Welcome to the one and only Saturday matchup of Lent Madness 2020. From here on out every contest will take place exclusively on the weekdays of Lent. In a word, today is SPECIAL! And to mark this special occasion, Margery Kempe, a 14th century mystic, takes on Eustace, an early Christian soldier.
Yesterday, Elizabeth soundly defeated Andrew 63% to 37% in a battle of Biblical saints. We're still waiting for that first real nail-biter, but fear not! You're guaranteed to have a number of them before our work is done here.
By the way, if you need to check out the results from previous matchups or view the updated bracket, just head over to the bracket page. Our trusty Bracket Czar, Adam Thomas, updates the page every day, in his inimitable manner.
Now go enjoy your Saturday and don't forget to vote!
Margery Kempe
Margery was born into a prosperous family in about 1373, and at age twenty, she married John Kempe. She might have been like many other women of her time, known only through church records and occasional correspondence, except for The Book of Margery Kempe, the earliest surviving autobiographical writing in English that details her spiritual crisis, visions of Christ, and subsequent devotion to Jesus.
Margery herself could neither read nor write; she dictated her book to a priest in her later years. Margery’s book invites us into the life of a woman whose faith in God did not require her to edit herself but instead to offer her experience of God and her call as a disciple in unflinching, raw, humorous, and lovely glory.
Margery begins her book telling of her post-childbirth illness. She fasts and prays in response to horrific visions of demons. In this desperate state, Margery describes Jesus coming to her, saying to her she was not forsaken but loved. Margery devotes herself to Christ, eventually (after fourteen children) forcing her husband to honor her decision to live a life of chastity, calling on God to terrify her husband when he feels a desire to break this vow.
She is also imbued with the gift of tears, weeping and praying for hours in public and in private, especially when meditating upon the Passion of Christ. She begins a life of pilgrimage. She meets the Archbishop of Canterbury, is almost burned as a Lollard, visits with Julian of Norwich, and is arrested and examined as a heretic because she preached…as a woman. Margery travels alone to the Holy Land, Assisi, and Rome, walks the Santiago de Compostela, and engages in conversation with Christian mystics from all across Europe.
Margery did not dictate her book as a memoir or travel guide. She would likely not have considered her life experience alone worthy of recording. She instead recognized the profound, mystical, and even unsettling presence of God in her life and for that reason, sought to record the presence of the grace and mercy of God in her life so that God would be glorified. Her book is a wonderful testament to the grace of God in the extraordinary life of a woman who dared to be a disciple.
Collect for Margery Kempe
Direct our hearts, O Gracious God, and inspire our minds; that like your servant Margery Kempe, we might pass through the cloud of unknowing until we behold your glory face to face; in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Eustace
Strange things can happen when a person is out alone in the mountains, as shown by the legend of Saint Eustace. During the reign of the emperor Trajan, a Roman general named Placidas left his quarters to hunt. While in the countryside outside of Rome, Placidas came upon a stag moving in his direction. Between the stag’s antlers he saw a figure of Jesus Christ on the cross, and as the animal approached, he heard a voice calling him by name.
The vision changed him; Placidas immediately sought baptism into the church for himself and his family, moving from a general in the armies of Rome, which was persecuting Christians, to being numbered among the persecuted. At his baptism, Placidas changed his name to Eustachius—or in its anglicized form, Eustace. A series of catastrophes followed: Eustace lost all his wealth, and his servants soon died of a plague. As if those calamities were not enough, Eustace’s wife, Theopista, was kidnapped by the ship’s captain when on a voyage at sea. At a later point, when the family was crossing a river, his sons were taken away by a wolf and a lion. Yet Eustace remained faithful.
Eustace’s military acumen remained in high demand, and he was recalled to the Roman legions. Upon his recall, Eustace somehow managed to both reunite with his wife and children and play a part in a victory for Rome’s armies. Yet when the time came after the army’s victory to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods, Eustace refused. Legend holds that Eustace and his family were then martyred for the Christian faith, suffering death by roasting in a bronze statue of a bull.
Eustace is counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers—fourteen saints venerated together in Roman Catholic tradition because their intercession against illness came to be believed as particularly effective in response to the Black Death. Among other things, Eustace is the patron saint of hunters, trappers, and those facing trouble; his intercession is invoked against family discord and against fire (as some sources clearly note, both temporal and eternal). He is also the patron saint of Madrid, Spain. Eustace is remembered in the West on September 20.
Collect for Eustace
Almighty God, who gave your servant Eustace boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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174 comments on “Margery Kempe vs. Eustace”
This is Leap year, and today is Leap year day. My quick prayer is that no child be born today for he/she will never know what day his/her birthday is. Speaking of children being born, I commiserate with Marjorie for fourteen pregnancies and childbirths and heartily approve her threats of divine punishment against her husband. By the eighteenth century there were condoms made of sheep intestines, for the libertines and rakes. But a medieval wife had nothing but tears, visions, and threats of Jesus. I remember Marjorie from an earlier Lent Madness. We were all repelled by her "gift of tears." However, this year, with federal judges ruling that yes, we have a king, and not just a king but an absolutist monarch, throwing us back into the seventeenth century, I can better understand how seeing reality clearly and responding with grief could be a legitimate Christian response. Kierkegaard speaks of the leap of faith; one's spirituality and meaning on earth is defined not in acceptance of a creed but in one's leap into an unknown mystery. So in honor of leaps of faith, here on Leap year day, I vote for a medieval woman who went out and lived life. She preached! She travelled alone! She faced the stake because . . . woman talking. And yet she persisted. (And yes props to her priest.)
