Welcome back to another FULL WEEK of saintly thrills and spills! Lent Madness XIV continues as Simeon Bachos takes on Blandina. The one known in Scripture as the Ethiopian eunuch vs. a second century martyr.
In Friday's matchup, Bach triumphed over Harriet Monsell 58% to 42% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen against Richard Hooker.
By the way, if you ever want to see an updated bracket, you can simply click the Bracket tab and voila! Our long-time (long suffering?) Bracket Czar Adam Thomas updates in daily.
Now, go vote!
Simeon Bachos
Simeon Bachos is the name that second-century Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon gave to the person Luke calls “the Ethiopian eunuch.” Simeon was someone who today we might call nonbinary or queer—someone considered neither male nor female. Persons born male who, whether by accident or by choice, could no longer beget children were highly regarded as “safe” to serve as officials and servants for royal families in much of the ancient world.
So, Simeon Bachos was an elite: working closely with royalty, wielding political power, and having enough disposable income to travel on personal pilgrimage. However, they were also an outsider: “a dry tree” with a broken body and no family, whose presence in the temple was banned in Deuteronomy 23 (although welcomed in Isaiah 56). They were a foreigner: a Gentile with black skin from a country at the edge of the civilized world.
Simeon is so drawn to the God of the Jewish faith that they’ve traveled all the way to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. And they’re geeky enough that, on the trip home, they’re reading scripture in a moving vehicle! The Holy Spirit takes notice and commands the apostle Philip to chase down this chariot, and Philip hears Simeon reading the scripture aloud.
Phillip asks Simeon: “Do you understand what you are reading?” Simeon replies modestly: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” Then, Simeon asks a tender question: “About whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” And so, Philip proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ to Simeon, right there in their chariot. This seems to be the good news Simeon has been waiting their whole life to hear—perhaps what they had traveled to the temple looking to find—so much so that, when they see water by the side of the road, they want to be baptized immediately.
After the baptism, Philip is whisked away by the Spirit while Simeon is rejoicing. As Willie James Jennings says in his recent commentary: “The eunuch is not left alone. They are left free in their joy” (Acts, 86, pronouns and italics added), to pursue the Christian life. Irenaeus tells us that Simeon returned to Ethiopia and preached the gospel there.
The Episcopal Church celebrated the feast day of Simeon Bachos for the first time on August 27, 2022, after General Convention voted to authorize the commemoration.
Collect for Simeon Bachos
Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of your servant Simeon, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at last we may with him attain to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Blandina
Falsely accused of horrible deeds, tortured in the town square, burned, beaten, and flung around by a wild animal, Blandina and the story of her demise is not for the faint of heart. Despite her tragic death, she never despaired or denied her faith.
Born in 162 ce, Blandina was an enslaved woman in Roman Gaul who met her death only 15 years later. Not much is known about her early years other than that she embraced Christianity as a child. Her martyrdom, along with her companions, has earned them the title, the Martyrs of Lyon.
Blandina was murdered in the Roman Empire city of Lugdunum, now known as Lyon, France. This was during the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and Christian persecutions were enveloping the entire empire. The torments started slowly with community bans. Christians were prohibited from going into Roman homes, the marketplace, or public baths, and they were publicly attacked with stones and sticks. Many were imprisoned. Lies circulated about Christians, ranging from cannibalism to incest and other unspeakable perversions.
Blandina’s torture, along with that of Deacon Sanctus, Attalus, and Maturus, was part of the entertainment for the August 1 holiday celebrating Rome and the emperor. Their agony was a main event in the city amphitheater. The great Roman historian Eusebius recorded Blandina’s words to her torturers: “I am a Christian, and nothing vile is done among us.”
After repeated beatings and burnings as well as watching her friends suffer and die, Blandina’s final degradation was being wrapped in a net to serve as a toy for a wild bull. She finally died by stabbing. After the bodies were exposed for six days, they were burned with the ashes thrown into the Rhone River.Blandina was the last of 48 Christians martyred in Lugdunum.
