Welcome back for the first FULL WEEK of Lent Madness 2019. If you're just joining in the fun, we're glad you're here! There's plenty of madness to go and we're delighted to have people jump aboard the purple Lenten train at any point in the season.
Over the weekend, in the only Saturday battle of the season, Ignatius of Loyola strode past Tikhon of Zadonsk 65% to 35% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen, where he'll face the winner of Dominic vs. Marina the Monk.
Today we make our first foray into the Miscellaneous quadrant of the bracket as John Chrysostom faces Margaret of Cortona. Perhaps we should have had a play-in round to decide, once and for all, whether the correct pronunciation of "Chrysostom" should have the accent on the first or second syllable. But however you pronounce it, this should prove an intriguing battle to kick off your Monday.
And don't forget, later today, in order to make your Monday complete, Tim and Scott will be releasing another epic episode of everyone's favorite penitential viewing experience: Monday Madness. Stay tuned! (or just binge-watch old episodes).
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom was born to a wealthy family around 345 ce in Antioch, Syria. His father, a commander of imperial troops in Syria, died at an early age. John felt a call to monastic life early but stayed with his mother, acting as a caregiver. When the time came for his education, John was sent to study with the great pagan orator Libanius. John excelled in his education. (Later, at the time of his death, when asked who should succeed him in the leadership of his school, Libanius is reported to have said, “John, had not the Christians stolen him.”) John would ultimately use his intellect to become one of the great doctors of the church.
Around 373, John became a hermit and took to an ascetic life, continually standing, scarcely eating, and reading the Bible constantly. Like so many at this time, his asceticism would later impact his health. John was made a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386. From 386-398, John would earn his surname Chrysostom (literally, the “golden-mouthed”) through powerful sermons and oratory. In fact, his Easter sermon is still read from pulpits around the world today. Against his wishes John was made bishop of Constantinople in 397.
His focus on reform and care for those who were poor and vulnerable won him a good deal of respect and admiration. But Chrysostom was often blunt and tactless and did not shy away from criticizing people with incredible power. His disputes, first with Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria, then with Empress Eudoxia, led to the Synod of the Oak, in which he was deposed. One year later, despite support from Pope Innocent I and much of the Western Church, Chrysostom was convicted of unlawfully resuming his episcopal duties and was exiled.
By this time, Chrysostom was in poor health from his years of asceticism. He was nonetheless forced to march to Pontus in extreme heat. He died in September of 407 from the toll the journey took on his body.
Collect for John Chrysostom
O God, who gave your servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim your righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of your Name: mercifully grant to all who proclaim your word such excellence in preaching, that all your people may be made partakers of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.
Margaret of Cortona
Margaret of Cortona grew up in Laviano, Italy, where her family farmed the land. Margaret was a beautiful girl and an only child. Her mother died when Margaret was only seven years old. Her father remarried, and Margaret had a treacherous relationship with her stepmother.
When she was seventeen, Margaret met Gugliemo di Pecora, lord of Valiano. She became the nobleman’s servant. Gugliemo recognized Margaret’s beauty and began to offer her gifts and attention. Margaret became Gugliemo’s mistress and had a son.
When they had been lovers for about ten years, Gugliemo went on a journey. When he didn’t return, Margaret became worried. Then Gugliemo’s dog came home alone, went directly to Margaret’s room, and began whining. Margaret followed the dog into the woods until the hound began whimpering over a pile of sticks. Margaret immediately set about moving brush and found the body of her lover in a hole below.
In her shock and distress, Margaret left the home of her murdered lover and took her son to her father’s house. They were turned away, and so Margaret knocked on the doors of the monastery of Cortona. The monks welcomed the mother and son—and her son later became a friar there.
Margaret practiced extreme acts of penance. She clothed herself in rags and slept on hard ground. She cut and bruised her face in order to mar her beauty. When she visited her hometown, she hired a woman to lead her around like a beast on a rope, yelling, “Look at Margaret, the sinner!”
Margaret joined the Order of Saint Francis and chose to live in poverty, often begging for bread to eat. She became a nurse and began a hospital for those who were sick, poor, and homeless. And she was willing to stand up to authority figures, even chastising a bishop for his violence and plundering.
Throughout the rest of her life, Margaret was drawn to God, not through severe acts of self-punishment but through the mystical reality of God’s love for her. She became known as the second Magdalene because of her tears and Christ’s love for her.
