With John the Evangelist squeezing past Phoebe 52% to 48%, in a tighter race than predicted by most penitential pundits, the first battle of the Saintly Sixteen is set. John will face Peter in a matchup of Biblical titans.
Today, Mary of Egypt faces Richard Hooker as the 3rd century touches up against the 16th. Impossible to compare these two saintly souls, you cry? This is madness, you declare? Of course it is! Lent Madness! Also, just wait...
In the meantime, we wanted to take a moment to again thank all eleven of our 2018 Celebrity Bloggers. Not all of them have yet had a saint thrust into the glare of the Lent Dome in these early days of Lent. But if you're wondering just who they all are, click on the Celebrity Bloggers tab.
Mary of Egypt
Mary of Egypt is unique among female saints. She is not described as young or beautiful. She is not wealthy or educated, and she does not have important connections. She is not martyred, and she is not a virgin. She does not reject her family. Instead of finding a male mentor or teacher, Mary teaches a famously pious monk about true humility.
Mary was born in Egypt in the third century before moving to Alexandria at the tender age of twelve. The earliest accounts of her life report that she was a prostitute. Some time later, she heard of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to venerate the cross. She sailed for Jerusalem, using her body as payment for the journey. Upon arriving at the church, a powerful force would not let her enter. She realized that her sins prevented entry. She repented, and the Virgin Mary appeared and forgave her. In that moment, Mary of Egypt renounced the world.
Legend has it that while at the church, Mary was given three coins with which she purchased three loaves of bread. She took those loaves across the Jordan River and lived off them for forty-seven years until the monk Zosimus found her. When he happened upon her, she was naked, her body blackened and burned by the sun. She had not had the eucharist in all her time in the desert so she asked Zosimus to return the following Easter with communion.
When he returned, he found Mary standing across the Jordan. She made the sign of the cross and walked across the water. After partaking of the sacrament, she walked across the river and returned to the wilderness.
The next year, Zosimus returned to the Jordan but did not find her. He went to the place where they first met and found her body. Written in the sand was a request to bury her. Zosimus tried but could not dig in the hard ground. A gentle lion then approached, and Zosimus asked the lion to help dig a suitable grave. The lion complied, and Zosimus buried Mary—and then returned to his monastery, glorifying God.
Collect for Mary of Egypt
O God, by whose grace your servant Mary of Egypt, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Richard Hooker
Presbyterians have John Calvin. Lutherans have Martin Luther. Methodists have John Wesley. For Anglicans, the name is Richard Hooker. One of the most influential Anglican thinkers, Richard is credited with creating the theological foundation of scripture, tradition, and reason. His approach to theology has traditionally been regarded as the beginning of the Anglican via media (or middle way) between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
Born in 1553/54 near Exeter, England, Richard became a fellow at Corpus Christi College in Oxford in 1577 and was ordained a priest two years later. After a few years serving as a tutor and a preacher, Richard became Master of the Temple Church in London, a prominent pulpit at the time. He later served churches in Boscombe, Salisbury, and Bishopsbourne.
When a controversy erupted with the Puritans, Richard published his magnum opus, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The book offered a critique of Puritanism and a defense of the Church of England and The Book of Common Prayer. In his book, Richard articulated seven forms of law—from eternal law to ecclesiastical law. He pointed out that minor theological disagreements were adiáfora—a thing indifferent—to God. What was more important to Richard was the piety of the person or people involved.
Richard’s treatises continue to be foundational to Anglican thought today, and his works are credited with influencing not only theology but also political theory and English prose.
He died on November 3, 1600, while serving as rector of a parish near Canterbury. He is buried in the chancel of Saint Mary the Virgin, Bishopsbourne, and his feast day is celebrated on November 3.
Collect for Richard Hooker
O God of truth and peace, you raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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254 comments on “Mary of Egypt vs. Richard Hooker”
I relate to Mary because she is like so many of us humans - fragile and sinful in nature, until we turn to the Lord, in whom all things are possible.
I voted for Mary of Egypt because she is just like me. She is a sinner and she does not stand out as unique in the world. She shows me that I don't have to be a super hero for God to love me. I have gifts that God gave me and I may not stand out in the world, but God loves me anyway.