While it was well-documented that Emperor Marcus Aurelius did not like Christians, it is unknown whether he knew about these and other tortures. While history may remember him as a philosopher, these public cruelties happened under his rule.
Blandina is the patron saint of servant girls, torture victims, young girls, and those falsely accused of cannibalism. Her shrine is at the Church of Saint-Leu, Amiens, France, and her feast day is June 2.
Collect for Blandina
Almighty God, who gave such courage and endurance to Blandina and her companions that by their deaths many hearts were turned to you; Grant that we, in accordance with their example, may also gladly endure all that is required of us as we witness to you in our own day; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Simeon Bachos: Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Blandina: Lucien Bégule, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
143 comments on “Simeon Bachos v. Blandina”
Wow that was a tough decision! I wanted to vote for both of them this time and I'm guessing it will be a close race
I think it's anachronistic to refer to a eunuch with the pronoun "they." A castrated male is still a male, and in that culture would have dressed as a male and still had certain privileges that were denied to women.
Where are the vote buttons today? They seem to be missing for me! I vote every day but am not able to today. PLEASE HELP!
This was a tough decision. I wrestled with myself over this one. It's a good thing I am accustomed to arguing with myself. It is a close race- we will see tomorrow how the voting went.
Why would the Ethiopian eunuch of Luke's Gospel, named as Simeon by a 2nd century chronicler, fall into the category of "nonbinary or queer"? A eunuch is a male whose testicles have been removed. That's all we know about Simeon's sexuality -- he couldn't procreate. What we do know is that he wanted to know more about Christ and traveled to worship when the opportunity arose, purchased material so he could do his own research, and asked questions of Philip before requesting to be baptized. We also know that he spread the news of Christ to others. That's all.
Please bear in mind that there are many people who think of Christianity as a religion that was imposed on African people. Some justify the transAtlantic slave trade because it brought Christianity to enslaved people. Simeon Bachos contradicts both of these fallacies. Her learned about Jesus, wanted to be baptized on the spot, and took the Good News back to Ethiopia. Good news for all, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, gender identity- all!
My not button is not there!!!
Aren't we all glad we didn't live then?
On the light side, I vote for the guy reading in the car.
One gets baptized, the other gets martyred. My vite is for Blandina!
Looks like the first nail-biter of the season!
When Isaiah he found too opaque
Simeon’s foot came down hard on the brake.
Philip leaped to his aid:
A new convert was made,
And a joyful trip home did he make.
There it is!
I had looked earlier and was not able to find your daily limerick. Am glad I found it.
Wow! Looks like this one is destined to go right down to the wire! Both very worthy candidates! I confess that I have always loved the story of Phillip and the eunuch for the way that Simeon (Who knew that he had a name?) responded to Phillip's teaching and desired Baptism, and I really appreciated the idea of him being portrayed in conjunction with the much maligned and mistreated queer folk who I know and love dearly. Yes, I voted for Simeon!
Wow! So hard to choose who to vote for so I will just go with my own personal experience...I worked at a girl's social services respite home for years, saw suffering and courage, saw survivors and those whose abuse at the hands of family and strangers dragged them under.
Children are our future...girls rule!
I'm voting for Blandina. I had a great-aunt, Tante Blandine, and as a child thought is was a weird name. Now I know there is a Sainte Blandine.
I had a roommate whose sister was named Blandine.
After so many blowout voting, it's nice to see a close one to start the week!
Today is a nail-biter, right down to the decimal. Two fascinating stories of two people who were tortured in different ways: castration, and beatings and burnings.
Modern slavery, a form of torture, of young women is horrifyingly real today, happening with increasing frequency all around the world in pretty much every country. Disgusting working conditions, no or low pay for miserable work, terrible living arrangements, prostitution rings controlling girls as sex slaves, girls tortured mentally and physically if they don’t perform… It’s 2023. Our daughters should not be treated this way. I have a daughter and can’t imagine the horror and heartbreak if anything were to happen to her because of her beliefs, or simply because she’s female. My vote is made in the memory of Blandina.
