Welcome to the opening matchup of Lent Madness XV! If you’re a veteran Lent Madness participant, welcome back! If you're joining us for the first time, we’re delighted you’re along for this wild, saintly ride! And if you're just penitential-curious, check out the About Lent Madness tab on the website to find out what all the fuss is about.
To experience the fullness of Lent Madness, the Supreme Executive Committee (the somewhat benevolent dictatorship that runs this whole enterprise) encourages you
to do a couple things. First, like Lent Madness on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter. Second, subscribe to the Lent Madness e-mails so you never miss a vote — you’ll get each matchup hand-delivered to your inbox on the weekdays of Lent. You can do this by going to the home page of our website and entering your e-mail address. We highly recommend doing this. Finally, you can fill out a bracket online and daily see how you stack up against those who take their Lenten bracketology seriously (keep scrolling and you'll encounter the 2024 Matchup Calendar to determine when your favorite saint will be doing battle). Oh, and if you've ordered a bracket poster, and your handwriting's lousy, you can download these nifty Lent Madness Bracket Stickers and impress your friends with your beautiful penmanship.
But mostly, we encourage you to read about the 32 saints participating in this year’s edition of Lent Madness (download the FREE Digital Saintly Scorecard), faithfully cast your (single!) vote on the weekdays of Lent, and add your comments to the great cloud of participating witnesses that gathers as the online Lent Madness community each year.
To celebrate the 15th year of Lent Madness, all 16 first round matchups are themed battles. Some will be obvious, some less so. For instance, today it's the Thomas Throwdown as Thomas Cranmer faces Thomas the Apostle.
But enough of this idle chatter. It's time to cast your very first vote of Lent Madness 2024! We’re glad you’re all here. Now get to it!
Thomas Cranmer
If you have taken to heart the prayer to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the holy scriptures that are written for our learning, or felt in awe in considering how in Holy Communion “we continually dwell in [Christ] and he in us,” you can thank Thomas Cranmer for these memorable turns of phrase.
Born in 1489, Cranmer undertook studies at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was ordained. There he first came into extended contact with the text of holy scripture and the thought of the Continental Reformation. By 1529, when it was becoming clear that Pope Clement VII would not grant an annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cranmer, convinced of the superiority of the King over the pope in purely English matters, worked eagerly to sway learned opinion on Henry’s behalf. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died in 1532, Henry swiftly arranged for Cranmer’s elevation to the see of Canterbury.
Upon becoming archbishop, Cranmer became the king’s chief instrument in asserting Royal Supremacy over the church in England. He annulled Henry and Catherine’s marriage in 1533 (later pronouncing similar judgments on marriages to Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves) and he agreed with Parliament’s Act of Supremacy in 1534 which split the Church in England from the Roman Church.
Yet Cranmer was also his own man, devoted to the reformation of the English church. Together with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the first widespread dissemination of the Bible in English. After Henry’s death, during the reign of Edward VI, Cranmer achieved his greatest legacy and highest ambition –-to revise Church services into a “tongue understanded by the people.” He published the Great Litany in English in 1544, and his embrace of the ideas of the Continental Reformation ultimately led to the production of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and its subsequent 1552 revision. It was his intense devotion to the English Reformation that would ultimately be his undoing.
Upon the accession of Mary I, a staunch Roman Catholic, to the crown following a nine-day power struggle, Cranmer was accused of treason and heresy, and was arrested and held inhumanely. The stress of his captivity led to deep depression and two recantations of the doctrines he once prized. At his martyrdom, however, he renounced his recantations, and when burned at the stake in Oxford in 1556, he put his hand into fire, proclaiming “this hand hath offended.”
It is to that hand that Anglican churches worldwide owe the masterful prose and poetry and essentially scriptural spirituality that infuse the Book of Common Prayer, guiding us in prayer to this day.
Collect for Thomas Cranmer
Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servants Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (LFF 2022)
— David Sibley
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas is simply named as a member of the 12 in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Gospel of John, however, takes special interest in Thomas. And the disciple does not always look so great.
In John 11:16, when Jesus wants to return to Judea to mourn his friend Lazarus, Thomas sarcastically remarks, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” In John 14:5, during Jesus’s last meal with his friends, Thomas expresses confusion about Jesus’s plain teaching.
Perhaps most notoriously, Thomas refuses to believe the reports of the disciples when they announce that Jesus was raised from the dead. In John 20:25, Thomas famously says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (Though, to be fair, he only wanted what the other disciples already got to experience.)
Whatever beef the author of the Gospel of John may have had with Thomas, his assaults on Thomas’s character were effective. It probably does not help that Thomas’s name was attached to a collection of Jesus’s sayings that some would deem heretical. The image of “doubting” Thomas, the heretic, persists.
Such a view however, overlooks some of Thomas’s amazing triumphs. Shortly after expressing his desire to see the resurrected Christ for himself, Thomas makes one of the strongest Christological affirmations in the entire New Testament when, upon touching the resurrected Christ’s wounds, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
Thomas also became one of early Christianity’s greatest champions. He took the gospel all the way to India. His bold proclamation was accompanied by many miracles. Several early Christian texts bear his name and recount his exploits. The Acts of Thomas tell of his many adventures spreading the gospel (if you vote him into the next round, I promise to share some of the juicier tales). The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (which is really mostly about Jesus’ childhood) is essential reading, and really, the Gospel of Thomas is worth careful study too. That his name is attached to so many early Christian texts betrays his importance to the nascent movement.
Thomas was killed in India, either by a spear or at the hands of some angry priests (maybe angry priests with spears!). His feast day is celebrated on December 21 in the Episcopal Church. His story is often told on the second Sunday of Easter.
