Nominations for next year’s field of 32 saints are currently being accepted by the Supreme Executive Committee. Yes, in addition to Eastertide, today begins Nominationtide.
But before we get to the main attraction, we encourage you to visit the Lentorium. You can prove your love for Lent Madness by loading up on Lent Madness merchandise, including the Lent Madness 2014 tote bag, the Lent Madness wall clock, some Lent Madness 2014 coasters, a Lent Madness 2014 magnet, and much, much more. And, of course, don't forget to stock up on Charles Wesley or Lent Madness perpetual purple mugs.
And now, on to the main attraction, the call for nominations for Lent Madness 2015!
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.
While the SEC remains responsible for the formation of the final bracket, we encourage your participation in the nominating process. As in past years, we might even listen to some of your suggestions.
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 2014, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2013 and 2012, and those from the 2011 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. We’re open minded. To a point.
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 2014 (all ineligible)
Mary of Egypt
David of Wales
Ephrem of Edessa
Catherine of Siena
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Alfred the Great
Lydia
Catherine of Alexandria
Antony of Egypt
Moses the Black
Thomas Gallaudet
Joseph of Arimathea
John Wesley
Charles Henry Brent
Christina the Astonishing
Alcuin
Julia Chester Emry
Charles Wesley
FD Maurice
SJI Schereschewsky
Phillips Brooks
Harriet Bedell
JS Bach
Anna Cooper
John of the Cross
James Holly
Nicholas Ridley
Aelred
Louis of France
Thomas Merton
Basil the Great
Simeon
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley
From 2011 — 2013 (ineligible)
Jonathan Daniels
Harriet Tubman
Hilda of Whitby
Luke
Dorothy Day
Li-Tim Oi
Oscar Romero
Enmegahbowh
Emma of Hawaii
Margaret of Scotland
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Evelyn Underhill
Jerome
Thomas Cranmer
Clare of Assisi
Thomas Beckett
Perpetua
By the way, it's worth remembering that all the talk you hear these days about transparency and accountability is moot for the SEC. We reveal little and answer to no one. So if you don't like the choices that we'll announce at an unspecified future date known only to us (see what we did there?), start your own online devotional.
For now, we wish you a joyous Eastertide and Nominationtide.
985 comments on “Nominations Open!”
Dorothy Day
I nominated St. Hubert. I was in his tiny episcopal church/one room schoolhouse in Bondurant, WY hears ago. I think any St. you merits bear skins on the walls should get a shot at the golden halo.
St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes
David of Wales
Christopher
Martha of Bethany
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thomas Becket
Swithun
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
Jerome
Henri Nouwen, St. Pasqual, Thomas Merton,
Catherine of Siena
I nominate Irena Sendler,the nurse and social worker who smuggled out 2,500 children out of the Warsaw get to during WW2,unbroken by the Nazis and Communist alike.
Fred Rogers, a truly saintly man. He liked us "just the way we are". I often tell people that God is probably a lot like Mr. Rogers in that respect.
Definitely Mr Rogers!
Yay on Fred Rogers!
Agree with Mr Rogers!
Yes to Fred Rogers. He is my only nomination
Yes! Fred Rogers has been denied his place in the bracket too long! Just think of the cardigan kitsch!
I was going to nominate Fred Rogers when I got to the bottom of the comments but will do it here. He was truly a saint worthy of our times.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, on the 500th anniversary of the 95 Theses in 2017.
yes!
Modern monastics -- Richard Meux Benson, founder of SSJE and Thomas Merton, whose feast day in HWHM is my ordination anniversary. 🙂
Theresa of Lisieux and her parents who are also saints!
This one is from leftfield!
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie - champion of the downtrodden. Wrote many songs about the displaced farmers, immigrants and the "common man", His songwriting; “I Ain't Got No Home”, “Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad”, “Talking Dust Bowl Blues”, “Tom Joad” and “Hard Travelin'”; all reflect his desire to give voice to those who had been disenfranchised.
Woody spend his final years in a hospital with Huntington’s Disease. His final poem My Peace which had music added by his son Arlo is the most beautiful songs.
I totally agree with you Scott. Here is what is posted above my computer:
"And the banks are made of marble with a guard at every door
And the vaults are full of silver that the workers sweated for."
Woody Guthrie all the way~!!!
Absolutely! Woodie Guthrie.
Hildegard of Bingen
Yes to Hildegard!
Theophane Venard
Ignatius Loyola
Julie Billiart
Harry and Bertha Holt--an Oregon lumberman and pear farmer and his wife who, after the Korean war, heard about the plight of Korean children, fathered by American servicemen, who were abandoned because of their heritage. Toddlers were left to die. Parents of six themselves, the Holts adopted eight, and then began, all on their own, a program to help place children with "forever families." Holt International now has branches all over the world, has placed and helped thousands of children. The entire Holt family sold their belongings to work for the children. Harry Holt, who had a bad heart, died in Korea and Bertha carried on the work past her 90th birthday.
I nominate Gladys Aylward--the missionary to China who stopped foot binding and saved so many children. She is famously portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in the somewhat romanticized "inn of the Sixth Happiness."
I love Gladys Aylward, too! Also St George of dragon-fighting fame and Tabitha/Dorcas brought back from the dead in Acts.
Mother Teresa
David Pendleton Oakerhater
Elizabeth Seton
George Mueller
Mother Theresa (Teresa?), St. Stephen, Dorothy Day, would love to see Li Tim Oi again; Jean Donovan, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, Sr. Maura Clarke and Sr. Ita Ford (can I nominate them as a group rather than individually, who could vote for one over the other three?), Harriet Tubman. These are all people I am familiar with but it is always wonderful to learn about unknown saints and exemplars of the faith.
I second St. Stephen.
Bl. Franz Jägerstätter
St. Moses the Black
John Kline
Ted Studebaker
St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Anthony
St. Dymphna, patron saint of incest survivors and those suffering from mental illness.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=222
Florence Li Tim Oi - first woman to be ordained an Anglican priest
Yes please!
My husband wants to nominate Irena Sendler. He tried posting here but apparently it didn't take.
St. Patrick of Ireland
Justin Martyr, whose day is June 1.
St. Damien of Molokai
I agree with
Yes to St Damien of Molokai.
st
Yes!
Yes for Saint Damien of Molikai!
Ignatius of Antioch (first Bishop of Antioch; martyr; one of the Apostolic Fathers; wrote wonderful Epistles to the churches he was allowed to visit while being brought to Rome for martyrdom- killed by lions in the Circus Maximus)
Brother Lawrence
Hannah Whitall Smith, author of The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life
E. Stanley Jones
JRR Tolkien, whose writing has made many and staying soul think of larger things including the fight between good and evil and their place in it.
St. Stephan
St. Andrew
I second St. Andrew.