Nominations for next year’s field of 32 saints are currently being accepted by the Supreme Executive Committee.
As always, we seek to put together a balanced bracket of saints ancient and modern, Biblical and ecclesiastical representing the breadth and diversity of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Inevitably, some will disagree with certain match-ups or be disappointed that their favorite saint didn’t end up in the official bracket. If you find yourself muttering invective against the SEC, we implore you to take a deep cleansing breath. Remember, there’s always Lent Madness 2029.
The 2013 bracket was the first time we included nominations from the Lent Madness faithful and a number of your suggestions made it in. While the SEC remains responsible for the formation of the final bracket, we encourage your participation in the nominating process.
That’s not to say the (usually) benevolent dictatorship that is the SEC is showing cracks in its junta-like Lenten power. The only time true democracy rears its ugly head in Lent Madness is during the actual voting. However, nominations from the floor mean that if you are unhappy with the 2014 bracket you can transfer your angst away from the SEC and toward one another. As for us, we can always blame the ancient Greeks.
We may have play-in rounds again this year, depending on where the mystical dove lands on our blank bracket as we discern which saints to include. Play-ins allows everyone to get a small foretaste of the Madness that is to come as eight saints vie for four spots in the official bracket on to-be-determined dates. On the other hand, play-ins cause endless confusion for those who are new to bracketology.
As you discern saints to nominate, please keep in mind that a number of saints are ineligible for next year’s “saintly smack down.” This includes the entire field of Lent Madness 2013, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2012 and 2011, and those from the 2010 Faithful Four. Here is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations -- which you can do by leaving a comment on this post.
Also, please note that the saints you nominate should be in the sanctoral calendar of one or more churches. Anglican calendars are a bonus, but we're open minded. To a point. Fred Rogers is not eligible, despite the royal pleas of King Friday XIII. If you are looking for lists of actual saints, you might check here, here, here, or here, among other places.
Remember that when it comes to saints in Lent Madness, many are called yet few are chosen (by the SEC). So leave a comment below with your (eligible) nomination!
The Field from 2013 (all ineligible)
Hilda of Whitby
Thomas Tallis
John Donne
Macrina the Younger
Martin Luther King, Jr.
T.S. Eliot
John Merbecke
Lucy
Nicholas Farrar
Jonathan Daniels
Martha of Bethany
Luke
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Gregory the Great
Frances Perkins
Dorothy Day
Ignatius of Loyola
Absalom Jones
Harriet Tubman
Oscar Romero
Damien of Molokai
Florence Li-Tim Oi
Janani Luwuum
Martin Luther
George Berkeley
Benedict of Nursia
Theresa of Lesieux
Anne
Ignatius of Antioch
Samuel Seabury
Chad of Lichfield
John the Baptist
Martin of Tours
Agnes of Rome
Edward Thomas Demby
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magalene, Frances Perkins
From 2010 -- 2012 (ineligible)
Emma of Hawaii
Margaret of Scotland
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Evelyn Underhill
Enmegahbowh
Jerome
Thomas Cranmer
Polycarp
Clare of Assisi
William Tyndale
Thomas Beckett
Constance
Perpetua
Vincent of Saragossa
Francis of Assisi
Julian of Norwich
Theresa of Avila
267 comments on “Nominations Open for 2014!”
Kiril & Metodii (otherwise known as Cyril and Methodius) - not only patron saints of Slavic scholars, in whose number I was included before becoming a priest - but inspirations to all linguists and missionaries, all who seek to share the truth of God in Christ in new cultures and languages.
Richard Hooker
George Whitefield
The Martyrs of Memphis -- if a collected group of saints can be nominated
I'm nominating Joan of Arc - can't believe she doesn't have the Golden Halo already!
Celia, wonderful idea. This was a maiden who stood by her convictions, even at the cost of her own life!
I nominate William Temple and the Martyrs of Memphis
How could I not nominate St. Simon, from whom my parish gets its name?
