Happy Monday! The Saintly Sixteen continues as Elizabeth of Hungary takes on Mechtild of Magdeburg in a battle of 13th century saintly heavyweights.

Don't forget, if you'd like a quick refresher on their first round bios, click the Bracket Tab and scroll down to view all the previous matchups. It's just one more service we provide here at Lent Madness, although it's also important to remind everyone that you get what you pay for.

On Friday, Emily Cooper defeated Hiram Kano 58% to 42% to advance to the Elate Eight.

Keep your eyes peeled for this week's exciting episode of Monday Madness which will be released later today.

Vote now!

Elizabeth of Hungary

Some know her for her miracles of bread and roses, others for her deep love and compassion for the ill and infirmed, but I’ve come to think of Elizabeth of Hungary as your favorite saints’ favorite saint (that’s a thinly veiled Chappel Roan reference for your Saintly Sixteen). Shortly before his death, St. Francis sent a personal message and blessing to Elizabeth upon learning of her and her devotion.

But before she was allowed to join the Order of Saint Francis, she had to wrestle with the oppressive restrictions of her appointed confessor, Conrad of Marburg, a favorite of Pope Gregory IX, and let me tell you, heresy hated to see Gregory IX and Conrad coming. They were modern day (in the 1200s) Heresy Hunters…but a notable heresy hunter does not, surprisingly, make for a great pastoral priest for a young widow who has just lost her deep love, Louis. Although Elizabeth was already inclined toward pious leanings and acts of service to the poor, Conrad demanded more in an attempt to break her will, it is said. She was no longer allowed to give alms without his permission, she asked to join a convent and it was denied, and demanded that she live up to an extreme lifestyle controlled by her confessor, that is, until Good Friday of 1228, when she was allowed to join the Third Order of Saint Francis.

Elizabeth’s devotion to God withstood the oppression of Conrad and outlasted his harsh treatment, and yet she remained committed to the people who Christ loves deeply. Maybe that’s why she is your favorite saints’ favorite saint. Later the same year she joined the Order, she took what remained of her dowry and built a hospital in Marburg. She died penniless at 24 in Marburg, but deeply happy with how she had spent her life impacting those around her and using what little power and influence a young woman moved about through the exchange of dowries and marriages could. In 2007, there was an 800th year celebration of her birth in Marburg, with pilgrims coming from all over the world to celebrate her impact. There have been at least two musicals based on her life, one of which has a song available on YouTube, if you want to practice your German.

She is the patron saint for many things such as bakers, brides, charitable workers, exiles, and hospitals, but she’s also the patron for people ridiculed for their piety, toothaches, and falsely accused people. She is the people’s patron; your favorite saints’ favorite saint, and this Lent Madness writer’s new favorite saint among the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us.

— Becca Kallo

Mechthild of Magdeburg

At age 12, medieval German mystic and self-described “unruly woman of God” Mechthild of Magdeburg had her first vision.

In her 40s, she began to write them down.

Mechthild’s words — written in common rather than ecclesial language and collected in seven volumes titled The Flowing Light of the Godhead — include almost shockingly intimate poetry about God’s love, an early entry into the “Jesus is my boyfriend” genre. They also include criticisms of church corruption (and, honestly, “stinking billy goats” is still a sick burn). They may have inspired Dante’s Divine Comedy and almost got her books burned. 

Let’s spend a moment with some of these words that held so much power.

One of Mechthild’s most famous poems, from Frank Tobin’s 1998 translation of The Flowing Light of the Godhead, reads in part:

A fish in water does not drown.
A bird in the air does not plummet.
Gold in fire does not perish.
Rather, it gets its purity and its radiant color there.
God has created all creatures to live according to their nature.
How, then, am I to resist my nature?
I must go from all things to God.

Jane Hirschfield included some of Mechthild’s poetry in her 1994 collection Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women alongside perhaps better-known saints like Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila; poets like Emily Dickinson; passages from Song of Songs; and a traditional Navajo prayer.

Among them: 

I cannot dance, O Lord,
Unless You lead me.
If you wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see you dance and sing —

Then I will leap into Love —
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,

That sweetest Fruit beyond human sense.

There I will stay with You, whirling.

Many more snippets from Mechthild’s writing appear in blog posts online today, continuing to inspire and connect across time in the language of the people.

Like: “If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment then you will seek to do compassion. Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help them both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devils much distress.”

And: “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw — and knew I saw — all things in God and God in all things.”

And finally: “How should one live?
Live welcoming to all.”

— Emily McFarlan Miller