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
St. Philip Neri
St. Pope John XXIII
Sister Blandina Segale
Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was a medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador. His mission expanded greatly from its initial mandate to one of developing schools, an orphanage, cooperatives, industrial work projects, and social work. Although originally founded to serve the local area, the mission developed to include the aboriginal peoples and settlers along the coasts of Labrador and the eastern side of Newfoundland. For his years of service on behalf of the people of these communities he was later knighted by the King in 1927. Grenfell is honored with a feast day in the Episcopal Church (USA) on October 9. "The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and serve.' There can be no other meaning."
Grenfell has been a hero of mine for years; his many published books point to his faith as being the source of his drive to volunteer to come to Canada and work for the people here. He was a real man. And a tower of faith.
Here! Here!
I would like to nominate Br Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, St Alban, and St Swithun.
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement
Henry Nouwen
Mr. Rogers. I learned from him while watching his program with my sons when they were growing up. What a good influence on so many.
Thomas Merton
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
St. Joan of Arc
Rosa Parks
I second Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. Anyone else here from St. Sam's online mailing list from years ago? He was (at least there) the patron saint of "those who sit and type." Also second Hildegard of Bingen. Would like to add Maximillian Kolbe.
Henry Appenzeller
E. Stanley Jones
John Wesley
Maximilian Kolbe
Hildegard von Bingen
Jerome
Teilhard de Chardin
Isaac Watts
Catherine Mowry LaCugna
Her work focuses on the theology of the Holy Spirit. God For Us changed the way the Trinity is encountered. Her passion was smothered by her early death.
raoul wahlenberg
Chiune Sugihara
Seconded - a great man!
Nomination for St. Pierre Toussaint who fought against racial and religious discrimination and even opened his home as an orphanage and refuge for travelers. He was declared by Pope John Paul II, the second step in canonization.
St. Dunstan
"Dunstan served as an important minister of state to several English kings. He was the most popular saint in England for nearly two centuries, having gained fame for the many stories of his greatness, not least among which were those concerning his famed cunning in defeating the devil."
This was my first year of Lent Madness and I greatly enjoyed it and learned a lot. Thanks!! Being my own Bermuda Triangle (I can lose things sitting still!!) I would like to nominate St Anthony of Padua- Saint of lost objects and people.
Thanks for the wonderful image of being one's own Bermuda Triangle!
Mother Teresa
St. Brendan the Navigator
Second that. One of my favorites. Also, what about St. Margaret of Antioch?
Saint and Bishop Hugh of Lincoln. Thurgood Marshall. Dorothy Day.
St. George or St. Michael
Patron saints of police officers. We could a little help.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/12/the_lone_politician_who_stood_against_japanese_internment.html
Pauli Murray:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/19/387200033/the-black-queer-feminist-legal-trailblazer-youve-never-heard-of
St. Mary, Untier of Knots
C.S. Lewis
Mr. Rogers
ooh, and Madeleine L'Engle.
Oh yes
I nominate Mary Ann Fargo, a member of the Church of the Holy Communion, NYC, who founded the Church Periodical Club in 1888. 128 years later the CPC is still "Changing the World, One Book at a Time".
I nominate St. Nicholas, Gregory of Nyssa, Hildegaard of Bingen.
I nominate St. Hilary and Oskar Schindler.
I think all church musicians would vote for St. Cecilia, patron saint of music.
Michael the Archangel
Gabriel the Archangel
Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (1865-1947) was born to recently emancipated slaves on Butler Plantation in McIntosh County, Georgia. She became the only African American set aside in the order of deaconess in The Episcopal Church. But I recommend her not for that fact, rather for her holiness of life and steadfast ministry on behalf of poor whites as well as blacks in south Georgia. See http://deaconessalexander.georgiaepiscopal.org/ for more information.
St. Adelaide of Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_of_Italy