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”
First a farmer, then deacon and priest,
Hiram cared for both greatest and least.
Though arrested and jailed
Through his faith he prevailed;
So today let us honor his feast.
Second time this round that I have voted for a female martyr. I appreciated that she denounced both the governor and the emperor. We need courageous people to speak truth to power in these troublesome days. I'm also glad that this was not one of those "She wanted to remain a virgin so she did [insert something gruesome] to herself in order to stave of marriage" stories. She gave her dowry to the poor. Very practical! The guy could have married her anyway, but didn't because he was in love with the dowry and not with her.
Fr. Kano also actively worked to help Japanese Americans receive and retain rights such as marriage and property ownership. Some towns in Western Nebraska (such as North Platte and Mitchell) had separate Episcopal Church parishes for Japanese Americans. Fr. Kano helped serve these people. He is a wonderful example of overcoming persecution and service.
Kano's conversion story is important because it is "relatable" 😀 and we can learn the real life details about how and why he chose to live his life as a Christian.
He first learned about Christianity from people who were walking the walk. He then took part in prayer and began to "approve" of Christianity. (He saw the goodness at the core of the religion.) Then, during an illness, he had an experience that convinced him God is real, and followed God's promptings thereafter.
Detailed stories about people following God in the modern era get my vote over legendary martyrs, even though those stories were probably also based on a kernel of truth.
I had to vote for Lucy since she is celebrated on December 13,the day my father, may he rest in power, was born! Go Lucy if Syracuse!
You had me at “potentially dangerous“ priest. With reference to Lucy . . . I have questions. We too have persecutions right now. A Palestinian student, Mahmoud Khalil, has been disappeared by ICE. So the dangerous times, they keep on stayin’ the same. Leprous empires just won’t go away. Putting a non-white priest into a concentration camp seems only too American. Today it would be Guantanamo. My vote goes to Hiram Kano in remembrance and recognition of the long history of racism in the U.S. but also in hope that prophets and witnesses will rise up to call the nation to repentance and reparations.
I love the history of both candidates. Very difficult to decide. Yet the tipping of the kettle was the influence Lucy of Syracuse had over the centuries. Both stood in their faith. Both demonstrating their devotion. Their absolute faith serving as a protection from what earthly beings attempted to cast.
The saints often face many trials
When that still small voice from on high calls
Lucy gave all her gold
To those out in the cold
So the governor gouged out her eyeballs.
I am from Syracuse. My grandmother was baptized at St. Lucy's, one of the most radical Catholic churches I have ever encountered. (She was born out of wedlock (o horror!), and St. Lucy is where they sent those babies to be baptized.) Yeah, this vote was totally emotional. Go, Lucy!
Many older Catholic churches have statues of St. Lucy holding a dish containing her eyeballs, gruesome but vivid reminder of her martyrdom. She is one of the several martyrs mentioned, along with St. Agatha, in the Roman Canon of the Mass. John Lennon wasn't thinking of her when he composed "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," but it is a sparkling image of a great and brave saint. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoknj1ebqI
I didn't know about Hiram Kano - I love the story of how he grew in faith and how the Holy Spirit held onto him. He is also a figure for persecution based on fear instead of reality. May we follow his example and learn from his story.
Both are saintly, but I had to vote for Lucy of Syracuse in honor of our sweet rescue dog that we named Lucy. Our Lucy is as spirited as Lucy of Syracuse, sometimes too spirited. We Love Our Lucy anyway and no matter what, even when she chews up my slippers, two chairs, the baseboards and my gloves! How can I be mad when I awake each morning to sweet puppy kisses.
St. Lucia got my vote.
Go Kathrine !!!
Definitely Lucy. She sacrificed everything for the sake of the less fortunate.
Lucy this time. This is the wonderful Lucy for whom a young Scandinavian girl dons a candle lit crown and brings cardamom buns and coffee to her parents in bed. And she is celebrated on an Ember Day. Her competitor is very noble and all, but our Lucy is a shining strangest the saints.
Why exactly was Father Kano classified as a "potentially dangerous" prisoner during World War II? Did his being an Episcopal priest have something to do with it? His story is inspiring and, sadly, very contemporary.
In these mismatched match-ups, I find myself voting for the underdog who suffered torture and execution with bravery that I know I could not match. Yes, Hiram had a bad time, to the eternal shame of the American people. But Lucy had a far worse experience. Her witness to Christ, like that of Felicity and Perpetua, was marked a a grace-filled fortitude that was truly saintly.
Hard today, but not really hard than any of the preceeding days. But I have always loved Lucy so I gave her my vote, while admiring Kano.
Seems to me that the stories of early female saints who perished in the Coliseum and like venues bear a resemblance to Hallmark Christmas movies in that the plot lines always feature young women of good family who are betrothed or married to overbearing pagans who denounce them as Christians for a variety of selfish reasons.....St. Lucy may or may not have gone through all that her legend says she did, but Hiram Kano is my choice today because his story is well documented and untrimmed, and defines the term "Grace under pressure."
This is a repost to correct an autocorrect applesauce, er, error: Lucy this time. This is the wonderful Lucy for whom a young Scandinavian girl dons a candle lit crown and brings cardamom buns and coffee to her parents in bed. And she is celebrated on an Ember Day. Her competitor is very noble and all, but our Lucy is a shining star amongst the saints.
Rev. Hiram Kano attended Nashota House, the same as more than one of our church's rectors through the years. It's tenuous, but... I like to think that Nashota House produced some mighty people..
I always like Santa Lucia!
Nice to see Hiram leading! I was ordained on his feast day.
Given the current administration’s vicious attacks against immigrants, I had to vote for Hiram Kano. Here we are again, America; how is this happening. Also because of his extraordinary story, his early call to prayer, how he listened to that call and became a Christian, his journey to the US, his work in agriculture, his unjust incarceration, and his call to ministry. What a faithful lover of Jesus, in a time not so distant from our own, and in which there are so many ugly echoes. Also, I will confess, I grew up in Kansas and have family in Nebraska, so the idea of Kano’s ministry on the Great Plains moves me deeply.
This year some of the votes seem much more difficult.
"He [Kano] 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." -- this can't be right . . .
Perhaps Thomas Paine's Age of Reason is too much with me, but I'd prefer that authors write "He said that he heard God's voice" instead of stating that someone heard the voice of God as though it were a proven fact.
I do appreciate the interesting and moving biographies that we get during Lent.
I sent this Lent Madness link to a friend from the area, and she responded: Thanks! Hiram Kano was my mother’s family’s pastor and I think married my parents. He and my grandmother traveled around Nebraska and Colorado encouraging Japanese to become citizens when the Japanese Exclusion act was rescinded.
Will share this with some cousins who would find this interesting.
Hope you are having a blessed Lent!
Very tough decision. I voted for Kano in part because a good friend's mother was put in a concentration camp for Japanese on America. But Lucy's story is compelling too. I wish they hadn't been running against each other.