260 comments on “Nominationtide is upon us!”

1. I nominate St. Aidan of Lindisfarne who in the 7th century left his Gaelic speaking community of Iona to minister to the English speaking flock of King Oswald of Northumbria. Unable to speak his host's language, he preached the gospel with a greater language of kindness, simplicity and love, convincing many that the way of Jesus was the way of life..

   Aidan is the patron saint of firefighters. His prayers turned the winds of a Saxon assault on Bamburgh Castle, returning the conflagration to its senders. In 2020, when the Woodward Wildfire threatened St. Aidan's Church in Bolinas, we prayed to our patron and the winds turned. In this age of linguistic confusion, drought and global warming, St. Aidan is a good friend to have.

2. I wish to nominate Bartolome de las Casas for his tireless efforts in protecting indigenous peoples. He was transformed to actively oppose the abuses committed by colonizers against Native Americans. As he grew in understanding and knowledge of brutal and unjust treatment of slaves, he retracted his earlier support of African slavery. He spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and colonial abuse.

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3. I would like to nominate Gregory of Nyssa. He of course is a Cappadocian Father along with Basil and the other Gregory. He was critical in clarifying the Trinity and his voice was important at the Council of Nicaea. He was clearly a Universalist (which is cool and still controversial) and was an early proponent for the elimination of slavery which is now not so controversial. He was a brilliant theologian too! Thanks for considering

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   1. Amen! I have heard about the church in San Francisco.

4. I nominate St. Cuthbert, hermit of Farne, bishop of Lindisfarne;
   and subject of the earliest Latin hagiography of Anglo-Saxon England, which The Venerable Bede used to create both a metrical and a prose life of his 'local hero'. Role model for pandemic isolation, early wildlife conservationist through his many miracles before and after death, and namesake of a little white teddy bear that has been my constant companion for the last 45 years.

5. I nominate Papa Pio.
   He was much beloved by my Mom, now gone, and gave her many sweet, calm, happy days before her death.

6. I should like to nominate St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, who was canonized by Pope Francis a few years back. He was a part of the Oxford Movement in England and left a large corpus of correspondence and theological writings that have influenced Anglican and Roman Catholic dialogue to the present day.

7. I nominate Bartolome de las Casas. He was a Spanish soldier who participated in the conquest of Cuba. He later became a Dominican friar and a strong advocate for treating the indigenous people of the Americas with dignity, respect, and equality. He called for the abolition of slavery as well. He died in Spain in 1566.

   https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bartolome-de-Las-Casas

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8. How about Klymentiy Sheptytsky. A Ukrainian Archmandrate who was pressured to becone Russian Orthodax by the Soviets but who died in prison after refuing to do so.Klymentiy Sheptytsky was an accomplished legal scholar and a politician, who was educated in Poland and became a member of the Austrian parliament.

   While he had practiced Latin Catholicism for much of his life, he eventually returned to the practices of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and then entered a Ukrainian monastery at 43, renouncing his secular profession.

   In 1915, when he was 46, he was ordained a priest, and served for decades as the monastery’s hegumen, or prior, until 1944, when he took up its head position — the monastery archimandrite. Archimandrite Sheptytsky opened his monastery to persecuted Jewish boys during World War II, saving as many lives as he could.

   Sheptytsky’s brother, Venerable Andrey Sheptytsky, was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and himself a holy man. The post-war Soviet effort to persecute Ukrainian intellectuals and religious leaders included an effort to intimidate the archbishop — his brother Leon was murdered along with his wife.

   Archimandrite Sheptytsky himself was arrested in 1947, pressured to renounce his union with Rome and serve as a Russian Orthodox priest. When he would not do so, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, and died a martyr, in a Russian prison in 1951.

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9. I nominate Augustine of Hippo
   For his strong influence on Western Philosophy and Christianity in ways we can hardly unravel from how we view the world

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10. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, first woman ordained in the United States (the world) in 1852. Coming from the Congregational tradition, we do not have "saints" but there is a national award in her honor which is given out at General Synod. How do you get ordained if not permitted to attend seminary classes? Faculty professors wives attended with her so it would be safe for the men. She was called by a church in upstate New York. (Recognize the last name? Her sister in law was the first female doctor in the US)

11. I wish to nominate St Scolastica (Italian spelling).
    She was the sister of St Benedict.
    She established the 1st convent of Benedictine nuns.
    She is the patron saint of Benedictine nuns and education.
    Her feast is celebrated on February 10.

12. I nominate St. Casimir because he exemplified the giving/loving nature of Polish people throughout history and especially now as embodied by the outpouring of help to their neighbors in Ukraine. Also, on a personal level, he was my father's namesake.

13. I would like to nominate Catherine of Siena. She worked tirelessly for peace in the church and was instrumental in bringing the Pope from Avignon back to Rome. She has also been named a doctor of the church. An extraordinary woman from a time when women were not usually prominent in the work of the church.

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14. I would like to nominate Saint Lioba. A Benedictine nun from England, she travelled to Germany with her relative Saint Boniface, at his invitation. She was an academic and she was held in such respect due to the holiness of her life that when Boniface travelled on his missions journeys he left her in charge of the convents. As someone who was born in one country but who now lives in another - and as a total nerd! - I nominate the holy, learnèd Lioba.

