🔥 This is the ELATE 8 🔥 Join Fr. Christian and Fr. Michael for a full breakdown of our final rounds, crown new Canons of Comments, and lift up how these saints have transformed our faith.
The Elate 8 is all about SWAG. We have read the bios. We have heard the legends. Now it is time to see what kind of kitsch and merch these saints bring to the table.
First matchup of the round…
The denominator of denominations. The man who froze Wesley’s warmed heart and kicked the stool out from Richard Hooker… it is MARTIN LUTHER.
But he faces his toughest challenge yet.
Noah had the ark, but Joan has been sailing through this bracket. She sent Marina the Monk packing, put Nino on the midnight train back to Georgia, and now the pride of Orléans steps into another divine showdown… JOAN OF ARC.
Two giants. One spot in the Faithful Four. The Elate Eight is fully set after Constance and Her Companions sent Cosmas and Damian to Graceland, 82.49% to 17.51%. Will the Martyrs of Memphis make it onto the faithful four with either Joan of Arc or Martin Luther?
Watch the video, read the blogs, maybe even grab some merch… and VOTE.
Joan of Arc
No one can argue that St. Joan of Arc is anything less than the people’s champion in Lent Madness and beyond. Heck, she’s the jewel of all teenage female rebellion, and the model by which we might all live out our angst and zeal more…well…zealously, as our teenage-selves would prefer we had.
And if you’d like to take on St. Joan of Arc as a saint of your own personal devotion, as one of my now-retired bishops used to say, you might begin your day by grocery shopping for this lovely Coq au Vin, which was originally posted as a feast to celebrate Lady Arc’s saint day.
Or, if Coq au Vin isn’t your style, you can cozy up with Joan of Arc’s Illinois Fine Foods recipe book from the 1940’s, an absolute treasure trove of flavor bombs, canned fresh to carry the banner of dinner wars directly into your kitchen and onward toward victory!
Whatever you choose, you can plate up your feast on this fabulous piece of stoneware, a plate ready to inspire even the most hesitant dinner guest to feats of glory upon the battlefield of dessert. No swords here, just as Joan would have wanted – only dessert forks.
If the kitchen is not a spiritual discipline of your saintly devotion, perhaps I could entice you to celebrate and honor our dear Joan as you sit and sip your morning coffee and bask in the early sunlight streaming through the most magnificent stained glass you’ve ever sat before. Very demure. Very mindful. Very battle ready.
And if Lady Arc’s faithfulness to her godly mission, even unto death, has inspired you to more formal representations of your own devotion, may I interest you in a coat of arms which you can attach to any coat (so they tell me)?
And, while you’re writing home about the wonders of Joan’s saintliness and her transformative properties on your own heart, you certainly need to invest in some sealing wax and a one-of-a-kind signet ring – the authenticity of your letters will never be questioned again! May all our voices be as authentically ours as Joan’s was to her, and may our words and lives be ever led by the same Spirit of God which led her.
— Samantha Smith
Martin Luther
Martin Luther: monk, priest, rouser of rabble, writer of lists, and reformer of immense global Christian churches–also can lay claim to much merchandise, like so many of our saints.
When one peruses Amazon (another vast global empire Luther might want to consider aiming a list at), much kitsch is immediately on offer. One can purchase a sweatshirt with Luther’s image, and “Nailed it!” below.
From Etsy, one can obtain a mug that reads “I’ve got 95 problems, but a pope ain’t one”. (Which….would not be correct, strictly speaking. At the time of writing the 95 theses, Luther did have a pope. That’s part of why he wrote them. Come on, mug people–the commentariat of Lent Madness will not stand for such inaccuracy!)
You can also obtain a helpful poster of the said 95 Theses, should you wish to make a footnoted edition, and send it to the mug people, explaining just where they are in error, in classic Luther-style. Or to attach it to their door. Or maybe you want to combine the Theses with a hand-drawn map of Wittenberg, and trace Luther’s path to his festive burning of his papal bull. There’s also a Christmas ornament with Luther’s picture, and the declaration “We found God in a popeless place.” Lutherans have jokes, it would seem.