I am very sympathetic to the LGBTQIA+ community. But I feel using the pronoun "they" in the description of Simeon is a misuse of the pronoun in this case. I sort of feel the writer of Simeon's intro knew this would be a hook. I like the story of Simeon, but Blandina was tortured to death for her beliefs. To me it is no contest. Blandina is my choice.
I would just like to say that Simon was not an English speaker, so I think it is presumptuous to make grammatically incorrect 21st-century pronoun choices on HIS behalf. In case you hadn’t guessed, I am an English professor, and I value the rules that have made reading English texts clear and not political. I vote for Blandina because of the torture leading to martyrdom.
I found the bio of the Ethiopian eunuch to be something of a stretch. We don’t have any evidence that he did not consider himself a man. Luke certainly uses the Greek word for a male, not the alternative word for a human being.
And I imagine that Luke, who likes to show high-status individuals becoming followers of Jesus, thought we would be impressed by this man—the treasurer for the Queen of the Ethiopians! The fact that he is an Ethiopian shows Christianity going to the end of the known world. I think the idea is to be amazed at how Christianity is growing--not to feel sorry for this rich, educated dignitary on a foreign trip. A note in my study Bible also says that “reading was a customary activity during travel” (Harper-Collins Study Bible, NRSV, note to Acts 8:28).
Deuteronomy does say that a eunuch “shall not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD” (Deut. 23:1, NRSV), but does this really mean that the Ethiopian eunuch would not be permitted in the Temple at all—not even in the court of the Gentiles?
One final thing to remember is that eunuchs served so commonly as important court officials that sometimes the word was used merely as a title to show such a job. Thus we can’t even be absolutely sure he is a physical eunuch (Harper’s Bible Commentary, 1988, p. 1090), though if the passage is meant to show some kind of fulfilling of Isaiah 56:3-7, where foreigners and eunuchs are both discussed, then perhaps he is.
We often see what we want to see—or what we are worried about seeing. This reminds me of an awkward conversation I had with someone many years ago about a line drawing on a children’s bulletin for the day when this was one of the readings. This person was upset that the drawing “infantilized” the Ethiopian since his head was so much lower than the more white-looking chariot driver’s head. But actually looking at the picture showed that the Ethiopian—an important official—was seated in his chariot, while the charioteer was standing in order to do his work of driving the official’s chariot.
Sometimes we need to step back to see a bigger picture.
This one is not fair. This is a hard vote.
The story of of the Ethiopian Eunuch is such a rich and beautiful story that I return to time and again that I cast my vote for Simeon Nachos, and how lovely to have them named.
The story of what happened to Blandina is unbelievably profound and touched me in a deep way. We humans have a terrible penchant for cruelty. Today I vote for the story of courage in the face of terror and fear.
7And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
The Bible calls him a man. So should you.
Blandina was a 15 year old slave made to suffer in horrible ways and never denied the faith. She should win!
Yes, yes, a very hard one today. Two courageous saints that proclaimed and professed their beliefs. I did vote for Blandina because she gave her very young life for her belief.
A particularly difficult choice. A "foreigner" who sincerely wanted to know more about Jesus vs. a young woman who, with her companions, was tortured and killed for her beliefs to provide "entertainment" to the Roman elite.
After reading the comments and re-reading the stories, I voted for Simeon, partly in honor of my transgender godson.
both demonstrated commitment and a willingness to follow Christ. Both were likely surrounded by the holy spirit. While we know with less certainty about Simeon and his actions, we have ample record of the very young girl Blandina's courage and commitment to Christ. Viewed by many many people, her courage and commitment may have had a long term impact; others may have converted. But her story continued to be told and may have provided courage to others in future generations to become Christian.
I chose Blandina.
Hello!
I want to order mugs - but I don’t see them Have I missed out?
Available after The Golden Halo is awarded via the Lentorium