I nominate "Woodbine Willie", Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, whose feast day is March 8. He was a poet, prophet, priest of the C of E, and the best known chaplain of the British Army in World War One. I would love to see a military chaplain who handed out cigarettes as part of his ministry (!) be in contention in 2014.
Oh yes . . . a great poet!
I would like to second this. Old Woodbine was one of the most eloquent poets and writers of WW1. An anglican priest, padre in the line, his chapter on prayer, in "The Hardest Part" is one of the most moving things I have ever read on the subject.
I would like to nominate Prudence Crandall
I would like to nominate Rainer Maria Rilke, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Evagrius, Karl Rahner, and Antony of the Desert Fathers.
I nominate Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
With one meow, my cats say St. Gertrude of Nivelles.
nominate Sarah Hale and Molly Brant
Nominations: St. Ethedreda, St. Genesius of Rome (patron saint of actors), St. Cyprian of Carthage,
I would like to nominate Festo Kivengere, Ugandan Anglican Bishop,
(1919-1988).
I nominate St. Dymphna, the patron saint of mental illness
I second that! St. Dymphna's story also has special meaning for abuse survivors since her father killed her for refusing to marry him.
https://www.natlshrinestdymphna.org/history.php
(But I would vote for Mr. Rogers too!)
After much consideration I nominate Fanny Crosby, extraordinary hymn writer. (Just try to find a hymnal that doesn't have at least one hymn with lyrics by Ms Crosby.) "To God be the glory, great things He hath done!"
I Nominate Margaret of Antioch (the dragon slayer).
Margaret of Antioch
I would like to nominate st. Jean de Brebeuf, martyr to the Huron People of southern Ontario
I respectfully submit for consideration St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Dunstan
Nominations: Basil the Great, and for the Parrotheads among us: Saint Barbara (Patron Saint of Lightning).
And a second for Joan of Arc!
I nominate St. Brendan the Navigator.
Second
I nominate St. Dunstan of Canterbury and Glastonbury.
If you want a saint in favor of the Bible being available in one's native tongue, I say go with Tyndale, Coverdale, or one of more recent Bible translators, not Wyclif since Wyclif wanted the church to be perpetually in hock to wealthy donors and to be forbidden to own property.
Although ineligible, Fred Rogers is saintly enough for me!
I also think David Oakerhater deserves another shot.
Yes, David Oakerhater definitely deserves another chance!
ineligible, my butt. as I have told them, the SEC needs to get off the aforementioned body part and MAKE him eligible!!!!
Deaconess Harriet Bedell, missionary to the Seminole tribe; and Bishop Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschwsky, who completed a translation of the Bible into Mandarin (or Cantonese?), when almost completely paralyzed, typing with one finger.
And I second the nominations of St. Brigid of Kildare and Kateri Tekawitha!
I propose Harriet O'Brien Monsell, of County Clare Ireland, founder of the Anglican Community of St John the Baptist whose purpose was to help marginalized women. Another proposal is for Sr Constance (Caroline Louise Darling), one of the "Martyrs of Memphis" of the Episcopal Community of St Mary.
How about my dear favorite Polycarp
And: Perpetua and Felicitas
Aidan of Lindisfarne
Martyrs of Japan
Teresa of Avila--or--
John of the Cross
It would be interesting to do a study of individual personality or personal spirituality based on peoples' nominations...
Oh good, someone for John of the Cross! I second that nomination!
I'd also like to nominate Ephrem of Syria.
'--Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Lithuanian Jew, Presbyterian seminarian, Anglican priest and missionary to China, Bishop of Shanghai, translator of BCP & Bible, sufferer from Parkinson's disease.
--The Venerable Bede, scholar, priest, monk, historian, translator, and patron of my church.
I would like to nominate Ephrem the Deacon, also a hymn-writer like John Wesley.
I'm going Scottish with these nominations:
Anthony of Egypt
St. Cuthbert
Charles de Foucauld
and John Wycliffe (not to be confused with Wyclef Jean)
I would like to nominate Corrie ten Boom.
I don't know if she is on any church's calendar, but she is truly a Saint.