Welcome back for another full week of Lent Madness action! We kick things off with the long-anticipated matchup between Jonathan Daniels and Rutilio Grande. Two martyrs who embraced the prophetic call as followers of Jesus amid turbulent times in the United States and El Salvador.
On Friday, Brendan of Clonfert advanced to the Saintly Sixteen by defeating David of Wales 58% to 42%
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Jonathan Daniels
On the evening of March 7, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. began sending telegrams and issuing public statements “calling on religious leaders from all over the nation to join us on Tuesday in our peaceful, nonviolent march for freedom.” Empty tear gas canisters still littered the road before the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. More marchers, more voices were needed in the struggle against segregation and disenfranchisement of Black Americans.
The next day, a second-year seminarian at Episcopal Theological School named Jonathan Myrick Daniels pondered King’s call. It was impractical to leave school in the middle of a term, but the images of Black people beaten by nightsticks and chased by dogs would not leave him. In the midst of singing the Magnificat at Evening Prayer, Jonathan felt “Mary’s glad song” resound with the Holy Spirit’s fire. “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek.” Jonathan knew he had to go to Selma.
Jonathan initially planned to stay in Alabama only a few days but quickly received permission from ETS to stay longer, with a plan to return in May for final exams. Working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Jonathan registered voters, enrolled poor families in benefit programs, tutored children, and protested. With a small, interracial group of friends, Jonathan attempted to integrate the all-white St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. It took weeks to gain entrance to Morning Prayer, and when the group arrived for the Palm Sunday service, ushers called the police. The group was ultimately permitted to worship at St. Paul’s on Palm Sunday and Easter, provided they sat separately from the rest of the congregation and took communion last.
On August 14, 1965, Jonathan was jailed in Haynesville, Alabama, along with 28 others for picketing whites-only stores. Released after six days, Jonathan and a few others walked to a nearby store for a cold drink. A white man named Tom Coleman was waiting with his gun, angered by the news of their release and spoiling for a fight. He aimed his gun at 17-year-old Ruby Sales, a young Black activist. Jonathan immediately pushed Ruby aside; he absorbed the full force of the shotgun blast and died instantly. He was 26 years old.
Upon hearing of Jonathan’s murder, Dr. King said, “one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels.” Had he survived Coleman’s gunfire, Jonathan Daniels might still be with us today. March 20, 2023, would be his 84th birthday.
Collect for Jonathan Daniels
O God of justice and compassion, who puts down the proud and mighty from their place, and lifts up the poor and the afflicted: We give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Rutilio Grande
Rutilio Grande was a Jesuit priest who made his ministry among the poor of El Salvador in the 1960s and 70s. Born in 1928, he studied abroad in Venezuela, Belgium, and Spain before returning home. He became a quiet but powerful prophet standing against an archdiocese that upheld the status quo of rich oligarchs and opposed the reforms of Vatican II.
Grande was a dear friend of the famous archbishop, Óscar Romero (canonized in 2018). When Romero was made a bishop, he had no time or money to plan his consecration, so his friend Rutilio took over. Rutilio planned the liturgy, found vestments to borrow, and recruited colleagues to participate. The two friends were a sort of Ruth Bader Ginsburg/Antonin Scalia pair, enjoying each other’s company enormously but disagreeing mightily about whether the church should take an active role advocating for the nation’s poor. Unlike the carefree character sharing his name in the movie Romero (1989), Grande was a shy and introverted person who struggled with depression and panic attacks. Still, he was a devoted priest whose serious demeanor was transformed when he was out among his parishioners or preaching. “Father Tilo” was a collaborative leader, unheard of in the Salvadoran Roman Catholic Church: training lay people to teach and pastor alongside him and encouraging parishioners to read the Bible together and talk about their lives. He was a fearless preacher, denouncing the conditions of the working poor and the total control of the oligarchy over land, agriculture, and the national economy.