Any compilation of Luther kitsch would be bereft if it failed to mention perhaps the crowning glory of Luther-mania: LUTHER: THE ROCK OPERA. The music group Lost and Found wrote and performed this modern opus in 2018, and it is now available for you, wherever you stream your music. There is perhaps no person more deserving of rock opera treatment than Martin Luther, who I’m sure would have really enjoyed a good guitar solo as he argued against his foes.
— Megan Castellan
97 comments on “Joan of Arc vs. Martin Luther”
Voting for Luther because…. Well, I’m Lutheran. But he has his own logo, eeeeh, rose. And for contemporary fans, you can get even more swag at oldlutheran.com
But that Joan plate really has me tempted to vote for her (not to mention I was enthralled with her story as a young girl).
Vote Martin Luther!
Y'all are bereft to not mention that St. Joan of Arc's hometown, Domrémy-la-Pucelle, has a festival in her honor on her feast day and that in 2022, a girl who claims to be an actual descendant of one of Joan's brothers portrayed her in said festival's parade.
My beloved sister Alice, now with our Lord in heaven and surely cast in a leading role on His stage, starred in Shaw's "St.Joan" and wrote her senior English paper on that work in high school. Moving along to her college theatre major capstone paper Alice matured that paper accordingly. It surfaced once again as her thesis for a Master of Speech and Drama--academically sound and referenced. I could not but vote for St. Joan, even though I visited Wittenberg in 2016 with a gaggle of dear Lutheran friends.
The SEC try to be comedians but are just lame. Just play it straight guys, you'll be more likeable.
Wow, yet another close one. Only 5 votes apart (out of 2821 cast) as I write. This has been the most closely contested Lent Madness I can remember. And tomorrow we have Desmond Tutu against Janani Luwum!
Joan left us a just a pile of ashes. But Martin took a wife and made kids. Come On!!
It was the Catholic Church who has her burned at the stake, not her choice to leave ashes instead of children. Have some respect.
Wow. Just . . . wow.
Good point. Because procreating *definitely* makes you a better person than those who do not procreate. Duh.
Go Martin!!!
Finally voting for Joan (w/o ne) to get a lady on this side! Come on Joan,one battle is better than 95 theses! The sword ️ is mightier than a ! Besides, I do love a good chicken recipe!
HUZZAH HUZZAH!!!!!! LET MOTHER JOAN OF ARC PREVAIL OVER MARTIN LUTHER AMEN. ♀️✝️
You left some of the best Luther swag—Lego figure, Luther ale, my 2 pair of Luther socks with “Here I stand. “ in both English and and German. Also bobblehead of both Luther and Katherine von Bora ,
Not a fan of the write-up’s today. Nothing to do with sainthood. Voted for Joan
As our intro and video state, our third round is always themed the saintly kitsch/merch round. We trust all to include the first round bios and second round legends into account as we go deeper into the tournament.
Oh no! A Kitsch Krank! Lighten up, honey!
Had to vote for "the jewel of all teenage female rebellion" today. I can relate, so can my daughter and granddaughters!
The wax and signet ring clinched it for me.
I’m voting for Joan of Arc because I am. Because girl power. Because a school full of girls blown up. Because pregnant girls in Texas in ICE custody. Because the SAVE (white supremacy and patriarchy) act. Because Epstein files. And because this has been the cocktail round (honored by me) since the Yellow Death recipe the last time Constance was here, here is a recipe for the Flaming Pear-ee (Paris, get it?) in honor of La Pucelle:
2 oz cognac
2.5 oz pear nectar
.75 oz lemon juice
Shake over ice (frozen water, not the bad guys)
Place sugar cube in half a lemon, pulp removed.
Pour .5 oz grain alcohol over sugar cube and float cube in cocktail.
Light.
Extinguish flame before imbibing.
Toast the saints and martyrs!
(Serve equally attractive non-alcoholic options alongside the stuff Jesus turned water into.)
Believe women.
https://youtu.be/-fyisEuR-Co
Thank you St Celia!
And can't wait to try the Flaming Pear-ee!
Amen!!!!!!!
