatecas. After entering the Jesuit novitiate and completing theological studies in Europe, Miguel Pro returned to Veracruz in 1926. His ministry quickly went underground on account of the violent anti-Catholic repression, and he signed his letters with his childhood nickname of “Cocol” to obscure his identity.
Telling the story of Miguel Pro requires entering into a fraught period of Mexico’s history called the Cristero rebellion, when the Roman Catholic Church’s official and unofficial institutions engaged in a ten year, violent rebellion against the anti-Catholic regime.
For many Mexican Roman Catholics, including Miguel Pro, the Cristero Rebellion was the heroic story of the faithful engaging in overt and covert resistance against an extremely violent and repressive anti-Catholic effort. One of the most famous images is of railroad tracks in Jalisco lined by the executed bodies of Cristero rebels. The Cristeros are frequently presented by the Roman Catholic Church as heroes who took up arms against such repression.
In contrast, when I studied Mexico-U.S. border relations in el Tecnológico de Monterrey in Querétaro, Mexico, this period was presented as part of a broader set of internationally led efforts to undermine the 1917 Constitution, a socialist-inspired document whose agrarian reforms had aligned Mexico’s elite Roman Catholic families with U.S. interests. Indeed, America’s fingerprints are all over this conflict, from funneling money to the rebels to negotiating a peace agreement that led to the church’s withdrawal of support for the Cristeros.
In 1927, an innocent Miguel Pro was executed without trial for the attempted assassination of former Mexican president Álvaro Obregón; photos of his execution became a rallying point in the final years of the rebellion. Miguel Pro was pointedly beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988, a period when the Roman Catholic Church was once again deeply engaged in resisting socialist and communist governments and Latin American liberation theology.
At his execution, Miguel Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted ¨Viva Cristo Rey!” — “Long live Christ the King!”, the defying cry of the Cristeros.
Collect for Miguel Pro
Almighty God, who gave to your servant Miguel boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Constantine
Constantine the Great is a complex character in the history of Christianity. What is without debate is that he profoundly influenced the direction of Christianity. He is a saint in the Orthodox tradition.
Constantine was born in 272 ce in modern-day Serbia to one of Rome’s four emperors, Constantius. His mother, Helena, was not of noble birth and may have been simply Constantius’s concubine. She was a deeply pious Christian and, no doubt, shaped Constantine’s relationship to Christianity. Constantine excelled as a military leader and ultimately succeeded his father as the emperor of Britain, Gaul, and Spain. A series of power struggles and civil wars led to his consolidation of power as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
One of the most significant battles was with Maxentius, a rival to the throne, on the Milvian Bridge. Shortly before the battle, Constantine had a vision in which he (and purportedly also his army) saw a cross of light in the sky with the words, “In this conquer.” The following night, Christ appeared to him and told him to make his standards with the chi-rho Labarum ☧ (chi and rho are the first two letters of Christ in Greek). Constantine obliged and his army under that sign did indeed conquer.
Following this victory, one of Constantine’s first legislative acts was to issue the Edict of Milan, which brought about the universal toleration of Christianity and the return to Christians of all property that had been taken from them. Whatever his personal convictions, his preferential treatment of Christians was a hallmark of his reign. He helped guide the Christian church through major controversies, including the Arian debate for which he gathered the bishops from across the Roman Empire for the Council at Nicae—and funded the meeting entirely out of his coffers.
Constantine was also a major patron of the church—he gifted a villa that would become the foundation of St. John Lateran, he gifted the Vatican fields, and in Jerusalem he supported the construction of the important Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Church of the Holy Nativity. In 321, Constantine legislated that Sunday be a day of rest.
Constantine was baptized on his deathbed in May 337. Throughout the Middle Ages, he was revered as both a godly man and as a model ruler.
Collect for Constantine
Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Constantine, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with him attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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180 comments on “Miguel Pro vs. Constantine”
Oh well, here's a pleasant accounting of Constantine's behavior - "He gave his sons an orthodox Christian education, and his relationship with his mother was generally happy, but he continued to act as a typical Roman emperor. He ordered the execution of his eldest son, his second wife, and his favorite sister's husband. No one seems to be able to explain fully his reasons."
From https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/rulers/constantine.html
I'll go Pro!
Ummmm. This was different. I'm going with Miguel Pro. The truth is because of Walker Shaw's comment.
Constantine power.
Miguel fought nobly in cause.
My choice for Miguel.
Chi rho swayed me to Constantine. It was an important symbol in my first trip to the United Kingdom, a trip I planned as a vacation that turned itself into a pilgrimage.
