Some people (Penny Nash among them) have asked me whether they get a sticker for voting in Lent Madness. Evidently this is customary at some polling places around the country. Unfortunately here at Lent Madness we don't have fancy stickers, just mugs and books.

However if you really want a sticker with a cross on it, I do have a suggestion: go give blood. Your sticker will inevitably bear a red cross but that's rather holy looking, I'd say. Plus, percentage-wise, give blood and you'll have an excellent chance to score some Cheez-Its.

Speaking of giving blood, Florence Nightingale actually made it into last year's Lent Madness and defeated St. David before succumbing to Clare of Assisi in a very close Saintly Sixteen battle. If any of you saintologists are into Lent Madness nostalgia, you can read about it here.

But seriously, we're delighted that so many of you have been voting -- we're averaging about 2,000 votes per contest so far -- and commenting. Keep it up! The comments alone are worth reading through. We love hearing why people are motivated to pull the lever (proverbially) for a particular candidate or what other tidbits they may know about the saints involved. Plus, we encourage trash talking.

Keep up the voting and thanks for helping make the first few days of Lent Madness so much fun!

Today's match-up features two men who broke down barriers of race and bigotry in their own days -- good luck choosing sides. It is also the only battle that will take place on a Saturday -- we'll be sticking strictly to Mondays through Fridays from here on out. After five days of nail-biting drama, it's only fair to offer a sabbath to all those afflicted with Lent Madness fever.

In yesterday's action, Jerome easily bounced John Patteson out of Lent Madness 2012. Following today's "Lentsanity," Lent Madness will resume bright and early on Monday morning with Ephrem of Edessa vs. Thomas Cranmer. Thanks to all who have participated thus far -- we've had record numbers of voters in the early going. Keep spreading the word! It's never too late to jump into the game (though God has a special place in the Kingdom for those who attain perfect voting attendance -- and we offer members of this exclusive club a special tattoo).

David Pendleton Oakerhater (1847-1931), was a Cheyenne from Oklahoma whose last name is translated as Sun Dancer or Making Medicine and spelled Okuh hatuh. He fought in the Red River War of 1874-75. After hostilities ceased, he and some 70 other warriors were sent to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Conditions were initially very poor, but one officer, Henry Pratt, worked to change that and to improve the lives of the prisoners generally, giving them better living conditions, education, art materials, and responsibility for guarding the fort. Okuh hatuh soon became sergeant of the guard, as well as selling his art and teaching visitors archery.

Deaconess Mary Douglass Burnham made arrangements to sponsor Okuh hatuh, among others, for continuing education in upstate New York. With financial support from Alice Key Pendleton, the wife of an Ohio Senator, Okuh hatuh came to St. Paul’s Church in Paris Hill, New York, where he was baptized, taking the Biblical name David and the name of his sponsor as well as Anglicizing his own to Oakerhater.

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Today's matchup is a battle between two learned gentlemen separated by 14 centuries. While both were great linguists, one sat around translating Scripture and became a hermit (Jerome) while the other went to New Zealand to become a bishop and martyr (Patteson). So, would you rather be a hermit or a martyr? Or a martyred hermit for that matter?

In recent action, Joan of Arc trounced Lancelot Andrewes (62% to 38%). Check out the updated bracket.

Jerome (c.347-420) was the most famous biblical scholar of ancient Christianity. The Latin version of the Bible known as the Vulgate (from the Latin vulgata, meaning “common”), translated from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, was mostly the fruit of his work. It brought to an end the great differences between various Latin biblical texts that were circulating in the late 4th century. His writings also included biblical commentaries, which offered a variety of linguistic and topographical information to interpret the scriptures; attacks against the heresies of Arianism, Pelagianism, and Origenism; and letters that advocated extreme asceticism.

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Well, friends, after all the hype and all the anticipation and all the pageantry of the opening ceremonies (oh, did you miss that? Madonna sang "40 Days and 40 Nights"), Lent Madness 2012 is now upon us. Our first match-up is between a learned bishop and a young peasant girl born nearly 150 years apart. Sounding incongruous? Welcome to the beauty, intrigue, and mystery of the Lent Madness bracket.

The fate of these two saints is now in your hands with the winner destined to take on the victor of John Huss vs. Mary Magdalene in the Round of the Saintly Sixteen. But that's getting way ahead of ourselves. Today, your task is to vote wisely and encourage everyone you know to get in the Lent Madness game.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555 - 1626), Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and later Winchester, is perhaps best known as the lead translator of the Old Testament books Genesis through 2Kings in the Authorized Version of the Bible (also known as the King James Bible because it was commissioned by King James I in 1604). An exceptionally learned man who mastered fifteen modern European languages in addition to six ancient ones, Andrewes was also a celebrated preacher who enjoyed the privilege of preaching Christmas (and other) sermons before Queen Elizabeth I and later King James I. At the same time, Andrewes was known to spend several hours a day in prayer. More than twenty years after his death, his private devotions - a collection of Scripture, thoughts and prayers written in Greek and Hebrew - were finally translated and published, and they are still in print.

