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!”
Hildegard of Bingen
I would like to see the Saintly Archbishops Cranmer and Chrysostom back in the Lent Madness bracket.
Hildegard of Bingen
Teresa of Ávila
Martin Luther
Marguerite d'Youville - first native born Canadian to be canonized
St. Jerome, the Patron Saint of Librarians!!
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/malawi-fearsome-chief-terminator-child-marriages-160316081809603.html
St. Dymphna, patron saint of mentally ill.
Dorothy Day
Peter Maurin
Ignatius of Loyola
Hildegard of Bingen
Rutilio Grande
Thomas Merton
Mother Theresa
Teresa of Avila
I would like to nominate: Polycarp, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, Thomas Ken, James de Koven and John Keble. May one of these make it to the list! Meanwhile, Keep Calm and Lent Madness On!
I second Polycarp.
Cecelia
Madeleine L'Engle
Moses, indeed
Madeline L'engle for sure
Margaret of Scotland
Walter Raushenbusch
William Carey
Charles Sheldon
Anne Hutchinson
I would like to nominate Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic worker movement and already proclaimed, Servant of God.
Again Bp. Schereschewsky, Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, St. Edith Stein, Simone Weil.
You guys are terrific, and always put that little zest in Lent to inspire and affirm.
My nominees would be:
Thomas Merton
Thomas More
Dorothy Day
Henri Nouwen
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
Mother Teresa
Teilhard De Chardin
Francis Xavier
Ignatius Loyola
Martin de Porres
Jean Vanier - truly a living saint
Thomas Merton
St. Elisabeth of Hungary
Hannah Grier Coome (founder of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto, and pioneered the concept of rehabilitation therapy and holistic medicine)
Jean Vanier
Saint Scholastica
Saint Elizabeth
Perhaps we need Saint Valentine ... so that we can think of that day with more than mere doilies and glue sticks, chocolate and roses.
I would love to know more about St Scholastica, and possibly her brother Gregory. I work at a Catholic College sponsored by a convent named for her, and I don't know that much about her.
I was going to nominate CS Lewis but I see he has already won the halo (before my time)! The Screwtape Letters alone deserve a Golden Halo in my book. 🙂
Brendan the Navigator. ....he went where God called him.
Good heavens Jen, we must have posted at the same moment! I thought I would be alone with Scholastica! Karma!
Peter Claver, who worked with the slaves of Cartagena. Anyone about whom it's been said, "Why doesn't that troublemaking priest just go away" is worthy of Lent Madness!
Aphrodisius
Lucia
I nominate St Aiden
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose integration of science and faith, and especially whose understanding of the earth and the whole universe as sacred are so important if we are to survive.
Andre Trocme, pastor of Le Chambon, who inspired an entire town in France to cooperate and save thousands of Jewish lives during WWII. It is said that for Jews in those years, this small villag ein France was perhaps the safest place in all of occupied Europe. See "Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There," by Phillip Hallie, Harper & Row, 1979.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Yes to:
Mother Teresa
Endicott Peabody
Fred Rogers
Henry Nauwen
Madeleine L'Engle
John XXIII
Mary
Peter
Hildegard of Bingen
Teresa of Avilia
Ignatius of Loyola
Thomas Merton
Harriet Tubman
Maura Clark and Maryknoll Companions