Sorry, I specifically double-checked the spelling of her name and still misspelled it. I mean Margery.
Your posts are always well-written gems.
Thank you for your words. They so often express my feelings!
So well-stated! My vote goes to Margery!
I remember get from a previous year, too, mainly because the phrase "gift of tears" was a new concept to me and it made me think.
Margery dictated the earliest surviving autobiographical writing in English AND preached as a woman AND walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela AND sought to record the presence of the grace and mercy of God in her life so that God would be glorified - she has my vote today (and I've ordered her book)!
Onward, Christian Soldiers! (how the late Rev. Scott Norton Jones, episcopal chaplain, HATED that song.)
But coming from family with deep military tradition(s), I will go with the minority here and " Hail Eustace"
while dreaming of venison steak after Easter.
In addition to his Jaegermeister label, Eustace could be a poster child for a theology of the cross.
He gets my vote. SDG
Thankful for Lent Madness - how have I not known of some of these amazing people?? After having 14 children, that Margery traveled alone from England to the Holy Land, Rome and walked to Santiago de Compostela is stunning. In the 1300's it would have been a significant journey just to visit Julian of Norwich. She has my vote!
Oops, sorry - I think Julian of Norwich was right nearby but Canterbury would have been a journey.
Margery Kempe visited Julian of Norwich, she earns my vote that way.
14 children...bless her heart! Still, Eustace went through so much with losing his family, reuniting with them and then them all being burned...I have to go with Eustace.
Celibacy should be a gift, not something forced on another. Eustace, a modern day Job, gets my vote.
Eustace is no buttercup, no choker in the face of evil! Lift high the Cross! Vote Eustace!
Seriously, SEC??? We go from two clearly Biblical saints, to two barely believable people, neither of whom we want to vote for. So we’re drawing straws today, and Eustace happened to get the better one. As others have said, given the worldwide coronavirus pandemic that the World Health Organization has deemed very high risk while the current administration buries its head in the sand, we’ll take Eustace’s additional prayers.
"We" are learning about the wide range of devotional practices in two millennia of Christian history, and "we" are refusing Biblical literalism and fundamentalism as we do so. After the many schisms that split Christianity into divergent sects and lineages after the early councils (not to mention the upheaval of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation), we have an opportunity to do some healing by encountering and possibly even embracing traditions and lore that have been lost or were rejected along the way. Also "we" are learning to expand our minds and hearts by letting the holy spirit shape us through the glimpses of other souls' stories and their diverse experiences of the divine. If these two saints blow your mind, wait until you get to vote for St. Guinefort. Truly, whatever you do for the beast of these, you do for me (Matthew 25:40).
Now I know the source of the vision sought by the eldest nun on the Christmas episode of "Call the Midwife". She longed for a vision of Christ as a white stag, and when visiting the Hebrides, she was granted it. It seemed very strange to me, but now I know the origin of that plot twist.
Nevertheless, I cast my vote for Margery. Anyone who bears fourteen children and still has energy to walk all over Christendom deserves it!
There's lots of interesting lore about the White Stag (or the White Hart). One of my favorites is the final chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: "The Hunting of the White Stag", in which the four Pevensie children (now adult kings and queens of Narnia) pursue the White Stag, who leads them into the Lantern Waste, and back home to England.
Not to mention Harry Potter's Patronus charm…
After 14 children, I too would be weeping and praying for hours!
Margery has my vote.
May I vote, instead, for the unfortunate family members of these two who had to put up with the tears, burnings, kidnappings, etc.? I am so fortunately to be neither the spouse nor the child of a saint!
14 children!!! Clearly a saint!
Eustace's wife was kidnapped, his children taken by "fierce, wild beasts," and they were all roasted but Eustace is the saint? Give me a break. We don't seem to know what happened to Margery's 14 children while she suffered her horrible bouts of postpartum depression, but perhaps her experience of Jesus and her family's prosperity helped her to care for them. Perhaps those who have read her book could tell us something? But certainly her courage, strength and persistence are as much an inspiration as Eustace's. And the story of Eustace seems a bit enhanced by legend whereas Margery seems to provide more documentation. A difficult choice, but Margery gets my vote.
If you read one of the contemporary renderings of her autobiographical story, her children are mostly accounted for. One son went into international shipping, others of her children died young.
