Well, friends, we've reached the end of our little romp through the saintly alphabet as Yvette of Huy takes on Zechariah. Luckily(?) for you, however, there are 32 saints in the first round and only 26 letters of the alphabet. So prepare to catch some ZZZZZs next week.
Yesterday, Francis Xavier left Wenceslaus out in the cold 64% to 36% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen.
This is, of course, the final matchup of the week. We'll see you first thing Monday morning as Katharina Zell takes on Zenaida.
Vote now!
Yvette of Huy
Born in 1158 into a wealthy family in Huy, Belgium, Yvette of Huy’s life “seemed to be planned out for her.”
“She was a daughter, then she would be a wife, then a mother, and if she were lucky she would live long enough perhaps to be a widow,” explains Lestra R. Atlas in “And She Learned from Experience: Motherhood and Womanhood in the Authority of Yvette of Huy” (10). By the time she turned eighteen, Yvette had checked all the boxes.
She’d already lost her husband, one of her three children and, as Atlas puts it, any clear road map for a young woman in medieval times. So she charted her own course. She went to Mass regularly, gave extravagantly to those who needed it, and declined offers to remarry.
But blazing new trails never comes without obstacles.
Yvette’s father—who had arranged her marriage against her will when she was thirteen—now took her youngest sons from her, concerned that she might give away all her children stood to inherit. He brought Yvette before the local bishop, thinking that he would encourage her to remarry. The bishop instead was moved by her prayers and consecrated her as a “holy widow.”
Still, sainthood seemed reserved for the virginal in the Middle Ages. And even though new monastic orders were proliferating amid the religious reforms of the time, many excluded women.
Finding “no real place for women,” in Atlas’s words (6), Yvette went to those who also found themselves on the margins of church and society. She spent ten years caring for people in a leper community in nearby Statte. Eventually, she became an anchoress, joining a growing, informal movement of women withdrawing from the world to live a solitary life of prayer. She was enclosed in a cell in the community’s chapel, where she remained until her death on January 13, 1228.
From her cell, Yvette reclaimed motherhood, miraculously leading her son Eustachius of Huy to the faith and becoming a spiritual mother to the community. Her reputation spread beyond the four walls that entombed her. Pilgrims traveled from across the Low Countries to seek her mystical insight and maternal wisdom.
Both Yvette and her son Eustachius are considered “blessed” by the Catholic Church, and her feast day is celebrated on January 13.
Collect for Yvette of Huy
O God, by whose grace your servant Yvette of Huy, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Zechariah
As Luke opens his Gospel, he is careful to tie the Christ event to Israel’s larger story. The first person we are introduced to is the aged priest, Zechariah.
Zechariah is identified as a priest during the reign of King Herod, descending from the priestly order of Abijah. He is married to Elizabeth, who shares priestly lineage as a descendent of Aaron. They are old and childless.
Zechariah is chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary to offer incense. As he makes the offering, the angel Gabriel appears to him with the promise of a child. Unsurprisingly, as often happens in these types of stories, Zechariah is incredulous, and asks Gabriel, “How can I know that this will happen?” before going on to note that he is an old man and that his wife, Elizabeth, “is getting on in years.” For his lack of belief, Gabriel makes him mute and deaf until the day “these things occur.”
Zechariah is slow to emerge from his service, leading people to wonder about the delay. When at long last he emerges, he cannot speak, and they realize that he has received a vision while in the sanctuary.
He returns home to Elizabeth and, as Gabriel promised, she conceives. Nine months later, after the baby is born, on the eighth day after his birth, Zechariah and Elizabeth take him to be circumcised. “They” (who “they” are is frustratingly ambiguous in Luke’s tale) insist that the baby be named Zechariah after his father, but Elizabeth repeatedly refuses, stating that his name be John, and in so doing, fulfills the words from Gabriel. Finally, Zechariah approaches them with a tablet, on which he writes, “His name is John.”
At this moment his lips are loosed, and he utters the beautiful Benedictus, echoing promises of God found in the Scriptures.
John the Baptist will grow to become an important prophet who prepares the way for the Messiah.
In a later, apocryphal text, the Gospel of James, Zechariah bravely refuses to tell Herod’s soldiers where his child is hidden during the Slaughter of the Innocents. In a rage, they kill him. (According to Muslim traditions, which consider him a prophet, some hold that he, like the prophet Isaiah, was sawn in half).
Collect for Zechariah
Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Zechariah, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with him attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
65 comments on “Yvette of Huy vs. Zechariah”
"Francis Xavier left Wenceslaus out in the cold." LOL! Great writing! It reminds me of some of the engaging wordplay I hear on an occasional NPR news report!
all due respect to Zecharia, had to go with Yvette
I’d really like to have known Yvette of Huy, and had the chance for regular cups of tea together. But, I loved the rendition of Zechariah this morning. A fabulous bit of Lectio Divina, that helped his experience come alive to this reader. And, that marvelous drawing of a laughing, delighted man.
Zechariah for the win!
I’m always drawn to vote for those who serve others. So I’m Team Y today. With all due respect to Z.
Yvette blazed her own path. We need more like her today.
Zechariah's story is pretty well known - I voted for Yvette and her persistence today.
Fascinated to learn about Yvette but captured by Zechariah's story.
God (via angel): I have a plan. I need you to help me save the whole world and all of humanity. But don't worry, your part's easy. To kick things off, I just need you to go get jiggy with your wife.
Zechariah: No I don't think so. Why would I do that?
God: You are SO dumb.
Zechariah: -
[buncha stuff happens, incl a lot of hard work by Elizabeth => baby
boy!]