Collect for Margaret of Cortona
O God, as your servant Margaret of Cortona found a home where her repentance led to a life of prayer, service, and leadership, Grant that we may always seek to dwell where estrangement yields to reconciliation, through Jesus Christ, who is himself the goal of all our seeking and the answer to our desires, unto whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
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219 comments on “John Chrysostom vs. Margaret of Cortona”
Ascetics don't appeal to me either, but both these folks lived in very different times and cultures than our own. I was really moved by John's biography, which I was unfamiliar with, because even though he felt a call to monastic life, he stayed with his widowed mother to care for her, delaying what he believed to be his calling. So often we hear of holy men (in various faith traditions) who abandoned their families to serve God or pursue a spiritual path. We need more models like John, who had his priorities straight.
Thank you - important point. I agree
Liturgist here so I have to vote for John.
I'm voting for John not because he gave us some beautiful prayers for our BCP, but because I love what David Creech wrote right after the 2016 election. I follow Lent Madness for moments like this. Hang in there, David!
I'm voting for John because is apparently the patron saint of standing desk users.
I needed this chuckle today, Mary Beth.
Oh, that’s good! I like that, Mary Beth!
Using as his text "Luke 19:27, John of the golden mouth was a master of the horrific sermon genre known as Adversus Judaeos. All of which encouraged an immediate destruction of synagogues, savage assaults on Jews and their expulsion from their Antioch, Alexandria, ultimately leading to the abolition of the Jewish patriarchate in Palestine. John victimized others, whereas Margaret was a tragic victim. It is with this in mind that she gets my vote.
Plus for us Orthodox Christians, St. John is our hero as he shortened the Divine Liturgy to something a bit more reasonable. Only about 90 minutes. ha! His Liturgy is beautiful and flowing.
Hard decision, but I had to go with John. His writings are still influential today.
Yes, they are. They're still being quoted by people who are anti-homosexual.
It is tough to vote for one of Hitler's heroes . I too am a Margaret, but I cannot imagine the demands on women in that era. Survival alone was a terrible uphill battle, but to be remembered for her skills as a nurse and example of Christ's love is remarkable.
Margaret deserves the vote, she persevered through all life threw at her and suffered greatly for the faith she found .
Hmm...such a dilemma!
Must vote for Margaret. Disfiguring her face was and is no doubt a sign of deep pain. Sometime it takes awhile to accept the reality of the mystical love of God. I decided she deserves a break!
I can understand the negative comments about both of today’s saints. The extreme asceticism of some of the early Christians is very disturbing for most modern followers of Jesus, especially in 2019 in a world of abuse, narcissism, hate, and injustice. But “A Prayer of St. Chrysostom”, that I have memorized from years of saying it at Evening Prayer, won my heart then and does today. His prayer is part of my spiritual formation. Thank you, John Chrysostom.
I agree - hard choice for all the reasons you supply so eloquently. And much as I love dogs and yet another example of their loyalty and devotion, Margaret was too much for me to take. Thank you for providing the excellent caveat with the choice of John!
Love the Lent Madness community!
I like it too!
Sally in Dallas I understand your reasoning. I, too, love that prayer. I just cannot support the person who wrote it because of his hatred for Jesus' people, the Jews. I wonder how his eloquence and the beauty of his language holds up against the ferocious and eloquent hatred with which he preached against the Jewish people - the very people from whom our own faith and much of its inherent wisdom come.
Well said, Diana.
I can see why Golden-mouth is leading. Anyone who's blunt and tactless and critical of people in power has my vote. As for Margaret, anyone who dresses in rags and has someone lead her around on a rope is going a bit overboard with the penance trip, even though she later got over it and worked in a hospital.
Eventually Margaret of Cottons realized
Grace.
Chysostome is a place near Montreal where I live.
But my vote goes to Margaret....
Except for the extreme penance and cutting, I voted for Margaret for 3 reasons:
1. I had a sister, Margaret, whom I never knew because she died in the delivery room.
2. My mother is a nurse, like Margaret.
3. She worked with people experiencing homelessness, and so do I. (www.ripplecommunityinc.org)
I found this paragraph in a Life of St. Margaret of Cortona on the website of the St. Margaret of Cortona School in the Bronx. That sounds like a reliable source!
