Ready for the last matchup of the week? That was rhetorical -- of course you are! Today it's Emily Cooper vs. Hiram Kano, as the choices get harder and harder.

In yesterday's action, Irenaeus brought down Athanasius of Alexandria 53% to 47% to snag the first spot in the Elate Eight.

And don't forget to watch your Daily Saintly Showdown with Christian and Michael (which reminds us, you should really subscribe to our YouTube channel Lent Madness TV.

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Emily Cooper

While no doubt Emily Cooper, as a woman of the 19th century, left a legacy of letters, notes, and records, none of her words are readily available. The words of Emily are instead found on historical markers and in hagiographies written about her life of ministry with children, especially the children of a culture that often saw those who were poor, destitute, sick, and impoverished as outcasts and unworthy of dignity and love. Her words were acts of love, and while no inspiring quotations from Emily are with us today, the words she leaves to us are the names of children, etched into granite to testify that no person, no child, is outside of God’s love and all lives are worthy to be remembered.

Emily Cooper was a Deaconess in the Episcopal Church, and in her commitment to her ministry, her call from God, and her baptismal vows, she arrived in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1880, she was named director of the Home of the Innocents, a ministry for neglected, unwanted, sick, and abused children, as well as poor children of destitute parents.

In her lifetime of service to these children, Emily assisted at baptisms of almost 300 children, naming those who arrived without any identification. She cared for them, healing those whom she could and comforting those as they died. After years of investigation, researchers found the grave locations of over 200 children who died while they were at Holy Innocents who had been buried in unmarked graves (likely because their parents could not afford a grave maker).

Much like Sister Emily, their words had been almost erased from the story of God’s love. Yet in a final act generations later that reflected the love and ministry of Emily Cooper, two statues were created and dedicated to the memory of all these children, as well as Sister Emily. These images tell the story of their lives, often too short.

Sister Emily’s grave and the graves of 77 children, are marked with a statue named, Ascension. It depicts Sister Emily holding a child aloft, and the child is releasing a dove. The names of the children are at the base of the statute.

In an adjoining plot, the statute Metamorphosis stands. It depicts a Deaconess shaking out a blanket with 220 butterflies being released into God’s love, representing the 220 children who are buried in these plots soaring to God. The name of all 113 children in this area are engraved on the base.

Perhaps the greatest legacy of any Christian’s life is not the words we write or the quotations that are attributed to us. Perhaps the greatest legacy is that, in love, we cared for those who were cast out by a culture too often devoid of mercy. Perhaps a great legacy is that, like Emily, we give names and monuments to those whom God loves beyond all measure.

— Laurie Brock

Hiram Kano

As one might expect, Hiram Kano’s experience in the World War II incarceration camp had a profound impact on the remainder of Kano’s life and ministry. It could have been so easy for Kano to be bitter and angry (or insert any other appropriate emotion) about his experience. But instead, Kano said. “It was God’s act. It was God who sent me to camp to fulfill his will. I thank God for this.”

Cyrus Kano, Hiram’s son, noted that his father turned adversity into fertile mission territory. In addition to teaching about Christianity, he also organized a “camp college” for anyone in the camps, including the guards. Cyrus noted, “My father also did nature studies and took groups of people out into the swamp in Louisiana and explained about the leaves on the cypress trees and the animals — the water moccasins, the alligators.” Cyrus’s sister Adeline added that her father was “just trying to continue to do his work as a priest, as a human being, trying to help other people” keep their mind off their circumstances in the camps.

In August 1988, the United States Congress passed the “Civil Liberties Act of 1988” which presented survivors of the incarceration camps with a formal apology letter and the sum of $20,000 as “reparations” for what they endured. Upon learning that this money was coming, Kano said, “I don’t want the money. God just used that as another opportunity for me to preach the gospel.” It is unclear if he formally declared he did not want the money. The money was not distributed until October 1990, after Kano had died. This means that, if he did in fact receive the money (he was entitled to it because he was still living at the time the bill was signed), his descendants were the recipients of that money.

Speaking of his descendants, it is a fun quirk to note that Hiram Kano’s great-grandson Aaron is married to an Episcopal priest, The Rev. Mia Kano, currently the rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer, Massachusetts.

Craig Loya, currently the bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota but born in the Nebraska town where Kano served, identified Kano as his favorite saint and summed up Kano this way: “His was an extraordinary faith and an extraordinary life. He is the only Nebraskan who is a saint in our tradition, and he is deeply loved by people in that state. The fact that he ministered in the area where I grew up makes me feel a particular spiritual connection to him even though I never met him.”

Perhaps there is something in Kano’s story that resonates with you too.

— Kathryn Nishibayashi