St Paul described his sainthood this way: 'I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.' Even though for Paul 'saint' meant 'ordinary Christian', Paul didn't want to vaunt himself--'I am the very least of all the saints', he also said. So I'm voting for the ones who, as far as I can tell without doing a ton of research, were the worst sinners, and gave Jesus the maximum opportunity to display His patience. If everyone else did the same, Constantine would surely end up the winner: he had his wife, a nephew and one of his sons put to death, in the latter case because he was a bit too eager to replace his father as Emperor if I remember correctly, and this was after his (Constantine's) so-called conversion. I'm amazed that the biography above doesn't mention this.
Usually so.eone who is martyred gets upvote, but Miguel seems to be on the wrong side of history. Fighting back against the oppression of the church in Mexico as the Cristeros did seems like the right thing to do. I guess its the social worker in me that hates oppression of any kind, religious or otherwise.
The writeup for Miguel Pro stinks, but since I previously knew who he was i voted for him. he is great saint and martyr for today's nation.
What a horrible choice. I would certainly never vote for Constantine. He aligned the fledgling Church with Empire and that is exactly where it has remained to its huge detriment. Awful! As for Miguel Pro, I am not sure that I fully understand what today's write up is trying to say but it seems that his beatification was done to make a statement against Liberation Theology and Socialism, and I'm certainly not casting a vote for those sorts of shenanigans (although Constantine would have approved I'm sure!). I voted for Migeul Pro in the end because it seems that he was innocent of the crime he was executed for and because he was dignified in the face of persecution. But certainly not an easy choice today.
Thank you Bee - you put together my exact thoughts on this...I was startled to see Constantine on the list...I can at least imagine Miguel Pro as having been misled but sticking to his faith...
The Gray Household
T (the dad, who painted the Constantine peg doll and thus has skin in the game) - He is the very model of a modern major general...Girls - name the musical?
A1 (age 17) - Hamiltion!
T - Well, yes, but...
K (the mom) - Pirates of Penzance!
A3 (age 12) - Are you telling me we have to vote between two people who tried to kill others?
Tough choices here today - but the house votes Constantine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs3dPaz9nAo
Very interesting analysis. I wonder if you think either Jesus or Paul saw a new synthesis. And where seeing a new synthesis would fall under our baptismal covenant. (Not a challenge, just thinking through a provocative formulation.)
I don't think seeing a new synthesis is required for a baptismal covenant; but your question stirs me to think that an openness to seeing the world anew (the Kingdom of God is like a child) is part of what it means to live and grow responsibly into our baptisms.
And yes: I think Jesus and Paul both perceived new syntheses. I tell my students that even though Paul claimed his apostolic authority rested on visions of the risen Christ (which I do not deny), his writings were canonized in a way those like the Gospel of Mary were not because Paul made good theological arguments. He perceived clearly that baptism in Jesus entailed something other than a primarily halakhic Jewish identity, and was as adamant about articulating and defending it as any policy advocate for a new and better view today might be about an LGBT-friendly view of human sexuality.
Cue John Cabot. But Don't expect him to get the Gilbert & Sullivan parodies until the Faithful Four!
And if you CAN'T tell the difference between a Mauser rifle and a javelin, you'll be back . . . to Hamilton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8xeyaSwCI
This challenging set of choices actually led me to appreciate something about Constantine: he had the vision to see to a new synthesis, however problematic it proved to be, and however problematic his own personal life choices. Miguel Pro did not see ahead to the particular synthesis of socialism and the gospel that post-Vatican II Catholics could envision more easily (if also, still, problematically). So I voted for Constantine because he ended persecution of Christians and perceived that the Arian controversy was significant, triggering the process that stumbled into the doctrine of the Trinity. Constantine envisioned a new possible future; Miguel Pro seemed unable to see that the persecution of the church came from a place of justice-seeking that powerful Catholics had themselves resisted (in a lineage to the conquistadors before them).
I agree with those who were conflicted by the choices involving blood on their hands. I always flinch when a victory in battle, in which hundreds if not thousands of soldiers are killed, is attributed to the grace of God. God is Love after all. The Cristeros, and those sacrificed to the consolidation of an autocrat's empire (though an autocrat who advanced Christianity) are both mired in blood. I chose Miguel because he gave his life for a cause and suffered great hardships for that cause. I don't think Constantine suffered much and shouldn't have waited to the last minute to be baptized.
Oh Come On! Miguel Pro vs Constantine in the opening round? How am I supposed to choose? Sometimes you make this very difficult.