"One day after he had failed to return from visiting some of his estates, the family dog returned without him. She set out to look for him following the dog who led her to his body. He had been murdered. She immediately felt great remorse at her estrangement from God and her family. She gave away to her dead lover’s family all the possessions she had and returned home to attempt a reconciliation with her father. However, at the urging of her stepmother, her father refused to take in Margaret and her son."
So it sounds like she left the dog in Valiano. Inquiring minds wanted to know.
Margaret's a problem for me because of her self-mutilation and ascetic wallowing, but it sounds like she was suffering from periods of mental illness, and at least the only person she hurt was herself. John, on the other hand, used his golden eloquence to hurt so many others. I looked up his sermons on the Jews and was appalled. His homily against people in same-sex relationships is also horrifying. He said that such sexual activity was worse than murder, and men in same-sex relationships should be stoned. The fact that complete vilification was an accepted rhetorical device at the time doesn't excuse these sermons for me, especially because they have continued to echo down the ages. I hope Margaret makes it to the next round so we can learn more about her work for the sick and homeless, her defiance of authority figures, and her mystical awareness of God's love. If John makes it to the next round, I hope he gets creamed.
St. Margaret of Cortona
Decisions of youth came with great negative consequences, which she set her life to improving not just her own, but the lives of many. She did this without a wealthy start and the handicap of being a woman during a time when women had little respect in the world.
No to both. Saints are supposed to have miracles attributed to them. Instead (or perhaps in addition), both John and Margaret left profoundly negative legacies with damaging effects throughout the centuries: Chrysostom with his anti-semitic rhetoric which spawned a horrible legacy of bigotry, murder, and persecution, and ultimately helped to shape Hitler's Holocaust; Margaret with her extreme masochistic asceticism, modeling mawkish and bloody excesses imitated by countless others, with echoes today in cutting and eating disorders among young people. I don't want my vote to count for either of them, so will toss my vote to the underdog (looks like Margaret) later today.
Did John become an "aesthetic" (lover of beautiful things) or an "ascetic" (one who practices severe self-discipline)?
I could have gone with these folks today, but went with John. As a person who has endured Texas summers my whole life I had to go with the guy who was forced to march in extreme heat. I've almost died just walking to my car in August, so he totally gets my vote.
After reading comments and re-reading the bios, I voted for Margaret, mainly because she was the underdog at the time, and a little bit because I have a sister named Margaret.
Okay, this is the comment that finally gave me someone to vote for. Thank you for reminding us of how mental illness manifests in unattractive ways, yet saintliness is still within reach of us loonies.
Exactly! Glad to help... 😉
In fact, you inspired today's blogpost, as Christina the Astonishing did a previous year. https://www.prozacmonologues.com/2019/03/every-once-in-while-prozac-monologues.html
Maybe Margaret’s extreme public penance was a requirement of her being taken in by the monks. She had to provide for the wellfare of her son. The sacrificial love for a mother for her child is a strong instinct.
Once upon a Lent Madness time, John was the co-star in a series of semi-animated commentaries on the various Lent Madness match-ups. These thoughtful and often very funny little videos were the work of the mysterious Maple Anglican, who has a whole series of more serious videos still available on YouTube. In memory of Lent Madness past, John got my vote today.
Yes, I always enjoyed those videos. Was Thomas Cranmer the partner? I can’t remember.
Yes, it was Cranmer. The Archbishops! As noted earlier in the comments, you can dive into the archives of 2014 and find samples of their deadpan pronouncements, courtesy of the Clairevoyetron.
Coming from a line of wordsmiths and having married one, I also love the power of words and the creativity they offer. John Chrysostom gets my vote today.
John Chrysostom, if it were only for the great Paschal Homily so cherished at the Great Vigil of Easter!
I knew I had to vote,but, if I Didn't vote, I do not have a voice! So, I voted for Mary the least posioning of the two! I would be surprised if she makes it thru another round, but the history I learned today was remarkable!
Can't believe we today say the prayer of Chrystsdom, I never ever be able to say this prayer with the same respect I used to have! We were not told when Mary was born? Different stokes for different folks!
Anyone besides me wondering where Oliver is this year?
He is here. He posted around 9:00. So good to have him and several other young people with us this year.
The public penance seems as prideful as ostentatious prayer. That sent me back to John, whose sermons are truly severe. But since I must vote for one, I’ll go with John who was eluctant to assume power and who kept his penance in a cell.
They both deserve votes for challenging authorities when they were remiss. But this time I had to go with Margaret. Taking up nursing to help the ailing is a great vocation.