The Battle of Canterbury brought the drama as the Malice at Lambeth Palace is still recovering. In the end, Richard Hooker pulled up his three legged stool, and told Thomas Cranmer to grab his prayer book and take a nice little walk down the middle way. Final score Hooker 66.88% to 33.12%. The stool stays undefeated 🪑👑
But we’re just getting started, because today it’s Amy Carmichael vs Edith Stein. The Missionary powerhouse vs Carmelite philosopher 🔥 Both lived fearless faith. Both changed lives. Both make this vote VERY unfair 😅
Only one can advance so it is up to you. Vote now and keep sharing with us how you’re living into Lent Madness!!! 🙌
Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael was an Anglican missionary to India throughout the early 20th century.
Born in Ireland in 1867, Amy Carmichael was raised in a very devout Anglican family. Her father moved the family to Belfast when she was 16, but sadly died two years later. However, Amy and her family were already hard at work spreading the Gospel. In Belfast, they started a Sunday School for the girls who worked at the nearby shawl factory. The school grew so quickly that it soon ran out of room. Amy saw an advertisement for a parish hall that could be ordered and assembled out of iron. She raised the money and set it up, calling it the Welcome Hall, in 1887. In 1889, she moved to Manchester to work with the factory girls there.
Meanwhile, she was dreaming of going overseas to do more missionary work. She had attended one of the first Keswick Conventions (gathering of evangelical Anglicans in Keswick, England) and was moved by stories about missionaries traveling overseas to spread the gospel and alleviate suffering. However, when she tried to apply to join the China Inland Mission, she was told that her health was too poor, and she had to postpone her departure.
Amy joined the Church Missionary Society and went to Japan, but stayed only about 15 months. She traveled to Bangalore, India, hoping that the warmer climate would help her health, and just decided to stay and work there. She was commissioned with the Church of England Zenana Mission.
In India, she was stationed in Tamil Nadu and began working with girls who had been abandoned to the local temples. In many cases, this amounted to forced prostitution for the girls. Amy began to take in the girls, slowly creating a whole orphanage for them, complete with a school, a farm, and a whole village to support them. She insisted her fellow workers give the children Indian names, and dress in the Indian ways, so as to better acculturate. She continued at Dohnavur for 59 years, until her death in 1951. The sanctuary she founded continues today, providing a source of healing, education, and nourishment for the whole community.
— Megan Castellan
Collect for Amy Carmichael
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Amy Carmichael 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.
Edith Stein
Edith Stein did not set out to become a saint. In fact, for much of her early life, she was unconvinced that God had anything to do with reality at all and dismissed the notion of the divine. A philosopher by training, Edith’s path to holiness ran through rigorous thinking, deep suffering, and a hard-earned faith.
Edith was born in 1891 into a Jewish family in Breslau, which at the time was part of Germany and now is in modern-day Poland. As a young woman, Edith identified as an atheist, convinced that reason alone could answer life’s deepest questions. She was exceptionally bright, and she pursued higher education at a time when few women did, eventually earning a doctorate in philosophy. Her studies eventually led her to mentorship under Edmund Husserl, one of the founders of phenomenology.
World War I disrupted everything. Edith served as a nurse, tending wounded soldiers and encountering suffering on an intimate scale. The experience sharpened her philosophical inquiry and quietly prepared her for a change she could not yet name. That turning point came in 1921, when she read the autobiography of Teresa of Ávila, reportedly in a single night! Her conversion to Christianity was launched right off the pages of that book. Soon after, she was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.
Edith did not abandon her intellect when she embraced faith, though it must have been tempting to do so. Instead, she brought her formidable mind into conversation with theology, writing and lecturing on the relationship between philosophy, empathy, and the human person. Her Jewish heritage, her Christian faith, and her academic vocation were never separate compartments. Instead, she carried them as strands of a single, holistic life in pursuit of truth and meaning.
As the Nazi regime rose to power, Edith’s career options narrowed. Anti-Jewish laws stripped her of her teaching position, and in 1933, she followed a path that had been closed to her previously. She entered the Carmelite convent, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, following the invitation of her faith to use her gifts to serve God and God’s people through her devotion.
