Another day, another mystic, as the great thinker Meister (please don't call me 'Mister') Eckhart faces off against Drogo, 12th century saintly soul and patron saint of coffee. WARNING: Don't even try to make your choice without first drinking a hot, steaming cup of coffee -- as long as this action will in no way ultimately influence your vote.
Yesterday in a tight, emotionally-charged contest, amid heavy voting, Julian of Norwich prevailed over William Wilberforce 52% to 48%. Julian will face the winner of Roch vs. Gertrude in the next round.
The SEC also released their weekly Monday Madness video in which a contest(!) was announced. Watch now to learn how you can own the cardboard cutout of 2015 Golden Halo winner, Francis Assisi (as seen at the Episcopal Church's 2015 General Convention).
And finally, if you need to add some extra Lent Madness commentary to your day, tune in to Priest Pulse's recent interview with one half of the Supreme Executive Committee (Tim). We suggest listening to it while on the treadmill, for that extra motivation, or during your commute, to make it speed seamlessly by.
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, is one of the greatest mystics of the Christian tradition. After his initial schooling, he alternated between the universities at Cologne and Paris, first as a student and later as a professor. Born in Germany around 1260, Meister Eckhart joined the Dominican Order of Preachers as a young man. He returned to Strasbourg in 1314, but his popularity soon began to draw the wrong kind of attention.
Encouraged by the Archbishop of Cologne, the head of the Dominican Order in the German region investigated the soundness of Eckhart’s doctrine and cleared him of heresy. Unsatisfied with these findings, the archbishop ordered a more formal and comprehensive review. In February, 1327, despite Eckhart’s public declarations of innocence, he was called before the Inquisitors, who declared him a heretic.
Eckhart appealed his conviction to the Holy See. Accompanied by his Dominican superiors, Eckhart traveled to Avignon and submitted himself to
the judgment of Pope John XXII. Following the usual procedure, the appointed examiners did not receive complete texts of the writings to be judged, only suspicious lines taken out of context. On March 27, 1329, the papal commission upheld the conviction from Cologne, but by that time Eckhart had died, insisting to the end that he was faithful to the teachings of the Church.
Eckhart was a subtle and creative thinker. His Latin commentaries, produced for advanced Dominican students, demonstrate his mastery of the technical categories of the Scholastic philosophy. His German sermons were engaging and poetic, filled with puns and wordplay, drawing heavily on the vocabulary of courtly love, adapting it to speak of the birth of the Word in the soul.
After centuries of neglect, Meister Eckhart’s teachings experienced a revival at the end of the nineteenth century. Similarities between his thought and the mystical traditions of Asia have made him a fruitful resource for modern interreligious dialogue.
Collect for Meister Eckhart
O God, create in us hearts reconstructed by your simple goodness. Thank you for the life of your servant Meister Eckhart, who, for the love of you, put his life and honor at the feet of power to speak plainly of your abundance. Grant that we too might be awed by your marvelous depth of creativity and mystery, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Drogo
Near the beginning of the twelfth century, Drogo was born into a family of Flemish nobility—but his path began to change immediately. Drogo’s father died prior to his birth, and his mother died because of complications in childbirth. The newborn orphan was given over to the care of family members. When he was ten-years-old, Drogo, a sensitive child, was devastated to learn the cause of his mother’s death and held himself personally responsible for it.
Reaching adulthood, Drogo renounced the wealth and ease that was his birthright and became a shepherd in the Flemish countryside. During his time in the pastures, Drogo developed a reputation for holy living and for the spiritual gift of bilocation. Tradition holds that Drogo would be observed in
the fields praying while watching his flocks and simultaneously attending worship in the village.
After a time, perhaps still seeking to assuage the guilt he felt for his mother’s untimely death, Drogo felt called to head out on pilgrimage. Drogo traveled to Rome in order to encounter the holy places and relics there. Over the course of nine years, he traveled to Rome and back nine times.
These pilgrimages came to an end when Drogo was afflicted by an unknown malady, which caused him disfigurement and estrangement from his community. In order to protect the residents of the village where he lived from his appearance, Drogo took up a hermit’s life. He took up residence in a cell adjacent to the local parish church and lived there for the rest of his life. Stories say that when a fire engulfed his cell, Drogo refused to leave and was discovered praying among the ashes.