15. I nominate REV. DR. PAULI MURRAY, the first African American woman priest in the Episcopal Church. Her story is both amazing and mostly unknown to both the Episcopal Church and the broader society. Her journey helped pave the way for the late Bishop Barbara Harris and is an inspiration for all.

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16. I would like to nominate Father Emil Kapaun. Korean War Chaplain - Prisoner of War. Ministered to soldiers and prisoners of war. Died in captivity. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor. Recognized with a monument by the Archdiocese of Military Services, USA. After so many years of "Missing"- his remains were identified in March 2021 and laid to rest in Wichita, Kansas in September of that year. I don't know if he is recognized as a saint on a calendar but to the soldiers he took care of I'm sure he was. Have included a link to a website about him.

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17. Andrei Rublev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev

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18. I’d like to nominate Father Damien (de Veuster) who ministered to those with leprosy on the island of Moloka’i from 1873 to his death in 1889 when he died of leprosy. He ministered to the sick in spite of the danger to himself and is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic church.

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19. I nominate Thich Nhat Nanh.
    Plum Village

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20. I'd like to nominate Saint Benedict of Nursia. I have a great appreciation for the Benedictine life of prayer and the Liturgy of the Hours, he survived several poisoning attempts, and I always appreciated his close relationship with his sister (also a saint!).
    Also, the list of things he's a patron of is fun: against poison and witchcraft, for gall stones and kidney disease, cavers and spelunkers, and servants who break their master's belongings, among others 😀

21. I nominate St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of western monasticism. Looking up and down the lists I am surprised he has not already been nominated.

22. Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Dead qualification, check as he gave up his life so that another could live. Horrible death. Franciscan (can the Pope vote). Polish, Polska!

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23. Eric Liddell. Not only does he have an inspiring & entertaining story about ow his faith influenced is athletics, but his devotion & witness in his time as a missionary in Japanese occupied China inspired not just Christians but Chinese communists.
    Easily my favorite Saint (plus associated with a great song).

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    1. I second the nomination. He is commemorated on February 22 of the Episcopal calendar and also the author of Disciplines of the Christian Life which outlines his pattern for living which includes daily Bible reading on basic Christian beliefs. He died of a brain tumor while interred in a Japanese civilian camp in 1945.

24. I would like to nominate St. Vivian. I happened to drive by a church in California and saw it was named after her. I never heard of St. Vivian before and then thought, I know who could find out about her, Lent Madness. Here it is nominationtide, so I nominate St. Vivian, the mystery saint.

25. St Richard of Chichester. Why? Love the name "Chichester". My dad's ashes are scattered at the parish of the same name in Lake Arrowhead, CA. But, in reading about Richard there is ample "fodder", if you will, to make for some great write-ups in the Saintly Smackdown; especially his statutes for the clergy to wear "clean robes" when celebrating the Mass, and that gambling was to be forbidden at baptisms and marriages! Plus, love the words to the hymn "Day by Day"!

26. Sister Dorothy Stang - per Matthew Fox,
    She spent 42 years serving her and the peasant peoples of the Amazon region in Brazil. She set up schools, worked to empower the farmers and families, women and men, of the rainforest that was so under attack by giant conglomerates committed to destroying the forest.
    Sister Dot was gunned down one day while walking alone down a dirt path by three gunmen who ambushed her and left her 72 year old body lying in the dirt and her own blood. Before they gunned her down she had just enough time to reach into her backpack and pull out her Bible and start reading the Beatitudes to her killers.

    At her funeral, a peasant farmer got up and declared, “Sister Dorothy, we are not burying you, we are planting you.” She is one of tens of thousands of martyrs in Latin America in our lifetimes who stood up to defend the poor and those without power including the rainforest itself from human and corporate exploitation in South America. She reminds us that there is a price to pay for loving Mother Earth in times like ours. That generosity matters.

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27. I nominate St. Brigid of Kildare (a finalist from 2015) but not for her beer associations, as then stressed, but rather for her miracle of supporting abortion, as lauded in folklore and described recently here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2022/05/04/st-brigid-pray-for-us/ . Modern Catholicism has been burdened with the legacy of Pius IX, and it is well to remember that there is an earlier theological tradition that is largely overlooked today.

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28. I nominate James the Just, the brother of our Lord who lead the very early Church in Jerusalem. He was martyred in Jerusalem by stoning. Though he wasn’t among Jesus Apostles he became one of the bedrock leaders of the early church after experiencing meeting the Risen Lord.

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29. I nominate Richard Hooker because, in addition to being an eminent theologian of the 16th century who loved run-on sentences, he elucidated a simple image that showed the difference between the bases of Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism: the former is based on sacraments and tradition; Anglicanism added 'right reason' to those two. Many, many other reasons can be found among his voluminous writings, but I'll leave those to your amazing Lent Madness writers. He is honored in Lesser Feasts and Fasts on November 3rd.

30. I'd like to nominate St. Filbert (or Philibert). When I drove to the animal shelter to pick up our new dog, it was August 20th (St. Filbert's feast day) and thus my dog is named Filbert. Hazelnuts are typically harvested on St. Filbert's feast day, which is why hazelnuts are called "Filberts" in Oregon.