His quiet life began to attract a lot of attention. On March 12, 1977, after a particularly prophetic sermon Rutilio gave in response to the torture and deportation of a fellow priest, he and two of his parishioners were assassinated by anonymous gunmen. And then, Rutilio’s quiet but prophetic life changed his whole country. Not only did Archbishop Romero fully awaken to his life’s work of speaking out for the poor but also other clergy, religious, and lay leaders throughout the Salvadoran church rose up. Tragically, before long, they too, were murdered, tortured, and disappeared by the thousands.
Romero himself was assassinated in 1980. El Salvador remains one of the most violent countries in the world, besieged by gang violence, but Rutilio and Óscar are icons of hope, appearing often together in devotional art. Rutilio Grande was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church on January 22, 2022.
Collect for Rutilio Grande
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Rutilio triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Jonathan Daniels: MrCharco, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Rutilio Grande: Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
123 comments on “Jonathan Daniels v. Rutilio Grande”
You picked a very tough match-up. Both men are heroes and martyrs to the struggle for social justice but Jonathan is our saint. A man whose life, taken so young, still points the way for our struggle against racism and for a just world for all people.
this was a tough call, but Daniels followed Jesus' example by giving his life for another.
Absolutely heartbreaking decision, and I won't reiterate the beautifully expressed whys and wherefores already expressed. I voted Jonathan Myrick Daniels. What a start to the week!
Both of these saints were courageous & inspirational people. Both deserve the vote. I chose Tilo because of the extent of his suffering and his relationships with people. Both of the battles these men fought are still going on today and prayers are needed to end these conflicts.
I’m voting for Jonathan partly in repentance for the past sins of my Episcopal church but also for all his boots on the ground activism.
This one is a difficult choice because they both did so much for the poor and oppressed. I'm leaning toward Rutilio because Jonathan has appeared in Lent Madness twice (2013 and 2015). I feel Rotilio deserves this try.
Two such courageous men, living out the Gospel, rather than a hierarchical church.
A very difficult choice today, almost impossible to vote. Assuming that Jonathan Daniels will most likely move on, I am voting for Rutilio Grande to give him my support and remember those in El Salvador who are still fighting for justice and equity.
He is most worthy.
This one was extremely difficult. Both risked their lives for the oppressed. I suppose that it was Br. Daniels's decision to take a bullet he saw coming so that an oppressed young woman can live is what ultimately swayed me. I wanted to cry when I read that.
Two impressive martyrs but have to go with Jonathan… I went to Selma too.
I have read and re-read the story of Jonathan Daniels so many times, and it never fails to stir my soul.
Today, it gave me chills. I felt moved anew. This is the model we should be looking toward: speaking out, standing up, and calling out the injustice in the world.
I voted for Rutilio Grande. We lived in Costa Rica with family in 1969 and 1970. As U.S. citizens traveling via air, we stopped in each country to show passports to prove our U.S. citizenship. During a stop at one of the Central American countries, my sister and I were ordered to leave the plane without our grandpa. They said they were questioning us in regards to bean bead necklaces we purchased from a neighboring country. We were brought to an interrogation room at the airport, sat down on two folding chairs in the middle of the room and were questioned by men in uniforms. Luckily our grandpa was very brave, ran off the plane and bounded into the interrogation room and demanded our release. My sister, grandpa and I are/were white. I was 9 yo. My sister was 12 yo... Also, I was very aware of the civil rights movement in the U.S. We visited many historical sights in the 1960's and 70's with our dad. We were raised during the desegregation of our schools in WA. You presented us with a very difficult choice today!
Oooh, this one was a particlarly tough, tough choice, and perhaps the first time I ever wish you would let me vote for both. Both martyrs, both unselfish and brave, both so deserving!
What has become of that all-white church?
https://stpaulsselma.dioala.org/
From the History page of the parish website Tessa posted . . .
In 1965, St. Paul’s received national attention for shutting its doors to outsiders, some African-American, who came to Selma during the Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by members of the parish who walked out in protest and by the persistence of Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels (recognized in the Episcopal Church calendar as a martyr), the Vestry voted to affirm that all are welcome for worship.