As we've seen with Thomas More, historical fiction has a powerful impact on how we view people. My introduction to Margery Kempe came in "The Book of the Maidservant," a YA novel by Rebecca Barnhouse, told from the POV of the young maid whom Margery says deserted her. In the book, the maid has good reason to leave! https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-85856-7
But fictional characterization aside, the book and its thoughtful appendix inspired me to read up on Margery Kempe. I found that though she certainly was bold, unconventional, and courageous, she was also obnoxious and self-absorbed. Whatever her own spirituality, her crying and screaming in public places did not inspire anyone else.
I like that Eustace led an active secular life and stayed loyal to his country and his military honor until he was called on to take one step too far to square with his conscience. He gets my vote.
Well stated.
Outstanding write-ups! I am so thrilled this morning, to have had my imagination filled to the brim with details of Margery and Eustace. I’ve met these two saintly persons here for the first time and it is a pleasure.
It’s refreshing to meet people whose lives were transformed as adults - in the Dark Ages no less. I am also captivated by an idea in Margery’s write-up, that upon her mystic encounter and conversion, Margery didn’t “edit” herself, nevertheless, God drew her into a deep transformative life. Notably, that transformed life involved her family and day to day responsibilities. She also seemed to reach out and grasp for spiritual opportunities as time and circumstances allowed. Wow! She’s a perfect hero for me, a mid-50’s Christian woman, leading a semi-retired life, looking for paths for service and meaning and continued spiritual growth.
Eustace’s tale seemed to track with Margery, and I treasure that as well. On just day 3 of Lent Madness, The magic has happened: I have met a couple lovely saints to add to my personal “Cloud if Witnesses”. Hot dang!
FYI, the fourteenth century is not part of the so-called "Dark Ages." The Gothic era is well advanced by the fourteenth century. Most of the great Gothic edifices had been erected by this point. For instance, Chartres cathedral was constructed in the 12th century. Marjery's era is the high medieval period. Consider that the Renaissance is just around the corner.
Is there a place to read all the bios of the participants?
The Saintly Scorecard contains all the bios, a short history of LM and a handy bracket for 2020. It is available from Forward Movement for $3 in printed, Nook, Kindle and Apple Book formats.
http://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2584/saintly-scorecard-2020.aspx
Margery Kemp should be the Patron Saint of Family Planning
Margery Kempe's book drove me nuts; I am a psychologist who was diagnosing her with every turn of the page. I think she drove a lot of other people nuts too. Her fellow pilgrims begged her to go home due to her constant noisy crying! She plagued Julian and Jesus about wearing white dresses - -which was against the fashion rules of the church for married women (wiich I thought was rather obssessive). What about hubby and kids? God love her. I voted for St. Eustace, after having had a nun in my Sophomore year homeroom class named Sr. Eustace. So much for voting for folks who exhibited "heroic virtue."
Eustace has my vote. He is known by the Roman Catholic Church as an intercessor against illness, especially during the Black plague . In our time we have another plague and virus spreading around the world that is causing sickness and fear among many people. May Eustace pray for all who are sick, especially all those effected with this virus and bring them God's healing touch through Jesus Christ, who took all our ills and infirmities to the cross.
Eustace annoyed me into learning a new word: fakelore -- when his tall-tale hagiography reminded me of Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan, and I started googling.
On the other hand, we know Margery is for real, mood swings and outbursts and amazing travels and all, because we were gifted with her story. (And God bless her priest/scribe!) We are all the richer for her sharing her story. And the whole Body of Christ becomes holier, deeper, and more bound together by true religion whenever we make the space to share and listen to one another's stories. Following Margery's lead is what makes the Church the Church, and could lead to much needed renewal and reinvigoration now in these latter days.
Besides, we need a patron saint for postpartum depression. And any woman with 14 kids qualifies as a martyr, too -- no bull!
I see what you did there. "Like."
I have been wavering through the comments on who to vote for. I'm coming down on the side of Margery largely due to your comment. Thank you for putting it so well. Lord help me listen!
That was educational and fun!
I agree on the public displays of tears, and emotional melt-downs which would be a little hard to deal with. I liked that Eustace, despite everything he went through continued steadfast in his beliefs throughout his life. Being from a family with some military as well, I choose Eustace in honor of them. I also have tried and found Jagermeister to be quite likable once!
Eustace sounds fictional to me. And if Margery was friendly to the Lollards as the bio says (which would mean favoring reform of what the Church had become, and favoring the separation of the Chruch from the temporal power of the State), then she's a friend of mine. I voted Margery.
Margery was real as real. No visionary stags or bronze bulls for this gal!
Why put these two amazingly brave followers of Christ against each other...Come on folks! Even though both were very brave in their witness for Christ, the love of their lives, I must go with Margery. 14 children and then saying no more to her husband. In that time period? And then traveling all by herself around Europe via her mystical encounters with God. In that time period? Think of the dangers and the strength of her connection and trust. Both Margery and Eustace amaze me.
Voting for Eustace only for the Jägermeister I imbibed on Shrove Tuesday before the Lenten fast!
Go Marg!
Had to vote for Margery. She was practical and brave and got things done due to her hard work and determination. She was not even literate and yet accomplished so much.