Welcome to the first and only Saturday matchup of Lent Madness 2022. Today Mesrop Mashtots faces off against Madeleine Sophie Barat. And, yes, that's Barat not Borat -- that's something else entirely. Haven't heard of these two saints? Meeting some new spiritual companions is, of course, one of the joys of Lent Madness.
Yesterday Kateri Tekakwitha trounced Olaf 72% to 28% to advance to the next round.
We're testing out a new even-more-secure voting system today, so casting your vote will look sightly different. But fear not! We still support universal (one vote) suffrage.
Enjoy the First Sunday in Lent tomorrow (make sure to talk about Lent Madness with all your friends at coffee hour) and we'll look forward to seeing everyone back here first thing Monday morning as Hilary of Poitiers faces Melania the Elder. Now go exercise your God-given right to vote (once) in Lent Madness!
Mesrop Mashtots
If you like words, reading, and sharing good news, you will love Mesrop Mashtots. In 405 CE, he invented the Armenian alphabet and translated the Bible into Armenian, bringing the Word of God to the people of Armenia.
After serving in the military and the Armenian royal court, Mashtots joined the Christian church and worked as a missionary in southern Armenia. As a student of Greek, he could read the Bible but realized that most people could not. He believed that the ability to read the Bible would be an excellent tool for encouraging people to join the church. But Mashtots couldn’t make this happen alone. Where could he find help?
Fortunately, Vrampshapuh, the ruler of the Armenian dynasty, was Christian. He sponsored the project along with the head bishop of the Armenian church, Sahak the Great. Beyond enlightening their people about God’s story, they had goals of securing Christianity as the main religion in Armenia, and they wanted to build national community and unity. With this backing, Mashtots got to work.
As he spent time traveling and researching different languages to adapt to the new alphabet, Mashtots realized he’d have to start from scratch. Mashtots worked with Rufinus, a Greek calligrapher, to create an alphabet with 36 symbols to cover all the sounds in the Armenian language.
He and Bishop Sahak translated the Bible, obtaining an official copy from Constantinople and checking it against other versions to create their Armenian version. Mashtots put together a team of linguists to translate canons of the church councils, liturgies, and other important texts. The alphabet, with the addition of two letters, is still used today.
Armenians responded enthusiastically to the ability to read in their own language. Mashtots continued to translate and write Armenian hymns and other works until he died in 440. He chose this verse from Proverbs 1:2 for his first sentence of translation: For learning about wisdom and instruction.
Collect for Mesrop Mashtots
O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Mesrop Mashtots, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Madeleine Sophie Barat
You could say Madeleine Sophie Barat was baptized by fire. On the night of December 12, 1779, a house fire raged next door to the Barat family home in Joigny, France. Terrified and exhausted, Madeleine Fouffé Barat went into premature labor; the fragile baby Sophie was baptized at her local church early the next morning, with her 10-year-old brother, Louis, by the font.
That her brother was her spiritual guardian from the first was fitting: Louis felt a strong call to the priesthood from an early age. As he studied, Louis shared all that he was learning with his little sister. It was an education that a young woman would otherwise never receive, and it stoked both Sophie’s passion for learning and her deepening faith. A seminarian at the start of the French Revolution, Louis took the dangerous stance of opposing the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and was eventually arrested and jailed for two years. After his release, Sophie boldly followed him to Paris, where they lived in a safe house so they could continue to practice their faith. Unable to explore a religious vocation for herself due to the abolition of most religious communities in France, Sophie secretly taught catechism to local children and tried to keep busy with prayer, study, and helping her family in their vineyard.
In the early 1800s, Sophie could no longer wait. Inspired by local Jesuits’ desire to organize more religious education for women, Sophie and three other women in her safe house consecrated themselves to God on the evening of November 21, 1800, pledging their lives to “make known the revelation of God’s love.” While devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus remained illegal in France, the Society of the Sacred Heart was born. Madeleine Sophie Barat was only twenty years old.
Sophie and her sisters in Christ established schools across France focused on the education of girls and young women, offering academic rigor regardless of a family’s ability to pay. Barat’s faith was a coherent philosophy of education: children needed guidance to grow, and education is meant to “reveal the heart of Christ.” Mother Barat served as superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart for 65 years and was beloved for her strong life of prayer, her mentorship of others, and her collaborative leadership style.
Collect for Madeleine Sophie Barat
O God, by whose grace your servant Madeleine Sophie Barat, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
235 comments on “Mesrop Mashtots v. Madeleine Sophie Barat”
Another tough one - grateful for both these educators!
A difficult selection in any case! Mr. Mashtots had the support of his bishop and his civil authority in doing his work. Madeleine Sophie Barat had to deal with being a woman involved in an illegal activity (no civil support). (One has to assume she had the support of the Church, as her order was recognized.) Both saints did work which impacted many into the future. Ms Barat educated girls and women - which continued into the future with their families and children. I have to go with Madeleine Barat.
Voted for Mashtots because he not only invented an alphabet and translated the bible - he had the wisdom to bring in a whole team of linguists, and translated the liturgies & other important documents of church tradition as well.
Also voting for him in honor of Janine, an Armenian Catholic penpal who years ago helped revitalize my devotion to the saints.
Two very admirable people devoted to education along side their deep devotion to their faith. Hard to choose, but Sophie gets my vote.
OH, I can't believe someone in 405 had the sense to translate the Bible into the language of the people. And what he had to do to not only get this done, but to do it with excellence. I support women and girls education of course, but in this matter, I just feel Mashtots gave more.
