260 comments on “Happy Nominationtide!”

1. Didn’t see my previous post when I nominated Thomas Cranmer if BCP fame, so I’m doing it again!

2. I nominate Saintess Anna of Novogorod.

   Anna of Novgorod was born in Sweden from Viking royalty, her given name being Ingegerd Olofsdotter (born 1000 A.D.). 

   During the Viking Age, it was very common for royal children to be sent to relatives to be raised. Ingegerd's mother was a Slavic prince's daughter named Estrid, and Ingegerd's brother Jakob grew up with his mother's family on the southern Baltic coast. The stepsister Astrid was sent to a Västgöta chieftain, Egil. But Ingegerd was brought up in the parental home, which was thus - at least temporarily - located in Sigtuna, a town north of modern day Stockholm.

   Nothing is known about her early education but it is assumed that priests and missionaries who stayed with her father, King Olof, would have taught her the Christian doctrine.

   It was the Yaroslav, the Russian prince of Novgorod ("new city"), who asked for her hand in marriage. Her father King Olof Skötkonung was amenable to this offer of marriage. 

   Ingegerd was a strong-willed young lady and she set the preconditions of marriage herself: a Swedish chieftain, Earl Ragnvald, would accompany her to the east, and she also wanted the Ladoga region as her personal fiefdom (this is an area around Lake Ladoga, located between St. Petersburg, Russia and its border with Finland) . The father and Yaroslav's ambassadors accepted Igegerd’s conditions.

   Thus Ingegerd had not yet turned 20 when she became a Russian princess. With her willpower and dominating personality, she appears in the historical records as an important adviser to her 25-year-older husband, in several instances even as the dominant of the two.  She managed, according to an Icelandic source, to make peace between Jaroslav and one of his brothers, just when their armies were about to turn on each other.

   It would be hard to overstate her influence in history and in the present time as well. Her whole family was profoundly devout and pious. In Kiev, St. Irene-Anna founded the convent of St. Irene the Great-Martyr, and ruled it.

   As a spiritual figure today, Ingegerd still lives not only in Russia, but also in Sweden’s St. Anna of Novgorod Orthodox Church since 1968 where she is venerated. 
   She reposed in 1050, and is buried in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (St. Sophia) in Kiev, having been tonsured a monastic with the name of Anna. She is revered by Orthodox Christians in Sweden as the protectress of Sweden. A portion of her relics are kept in an Orthodox Church in Norrköping, Sweden, called Saint Anna of Novgorod Orthodox Church.

   According to Orthodox sources, Ingegerd (her Russian name was Irina) devoted herself intensely to the church and religious life. She founded a nunnery and, towards the end of her life, had herself ordained as a nun according to the strictest order and was then named Anna. "She thereby showed her deep piety and her true Christian humility," says. a 19th-century Russian source states. "Anna (Ingegerd) was the first example of grand ducal persons being sanctified by entering a monastery. This custom, taken from Greek rulers, began in Russia in the 11th century and continued unabated until the 17th century".

   Ingegerd's remains rest together with her husband's in a sarcophagus in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. It is a massive two and a half meter piece of gray marble. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is dominated by festive golden onion domes. Inside, the colors shift dimly and magically over a total of around 5,000 square meters of images with both ecclesiastical and secular motifs. Some of the paintings that were done when the building was new can still be discerned in the plaster on the church's walls. Among them are also pictures of the children of the princely family. Jaroslav and Ingegerd were also painted in the church, but those pictures have unfortunately disappeared. The wall where these paintings were located was demolished in the 17th century.

   Celebrated as a saintess in Russia, Ingegerd’s day is observed on February 10 and October 4. February 10 in honor of own death anniversary and October 4 is her son Vladimir's death anniversary. In the Middle Ages, October 4 was a great feast day in Novgorod and all the leading ecclesiastical dignitaries were obliged to attend the masses. Tsar Ivan ("the Terrible") himself decreed in 1556 that services and general masses of souls should be held over Ingegerd and her son Vladimir "as long as the world endures".

   Ingegerd is often thought of as Sweden's first saint, though never officially canonized by the Orthodox church. Saint Anna's relics have been shared between Russia, Ukraine and Sweden. The Swedish part of the relics came to Sweden in 2009 and is occasionally moved between local Swedish Orthodox congregations.

