Today in Lent Madness action, it's Hiram Kano vs. Lucy of Syracuse. Japanese priest who ministered in the midwest and was incarcerated during World War II vs. an early Christian martyr beloved by Scandinavians.
Yesterday, Iraneaus of Lyon edged James the Just 53% to 47% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen, where he'll face Athanasius of Alexandria.
Remember that everyone gets ONE VOTE. Don't risk being cast into the outer darkness of Lent Madness! It is most unpleasant.
Vote now!
Hiram Kano
Hisanori Kano was born on January 30, 1889, in Koishikawa, Japan, near Tokyo. He had two older brothers—including one who died as a child—an older sister, and four younger sisters. Because his father was of noble status, a daimyo (feudal lord), and the governor of the Kagoshima region, he had greater access to educational opportunities than others at the time.
Kano learned English and Christianity from Dr. and Mrs. Harman and Vesta Peeke beginning when he was in the third grade. When he was in high school, he encountered classmates who were Christian. At that point Kano didn’t identify as Christian but he “approved” of Christianity, and he started praying morning and evening prayer with these classmates. During a hospitalization with appendicitis when he was in high school, he had an experience where he saw God. It was that experience which led him to commit his life to God. Dr. Peeke baptized Kano at the Japanese Christian Church in 1909 after his hospitalization.
Kano entered the agricultural college at the University of Tokyo in 1913. A classmate noticed that he spent a lot of time talking about theology and God. In his second year of college, he said that he heard a voice telling him to go overseas. Kano arrived in the United States on October 25, 1916, sponsored by William Jennings Bryan, who had met the Kano family on a previous trip to Japan. He got his master’s degree in agriculture from the University of Nebraska in 1919. He married Aiko (Ivy) in 1919, and bought a 300-acre farm. They had two children, Cyrus and Adeline.
Kano became a lay missionary for the Episcopal Church in 1925. When describing Nebraska, he said, “the whole state is my mission field.” He was ordained a deacon in 1928 and a priest in 1936. By spring 1934, he had baptized two hundred and fifty people and confirmed fifty.
He was arrested on December 7, 1941, along with Mike Masaoka, a key figure with the Japanese American Citizens League. While he was jailed, Kano’s bishop, George Beecher, came to visit. Bishop Beecher stayed in touch with him throughout the war years. Kano was the only Japanese person from Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming who was jailed. He was rated as “Class A,” which meant he was potentially dangerous. From the jail, he was sent to the incarceration camp at Fort McCoy in 1942.
Kano was released from the incarceration camps in 1944. He earned a master’s degree in divinity from Nashotah House in 1946. Kano spent his ministry with the Japanese population in Nebraska until he retired in 1957. He completed a memoir, Nikkei Farmer on the Nebraska Plains, in 1974.
Kano died on October 24, 1988, in Colorado.
Collect for Hiram Kano
Almighty God, who has reconciled the world to yourself through Christ: Entrust to your Church the ministry of reconciliation, as you did to your servant Hiram Hisanori Kano, and raise up ambassadors for Christ to proclaim your love and peace wherever conflict and hatred divide; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Lucy of Syracuse
Lucy of Syracuse is one of the fourth-century martyrs who was killed under the persecutions of the Roman emperor Diocletian. But, before that, she was born to a rich family in Syracuse, Sicily, in 284 CE, and betrothed to a wealthy young man of a neighboring family when she was a child. Her father died when she was five, and her mother, Eutychia, was also ill and felt this was the only way to provide security and safety for her daughter.
Lucy, however, had other plans. Feeling a kinship with the local saint, Agatha, who had been martyred at Syracuse some fifty years before, young Lucy was inspired to give the money her mother had saved for her dowry to the town’s impoverished citizens. This decision was not received particularly well by her fiancé. When he arrived to marry Lucy, now twenty-one, and discovered that his expected fortune was gone, he angrily went to the Roman governor and denounced her as a Christian. Lucy cheerfully trotted off to trial before the governor, Paschasius, and informed him that God had assured her that his days, and the days of the emperor, were numbered, and that the church would survive despite their persecutions. This announcement also was received poorly by her audience; Paschasius ordered her to be abused in a brothel. However, when the guards tried to transport her there, they found her too heavy to move. (This is the point in which later traditions say that the governor ordered her eyes gouged out, making her the patron saint of the blind and those with eye ailments.) The soldiers then tried to burn her on a pyre, but the fire wouldn’t light. Finally, a soldier stabbed her in the neck, and thus was she martyred.
Her story spread rapidly, and by the sixth century, she is mentioned by name in the Sacramentary of Pope Gregory I and in the ancient Roman martyrology. By the seventh century, Bede tells us that her story was being celebrated in England by Christians there. It is now recognized on December 13, and these days is particularly tied to the Scandanavian countries as St. Lucia’s Day.
Collect for Lucy of Syracuse
O God, for the salvation of all you gave Jesus Christ as light to a world in darkness: Illumine us, as you did your daughter Lucy, with the light of Christ, that by the merits of his passion, we may be led to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
71 comments on “Hiram Kano vs. Lucy of Syracuse”
Vote for Kano today I say,
praying our Colorado saint wins the day,
while neither is truly Thomas Aquinas,
at least Lucy gets Snoopy, Charlie and Linus!