Am glad to learn that there were members who voted with their feet and eventually a vestry that voted to do God’s will and welcome all God’s children.
Such a difficult choice! I voted for Daniels; voting rights is one of my passions (I've served for over 20 years as an election official for primary and general elections in MN and see this work as integral to my identity as a Christian.) My first stint as head judge at a precinct was 2008, with Barak Obama on the ballot. An African American couple arrived at 6 am to vote--polls didn't open until 7 am. There were 2 African American women of wisdom working with me that day--women who had come of age during the Civil Rights movement. That people died in this country in my lifetime in the fight for the right to vote touches me deeply. Jonathan Daniels is one of those saints.
Very tough choice. They are even on the sacrifice they made IN THE MOMENT. Rutilio tips the scales, though, on "time in service," as well as variety of situational challenges faced (entrenched pre-V2 RC church culture; institutional inertia and active resistance while a seminary faculty member; authoritarian right-wing government employing lethal force with impunity). Jonathan offers emotional inspiration; Rutilio offers practical inspiration.
This is perhaps the most difficult match-up I've encountered this season! Both of these men have more than earned their crowns and I can only hope to grow up into half the human either of them were. I went with Daniels though, for no other reason than that I need hope right now that more of the Church can stop quibbling about minutiae, skimming the surface, and looking for ways to avoid the topic of race in the US, and just get about the business of tearing down every system that prevents us from becoming "beloved community" in practice rather than just in name.
These two men should both move on.
BOTh ARE INSPIRATIONAL.
I’m still not sure who to vote for. Both are so deserving. I will read both bios at least one more time then hopefully make a decision. I may end up not voting for either one as I would be happy if either one went on to be the ultimate winner.
I voted for Jonathan because he heard the call and acted but more importantly he knew the church was wrong in eliminating people of color in their congregations
It always seems like either I find inspiration from both of the saints of the day or from neither. Today is a day where both saints inspire me. I guess it wouldn't be Lent Madness if it wasn't so. 🙂
Ruby Sales' incredible youth leadership was beyond her years long before she worked with Jonathan Myrick Daniels in 1965. What Ruby Sales has again & again done with her generous life since then is absolutely breath-taking.
Jonathan's military training gave him an instant understanding of the life-and-death situation. He had obviously already decided that he would willingly die to save one or more of the local black people for whom he had gone to Alabama. He acted within a split second, having already felt more & more like he was Christ on the road to Calvary.
I have spent part of every year of my long life near Keene, NH, and am happy to see our homegrown saint recognized: Jonathan Daniels, demonstrating the wild courage of some young people. And I wonder, can anyone find it in their heart to pity that cold-blooded murderer who martyred him?
If I remember correctly (note the use of the word "if"), I voted for Jonathan Daniels the first time I played Lent Madness, So I voted for him again.
However, I won't throw a hissy fit if Rutilio Grande gets the nod.
A dear friend of mine who is a priest knew and revered Bishop Romero, so I won't get my nose out of joint if he wins.
Both men were brave in their witness. And yet, the violence in El Salvador was brutal and ongoing--so commonplace over decades and decades that it is barely reported on in the USA. The Catholic priests who risked everything to bring hope to the people and inspire others of the faith to stand with the poor have always amazed me...I didn't know that Archbishop Romero was inspired by "Father Tilo." That makes him even more special to me. Thank you for including him in this year's Lent Madness.
Both men faced horrible obstacles and dedicated their lives to faith and justice. Another very hard decision. I voted for Jonathon, perhaps because his injustices were in my country.
In my heart and soul I voted for both of them. ❤️
I voted for Daniels as I have been honored to know Ruby Sales whose life he saved. She is a woman of great spirit who is a living legacy for Daniels. See some biographical information https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Sales
I grew up in the segregated South. The heroic actions of many heroes including Jonathan changed my life. Rest in Power.
Too bad Rutilio Grande had to come up against one of the great Episcopalian heroes of the last century. On many days of the tournament so far I would have gladly voted for him.