3. I nominate Fr. Pedro Arrupe whose beatification process was opened February 6, 2019. He was a Spanish jesuit who was sent to Japan in 1938. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor he was imprisoned in solitary confinement by the Japanese. While there he developed deep inner calm based on radical trust in God. After release from prison he worked near Hiroshima and tended casualties after the bomb dropped. He and fellow Jesuits had basic food and medical supplies -no modern drugs or anaesthesia-and knew nothing of radiation dangers. Miraculously, out of 150 people only one person died. His focus was was social Justice and the poor. His famous quote is to form “men and women for others” all students of Jesuits learn this phrase early on.

   Fr arrupe is a modern day saint who tended the sick and poor with no thought of his own safety. Following is a link with more info.

   https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/20th-century-ignatian-voices/pedro-arrupe-sj/

4. I would like to nominate Jean Donovan. She was one of 3 other Churchwomen martyred in El Salvador on December 2, 1980. They were all there to serve - 3 sisters and one 27 year old laywoman from Westport, CT, Jean Donovan. https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2015/12/02/remembering-the-churchwomen-of-el-salvador/ and https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/portfolio-item/jean-donovan-1980-el-salvador/
   It is hard to pick just one since they were all murdered together, and all worked tirelessly for justice. Jean's life is so remarkable because she was not a vowed religious sister, and she said yes to staying in El Salvador, even when the violence grew worse.

   An official biography of her is here:

   Jean Donovan, the youngest of the four church women killed on December 2,1980, was born on April 10,1953. She was the younger of two children and raised in an upper-middle class family in Westport, Connecticut. Her father, Raymond, was an executive engineer, and later chief of design, at the nearby Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Technologies, a large defense contractor for the US and manufacturer of helicopters used in the Vietnam War.

   Jean was very close to her brother Michael and was deeply affected when he was struck with Hodgkins disease, from which he made a complete recovery. The experience of the disease and his courageous battle to conquer it left a strong impression on Jean and, as she said later, gave her a deeper sense of the preciousness of life.

   Jean received a masters degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University, then took a job as management consultant for an accounting firm in Cleveland. She was on her way to a successful business career.

   Not the shy or withdrawn type, Jean was described by friends as outgoing, a “driver,”, a “joker,” who often did outrageous things to get attention. Her mother, Patricia, described her as “a gutsy, loving, caring person.” She loved riding her motorcycle and was once known for pouring scotch, her drink of choice, over her cereal in the morning. Her spirit and generosity drew loyal friends who later were left to grapple with the choices Jean made.

   But Jean was not content and began a search for some deeper meaning in life. While volunteering in the Cleveland Diocese Youth Ministry with the poor, she heard about the diocesan mission project in El Salvador. It was what she was looking for.

   Jean attributed her decision to “a gut feeling,” and said “I want to get closer to Him, and that’s the only way I think I can.”

   The director of the mission program, Maryknoll Sister Mary Anne O’Donnell, described Jean as intelligent, loving and apostolic and believed that, despite (or because of?) her fun-loving, hard-living ways, she had the signs of being a good missioner.

   Jean had also been much affected by time she had spent in Ireland as an exchange student, where a priest who befriended her, Fr. Michael Crowley, a former missionary in Peru, introduced her to a different world, a world of the poor and a life of faith committed to a more radical following of the example of Jesus of Nazareth. Jean was haunted by what she experienced there, and this brought her to question the values of her own life.

   After her training, including a stint at Maryknoll, Jean arrived in El Salvador in July 1979, a time when the repression was intensifying and the church had become a major target. She became Caritas coordinator for the diocesan mission program. In addition to keeping the books, she worked in La Libertad with Dorothy Kazel, distributing food for the poor and the refugees and carrying out family education programs. Her mother Patricia said of her work, “Jean took her commitment to the campesinos very seriously. She was strongly motivated by St. Francis of Assisi and by Archbishop Oscar Romero. She translated God’s teachings into clothing for the poor, feeding the hungry, and caring for the wounded refugees – mainly children – who had lost what little they had…”

   As for the people of La Libertad, they loved Jean Donovan and dubbed her, “St. Jean the Playful.”

   Jean was very devoted to Msgr. Romero, often coming to the cathedral on Sundays to hear his homilies which at that time were the only source of news and truth left in El Salvador. After his assassination, Jean and Dorothy were among those who took turns keeping vigil at his coffin. And they were present in the cathedral when the overflow crowd in the plaza attending his funeral on March 30,1980, was attacked by security forces, resulting in a panicked stampede. The massacre left 44 dead and hundreds of wounded. As Jean sat crowded among the desperate people who fled into the cathedral for safety, she fully believed that she might die that day.

   The repression touched her in other very personal ways. Friends were killed by death squads. She witnessed one such killing.

