In the last battle of the week, influential 2oth-century writer Evelyn Underhill squares off against Nicholas of Myra. You wanted to know how "Santa Claus" would fare in Lent Madness? Well, here's your chance to vote for or against St. Nick.
Regarding, yesterdays smackdown between Catherine of Siena and Emma of Hawaii, all we can say is "wow." With Catherine holding a slight lead throughout much of the day, Queen Emma came storming back to defeat Catherine 60% to 40% in heavy voting (over 2,000 votes cast). As the sun started to wane on the East Coast of the United States and rise over the Pacific Ocean, Emma's numbers slowly started to increase. Once the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii sent out a plea on Emma's behalf via their e-news, the Queen dowager never looked back, again highlighting the importance of rallying your friends and considering voting blocs to promote your favorite saints. Madness indeed!
We do hope you'll take the necessary precautions this weekend to ward off any lingering effects of LMW (Lent Madness Withdrawal). If you're feeling isolated, lonely, and depressed, you can always check in with our Facebook fan page, where the conversation never stops (and we just topped 1,500 'likes'). If you're on Twitter, you can always find people to chat with by using our hashtag #LentMadness. And if you missed this week's Monday Madness video, Tim and Scott discuss LMW remedies among other timely Lent Madness news. Finally, since Scott seems to fly anywhere at the drop of a biretta, I'm sure he'd be happy to make a personal pastoral call if you're feeling particularly lost.
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) was a writer, theologian, mystic, spiritual director, and pacifist, who arguably did more than anyone else to illuminate mystical experience and claim it as one not reserved for the spiritual elite. She spoke with some authority, not being among the spiritual elite herself, but a lay woman setting forth what she herself discovered.
Born in 1875 to a prominent barrister and his wife, Underhill was baptized and confirmed in the Church of England but had no formal religious training. She married a childhood friend, Hubert Stuart Moore, a barrister, and lived a typical Edwardian life for a woman of her class, including charitable work and regular trips to the Continent. Less typically, she wrote 39 books and more than 350 articles (both under her maiden name and under the pseudonym, John Cordelier), presented programmes (as they say) on the Spiritual Life on the BBC, and became a prominent spiritual director and retreat leader. She became the first woman to lecture at an Oxford college on theology and the first woman allowed to lecture to Church of England clergy.
Her tea-sipping librarian appearance belied her gifts as a powerhouse of spiritual thought, and as someone who understood both the blessing and the danger of standing in God’s presence. In a letter, she gently suggested to former Golden Halo winner C.S. Lewis that “perhaps…your concept of God would be improved by just a touch of wildness.”
Her works were some of the most widely read resources on spirituality throughout the first half of the 20th Century. Her great work, Mysticism, written in 1911, is still a standard in the field. Some of her other notable works include Practical Mysticism (1914), The Spiritual Life (1936), and Worship (1937).
Collect for Evelyn Underhill: O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all your creatures: Grant that your Church, taught by your servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by your power, and guided by your Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to you all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with your saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Nicholas has become a marketing legend ever since his image appeared in Coca-Cola ads beginning in 1931. The image of a rotund, bearded man in fur trimmed scarlet clothing also owes a great deal to Clement Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (more commonly known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas”). But who was the real man behind the modern Kris Kringle?
Little is known about Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, which is in modern day Turkey. That his heart was full of generosity is not in doubt, making him a fine progenitor for Santa Claus. In the most famous story about Nicholas, the bishop secretly supplied the dowries for the three daughters of a poor man. One version of the story says that he tossed bags of coins into their stockings, which were hanging by the fire to dry. (You can see where that one went.) When the poor man confronted the bishop and thanked him for his generosity, Nicholas gave all the glory to God.
While most of his generous exploits are shrouded in obscurity between legend and fact, we do know for certain that, during the persecution led by Emperor Diocletian, Nicholas was tortured and imprisoned. But he was released when Constantine took the throne and decriminalized Christianity. It is possible that Nicholas was present during the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, during which the Nicene Creed was composed. Nicholas was canonized in the sixth century. Legend has it that Italian merchants stole his body in the eleventh century and removed it to Bari, Italy. From there, Nicholas’ fame spread throughout the western Church, indirectly leading to the Santa Claus we know today.
Collect for Nicholas of Myra: Almighty God, who in your love gave to your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness on land and sea: Grant, we pray, that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Adam Thomas
Vote!