In 1942, after being moved to the Netherlands where it was deemed safer for them, Edith and her sister Rosa were arrested by the Gestapo in retaliation for the public condemnation of Nazi antisemitism by the Dutch Catholic bishops. Many non-Aryan Roman Catholics were deported to Auschwitz, including Edith and Rosa, and were killed shortly after their arrival.
Canonized in 1998, Edith Stein stands as a witness to the unity of faith and reason, and to a holiness that refuses simplification. She reminds us that seeking truth with integrity can be a sacred act, and that discipleship may demand not certainty, but courage, clarity, and a willingness to carry the cross where it leads. What might she teach us today about the intersection of faith and reason?
— Samantha Smith
Collect for Edith Stein
Pour out your grace upon thy church, O God; that, like your servant Edith Stein, we may always seek what is true, defend what is right, reprove what is evil, and forgive those who sin against us, even as your Son commanded; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
88 comments on “Amy Carmichael vs. Edith Stein”
Tempted to vote for Amy, but Edith Stein (and her martyrdom) did it for me!
I did the same thing, I was very tempted to vote for Carmichael but had to go with Stein for standing in her faith.
Curious why the continued trouble with voting. The first day gave me hope. The last week has been an exercise in my short supply of patience, and today, no go! Nevertheless I persist!
6,000 voters yesterday didn’t have any issue
That's no consolation to those of us who want to vote and can't ... Who knows? There may have been 7.000 votes instead of 6,000.
I went to my computer today so I had a mouse to select the button. I, too, have found the voting buttons frustrating on an iOS device.
Try voting through the facebook app.
I can never vote from my iPad but I have no trouble from my phone or laptop. Weird.
Same for me.
My emails keep arriving a day or even two days late.
Today I received Monday’s email after today’s.
It was confusing for me as well, as I would read through the essays and then find the polls had closed.
Amy lived out her faith following where God called her no matter the cost. She was bedridden for the last 20 years of her life and still was saving children in India. What a force and an example we Anglicans can be proud of as one of our own
My zoom Morning Prayer group meets three times a week and we discuss a saint each time. So that gives me a head start on many of our votes.
I knew about Edith Stein and have admired her life, her martyrdom and her work - intellectual, spiritual, and mystical. I had to remind my mind to be open to new information, to new thoughts. After learning about Amy Carmichael and her serving those whose wellbeing society, economics, and culture did not support, and her cultural sensitivity, I decided this time she would get my vote.
I was not actually able to vote, but would have cast my vote for Amy Carmichael.
I'm voting for the one with the shortest wikipedia article: that's the one I want hear more about from their celebrity blogger. (So there, unfair bracket makers! 😉 )
My family’s life is deeply entwined with the legacy of Amy Carmichael, so I’d love for her to get more exposure. My maternal grandparents were both raised in Dohnavur Fellowship and raised my mother and her sisters there as well, as they stayed on to work there into adulthood. My grandfather was the community’s physician. He loved the place deeply as it brought him to a faith that he was able to share with everyone he met. A few years ago I saw a documentary about Amy Carmichael and the mission to Dohnavur that had a bit of a “white man’s burden” angle to the story. Nevertheless, the fact remains that my grandparents were faithful witnesses to Christ, and I was fortunate to be born into the faith, because of Amy Carmichael.
This took a lot of thought. Many days we may need to ponder if we should vote for our true choice, or voting for the one we think will win, as there may be more obvious rewards for being "correct" in our choices. That may be much like life in general. Both of these people are so deserving. My heart says Edith.
Would it be possible yo vote for Amy Stein or Edith Carmichael? Both of these faithful women are worthy and I struggled to make my choice today. In te end, I came down on the side of Amy (although Edith's strong attachment to one of my favourite saints - Teresa of Avila - was a strong pull in her favour!) It was the fact that Amy, unlike so many other missionaries of her era, did not insist that those she served in Christ's name give up their cultural identity to become pseudo-Brits.
That did it for me as well.
My grandparents were missionaries in north India and ministered to the Untouchables there. Amy all the way!
Sorry for they typos in my post today.
Edith Stein for my vote today. Both Edith and Amy Carmichael were (are - life is changed not ended) amazing people and there is no doubt that both are finding joy in the near presence of Christ. This little Jewish girl who found the love of Jesus, found the Episcopal Church, and finally became a priest feels a special connection with St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross although I doubt I'm that smart.