Elizabeth (to the guys in charge of naming): We're calling him John.
Guys in charge: No we don't think so. Why would you do that?
Zechariah (via text): Dudes. Listen to the wife.
God: NOW you're talking!
+++
[FF a few years]
John: Pop, God has a plan. He says I gotta go live by the river and eat grasshoppers and yell at people.
Zechariah (has some trouble speaking but gives his kid a sign):
Supposed to end with:
[two thumbs up]
... but heart works too!
Had Yvette been born a few years later, I suspect she'd have become a Beguine, especially since she lived in Belgium which is where the movement seems to have originated. (Perhaps it's time for a revival of the Beguine houses?)
Zechariah's icon is lovely, laughing in delight at something, perhaps his first sight of the newborn John.
Either is a better candidate for advancement than some of the saintly figures who, by the alphabetical happenstance we are all awarded by chance at birth, have been voted into the second round because the other one was even worse. (Looking at you, Rose of Lima.)
Also, if Yvette advances to the next round and then on to the kitsch round, I'm hoping they mention Creme Yvette. It's a liqueur involving blackberries, raspberries, black currants, strawberries, and violet petals, not as well known as it should be.
A Stratosphere is similar to a kir royale, but using Creme Yvette instead of creme de cassis.
1/2 vote to each.
Chose Yvette.
Less well-known, medieval.
I have always loved the Zechariah story, but I have to vote for Yvette gets my vote for her generosity and 'maternal wisdom'. She must have been a remarkable woman to earn a reputation across the Low Countries while she was walled in her cell.
In the post about Yvette, I think the choice of "entombed" in the penultimate paragraph is unfortunate and misleading. "Enclosed" in the antepenultimate paragraph is much more accurate. Like Julian of Norwich, Yvette stayed in active and constant contact with her community even while personally never leaving her cell. "Pilgrims traveled from across the Low Countries to seek her mystical insight and maternal wisdom."
As stated in the blurb on the book "Lives of the Anchoresses" - https://www.pennpress.org/9780812238525/lives-of-the-anchoresses - Yvette was one of the women "who chose to forsake the world but did not avoid it.... From their solitary anchorholds in very public places, they acted as teachers and counselors and, in some cases, theological innovators for parishioners who would speak to them from the street, through small openings in the walls of their cells. Available at all hours, the anchoresses were ready to care for the community's faithful whenever needed."
Kudos to Lent Madness for making me search out more info about anchoresses! I'll have to see if I can find that book in a library. And thank you to Emily Miller whom (despite "entombed") I always find insightful and helpful.
I voted for Yvette. Yes, Zechariah had a remarkable vision, but other than contributing his DNA and, one assumes, paternal guidance to his son John, he didn't do much else.
I guess it is a bit easier to father child than follow Yvette's path.
Yvette of Huy lived at a time when women had little choice. By 18 he had accomplished all that was a women's destiny in the middle ages. Nevertheless her love grew and she gave all she could. Zechariah claim to fame was his doubt. By choosing Yvette we choose life, love and compassion.
Hmmm. All Zechariah did of importance was to impregnate Elizabeth. She did the rest. My vote is to a woman who undertook tangible work with lepers and provided spiritual wisdom to those who sought her out. I trust female wisdom and intuition over male testosterone, especially these days. Go Yvette!
Another tough choice today. I ended up voting for Yvette. She lived her life faithfully and resisted the societal pressures to conform to the expectations for women. Zechariah has been famous for centuries and deservedly so, but today Yvette deserves her place in the pantheon of saints.
This was a hard choice! I LOVE all the beautiful people who populate the story of Jesus’ first incarnation. And a saintly Jewish priest from Jesus’ time is a rare treasure!
But my go-to plan is to vote for the saint who does the most good for the most other people, so Yvette gets my vote.
I would have voted for either of them - if I could vote!
Close call today, but the lady gets the vote first!
I can see this is a tough one for many readers. Both are worthy of then title but only one will wear the Halo. I selected Yvette due to spending a life in a cell is not easy. Her beliefs and teachings are for greater good.
Just out of curiosity, how did David Creech decide Zechariah was deaf -- or is this an autocorrect problem?
I had a child patient just last year in the clinic where i work who was a recent immigrant and had Hanson's Disease (leprosy). It was sad because the healthcare provider she was scheduled to see was too afraid to treat her. So I did. I'm voting for Yvette because of that.
Women, even godly ones, have it tough! I'm voting for this woman and all godly women everywhere.
Yvette's story brings to mind Julian of Norwich, a woman who chooses an extremely cloistered life. People are drawn to both women. Zechariah's "cloister" was different - closed eyes and ears until God's truth was known to him. People weren't drawn to him...but to his son, John. Struggle followed by isolation, perhaps marginalization, eventually leads to strong faith and faith in action. We see this in so many of the Saints' stories. They inspire us. For faithful Baby Boomer females...the norm was also a "life planned out for her." Yvette's story speaks to me. She gets my vote.
"may persevere in running the race before us" faith is an ongoing learning and practicing endeavor - perhaps not a 'race' but certainly a journey. thank you David for your words and prayer
Yvette's story is interesting but I cast my vote for Zechariah. He was patient and brave after God's message.
A real "nail biter". In the end, both are deserving of our gratitude
I almost voted for Yvette, but the whole anchoress thing (being completely walled into a tiny space for life) freaks me out--almost as much as eager martyrs. I've always liked Zechariah & his wife Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, but awesome folks in their own right & lineage.
Voted for Zechariah tonight. Friends have a son with that name. I figure they chose his name for good reasons.