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86 comments on “Evelyn Underhill vs. Nicholas of Myra”
My first reaction was that St. N gets enough publicity and that EU should be out front. But then I realized that St. N goes deeper than just a jolly old soul. Anyone that reaches out to the likes of children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, , sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers gets my vote! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need. I think I come under several of those categories.
At first surprised at the strength of our contemporary friends but no longer.
This is our time, and while the gift of the ancient worthies is is precious,
this Lent seems to demand more of us than nostalgia. Onward with Evelyn,
and may she help us taste the truth, even when it doesn't fit in a spreadsheet.
Well, I guess I'm going to vote for a loser again, but I've got to go with St. Nick. Evelyn was a really good choice, but, after a lot of Christmas eves waiting with anxious anticipation for whatever the morning would bring, I've got to go with Nick. After yesterday, I've learned that maybe a good looking hat helps.
I'm with Heidi and Meredith, here. Nicholas is an icon (Santa Claus or not) of generosity and has been for centuries. I have fond memories of reading to my children every year on December 5 (the night before St Nicholas' feast day) "A Gift from St Nicholas," a book about the Saint and his sidekick Ruprecht inspiring generosity in a late night visit to a crabbed old woman's sweet shop who didn't want to give a gift to a little girl named Cecile. And of course, there are the picked boys.
I was ordained on the feast of Nicholas of Myra so as much as I admire both, had to go with Nick.
How could any self-respecting German major not vote for St. Nicholas???
Neither saint in each matchup is a loser [they have already won their eternal crowns!], and those of us who vote our hearts for one over the other are not on the winning or losing side either. Please don't let this wonderful endeavor take on the undertones of an irascible political competition. We are facing enough of that! Continue to have fun, vote your heart, and love your neighbor even if he or she is not voting your way. All these saints are winners as are we who are trying to walk in their footsteps. And, St. Nick never left any coal!
like - lots
Patsy, I think you hit the nail on the head ! Thank you so much! For all the saints are winners in Heaven ----and, probably, have numerous followers on earth even into our own time.
There are as many "tea sipping librarians" as there are "tea sipping vicars." Stop the Sterotyping!
Hey, as a real-live "tea-sipping librarian", I don't mind the stereotype once in a while. Evelyn Underhill was very important to my religious formation back in my early days as a monastic. Her book on Mysticism made sense of what I was experiencing then. Her writing has followed me into the present.
If you like Edwardian English, her novels are good reading. It's wonderful to have fiction that has a strong moral sense behind it. She owes a lot, I think, to the work of George MacDonald. Some of CS Lewis' writings remind me of EU. I wonder if there is deeper connection there.
Yes -- I wonder if the "wildness" advice came before or after Lewis made it plain that Aslan is not a tame lion?
I do see your point, Rory (Roar-y? good company!), but tea-sipping is not a perjorative in my books either. I have experienced enough wisdom and good counsel coming at me from across the rim of a mug of tea that to me "tea-sipping" conjures images of companionship and calm still sagacity, not primness or limitation. : )
It's fun to consider tea-sipping as a metaphor. You have to sip hot tea to keep it from burning you...quite a dangerous substance, tea. And doesn't God have a history of touching something hot to people's lips when God's got something God wants them to say?
I refer you to Hymn 293 3rd stanza, ...."You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,...,or at TEA (emphasis added), for the saints of God are just folk like me ,....."
Haven't been "slain by a fierce wild ______."! (Text obscured, beast? priest?) 😉
posted 9:37 pm CST
Evelyn. No contest. Yes, we love St Nicholas, but Evelyn continues to enlighten.
GOD BE GLORIFIED!
I voted for nick.
So far, I have read the comments before voting (in most matchups). But now, all of you have gotten me really confused! I mean, I thought I had made up my mind, but NOW you guys have collectively confused me with the facts! Not sure I am fully committed to the story about restoring the pickled boys, BUT, a guy who can inspire the creation of Santa Claus (it isn't the Saint's fault that the business world/consumerism co-opted him!) and so clearly inform the Spirit of Christmas vs. a tea-sipping librarian look alike who told C.S. Lewis (another spiritual giant, IMHO) to "lighten up," (LOVE that quote!!!) . . . gotta think a little more about this one.
I read Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism when I was a freshman in college. I didn't understand half if it, but the half I did changed my life.
