In a week full of lopsided battles, yesterday's matchup took the A to Z prize as Zenaida routed Apollonia 81% to 19%. She'll advance to the Saintly Sixteen where she'll take on the winner of Nicholas of Myra vs. Rudolph of Gubbio.
Today, we round out the second full week of Lent Madness with another Biblical bracket buster as Ananias faces Photini.
In other news, the Supreme Executive Committee was shocked to learn this week that there is another bracket-style tournament making the rounds. But instead of saints, this one features college basketball teams. What is this...madness?! Fear not, friends. The Lent Madness Legal Team is looking into all of our available options. Stay tuned.
Next week, we'll finish up the Round of 32 and kick off the Saintly Sixteen on Thursday. But first, enjoy some sabbath time as we collectively rest from our voting labors through the weekend. Don't worry, though, we'll be back first thing Monday morning as Damien of Molokai faces Pandita Ramabai.
Ananias
As a general rule, if we find that our lives of prayer and discipleship only lead to places of personal comfort and safety, then it’s quite likely we aren’t listening to God as closely as we should. In heeding the call of Jesus, Ananias of Damascus abandoned his own safety to receive, heal, and instruct the man who can be called Christianity’s most significant convert: Saul of Tarsus–Saint Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
The Acts of the Apostles records the call of Ananias. Jesus appears to him in a vision, calling Ananias to leave the safety of his home in Damascus and “look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.” Ananias knows of Saul’s vigorous persecution of the church in Jerusalem and argues with God: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But Jesus tells Ananias to go anyway, “for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel” (Acts 9:11-15).
Ananias does as he is told. He finds Saul of Tarsus, blinded from his own encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, at the home of a man named Judas in Damascus, just as Jesus has told him. Ananias recounts his own call to seek out Saul so that Saul may regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul’s sight is restored—“something like scales” fall from his eyes—and almost immediately thereafter Saul is baptized. Within days, Saul preaches with great eloquence to the power of Jesus in the Damascus synagogue, raising more than a few eyebrows among those who knew of his former life.
The story of Paul’s ministry occupies the majority of the Acts of the Apostles; Paul’s letters to the church communities constitute the bulk of the New Testament. Today’s church would not exist in its current form without Paul. But Paul’s journey as an apostle begins with the courage and faithfulness of Ananias, a disciple and follower of Jesus who heeds a call to go and pray with a man he only knows as a danger and a threat. Ananias’s extraordinary witness and courage commends him as an example for us to follow nearly two millennia later.
Collect for Ananias
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Ananias of Damascus to be a light in the world; Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Photini
“So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’” (John 4:5-7).
These words begin the longest conversation Jesus has with another person in the gospels. The woman at the well isn’t named in the Gospel of John; we are given her gender (woman), her ethnicity (Samaritan), and her personal information (not what we’d call an upstanding citizen).
All the labels are warnings: This is not a person with whom Jesus should be talking. Yet Jesus does speak with her, and in response, she becomes a disciple and evangelist. We read in the Gospel of John that many Samaritans from that city believe in Jesus because of her testimony.
We don’t encounter her again in the gospels, but the early church continues her story. Baptized on Pentecost with her sisters and given the name Photini (luminous or enlightened one), she travels to Samaria and eventually Carthage, where her witness founds a vibrant Christian community.
Photini encounters Jesus in a vision, and subsequently travels from Carthage to Rome to bolster the courage of the persecuted community of Christians and share the gospel with Nero, the emperor. Instead of being converted, Nero orders Photini and the Christians beaten on the hands with iron rods. During the torture, Photini sings psalms. Seeing their hands unharmed, Nero throws the men into jail and invites Photini and her sisters to a grand banquet, hoping the display will entice Photini to rebuke her Christian faith. Photini shares the gospel with Nero’s daughter and converts her. Enraged even more, Nero further tortures Photini, then throws her into a well, where she praises God until she dies.
Sermons in the early church refer to her as an apostle and evangelist, standing equal to the twelve who go forth after the resurrection. Her faith is commemorated in many ancient hymns, including this verse from one associated with Ephrem:
Blessed are you, O Woman, drawer of ordinary water, who turned out to be a drawer of living water. You found the treasure, the Source from whom a flood of mercies flow.
Collect for Photini
O Almighty God, whose most blessed Son revealed to the Samaritan woman that He is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World; grant us to drink of the well that springs up to everlasting life that we may worship you in spirit and in truth through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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175 comments on “Ananias vs. Photini”
Laughing and singing my way through Lent Madness this year! Thanks to all you clever people. What a delight! It almost feels sinful!
Ananias is extremely important to Christianity, and acted with great courage. Photini may not have done what they said that she did. Nero had one daughter, and she died at the age of three months.
Well, well, well....Make mine Photini!
I didn't know Photini met such a grisly end. Damn you Nero! Had to vote for Ananias for aiding in the conversion of Paul.
A "Photini cocktail" shouldn't contain any alcohol at all. -A virgin martini if you will. You know - a "Faux-tini!!"