   In the fall of 1980 Jean took a break from this tense reality to attend the wedding of a friend in Ireland. There she was reunited for a time with her fiance, Dr. Douglas Cable. Many of her friends tried to persuade her to leave El Salvador, but she comforted them with the quip, “They don’t kill blond-haired, blue-eyed North Americans.”

   In fact, she and Dorothy often used their very visible presence to accompany people in danger, or to get supplies into areas not accessible to others. They became a well-known sight, driving along the country-side in their mission van.

   As the violence engulfed the country, Jean felt the personal challenge of trying to cope, to understand what was happening. It tested her faith. “I think that the hardship one endures maybe is God’s way of taking you out into the desert and to prepare you to meet and love him more fully.”

   And while she had been a loyal patriotic Republican, she also saw the direct connection between the violence in El Salvador and the policies of the US. Ronald Reagan won the presidential election in November 1980 promising a strong stand against “Communism.” The Salvadoran government got the message.

   Wrote Patricia, “Things grew progressively worse in El Salvador after the United States election…The military believed they were given a blank check – no restrictions. In light of what happened, who’s to say they weren’t? Jean had told us that she feared there would be a bloodbath in El Salvador.”

   Two weeks before she was murdered, with the bloodbath already begun, she wrote to a friend in Connecticut: “Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness. Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”

   For the family of Jean Donovan, her death was an indescribable blow. When she had first told them she was going to El Salvador, they had to pull out a map to find out where it was. Now they had lost their only daughter in this tiny country that had become a major focus of US foreign policy.

   But Jean’s death was not the only blow; following her death they had to deal with what for them became the betrayal by the very government they thought embodied values of justice and political good. As they approached the State Department for information, they were treated coolly, then with hostility. Eventually they were told to stop bothering State Department officials. In April 1981, at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, all but one Republican Senator left the room when Michael appeared to testify.

   The final insult came when the Donovans received a bill from the State Department for $3,500 for the return of Jean’s body to the US.

   The scandal of the way the US government treated this case, including Reagan administration officials accusing the women of “running a roadblock,” of engaging in “an exchange of fire,” of being “not just nuns…but political activists,” enraged the Donovans and other families of the women.

   As levels of US military aid escalated, Jean’s mother wrote, “Jean deserves, at the very least, that her native land not reward her killers.”

   The head of the National Guard, whose troops were responsible for the murders, Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova, went on to become Minister of Defense under the “democratic” government of José Napoleon Duarte (1984-89).

   Jean’s time in El Salvador led her to those fundamental challenges of the meaning of life, of faith, in a world torn by injustice and violence against the poorest, the most vulnerable. It was a personal challenge.

   “I’m 26 years old. I should be married. I shouldn’t be running around doing all of these things. But then I think, I’ve got so many things I want to do. It’s hard when I see my friends getting married and having babies, that’s something I’ve thought about…am I ever going to have kids? Sometimes I wonder if I’m denying that to myself. I really don’t want to, but that’s maybe what I’m doing. And then I sit there and talk to God and say, why are you doing this to me? Why can’t I just be your little suburban housewife? He hasn’t answered yet.”

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5. Fr. Hiram Kano. The "saint of Nebraska." Why nominate him? Well, Nebraska, for one. (more here than just football or corn. Or football teams with corn in the name). He used his time in unjust interment camps to preach the Gospel. I don't know if there's Kano kitsch but I have a book about him given to me by a parishioner. The history of Japanese-Americans in Nebraska isn't very well-known but deserves highlighting.

   1. PS Kano was an Episcopal priest and is on the Episcopal calendar.

6. I nominate Queen Emma of Hawaiʻi. Her feast day is on 28 November along with her husband, King Kamehameha IV. Together they invited the Anglican Church to the Hawaiian Islands after their visit to the UK to see Queen Victoria -- as a result, The Episcopal Church is the only one on the islands actually invited here by the Royal Sovereigns. In addition, Queen Emma suffered personal heartbreaks with the deaths of their only child, Prince Albert, as well as that of her husband, Kamehameha, making her a widow at age 27.
   In 1860, Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV petitioned the Church of England to help establish the Church of Hawaiʻi. Upon the arrival of Anglican bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley and two priests, they both were baptized on October 21, 1862, and confirmed in November 1862. With her husband, she championed the Anglican (Episcopal) church in Hawaiʻi and founded St. Andrew's Cathedral, raising funds for the building. In 1867 she founded Saint Andrew's Priory School for Girls.She also laid the groundwork for an Episcopal secondary school for boys originally named for Saint Alban, and later ʻIolani School, an Episcopal school, in honor of her husband. Finally, she personally went cap-in-hand to raise funds for the Queen's Hospital, set up especially to help Indigenous Hawaiians upon the outbreaks of Smallpox and Hansen's Disease, and which is now the pre-eminent hospital on the Islands.