As a new comer this year to this fabulous tradition, I wanted to thank everyone for the invite and all the amazing information. St. Nick gets my vote.....but if you know me, you know why. EU appears to have been an amazing woman however, and because of this event, I am going to try and read her work. I am a simpleton in religious matters in general, but I will try none the less. Thank you all again!
Wasn't aware of EU before now (thank you Lent Madness!). Voted already but your post stuck with me. I am also going to look up her writings, love Edwardian women who stood out - there are probably more that we don't know about!
But you a simpleton? I doubt it. Let's just call ourselves uninformed. 🙂
8:58 pm CST
Underhill. Because she was brilliant, bold and an inspiration.
Today's choice highlighted for me (again) the difficulty with sainting modern "spiritual giants" like Evelyn Underhill and Thomas Merton. Their writings have been deeply influential for some people, but a closer look at their life and works brings out ambivalence either because they rejected major parts of Christian teaching (especially in her earlier works Evelyn Underhill had very little conception of or room for the Trinity) or because their life doesn't sit well with their teaching or upright behavior (Thomas Merton, for example, was a very passionate and even egotistical man who, if he hadn't died, might well have left the Trappists to be a lecturer. He also quite probably broke his vow of celibacy and fathered a child not long before he died).
Of course, some of the ancient saints might have benefited from having their stories sanitized back when that was still considered acceptable behavior.
Sorry, St. Nick, there's no contest here. Evelyn gets my vote hands down! Please don't put me on the naughty list!
Mysticism. Underhill. Nothing else needs to be said.
I love Underhill's comment to C.S.Lewis. Maybe that is why Aslan is not a tame lion. I vote for Underhill, loved her writings, and besides what we know of her is real stuff, not legend.
Each year my grandchildren and I celebrate St. Nicholas' day and we have acted out together the story of St. Nicholas. So it has to be our family favorite example of kindness and generosity. Go St. Nick
I am vote for Nicholas because of what he has done to speak people's imaginations around generosity over the centuries.
As a Navy Veteran, I'm voting for my patron saint.
Above comment posted 1246 pm CST
Not vote for St. Nick? You've got to be kidding! I can certainly appreciate EU's works and accomplishments, but as the Saint's self-appointed favorite elf, Nicholas gets my vote every time.
St. Nick for me! Even with all the commercialism parents have used this good Saint to teach children about God's love.
I have to admit to being a little discouraged; I always seem to be voting for the underdog. Perhaps having been raised in a fundamentalist tradition, and "meeting" a lot of these saints for the first time here at Lent Madness, has something to do with it. While I understand that mysticism appeals to many, it has never held any sway for me. My vote goes to St Nicholas, who really has almost nothing to do with Santa Claus, but who lived a life of generosity and devotion. I've done quite a bit of study on Nicholas, and even tho I may not believe all the stories associated with him, he still impresses me. Go St Nick!
I was ordained on her day, June 15th, so no question about it.
St. Nicholas used to visit our church on his feast day, in flowing white beard with mitre and cape, and sit on a chair at the front listening to the sermon. He never spoke, but radiated the same gruff kindness I saw in our church custodian, whom he rather resembled...for that, I could vote for St. Nicholas. "Santa Claus" is more problematic. That spiritually bereft incarnation -- an idol to greed and commercial interests -- needs to be put out of its misery. Though I suppose on one level Santa Claus performs a useful function -- tying all that stuff to SC rather than JC at least spares us the image of baby Jesus hawking toys, jewelry, and electronics...
So for what remains of the real saint, and for taking the secular heat for the Christ Child three months a year, I could vote St. Nicholas....but not today.
Underhill, for recognizing the wildness of divinity and trying to lead us into/out of/beyond ourselves to meet it.
Aw, I love the story of St Nick coming to church and just *being* there. Thanks!
The tea sipper gets my vote.
Much as I love St. Nick, as a clergywoman I know I owe a lot to EU's leadership. Plus... That wisdom... That God is wild! Love it.
Come now- don't want to take this too seriously but speaking disparagingly of good St Nick because he is a legend makes me think we don't get why some one becomes a legend. Go Santa!!
OK, sometimes I need to have somebody tell me to lighten up. Thanks to Patsy and Joe. And Underhill, evidently. Having said that and taken it to heart -- Come on, Hawaii!! You know you are where he spends January. Vote St. Nick!