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At Ash Wednesday liturgies throughout the world, Christians will be invited by their parish clergy into the observance of a holy Lent. Here at Lent Madness we pray that everyone will have their souls enlivened during this transformative season of the Church year. Of course, we believe that your soul will be all the more enlivened by your participation in Lent Madness.

Therefore we have written an invitation to be read at all "Ash Thursday" liturgies to make sure everyone engaging in Lent Madness does so with the appropriate attitude of the heart. Although approval of this invitation by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is pending, it has been fully authorized for trial use by the Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness (ie. Scott and Tim). Nonetheless, please don't share this with their respective bishops as they will deny any knowledge of said invitation.

Invitation to the Observance of a Holy Lent Madness

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence, fasting, and Lent Madness. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism and taught to vote for their favorite saints by logging onto www.lentmadness.org. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins in refusing to engage in Lent Madness, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church – but only after proving their worth by purchasing a Lent Madness mug. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith by participating in Lent Madness.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, the Supreme Executive Committee, and our “celebrity bloggers,” to the observance of a holy Lent Madness, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, voting in a timely fashion, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Lent Madness. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord and our computer, only one of which is our maker and redeemer.

Lent Madness kicks off this Thursday with a battle between Joan of Arc and Lancelot Andrewes. This match-up and the rest of the Lent Madness 2012 schedule has just been released. It will all culminate with the championship round on "Spy Wednesday," April 4th, and the awarding of the Golden Halo. Click 2012 Lent Madness Calendar to view a printable calendar.

So, if you're looking to campaign for a particular saintly contender, you'll know exactly when to put on the full court press. Or initiate the smear campaign.

The Rev. Anne Emry, Curate at St. John's in Hingham, MA

With just five days until the start of Lent Madness 2012, it's time to highlight some recent bloggers and parishes who have jumped on the Lent Madness band wagon. We did this a few days ago which you can read here but since this is all snowballing or hitting a crescendo (depending on which analogy you prefer), we thought it was time to acknowledge some others with Lent Madness fever.

This is by no means a complete list. Some of us have day jobs after all. But if you don't see your own group, by all means send me a link at tim@lentmadness.org and I'll see what I can do to place your lamp on the proverbial lampstand. As we move forward, pictures and anecdotes are encouraged. You send 'em, we'll post 'em. Unless we get really busy because, you know, it's Lent.

Here we go:

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No, we haven't added your favorite saint that didn't make it into Lent Madness 2012. But thanks to "celebrity blogger" Adam Thomas we now have a much more attractive printable bracket. The youngest (hippest?) member of the Lent Madness team saw a need (my ugly, plain-looking  bracket) and upped the ante with some color and fancy graphics (you can obviously still print it in black and white).

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Yes, friends, the Lent Madness Buzz is building all over the world. People everywhere are filling out their brackets and ironing their hair shirts as they breathlessly await the coming of "Ash Thursday" on February 23rd.

Today, we wanted to highlight a few blogs that have posted about Lent Madness. We commend them for their highly poignant commentary and brilliant selection of topic (or, as sometimes happens among bloggers, they couldn't think of anything else to write about). If you know of other blogs that have mentioned Lent Madness, let us know. And if you yourself are a blogger (and like to say really awesome things about Lent Madness) we encourage you to post and let us know about it in order to greatly increase your blog traffic, get picked up by a syndicate, make piles of cash, and retire early.

Here are some sample from the blogosphere:

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If you're not familiar with the The Episcopal Church Foundation's  Vital Practices site, you should be. Today they posted an article about Lent Madness written by our own Scott Gunn. Scott's feeling very proud of himself for writing about Lent Madness and not giving me (Tim) a single mention. Besides the fact that he's now dead to me, it was an excellent piece about Forward Movement's motivation for getting involved with Lent Madness.

Has Forward Movement Gone Mad for Lent Madness?

By the Rev. Scott Gunn

For decades, Forward Movement has been most widely known for its flagship publication, Forward Day by Day. Hundreds of thousands of readers around the world find inspiration in the quarterly printed booklet. In the US, many Episcopalians learned about Forward Movement in their narthex. Lots of pamphlets sit in racks, waiting to be read.

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