Lately discovered by popular culture, Drogo of Sebourg is the subject of countless listicles, thanks to his identification as the patron saint of coffeehouses and baristas. Drogo died on April 16, 1186, and was buried in the parish church in which he had spent the majority of his life. For obvious reasons, Drogo is the patron of unattractive and repulsive people. It is less clear why he has long been associated with coffee—so we will pour another cup and ponder this connection.
Collect for Drogo
God of unsearchable wisdom, you hear us praying even among the ashes of our lives. Thank you for the example of your servant Drogo, who lived a life of deep prayer despite profound suffering, who walked holy roads and prayed for worldly souls. Grant us the grace to seek your face in all things and in all places. We ask this for the love of your son, Jesus. Amen.
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288 comments on “Meister Eckhart vs. Drogo”
As a tea drinker I still had to go for Drogo. Is that where Tolkien got the name for Frodo's father?
Drogo. Coffee and bilocation.
Okay, so I voted for Drogo. Not because he is the patron Saint of coffee, although, coffee keeps me sane and keeps me from wearing Prison Orange! But, Drogo was so selfless.... He renounced his birthright, became a shepard, traveled to Rome 9 (NINE) times as a poor shepard, then protected his community from his illness at his own cost of exclusivity...... God expects us all to be selfless (and drink coffee, I might add), and Drogo is an excellent example of this!
As a parish priest, I have always wanted and needed to develop the spiritual gift of bilocation. Knowing now that Drogo should be my spiritual mentor for that, I have to vote for him!
Meister Eckhart taught that the incarnation happened not just once, but continually. The Son of God was being born continually in our souls. When that happened, we became one with Christ- we became Christ and Christ became us. For this to happen, we had to undergo deep emptying of all attachments, hence the connections with Buddhist thought. The Church has always been suspicious of any mystic who claimed that spiritual union/spiritual erased (or seemingly erased) distinctions between the soul and the divine.
Again we voted in sync, this time for Drogo, because he persevered in the midst of great suffering and rejection from his community. May we love well those who are rejected by the world, in the love of Christ, who loves each one perfectly
Wasn't Drogo Frodo's father? Or was he Danaeris' husband? Anyhow, despite the cool name with great associations, it's unclear from the writeup what Drogo did to help others besides somehow become the patron saint for coffee...and I'm a tea drinker. Meister Eckhart seems to be much more of an inspiration, as well as an early reformer (unintentionally), who suffered from flaws in the judicial system. I'm going with him.
For having been twitted about my looks when I was in school (I don't know why, since looking back at photos, I was a rather cute kids even if on the heavy side), and for wishing that I could be in two places at once...
I vote for Drogo
Not a fan of coffee, though.
My screen is not allowing me to vote today, but if I could I'd vote for Meister Eckert.
John, you need to get to the website to vote: https://www.lentmadness.org/2016/02/meister-eckhart-vs-drogo/
Thank you for answering the same question a dozen times. Very patient of you.
It's why I get the "big bucks."
You have to vote on the website: https://www.lentmadness.org/2016/02/meister-eckhart-vs-drogo/
LOL! I wish I'd seen your post before I voted for Meister Eckhart. It might have changed my mind.
Like others, I was struck by the irony.........John XXII condemned Meister Eckhart because he caved in to the prejudice of others.....contrast that with his namesake, the great John XXIII, responsible for Vatican II and all the ensuing reforms that opened the Catholic Church to the world in the latter half of the 20th century.
I'm also embarrassed to say that, when I first read Drogo's name, the first thing that popped into my mind was Draco Malfoy, the not-so-nice guy from the Harry Potter stories. Forgive me Drago, and also because I voted for Eckhart.....
The name sounded to me like one for a hobbit. Drogo, Frodo, . . .
Voted for Meister Eckhart, rather than Drogo the underdog. I'm still amazed that Wilberforce lost in yesterday's LM voting. But I will soldier on and hope the pairs for voting get better as we approach the Saintly Sixteen.
I hope the S.E.C. will reconsider the placement of the vote button for the rest of the voting and commenting, to what it's been. Or is this a move to confound the scoundrels who try to stuff the ballot box?!?
Meister Eckhart because I like mystics.
While I love Meister Eckhart, I must vote for Drogo - although I had never heard of him before. I googled him and found that as an anchorite he offered spiritual advice to those who asked. As one who lost my mother at an early age, I identify with him in many ways. I love that he is the patron saint of the unlovely (and coffee)!