Mary's story is pretty fantastic and hard to credit, especially when I hit the detail that she was a prostitute. Didn't poor Mary Magdalene spend centuries as a prostitute in the eyes of the Church before medieval legends were discarded for the misogyny they represented? Who knows what Mary was like or how many women she may be representing in a combined form?
My first thought on reading that--that someone of her era decided that a female, making her way by ship across the sea alone, MUST have sold herself to come up with the fare.
Nonetheless, I, raised in New England a warm extended Roman Catholic family, by a pair of lapsed Catholics, am pretty tired of the anti-Catholicism that I encountered once I left the Northeast for college and then later the West Coast, where I married my multi-denominational husband, and joined the Episcopal Church with him so we could be united in it. I was captivated by Richard Hooker's concept of a via media (though perhaps that was not what he called it), and his adiafora! Hurray! Hooker all the way for me.
Beautifully said, Isabel and Elizabeth. My first thought about her being a prostitute was, here we go again---Mary Magdalene all over. My second thought was, So what if she was? What else was a woman on her own at the end of the 4th century to do in order to survive?
And yet. One biography of Mary has her not only naked and sunburned in the desert when Zosimas found her, but her entire body covered in blond hair. That gave me nightmares, I'm afraid. So I ran to Richard Hooker's 3-legged stool for safety! This converted Methodist can do no other.
I see Hooker as a reconciler at a crossroads of the Church. His theological wisdom is a foundation that sill can work in a divided and confused world, at a time of significant challenges to the world-wide church.
Amazing to have a prostitute facing off against a Hooker in Lent Madness!
On a Roll with my first correct pick yesterday. I have Hooker going all the way to the Golden Halo.
Need a blowout today to get started and send a warning to all the other Saints!
Congratulations, JohntheotherVerger!
Mary worked courageously with what she was given.
Again, a no-brainer. I'm ordinarily not impressed with theologians, but I make an exception for Hooker. And he's pitted against another mysterious figure whose sole claim to fame is a few interesting myths and the distinction of paying her way to Jerusalem by selling her body.
Although Richard Hooker is a personal hero, I went with Mary of the Desert. The essence of her story reminds us there is always and always will be hope for all of us through faith no matter what we look like or what have done.
Going for history over legend, at least in this round. Though I will admit, as legends go, Mary of Egypt's legend is better than many, and breaks the usual standard clichés for female saints.
I love the story of Mary of Egypt, but I love the works of Richard Hooker much more. Without him, where would we Anglicans be?
Mary's story is a bit fairytale -- Hooker was a real live person.
Ah, but how do you know she wasn't real? The eastern and RC churches all venerate her. There must have been someone to start the story.
Sorry this is not about my choice but the fact I normally receive an daily email from Lent Madness. Today I did not. Any reason for that? Thanks for your help. BTW I did vote for Mary.
Richard Hooker was an inspiration to the Catholic and Protestant Churches. Where I’m sure the story of Mary of Egypt may be true
It sounds fictious to me! Ruth Soule
Voted for Richard, was quite surprised by his lead. My preferences is for empirical evidence not outlandish mythical tales.
As an Anglican, I had to go with Richard.
Mary is shouting at me to think about all the girls and women who have had no choice but to pay with their bodies. No matter what becomes of them in earthly terms, their interior lives are forever filled with repentance, isolation, burning of skin, and nakedness. Thanks to people like Richard Hooker who remind us that the Anglican way invites us remember we are all children of God and that the Marys of this world are our treasured sisters in Christ.
When hooker vs. Hooker struck me, I laughed. I'm not laughing now. I like mysteries and miracles. I'm sorry for Mary. I'm a huge fan of the BCP. Huge. Voted for Richard Hooker.
You’r right. Unfortunately that was a bit amusing, not sure it ought to be.
There is no way I am ever going to vote for anyone over Richard Hooker. Never.
Please note that Hooker did not say Scripture, tradition, and reason were the sources, as if reason were the least of the three. He actually wrote: “What Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by the force of reason; after these the voice of the church succeedeth.”