Today I had to read the comments before voting. Luther had the best kitsch and I am happy to be part of the commentaries, but I voted for Joan for so many other reasons. Thank you commenters. (I'm going to look up some recipes too.)
* commentarium. (Grr spellcheck!)
If you travel to Wittenberg, you can get a ton more kitsch on Martin Luther. It's what the town lives on. I have a Playskool Martin Luther figure that was released for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. I think I have Luther socks somewhere. I even have a little wind-up music box that plays "A Mighty Fortress" and has Luther's picture on it. I'm in the process of moving, so I can't provide pictures of these things as they're all in boxes. But there is SO MUCH Luther kitsch out there that on kitsch alone, Luther should win over Joan of Arc. But honestly, I'll be happy if either one of them wins. As a Lutheran, I had to vote for Luther, but as a woman, I love Joan of Arc.
Love the kitsch descriptions!
I laughed out loud at the Martin Luther swag, and promptly ordered some of it for my Lutheran friends. Thank you so much to all the contributors who create these informative posts and make Lent Madness so much pedagogical fun
What a lively first round of Saintly Kitsch! Great writeups on Joan and Luther and lots of worthy comments. Luther obviously had the more profound influence on the church, as others have noted, but the courage and devotion of the Maid of Orléans earned my vote today -- well, that and the excellent recipe for coq au vin. By the way, I recently, finally saw a screening of Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc, presented with live musical accompaniment. Well worth watching for Falconetti's tortured performance alone.
I've loved Jehanne d'Arc since I was a child, although I asked God to overlook me for the stake-burning business. But I love her for pursuing her deeply-felt call in spite of the male hierarchical society she faced.
And here's something I never thought of before - yes, she went into battle in armor, no less, but give me a break - she was carrying a FLAG?
As the daughter of a WWII WASP pilot, you'd better believe I voted for Joan!!
Women Airforce Service Pilots (in case anybody else was wondering)
This is a difficult one for me. In the summer of 2017 I was in Europe for three weeks. The first two weeks were in Germany tracing the steps of Martin Luther frm his time in university to his conversion experience to his time as a monk, his ordination, his writings and marriage and his life as a reformer and death. The last week was in France following in the steps of Joan of
Arc. But I bit the bullet and went for Martin.
I cannot believe that Joan of Arc—someone canonized for killing Englishmen—is ahead of Martin Luther, the great reformer of the Western Church.
I cannot believe that Martin Luther, whose antisemitic screed was a favorite text of the Nazis and still popular among neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers today, is so far ahead of a brave young woman who fought for the liberation of her country long before the Reformation. Very discouraging.
I know that both Joan of Arc and Martin Luther have questionable pasts, but as a Moravian, it's hard to vote for a woman who wanted us all killed.
I am still wondering how much of this year's voting is affected by the fact that you can vote multiple times. That wasn't possible in past years, as far as I remember.
Woo-hoo, it's close. I am a baptized Roman Catholic and confirmed Protestant Episcopalian, so my vote is for Martin Luther,the founding father as it were. All due respect to my fellow feminists and the bravery of a teenaged girl faced with a hideous death. Teenagers. Yeah. I am reminded of something I read in one of Dorothy Sayers's novels: the first thing a principle does is get somebody killed. That part. Was it worth it?
I love the kitsch round! (Also the puns in the comments below.) Does this make me too frivolous for this Godly company?
I will have calmed down by Holy Week, so no cause for alarm.
Well, I know what rock opera I will be listening tonight.
I too love the Holy Kitsch round. While, sure, the kitsch is somebody making a buck off a famous person (or legendary person), I think the kitsch shows we're all human, we want to be close to these extraordinary people and their extraordinary courage and compassion, so a goofy pair of socks or whatever connects us via our humble humanity. And so much religious kitsch is so exhuberant -- it captures a kind of joy and vitality we'd all like in our spiritual lives. Also, it frees us and shakes us out of our dourness to laugh about something we all care about so deeply.
Samantha's kitsch-en blog won today's word war. But I have to vote for Luther, the author of my father's favorite hymn "A Might Fortress."
Coq au vin versus rock opera! What a choice! For me the music won out, especially as I noted in our hymnal the selection of songs for which Luther is responsible!