Many of the Angels that came to the men and women in the Bible said " Do not be afraid" . This tells me they may might have been ugly. Drogo was not lovely. Was he an Angel? I vote for the the one I think may have been an Angel.
A prayer of Meister Eckhart that I use in meditation:
Gracious God,
thy whole creation
shines forth
with thy splendor.
May I breathe that glory
in and out
so that I am
transformed by thee,
and totally drowned
in thy splendor.
I sympathize with Eckhart for being tried and killed for something taken out of context. Patron Saint of the misquoted, perhaps?
He got my vote.
As a busy mom who would give her left leg (note, NOT the one needed for driving her kids around) for the gift of bilocation, I feel compelled to vote for Drogo. Also, coffee. I feel like those are connected, somehow. SEC, perhaps that's how he became known as the patron of coffeehouses? 😉
Anyone who has ever had something they've said or written taken out of context can surely identify with Meister Eckhart, and that alone should earn him my vote. However, Drogo's story is more compelling to me this morning (as I drink my coffee, I'll admit), and so I have cast my vote for the orphan child who blamed himself for his mother's death.
BTW, here's a really good article about Drogo: http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/rediscovering-saint-drogo-sebourg
It includes this paragraph about the coffee thing:
----------------------------------
"Most notable in the contemporary popular culture of the English-speaking world, however, are the surprising identification of Drogo as the patron saint of coffeehouse-keepers and his association more generally with coffee. This might be dismissed as an apocryphal invention boosted by the coffeehouse boom of the past few decades, were it not historically attested. A Belgian almanac from 1860 shows that in Mons—just across the present-day Franco-Belgian border from Sebourg—Drogo had already been claimed by the city’s cafetiers (coffeehouse-keepers) as their patron.
Nevertheless, the origin of St. Drogo’s association with coffeehouses remains mysterious; coffee was not introduced into France and Belgium until the seventeenth century. Some have ventured, tongue in cheek, that harried baristas might fittingly invoke a saint reputed to possess the mystical gift of bilocation. A more plausible connection may reside in a minor detail from some biographical sources: during his years of reclusion, Drogo took no drink but warm water. Perhaps also, the early coffeehouse-keepers of Hainaut marveled at how the properties of the coffee bean are transformed by fire without being destroyed by it, and were reminded of Drogo’s miraculous survival of the destruction of the church at Sebourg."
I, too, was set to hang my hat on Eckhart, but then felt such a pull toward Drogo and all he had suffered.
Feeling unwanted is the most painful of life's hurts. I am sure Eckhart felt that, too, in his battles with the Church, but I somehow suspect he was able to rise above it in great mystical fashion. It's Drogo for me today. May he feel loved and appreciated, and may we all learn a bit more about his gift of bilocation. Sure could use that spiritual gift though if it meant keeping up with more sets of keys, I'd be doomed.
P.S. Could some tech-savvy soul tell me how to add my picture to the profile here. I'm sure I'm overlooking a settings link somewhere.
Allison, I think the only way is to set up a profile at Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/ . That's where the images come from, as far as I know.
Yesterday's match-up was a very tough choice, and today's is no easier. But what really got me was this statement: "Eckhart was a subtle and creative thinker." Boy, is that needed today! And the collect, too, was a statement of his own grace-filled courage to speak to power. I hope we see Drogo and William Wilberforce again.
Ummm. Does it ever say why Eckhart was accused of heresy? What did he say, think, write? This one isn't explained....
Hmmmm. This one's the toughest so far for me as I feel an equally strong affinity for both these fine men. But choose we must. So I will let myself be swayed a little more by the man of words ... the man who said: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." Meister Eckhart
SEC--why did I have to vote today via comments? Voted for Drogo and have no good reason. He apparently did do some teaching before his disfigurement? He just seems like a sad and lonely ssaint:)
Seriously? Bilocation? That doesn't do it for me. As a tea-drinking lover of mystics, I gotta go with Meister Eckhardt.
Given a choice between a mystic and pretty much anyone else, I'll go for the mystic every time. So, Team Meister Eckhart today. Extra points for use of the phrase "modern interreligious dialogue."
Since I don't drink coffee, that makes me a suspected heretic, like Meister Eckhart. And so I cast my vote for him.
I love coffee, and feel strong support for those whose physical appearance is a handicap in society. However, I vote for Meister Eckardt who continued to speak out as God gave him utterance and did not just withdraw from the battle for righteousness.
Meister Eckhart, of course!