And then, believe it or not, there were eight! Today, and for the rest of the week, we will work our way through the Elate Eight, aka the Round of Saintly Kitsch. Not long from now, one of these saintly souls will be crowned with the 2022 Golden Halo: Teresa of Avila, Juliana of Liege, James Holly, José Gregorio Hernández, Origen, Madeleine Barat, Thomas of Villanova, or Thomas Aquinas (who snagged the last spot yesterday by sweeping past Oscar).
We kick things off with Teresa of Avila vs. Julian of Liege. To get to this point, Teresa defeated Crispin and Stephen, while Juliana took down Blaise and Cecilia. Don't forget, you can always pull up more...relevant information about the saints in this round by visiting previous battles in the archive on the home page and scrolling down to click on their past encounters.
What exactly is saintly kitsch? You might say it's in the eye of the beholder. Or that you know it when you see it. But, in the end, we hope this round brings out some levity, even as we continue our inspiring Lenten journey.
Oh, and if by some unknown and wholly unacceptable reason you forgot to watch Monday Madness yesterday, check it out here.
Teresa of Avila
You can publicly profess your support and love for St. Teresa of Avila on many surfaces or in any medium. In addition to the classics – Bernini’s statue The Ecstasy of St. Teresa and Reuben’s masterpiece St. Teresa of Avila’s Vision of the Holy Spirit and - her image and her sayings are plastered all around: statues, prayer cards, pillows, icons, posters, key chains, blocks, coffee mugs, prints, rosaries, medals, stuffed dolls and, of course, t-shirts and sweatshirts. Also, there are memorable books and musical pieces in her honor.
But nothing compares to a burning question making the rounds – does the Infinity Gauntlet in the movie Avengers deliberately resemble the Incorrupt Hand of St. Teresa of Avila?
What, you say? The Infinity Gauntlet is designed after the relic of St. Teresa? There are many who believe so. Articles and social media postings and statements address this provocative question.
Take a close look - what do you think? Has St. Teresa made it to the Marvel Universe?
-- Neva Rae Fox
Juliana of Liege
Shockingly, beyond a few cheesy prayer cards, finding Juliana of Liege kitsch is like stumbling upon a unicorn in the wilderness. There are no Juliana nightlights or dolls or trinkets. In fact, there is a great void in the market! Creating Juliana of Liege kitsch could be your next great business venture. Create kitsch! Get rich! Find your very own kitsch niche!
Fortunately for this 12th century Belgian nun, who was the driving force behind the Feast of Corpus Christi, you can drive your Cadillac convertible with horns on the hood to Corpus Christi, Texas, to remember Juliana. 
Juliana did make this list of famous people named Juliana, clocking in at number 5! So there's that.
And if you want to recall her time at the monastery in Liege, a town outside of Brussels, you can crank up some
music by the '80's heavy metal hair band Liege Lord.
Of course, there's plenty of Corpus Christi kitsch out there. All 
you have to do is type the phrase into the Google machine. And as you do, might we suggest kicking back with a Juliana beer, a double IPA from Drunken Rabbit Brewing?
66 comments on “Teresa of Avila vs. Juliana of Liege”
I love the Saintly Kitsch round, and this was the hardest for me yet! Both celeb bloggers (who did Juliana's? The name didn't show up on my page) did a fantastic job. I ultimately voted for Juliana but see that I'm in the minority!
Usually I go for the underdog, so I SHOULD have voted for Juliana, but I have always admired Bernini's masterpiece, AND there ar enot a great number of femal doctors of the church, and since Teresa is one, she gets my vote. ALSO - I used to attend St. Teresa of Avila parish when I was "younger."
I was planning to vote for Teresa anyhow, but that gauntlet connection is hilariously marvel-ous!
And I find that I enjoy Lent Madness for both its weightiness and its levity... making space for thoughtful devotion, encouraging faith and conversation by exploring more of our "great cloud of witnesses" and yet not taking itself too seriously. Personally, I almost never vote for the kitsch aspect of this round but simply for the one I've already connected with that I want to see proceed onward... but I do love seeing the creativity of kitsch (even if while sometimes sadly pondering our human tendency to want to constantly profit from stuff).
I did not like the descriptions of Teresa and Juliane in this round. I went back the original descriptions of these two saints, and made my decision based on the true facts.
I felt the descriptions on this round were more about today's fashions and thus not useful in deciding my vote.
Prepare yourself for three more days of the same. This is known as the "kitsch round." Some, including myself, find it entertaining; others find it silly. Any method of choosing a saint is obviously valid, as is the choice to skip certain days entirely.
The reason I voted for Juliana is because I've been to the Drunken Rabbit in South Hadley, MA. Unfortunately(?) Juliana IPA is no longer available.
Was Jamie Lannister's hand (Game of Thrones) an homage to the hand of St Theresa? We shall never know!
Where is the vote button today? I've scrolled through all the messages to the bottom but it isn't there either. Please email me as I don't want another trip through all the comments!
Thanks.
I voted for Juliana because the belief that the Corpus Christi is the body and blood merges our spiritual beliefs with the tangible.
I found today’s descriptions very lacking in substance to help one make an informed decision. I don’t have their real contributions to the Kingdom memorized.
You can go back to their previous rounds for that. This is the kitsch round. For fun.
That's always the way it is from the Elate 8 to the final. That's why I go back to the old posts to re-read their bios. Below the "vote" button is the "Archives". Click on "March 2022" and then scroll through the posts and find one for each of the current 2 saints and use those bios to help make a more informed decision.
I am no John Cabot (he is magnificent with his limericks), but here goes:
I had to vote for Avila
Since the kitsch for Juliana is almost nil-a.
I preferred Teresa’s hand
Over the 80’s hair band
I love that the kitsch is so sill-a.
Infinity glove, that blows my mind!
I’m a once and always Teresa fan.
Wow! It's looking like a landslide! I went with Juliana, but I guess I'm in the minority.
It's now late enough in the day that almost no one will read this so I can say what's perplexing me. According to the site linked earlier today in the comments, Franco appropriated Teresa's reliquary hand during the Spanish civil war and slept with it on his pillow until his death. (After Franco's death in 1975 the Discalced nuns petitioned for the hand and have it back.) But for years Teresa had an opportunity to kill Franco in his sleep, and why didn't she? If the saints aren't going to fight fascists for us, what good are they? Almodovar's latest film "Parallel Mothers" is about Franco's atrocities in Spain. The site refers to Franco as a "devout Catholic." I do my brethren, sistren, and theirthren in the Roman Catholic church the grace to believe that a mass murderer is no part of their religion and indeed no Christian at all. (For one thing, Franco would have had the theirthren murdered, as even now crypto-fascists here lust to do.) Today we are seeing the images of Putin's atrocities in Ukraine. Putin and Kirill have much to answer for and have debased Russian Orthodoxy and also lost the right, in my view, to be considered Christians. Therefore, I wonder what the value of the saints is for us today, when we really need a strong foundation for resisting evil. Of course I know it's magical thinking to imagine Teresa's jewel-studded gauntlet as a heroic toy like Thor's hammer or Captain America's shield (that would be a Marvel!), but if we are to articulate a vision for how the saints inform our faith in an era of re-ascendant fascism, when "Christian nationalism" with its attendant white supremacy is the domestic face of that fascism, then what is that vision? What is our statement? I feel that amid the fizz and giddiness of the kitsch round--which I certainly enjoy--we should give some sober attention to declaring how the saints assist us to "put on the armor of God" that Paul speaks of. How do they help us bring in the kingdom when so many powerful forces seek to dispossess "these little ones"?