Hi Bill. Did you say that it Welsh?
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Couldn't have said it better myself, Bill. Thank you for the clarification.
Is there any greater delight than scrolling through these comments and meditating on them over the course of the day?
No. Except maybe sea salt caramel ice cream.
MMMmmmmm. An entire carton. Now that's what I call a Lenten discipline.
You betcha!
Agree! They open up whole avenues of spiritual possibilities for us today. Here are many roads to take!
Not many, I agree.
I was 10years old, near the end of WWll , walking the dog I wandered across all the bomb damage into Exeter cathedral. One of the Altar Guild ladies tied the dog outside and walked me through the cathedral. I had never attended a church in my life but she told me to "Come back tomorrow and hear the organ play" I did just that and over the years my faith in God was all important to me. In 1997 I returned to England and revisited the cathedral. There I found the Statue of Richard Hooker , with a pidgin sitting on the wide brim of his Cardinal's hat, looking down on me. He gets my vote.
Wonderful story! Thank you!
Mary of Egypt's story has its charms and her long life of penance makes her an appropriately Lenten saint. But we actually know almost nothing about her: her story is almost entirely fantasy. By the way, Mary of Egypt is placed by most sources in the 5th century (as is her friend Zozimas), not in the third century, where our blogger puts her. Does he have a reason for doing that?
Richard Hooker, by contrast, is someone we know a lot about, both from historical record and from his writings. For his work in elaborating the Anglican Via Media on the triple foundation of Scripture, tradition and reason I am deeply grateful, and so I vote for Hooker.
Lovely as the idea of burial by lion is, I voted for Richard Hooker. I am so grateful for the underpinning of Anglican faith on Scripture, Tradition and Reason, and for his wisdom regarding minor theological disagreements. If only we could hold on to his wise words now.
This was a difficult choice but I voted for Mary. The patron saint of chastity, her story reminds me that human trafficking is still happening all over the world. Her homelessness appears to be her choice, but I'd like to ask her about her life. How many times have I made assumptions about the homeless in my community? Her story reminds me this is not right of me to do, that I can't know why someone is in the position they are in and that my judgement is not helpful.
I have a very high regard for Richard Hooker and my vote should not be seen as diminishing his role in establishing the Anglican Church.
Very helpful, thoughtful insights. Thank you.
I feel a special attraction to the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The lion who dug Mary's grave may be one of the lions who helped Anthony of Egypt bury Paul the Hermit. Maybe.
Definitely Mary, the hooker, not Hooker. He has had much too much adulation already. Mary is a real woman's woman, a woman who did what she had to do, and who although she was engaged in a life of what was then defined as sin, and had NO social status, was ready to sell her body to go on a journey to venerate the cross!!! That's faith. Hooker, with his comfortable life, had nowhere near Mary's faith IMHO!
Voted for Mary because of the Lion
Love those cats!
Simple decision, after all. Big shot Anglican scholar accomplishes so much foundational thinking for our denomination. Mary repents and goes off to live away from the world, sustained by her faith alone.
Hooker would be the obvious choice.
Why, then, did my cursor move and settle on the circle next to Saint Mary of Egypt?
The mind makes rational the world around us, but only the heart actually knows.
When I read the names I thought "for sure I'll vote Mary" but gosh just couldn't go against Hooker (unfortunate name aside).
Yes, Erica, I completely agree. Mary, who had lived a life that prevented her from entering the church, demonstrated an incredible force of faith and perseverance, as did many of those whom Christ healed. Her faith set her free. She sets an excellent example for us , to embrace hope no matter how hopeless, to embrace God’s grace when we feel the least deserving. Mary has my vote.
I read that "hooker" as a euphemism for "prostitute" arose during the Civil war, when the "camp followers" were protected by General Hooker. They were thenceforth referred to as "Hooker's army." However, Wikipedia reports that "hooker" was a term commencing in the mid 19th century due to the concentration of prostitutes at the dockyards in Manhattan at Corlear's Hook. Our Hooker well predates that usage. So much for the poetry of history.