(With respect to John Cabot)
Fr. Kano gets my vote today, because Lucy has been celebrated for years if not centuries, and the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in the U.S. during WWII deserve acknowledgement as well as a profound apology.
Correction: St. Lucy has been celebrate for centuries. All honor to this brave and faithful Christian.
I am not Asian but my Uncle Oggie was and he did spend time in the camps. It was very hard to decide which one to go with today. Being a lady I felt for her but he did so much for the people than she did, but had she lived she would have done so much.
Anyone else having trouble voting? I can verify I am not a robot but not vote.
I had to vote for Lucy in spite of figuring Hiram would win and rightfully so. My mother's name was Lucy. She and a sister worked in Syracuse (NY where I live). She also lost her father early in life and her mother kept trying to find her a husband thought mom was only in her mid teens. She left PA where she grew up and came up here to be with her sister. Mom prevailed over much adversity.
In honor of my father, who received his master’s degree in agronomy from the University of Nebraska, I’m voting for Hiram.
Wonderful background on Hiram Kano and high praise, indeed, that this follower of Jesus Christ would be considered Class A, "potentially dangerous." Thank you for making known this heroic Episcopalian.
Being from Wisconsin, not too far from Nashotah, and having taken classes at Nashotah, I felt I had to go with Hiram. However, Lucy touched my heart so she got my vote.
Lucy, you are an inspiration!
I haven't voted yet. Fr. Kano seems the obvious choice, but I have a real soft spot for young women who would literally have their eyeballs gouged out rather than enter into arranged marriages with men who really only wanted their money and were willing to throw them under the figurative bus if it didn't materialize.
St. Lucy! I am all about her. My brother in law had toxo-plasmosis in one eye. He lost sight in that eye. His retina detached multiple times in the other eye. Multiple surgeries failed leaving him without sight . His mother and his wife went to mass daily. These two ladies attended mass daily for months on end at St. Lucy Catholic church . After much prayer, my brother in law developed peripheral vision in one eye. Although he is unable to drive he continued to work using a computer and an enlarged screen. He turns sideways to see. Prayers with great love make all things possible! Yea! St. Lucy.
This was the first truly difficult decision for me. I have read extensively about the Japanese internments and the politics surrounding the decisions. But I have always vote for the girls. They were the underdogs in them days.
Not this time though. Fr. Kano had my vote,
This Nebraska girl named Lucy had to vote for Hiram!!
Today was one of those days when I really wanted to vote for both saints. I decided to vote for the person listed second, because as others have done I have noticed that all the people listed first have won so far! Requesting again: please fix the Reply function. I miss being able to respond to people.
This is a tough one! I'm going to go with Kano, but Lucia is a tough competitor. Ultimately, I think it is more important to value the real versus the mythic, though there is power in both.
Still having trouble with my email. I got one this morning, but it was for yesterday.
For crying out loud! Being ready about poor Lucy is more than I can take first thing in the morning. However, I voted for Hiram because he represents the church I understand: Episcopal.
I am voting for Fr. Kano, in part out of excitement that a Japanese-American priest made it into the list of saints. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska and truly thought only Nebraskans had heard of Fr. Kano. I have many sympathies for Lucy, but can only imagine what it was like for Hiram to go through internment, as well as traveling through (fairly desolate) Western Nebraska to spread the word of God.
Santa Lucia is circumsolsticely celebrated as a light-bearer during the darkest time of the year. Gotta vote for that. Processions of 5-yr-olds with lit candles taped to their heads year round, I say, until the present darkness passes.
Hiram's capacity to forgive, rebuild, and get on with it is also incredibly inspiring. I won't begrudge him the win, if he keeps his current lead.
Can't vote on an iPad again. Could yesterday.
As a member of a Lutheran congregation with a strong Swedish background, I know I should vote for St. Lucy (Santa Lucia) but the story of Hiram Kano moved me very deeply, so he got my vote.
I live in Syracuse, New York. Had to vote for Lucy!
I give up. Still won't record my vote. Vote for Lucy. Daughter's birthday. She brought light into my life during my first dark winter in Edmonton.
Please Update the 2025 Bracket!!!
Tough choice. Both very inspiring.
The treatment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during WWII is an enduring shame. I worshiped at St. Alban's English-speaking parish in Tokyo for thirty years, and I am proud to tell you that they have welcomed The Ukrainian Orthodox community there to share their space. Japanese Christian history is long and complex, and it includes many unacknowledged saints.
Although of Swedish decent I am voting for Hiram today as I am honoring his devotion to ministering despite the obstacles put in his path.
Last night I happened to watch on PBS the film The Philadelphia Eleven, about the first women to be ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1974. I do find it sad that Hiram is an example of the sexist mentality those women faced when he, as a foreigner, and Asian and a man, was acceptable at that time to ordain but American, white women were not acceptable in 1974+. That paternalistic hierarchy is (not was) a tough wall to breach. Thank goodness we have evolved in some matters. Of course today we're being shown the door back to the kitchen. But We Won't Go Back!
did voters in past years have to deal with
this foul-up?
locy because she was a martyr