   The Feast of the Holy Sovereigns is celebrated annually in the Episcopal Church in Hawaii on November 28, honoring Kamehameha IV and Emma.[24] The rest of the Episcopal Church observes this as the feast day of Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii, but does not use the name "Feast of the Holy Sovereigns."

7. I would like to nominate St. Brigid ( Bridget) of Ireland. I believe she is a worthy candidate for several reasons. First, she was born into slavery, then sold to the Druids, who she was able to convert to Christianity. Upon earning her freedom, her piety so impressed the king that she was removed from her father's control and founded the first nunnery in Ireland. And! she was able to change water in to beer for a leper colony; enough beer for 18 churches. As the patron saint of beer, Brigid has surely earned her way into Lent Madness

8. I would like to nominate St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Info from Wikipedia: Genevieve is actually said to have saved Paris twice - once by leading a prayer marathon that diverted Attila the Hun away from the city, and once as an intermediary between Paris and Childeric, the Germanic king.

9. Rats - I thought of another woman saint I would love to nominate, but since I already made one nomination, I don't want it voided. I will watch and hope someone thinks of her! 🙂

10. Each time I follow Lent Madness, I appreciate reading of interesting people who set good examples to follow. A saint known for devotion, grace, intelligence, and good works, I nominate Hilda of Whitby, previously part of the madness in 2013 (lost to Golden Halo Frances Perkins in Final Four) and 2022 (didn't make it out of the first round, passed by Origen). I like that I can choose from 3 pilgrimages in Hilda's honor, https://britishpilgrimage.org/routes/ . She has feast days in both June and November, when her feast day will depend on the church, but it's one of three: November 17, 18, or 19! Hilda became a nun of the Benedictine order at the age of 33. Could 3rd time be the charm for Hilda?

    1. Oh, yes! I would second your nomination of Hilda!

11. Pauli Murray--priest, crusader for justice--civil rights and women's rights, born female but struggled with lifelong gender dysphoria, influencer of Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, a complicated and powerful change agent--and she left us her words, splendid words in legal opinions, memoir, and poetry.

12. My nomination falls to William Wesley Van Orsdel (March 20, 1848 – December 19, 1919), or " Brother Van, " who was a Methodist Episcopal Church frontier circuit rider. From his youth his was a life of service, first on the fields of the Battle of Gettysburg where he took water and compassionate care to soldiers on both sides. Making his way west, he eventually found himself in Montana, and having foregone formal training or authorizaation, he set about sharing the Good News, founding hospitals, schools, orphanages, and fundamentaling changing the character of the territory. His relationship with the indigenous peoples of the region is illustrated by the name given to him by the Blackfeet people, "Great Heart." Brother Van is the epitome of selfless service, gracious character, and an enthusiasm for the gospel that in ways both great and small, brought the gospel to life in the lives around him.

13. I nominate Saint Agnes of Rome. She died a martyr and is the patron saint of virgins, girls, chastity, victims of sex abuse and gardeners. Girls in this day and age are desper1tely in need of protection.

14. I nominate Corrie ten Boom. For her work in helping Jews escape from the Holocaust and her suffering and the martyrdom of her family in a Nazi concentration camp.

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15. I would like to nominate St. Cecilia. There are several variations of her martyrdom, but the one I heard first and found so moving was that after the third attempt to behead her, as she lay on the ground, the index, middle, and ring fingers of one hand were extended, indicating the Holy Trinity. It's a beautiful story.

16. I nominate Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941). He is best known for sacrificing himself, by taking the place of another prisoner at Auschwitz and subsequently starving to death. He had a full and impressive life of ministry before that. He earned to doctorates, one in philosophy, and one in theology. He was a Franciscan. In Europe, he taught at a seminary, was active in publishing devotional and evangelical works, and founded a radio station for the same purpose. He also served as a missionary in Asia.

17. I nominate Abram/Abraham from the Old Testament.
    We would always sing about "Father Abraham", the father of our faith in AWANA Sparks. (AWANA = Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed.)

    (I wasn't sure which Joseph is ineligible for 2024.)
    I love the way you put the "fun" into Lent Madness.

18. I nominate Servant of God Emil Kapaun . He gave his life to God and nourished and protected his fellow soldiers during the Korean War. Ultimately giving his life. Awarded the Medal of Honor.

19. I nominate St. Philip Neri, who had a talent for funny self-deprecation which he used to keep himself humble.
    Neri is a patron of joy and laughter. Couldn't we all use more of that?