I would be very surprised if the word "virgin" could be applied to any woman who has had five husbands (and the man who she was with when she met Jesus was not her husband...).
I found this one the hardest so far, and even succumbed to reading the comments before I voted (although that didn't change my initial instinct). I admit, while holding tremendous reverence for Ananais, what Photini did in an age when feminism wasn't loud and proud won the day for me.
Always loved Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Woman at the Well.” Had to go with Photini,especially after learning more about her!
I know, from experience, how hard it is to go to someone you think will reject you, much less kill you, but do it anyway, so I voted for Ananais. And to the SEC: yes there is another March Madness. Here in Kansas, where basketball is a religion, the faithful get up, read the comments, vote in Lenten Madness and then immerse themselves feverishly in round ball. Children go unwashed, meetings go unattended, the dogs hide under the bed to avoid anguished screams and the games go on.
"Let the unwashed children come unto me."
Hey, SEC! Did you know there is a true copycat challenge called “Jesus Madness”?
You should sue!
I just learned about Photini recently, but she is really the enlightened one!
Please stop with the spurious saints! Photini's story reads like any other mythical hagiography. There are elements in it that are not true, in any way. Chief among them is the preposterous story of her conversion of Nero's daughter Dominina and her slave girls. Arrant nonsense. History - actual recorded history! - tells us that Nero was only 30 years old when when he died, hardly old enough, even given his reputed sexual promiscuity, to have fathered a daughter who grew to puberty, let alone adulthood. In fact, we know he only had one child, a daughter by his second wife Poppaea, and that died in infancy. Ananias, on the other hand, was a major catalyst in the spreading of the Gospel. Had he not done what God asked him to do, no doubt Saul would have remained Saul, and Christianity would have been confined to a small geographic area because the Great Apostle would never have done his magnificent work of carrying the word of the Word far and wide. If you're going to give us legends, at least be honest enough to tell us they are legends! Photini? Phooey!
Yeah. Even the idea that she would have managed to get an audience with the emperor in the first place is too much for me to swallow.
On the other hand, we could vote just based on her story as written in the bible which is pretty inspiring.
Though she lacks a name, she's articulate and smart, curious and engaging in her conversation with Jesus.
And then she immediately goes into town to bring people out to also listen and learn from Jesus.
We chose Photini today. Rather than the well known cocktail others are talking about, I’d prefer some Thai pho or faux pasta rotini instead. Seems like most of our votes this LM are going for the lesser-known saints presented.
And as for that “other” March Madness going on now, we say, go Cats!
No Ananias, no St. Paul. See Acts 9 simple as!
Tough choice today, but I have to go with Ananias. What he did took real courage and bore great fruit for the young Church. Sharing the Gospel with Nero certainly would have taken great courage, but the legends that grew up around the woman at the well don't have the ring of truth to me.
The Biblical account of the woman at the well.is reasonable, and her response admirable, but not outstanding. The legends seem pure fantasy and out of context with the message of Christ. I hope I would have the faith of Ananias, knowing the danger, but going to meet with one considered to be an enemy.
I have never heard of the legends of Photina, or even her name, however you spell it, before. That's what comes of being a lifelong Methodist; I don't know the stories of most of the saints. But the Woman at the Well? I know her! She has inspired me and helped me to draw ever closer to the Lord Jesus, who has given me assignments I would never have dreamed of receiving if I had not meditated on her Biblical story.
I love the Samaritan woman at the well and thought I would end up voting for her. But the opening lines: 'As a general rule, if we find that our lives of prayer and discipleship only lead to places of personal comfort and safety, then it’s quite likely we aren’t listening to God as closely as we should.' for the write up for Ananias convinced me otherwise.
Keeping with the recent results. Photini (luminous or enlightened one) is lighting up Ananias!
Tough choice, however, I ended up voting for Photini.
so hard to pick today...the courage of Ananias. His response to God was much more eloquent than what I would have said. ( "Are you CRAZY God???) Was going with him until I read Photinas story. I get it. I've been on the wrong side of the stellar reputation road before. As a recovering person I understand so well that I am living a life given to me by grace and not because of my own strength. I feel I owe a debt to be willing to share with others who struggle with addiction if the opportunity arises and I cannot separate my faith journey from my sobriety. I pray I would have the courage to share my story as Photina did, even at the cost of my life if it came to that.
Props to Ananias for seeking out Saul/Paul, but I voted for Photini. The story of her encounter with Jesus so intrigued me that I was inspired to read about it in my sorrowfully neglected King James. which has to count as a minor miracle. Also, Samaritans have figured large in my Lent, so I am well disposed towards them. And I like that Photini comes off as fairly saucy in her conversation with Jesus. Next time I make a Martini I will add a garlic-stuffed olive and a couple of capers and toast the woman at the well.
Sounds like a drink worth losing your head over.
I belong to a parish whose patron is Paul, so I have to go with the guy God used to spark his conversion.
This choice was hard! I never read about Photini
before....& Ananias is an old friend! Hm-m.