The “new voting system” wouldn’t let me vote at all! And I promise I’ve never, ever voted more than once! If I could have voted, it would have been for Madeline. Both are worthy, but even today I think women in the church need all the help and recognition they can get!
I will not be disappointed in either of these moving forward.
I chose to vote (against my unresearched-guess-only bracket again) for Mashtots for a variety of reasons. One being a very distinctive memory of a sweet Armenian girl who spoke no English joining my 5th grade class midyear and how we gals tried to work around the language barrier to befriend her. But also, I am indeed a lover of words and languages, the linguist Tolkien (who created his own language(s) for his books) is another of my heroes and I'm going on 20 years of working on my own fiction novel for which I need to create at least part of a language. Hard work! Not to mention a few place names in my book are based on Armenian words! HA!
le lélen üse vălé melésăn‘ă tüméne, Mashtots!
In my capacity as Word Nerd I had to vote for Meshrup. I agree with others that both candidates are worthy of the Golden Halo, however matters turn out.
Your new voting system has some problems! I could not vote, but put me down for Mesrop. The Armenian Church celebrated its millenium (you read that right) in 2001. I had a very dear friend who was Armenian, but practiced as an Episcopalian. The two churches are intercommunal. Services in Armenian Churches are in old Armenian, and take a good bit of time. We always spoke of going to the Easter service at St. Vartan’s in New York, but never made it before her death.
Mesrop would get my vote any way. He brought the word to the people.
How could I not vote for someone with a name like "Mashtots"? His story was more unusual as there have been many women who educated women and children in the faith...all very important, of course, but Mashtots wins this round for me.
My thoughts exactly. Unless the opponent has a name like Saint Tacofries, Mashtots advances at least one bracket as far as I'm concerned.
PLEASE show me how to comment without it being a Reply!
That said, I too find it difficult to choose. I had an Armenian guide during a Holy Land pilgrimage and respect that Armenia was the first Christian country, not to mention Mesrop creating a whole alphabet and translating the Bible for the common man! I voted for him in the end, but was drawn to Madeline's story by her devotion to the Sacred Heart. Wish they were in different brackets so their stories could resonate longer!
Either at the very top or the very bottom of the current set of comments you will find a box where you can enter a comment without its being a reply.
I could have voted for either saint, and thank you for teaching us about them! I voted for Madeleine more out of getting such a richness of detail in her narrative more than for Mashtots. Eva Suarez really brought her to life for me.
Thank you so much! She led such an incredible life, it practically leapt off the page.
This was a very hard choice for me. As a retired graphic artist (and "font-aholic"--one who loves typefaces) my heart said vote for the Armenian Mesrop Mashtots, but as a woman I had to vote for Sophie, the educator of women.
I’m a proud graduate of Sacred Heart education! Yay for Madeleine Sophie Barat, a woman ahead of her time.
like everyone knows tatertots cannot be made from mashed taters, so got to go with Madeleine Sophie Barat. besides, she is a wise hatter.
Hooray for the "like" ❤️ !! The new system appeared to "invite" me to vote multiple times - which I would Never do. Today was really challenging to decide!!
Hooray for Lent Madness. So grateful for this, every year.
How do I post my picture? GO MESROP!
I take it you mean with your name in the comments? I have a feeling it’s somehow connected to a Google platform… All I do is put my Gmail address in when making a comment and it automatically attaches the picture I have associated with my Gmail/Google account…
What a tough choice!
What is this? "Captcha is required"...I'm not tech oriented. Please help. I love Lent Madness and want to continue to take part. Jan C.
I can't figure out how to vote either. I tried but nothing happened.
HELP ME. I do not understand CAPTCHA. Nothing happens. I am now unable to vote
Not able to vote. Could not get captiva to work.
I tried to vote (ist time) and after watching a series of balls circle for several minutes, canceled out and tried again and got same result so left this comment. I wasn't trying to vote illegally. Don't know if my vote ever got through. I've done Lenten Madness for a bunch of years now and never run into this problem.
Both my husband and I experienced the same problem when attempting to vote--just a series of rotating balls. With my background in publishing and linguistics, I've been looking forward to voting for my guy Mashtots! Perhaps a do-over on this match-up once your system is fixed? These are both such worthy saints.
I voted, but the area got gray and 5 little white dots keep circling around over the 'vote' . Does that mean the vote was counted?
My Captcha verification expired before me vote could go through ): Oh, no, I'm very invested in this one!
I tried to vote again on my iPad and got circling balls this time.Wanted to vote for Mashots.
I was not able to vote, either on iPhone or Mac. Same problem as Carol Johnson described below for the computer.
On the iPhone, site seemed to want to do a Captcha but nothing worked.
My husband Jeff was able to vote on his iPhone with no problem.
Just wanted to let you know. And that we enjoy and faithfully participate in Lent Madness -- when site is working! Wanted to vote for Mashtots.
I also am having problem voting.
Seeing series of rotating balls
That continue without ending…
Both excellent so it was really hard to choose.
FYI-There a glitch in your captcha. When I voted it said “captcha required” but it did not give me a captcha. After pressing “ vote” multiple times it recorded my vote, without completing a captcha.
Hello. I tried to vote for Mesrop Mashtots but the dots just kept spinning around and around. I don't know if it went through. If he loses by exactly one vote this may be a consequential electronic hanging chad worthy of Supreme Executive Committee intervention! Or not. It was a difficult choice.
Durn, I’m getting circling dots but no confirmation that my vote has gone through as well. One vote for Mashtots please!