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20. Melania the Elder. I first heard about her last year on her feast day of June 8. She was a person some of the leaders of the church consulted and was highly regarded by people seeking answers to deep theological questions. I would love to learn more about her from our esteemed celebrity bloggers. Having made that nomination, I would love to see more nominations about those who almost never get mentioned anywhere except in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

21. Zenaida, @100
    A specialist in pediatric medicine, she built a clinic when women were left out of medicine. She also did not charge and was known as a unmercenary physcian

22. Gertrude of Helfta.

    I have recently learned about this marvelous woman from medieval times in Germany. Gertrude live in the 1200s and was a scholar and in my opinion a spiritual director to her community, religious and secular. Many people were drawn to her sincere faith, and her visions of Jesus were deeply intimate in nature. I found her conversion story relatable, raised in the faith, and constantly seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus.

    As I train to be a spiritual director I was greatly inspired by her closeness with Jesus, and want to see more people learn about her.

23. I would like to nominate Jean-Henri Dunant. A native of Switzerland, at the tender age of 20 and freshly tossed out of college, he persuaded his group of friends known as the "Thursday Association", who met every Thursday for meditation and prayer, as well as planning ways to help the poor, to start a home for young men out on the streets - he named it the Young Men's Christian Association ... YMCA. Some years later, at age 29, after viewing first hand the carnage on the battlefield at Solferino, he co-founded the International Red Cross, to ensure that each side took care of ALL those wounded, and not just their own. The flag of the Red Cross is the reversed colors of his native Swiss flag, in his honor. After years of debt and living as a hermit, Alfred Nobel bestowed upon Jean-Henri Dunant the very first Nobel Peace Prize. Worthy of sainthood? Absolutely!

24. In light of the Illinois attorney general’s report today of yet more sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, I would like to nominate St. Mary of the Cross, Mary Helen MacKillop. She was once excommunicated for reporting child sexual abuse by a priest in a nearby parish. In addition to her willingness to speak truth to power, she also founded a religious order (the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart) focusing on education for the rural poor, and is the first Australian to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.

25. St. Kassia (aka Kassiani)

    Move over, Hildegard. There's a female composer more ancient than you. St. Kassia's story has everything! Royalty, jilted lovers, and monasticism set against the backdrop of the 9th century Byzantine empire. Do you want to know more about the scourging of the icon-venerating Kassia by the order of the iconoclast emperor, who is also her jilted suitor? Elect St. Kassia to find out more.

    But the best part of having Kassia in the bracket is that we can listen to one of her 50 hymns while pondering our votes. If you don't want to wait to hear one, here's a link for sampling now: https://youtu.be/mFid-ZWf3-8

    Oh, and remember the jilted suitor/iconoclast emperor? You can read more about how he helped write one of her hymns during a surprise visit to her monastery.

    And what about those obsessed with epigrams and gnomic verses? Kassia wrote 217 of those. Those were secular and include such themes of social structures and women's rights. I don't think there's been a nominated saint yet who wrote gnomic verses on women's rights. This should no longer be overlooked.

    St. Kassia's feast day is September 7 on the Orthodox calendar.
    BUT as of 2022, her feast day is also September 7 on the Episcopal calendar. Let's give her a big welcome by adding her to the Lent Madness calendar!

26. I nominate St. Margaret of Scotland. She died on November 16, 1093, at the age of 50, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son. It is said she died of grief, but she may have died a martyr's death. I am moved by her faith, which showed forth in all her works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal. I am also move by the fact that I was born on her feast day - November 16 - and my dear departed mother was named Margaret.

27. From a conference with Michael Battle, Bishop John Colenso (1814-1883) was champion of indigenous ministry to the Zulu, ahead of his time, and censured for promoting the ordination of Zulu people, a man of courage and faith. Ubuntu theology has roots in the ministry of Bishop Colenso. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colenso

28. Cyprian of Carthage
    Cyprian was a martyr of the church. He may have blindfolded himself at his own execution.
    Cyprian was an advocate for the doctrine that no bishop had authority over others. A plague that befell that Roman Empire is named for Cyprian, as his detailed descriptions of the plague survive today for scholars. Cyprian advocated for public penance for those who wished to be restored to the church after a period of public persecution, this was a controversial view in its time.
    Cyprian wrote that until he experienced baptism, he was living life in the dark, knowing nothing of his true life.

29. I nominate Pauli Murray.

30. I nominate Saint Michael he is the patron Saint of soldiers and policemen, and their Saint deserves our support.