In her short time on earth, Amy did so much saving children.
The stories of both women are so relevant to current events: one worked to help young girls being forced into a prostitution ring and ignored by society, the other was martyred in a concentration camp because of pointless discrimination during an evil regime. I couldn’t measure which was the more saintly so I went my own self interest and voted for Amy, the lifelong Anglican.
Amy just seemed to do so much more for so many in such a short time of being here on earth.
This was toooooooo hard. Love and dedication to bettering lives or wisdom and courage leading to martyrdom standing up to evil and injustice. I've been seeing and hearing too much lying and hatred I voted for love and a safe haven in a hard world. Maybe it's evidence of my own cowardice...........
Both are great exemplars of modern witness to the life of Christ. Difficult to choose today, but as we face our own facist moment-Edith Stein inspired me. May we be as steadfast as she.
Amy Carmichael hands down, no disrespect to Edith Stein's courage and intellect and devotion and martyrdom. But I have just read some of Amy's writings from her (20 year!) sick-bed, intended to encourage others undergoing suffering, and that on top of a life dedicated to saving girls . . . I have only a vague idea of what phenomenology is, but much more clarity about suffering. And thanks to Lent Madness I now have more books to add to my TBR pile.
I had thought I would vote for Amy Carmichael because I was inspired as a child by Methodist missionaries and can imagine having a welcome tent outside a factory. But the U.S. no longer manufactures anything besides AI bubbles and crises of capital that benefit the uberrich . The story of Edith Stein moved me greatly. The fascist spectacle last night is a painful reminder that no country is a safe haven for refugees and the marginalized. We see our own republic succumb to forces of hate that enforce policies of ethnic cleansing, the starvation of civilians (Cuba, Gaza), and demonization of Others. Edith’s story captures the choice before us: carry the cross and identify with suffering or reject it and participate in cruelty. She worked with Husserl and chose a path of faith. A generation later Heidegger studied Husserl and chose a path of accommodation to the Nazis. Capitalism as metastasized in the imperial tumor of the U.S./ Israel seeks global domination, and faith can seem like a paltry, pitiful mode of resistance. But I choose faith. We must not look away from suffering. Neither of these women did, nor will I. I voted for Edith.
Both of these saints were new to me, and both are eminently qualified to move all the way on to the Golden Halo, and - man - was it hard to vote! I was inclined NOT to vote for a missionary, especially a British missionary in India. But the story of how Amy carried out her mission moved me to repent of my preconceptions and vote for her. Although I will not be sorry if Edith wins -- her story is wonderful, too.
I’m really having trouble voting. When I tap on my choice there is no response
Very frustrating
Have managed to vote only twice this year
I find it is usually easier to get my vote accepted on my iPhone rather than my iPad. So if you have more than one device with internet access I’d suggest you try another device.
I tap and tap and tap, and reload the page and repeat, until the iPad hears me. Takes patience!
Very difficult choice. I will support whoever moves through to the next round.
I think Amy is super cool and charisma
I had to cast my vote for Edith Stein because I feel a kinship with her. I was also raised by a Jewish family, became atheist/agnostic during my college years where I studied Biology and Herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians), got my M.S. in Biology and went on to a Ph. D. but life events prevented me from finishing it so I'm all but dissertation (a.b.d.). Those life events resulted in a curiosity about Christianity, so I went in that direction. One of the consequences of that decision and my desire to attend church was the end of my marriage, which wasn't great anyhow. Fast forward to today where I have a robust daily practice of Scripture readings, contemplation and prayer. A whole lot happened to me and all of it brought me back to God.
WOW, this looks like it will need OT.
I greatly appreciate the journey of Edith Stein. I love an intellectual who through life experiences and conversion bring intellect and faith together.
Her astute way of knowing not to present to the girls other than their language and customs. We're not different. No heirrarchy here.
My vote is for true humility of Amy
My vote is for Edyth because I always vote for Martyrs. And she was Jewish first.
A member of our Episcopal church in Atlanta was a family member of Stein's and able to attend her canonization. However, it is her martyrdom that makes her so current as our own priests are being called to "get their affairs in order" not knowing what they may be called to do in the current affairs of our country.
I love this poem by Amy Carmichael
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent
by ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound, no scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?
Wow this is lovely. Thanks so much for sharing it.