184 comments on “2013 Bracket -- Accepting Nominations!”

1. Pseudo-Dionysius!

2. T.S. Eliot
   Martin of Tours -- patron of chaplains
   Hilda of Whitby
   Cuthbert and his otters
   Herman of Alaska

   1. TS Eliot?

      1. Yes - if only for "this then is the greatest treason/To do the right deed for the wrong reason".

3. Tarore of Waharoa (New Zealand)

4. Catherine Tekakwitha

   1. absolutely- I think it is Kateri her first name

5. St. Denis who, although beheaded, picked up his head and preached a sermon while walking 10 kilometers. He is prayed to for relief from headaches and is the patron saint of Paris.

6. Would you consider the Woman at the Well? Though biblically nameless, she is known as Photina by the Orthodox churches. Arguably the first evangelist... I just like the idea of the dialogue that might ensue were she to be a member of the slate. Maybe paired with Rahab?? Though I myself suspect she got a bum rap--think the same is probably true of Thomas, and he was a good contender.

7. I nominate St. Patrick, patron saint of Wales

   1. Yo! Saint David (Dai) is the patron saint of Wales!

8. William Byrd
   John Merbecke

9. Basil of Caesarea
   Helen
   And there is always Fiacre, patron saint of Paris taxi drivers, although I think he was demoted to the legions of lesser saints!.

10. I nominate Charles Henry Brent, and St. Thomas Acquinas.

11. My all- time favorite, St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower of Jesus

12. Under orders of his superiors, Rev. Robert Hunt (c. 1568-1608) sailed for the New World to escape the humiliation of his wife Elizabeth’s dalliance with another man (and later accusations leveled at him for less than blameless behavior with a servant). Making first landfall at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on April 26, 1607, after 144 days at sea, Rev. Hunt found his footing in the New World: Not only did he plant the Anglican church in what later became the USA, he kept a bunch of generally unruly men and boys in good order and spiritual comfort as they struggled to establish the first successful English colony at Jamestown. Like most of the colonists, Hunt died within the 1st year of Jamestowne’s settlement. His Feast Day is April 26th.

13. St. Hilda of Whitby, who was in charge of a double monastery with both monks and nuns, and who encouraged (well, pretty much commanded) the first English poet, Caedmon, to leave caring for the cows and do something with his writing after an angel visited him and gave him a beautiful song. She also organized the Synod of Whitby, which make me think of her as sort of a 7th Century version of Pam Chinnis. And Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, who typed out his Chinese translation of the Bible with one finger after his hands were otherwise paralyzed.

14. Please consider Austin Farrer, friend and minister to C.S. Lewis and described by many as the most brilliant theologian of the 20th century. I would also second the idea of including Harriet Tubman.

15. Saint Dymphna

    1. actual patron saint of madness-ties in nicely with the whole theme

       1. Good point!

16. i nominate st. Claire the patron St. of television.

17. I have two- Thomas Merton and St. Thomas Aquinas. Just two who have influenced my life-

18. Lesbia Scott -- author of "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God"

19. I trust that all the potential candidates must appear in Holy Women, Holy Men. If that is so (or even if it is not), I commend to you Bp George Berkeley (June 16). His "tree falls in the forest" argument for the existence of God is magnificent, and has inspired many a snot-nose philosophy undergraduate, of which I once was one.

20. Ignatius Loyola - and then you can market Lent Madness to all the Jesuit colleges & universities!

21. Seeking to illuminate the cause of saints with disabilities, I submit Thomas Gallaudet and Henry WInter Syle and also Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky.