Collect for Thomas the Apostle
Everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in your Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)
260 comments on “Thomas Cranmer vs. Thomas the Apostle”
I voted for Thomas Cranmer, the founder of Anglicanism. It is the only way. As I averred, I am NOT a robot.
I tried to vote but it says vote not allowed. Hmmm
Who has not been a 'Doubter'? Does the story of Thomas not go right to the heart of the matter? To (be)lieve or not to (be)lieve, that is the question!
I can relate, and voted for Thomas Cranmer although Thomas the apostle will probably win. Cranmer faced some same socio-political problems I have in "democratic?" America.
No matter how one votes today, you can’t go wrong: both Thomases are deserving of our vote! I think the Apostle has been done a disservice over the centuries for his skepticism; if someone you loved and followed was executed and three days later you were told he was alive, wouldn’t you want a bit more evidence?? His statement upon their encounter has done much to convince others of us centuries down the line of the veracity of the Resurrection. And for that reason, he got my vote.
Why is my vote not allowed? I keep doing the Captcha correctly then voting but it keeps saying “vote not allowed”.
Interesting Reading
I can’t vote on my phone or laptop, and my choice is losing!! This is not an auspicious beginning.
Seems there are some Ash Thursday voting glitches - I, too, was told my vote didn't count through the website. Went to my email and I couldn't vote there, either. Went back to the website and I was thanked for voting and the running total for today's contest was displayed. Scott? I assume Tim can't be bothered with such minutiae.
Same experience. I never had trouble voting in previous years.
It says I voted but i did not
I voted for St Thomas because I, too have doubted the presence of God in my life not once but many times. I am a cradle Episcopalian but I am also a human being who has seriously doubted God's plan for me- particularly in times of trouble. It is only after the troubles that I can look back at the puzzle pieces of my life to see that they fit exactly where they belong.
I voted for Thomas Cranmer. He has enough of a record that we can see his faults, but also his virtues. His mixture of worldliness and spirituality, weakness and strength, make him a worthy founder for the Anglican church.
Thanks for the links to the Thomas gospels! Cranmer's career path is disturbingly like some politics today - but he did facilitate some deeply precious things.
So: the witness or the poet?
I'm having difficulty with voting this morning. When I stated that I wasn't a robot and selected "vote," the reply came that my vote was not allowed. Is there something different that I need to do?
The first Lenten miracle has occurred! My vote has been counted! Thank you, Thomas the Apostle! I knew I was right not to doubt you!
Same thing happened to me.
I am unable to vote on either my iPhone or iPad.
Says my vote not allowed? Does that mean voting is closed? It is only 7:30a
I have been appreciating Lent Madness for years. Now it tells me that my vote is not being accepted. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?
While I also love the BCP (it contains a lot of Scripture that I enjoy as I do my daily Bible study and find another reference taken directly from Scripture), I joined the Episcopal Church because I didn't have to leave my brains at the door. I could ask questions and talk about my struggles trying to live according to the precepts of Jesus found in the Gospels without being denigrated or given the pat answer "you just have to have faith." Thomas the Apostle gave people like me permission to ask the questions and then to rejoice in our AHA moments. For that, I am forever grateful. And I truly believe that the opposite of faith is not doubt but the decision not to wrestle with the tough questions I face regularly.
While Thomas Cranmer included the four comfortable words that still exist in the current prayer book in Rite I, I wish he had added one more: "whoever comes to me I will never drive away." (John 6:37 NIV) That has sustained me through a lot of my trials and tribulations.
There seems to be a problem voting from the email. There is no button reponse. I went to the website to vote.
If Thomas Cramner gets his walking papers on Day 1 of our Episcopal Saint contest, I am leaving with him. (It’s rounding off a lot of accumulated frustration with this Madness.)
Hard choice! I very much appreciate the many phrases Cranmer left us with. However, I'm a twin, as was Thomas the Apostle, and I think doubt is part of every faith journey, so I went with Thomas
A tough match-up to start the season. But St Thomas the Apostle has been my personal patron saint for decades. He wants to believe, but only if it's true and not just wishful thinking.
I did not know about all these gospels of Thomas (and Acts)! I'll have to check them out.
I cannot fill out an online bracket, either.
Thomas the Apostle did a lot more for Christianity than the warmly toasted Cranmer. (See what I did there?) Carrying the gospel to India was no small feat in those days.
I don’t know why the voting buttons were light grey, and I was unable to vote for Thomas the Apostle because he “only wanted what the other Apostles already had, made the Cristological exclamation in the New Testament, and was so brave to take the Gospel to India and was killed by, ugh, priests!
Seems that Thomas of Cranmer was politically motivated.
I have come to see Thomas as not a doubter, but one very angry man. Ready to die "fighting" I suspect. And really angry that the other apostles who were afraid to leave the locked room got to see Jesus, while he was out doing something. Why did THEY get to see the resurrected Jesus??? Yeah one angry apostle who never lost that edge.
Thanks for your patience with our server issues earlier this morning. The good news is that so many people were trying to vote at the same time. The bad news is this crashed the server! (which is purple, by the way - thanks for asking). Please note that you cannot vote directly from the subscriber email; you must go to the actual website. Sorry for the confusion about that. Also, the captcha piece is an extra step to protect the vote from fraud (yes, every year there's at least one instance of someone voting multiple times in a way that potentially impacts the outcome). Despite the rocky start, as of 10:30 am EST 2,000 votes have been cast. Let's keep it going!
Today is the Best day ever! I have patiently (sometimes) waited these past 365 for Lent Madness XV to begin! Let the smackdown begin!!!!
With all the Bozos in this years matchups, how come my nomination of Saint Agness of Rome was not acceptable?