22. Fanny Crosby
    John Wesley
    Frances Willard
    Dr. Paul Brand
    G. K. Chesterton
    Henri Nouwen

23. I nominate Charles Henry Brent.

24. Second for the Little Flower.
    Seraphim of Sarov
    Barton W Stone (American restorer of the one true holy catholic apostolic church)
    Fenelon

25. I nominate Tim & whats-his-name!!!!

    OK OK, I'll be good from now on.
    Unless provoked

    Sarah

    1. St. John Bosco

       1. That guy in New Zealand?

       2. I'm here to second that nomination of Elizabeth of Hungary! She's been my patron saint since childhood. I have always loved her example of serving the poor even though she was royalty...and the story with the roses - beautiful 🙂

26. Madeleine L'Engle
    St. Genevieve
    Prisca (from Acts 18)
    St. Brenden the Voyager

27. Thank you for nominating (Mr.) Fred Rogers. While we don't doubt that it IS a beautiful day in the neighborhood, the Supreme Executive Committee does not have a "special feeling" about cardigan sweaters. Also, King Friday doesn't hold a candle to Queen Emma.

    1. It's not the cardigan so much as the tennis shoes.

    2. Regardless of the feelings of the SEC, Mr. Rogers loves both Fr. Tim and Fr. Scott just the way you are.

    3. Tim......the SEC is treading on Dangerously Thin Ice when they say anything even Remotely Uncomplimentary about Fred Rogers. Also, we were not discussing King Friday(he's something of a pompous jerk anyway)...where did that come from?
       cardigan and tennis shoes all the way,
       Madeleine Borthwick

28. Since Lent next year begins on Feb. 14, Valentine has to be a contender.

29. I "second" many on the list, particularly Romero and Tubman. I also suggest Saint Bernadette of Lourdes and Katharina Von Bora Luther.

30. I would like to nominate Hiram Kana, a Japanese born farmer who immigrated to the Nebraska in the years preceeding WWII and, under the tutaledge of the then Bishop of Nebraska, became an Episcopal priest to the Japanese community in western Nebraska. A biography follows:

    KANO, FATHER HIRAM HISANORI (1889-1986)
    Hiram Hisanori Kano was born into a Japanese noble family on January 30, 1889. His warlord father was the governor of the province of Kagoshima and a member of the Japanese parliament. As the second son in the family, young Kano was not required to follow his father's career. Instead, he chose to study agriculture at the Imperial University in Tokyo, where he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1916. Kano eventually found his way to the Great Plains after William Jennings Bryan, a family friend, convinced his father that he could receive a better agricultural education in the United States. With a handwritten note from Bryan in his pocket, Kano journeyed to Lincoln, Nebraska, where in 1918 he earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska.

    In 1919 Kano married Ai "Ivy" Nagai in Seattle; the couple had two children. He put his agricultural education to good use when he bought a 300-acre farm near Litchfield, Nebraska. Kano became active in the Japanese Americanization Society, teaching English and working as an intermediary or translator for immigrants. In 1921 Kano and Rev. George Allen Beecher, the Episcopal bishop for western Nebraska, successfully defeated a bill introduced in the Nebraska legislature that would have barred Japanese residents from owning property and serving as legal guardians of their children. During the 1920s Kano became active in the Episcopal Church, working with Japanese living in the Platte River valley. He was ordained a deacon in 1928 and became a priest in 1936.

    Kano's life took a dramatic turn on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After conducting services in North Platte, Nebraska, that Sunday morning, he was arrested by local police and interrogated by federal agents. Because of his family ties to the Japanese government and his position as a leader of Japanese immigrants in the Great Plains, federal authorities deemed Kano a threat to national security and sent him to an internment camp. While being held away from his family, Kano taught English classes to fellow internees. In 1944 he was released and allowed to move his family to Nashota, Wisconsin, where he entered a seminary, earning another master's degree in 1946. Returning to Nebraska, Kano worked as an Episcopal missionary among Nebraska's Japanese residents until his retirement in 1957. After leaving the priesthood, Kano moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he and his wife bought a small farm. Kano died on October 24, 1988.

    Mark R. Ellis University of Nebraska at Kearney

    Kano, Hiram Hisanori. A History of the Japanese in Nebraska. Lincoln: Nebraska Committee for the Humanities, 1984.
    It is my understanding that Father Kano has been proposed for sainthood, but his process has been held up because he hasn't been dead long enough! I think he deserves some recognition by an organization as exhalted as yours.