Welcome to the ONLY Saturday matchup of Lent Madness 2023. From here on out, every weekday of Lent will feature a new opportunity for learning and voting. We won't stop until Spy Wednesday! (more about that in due time)

Today it's Olga of Kiev vs. Bertha of Kent. A woman who played a role in converting Russians to Christianity vs. a woman who played a role in converting the English to Christianity.

Yesterday, in the second romp in as many days, Florence Li Tim-Oi defeated Nicolaus von Zinzendorf 79% to 21%. Don't worry! We'll get some nail biters soon enough. It's all but guaranteed.

Well, go vote and we'll see you first thing Monday morning as Scholastica takes on Richard Hooker.

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Congratulations! You survived the first battle of Lent Madness 2023. Of course, the same cannot be said for Hippolytus of Rome who was trounced by Augustine of Hippo 80% to 20%, to become the first saint to punch his ticket to the Saintly Sixteen.

Today in Lent Madness action it's Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion, facing off against Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, a Moravian whose name is just too fun to say.

And don't forget, tomorrow is the ONE AND ONLY Saturday matchup of Lent Madness, as Olga of Kiev takes on Bertha of Kent.

Finally, if you want to find out when your favorite saint will be up in the bracket, click (and maybe even print out) this year's Matchup Calendar.

Now go vote!

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Welcome to the opening matchup of Lent Madness 2023! 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.

But mostly, we encourage you to read about the 32 saints participating in this year’s edition of Lent Madness, 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. It's true that this is the only place on the internet where reading the comments is actually edifying.

If you’re wondering when your favorite saint will be competing – in order to rally your friends and neighbors (creative campaigning is encouraged, voter fraud is not) – you can check out the 2023 Matchup Calendar. And if you'd like to see all 32 saints in this year's bracket represented in peg doll form, check out this AMAZING video from our friends at St. James Cathedral in South Bend, Indiana.

Things kick off with a matchup featuring two hippos - kind of - as Augustine of Hippo takes on Hippolytus of Rome.

Friends, it's time to cast your very first vote of Lent Madness 2023! We’re glad you’re all here. Now get to it!

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Dear Friends,

Blessings to you all on this Ash Wednesday. While we like to have a lot of fun here at Lent Madness and occasionally engage in a bit of holy hyperbole, we're always mindful of why we host Lent Madness. Learning about and being inspired by saintly lives is food for our respective journeys of life and faith. The season of Lent has a wonderful way of stripping everything down to its essentials and bringing us back to the basics of our faith.

We can learn much from those who have come before us as faithful witnesses to the Gospel. And they always seem to come back to this: "Love God, love neighbor." Each one of these holy men and women did just that in their own time and in their own circumstances and they can inspire us to do the same in our own day. Like us, the saints weren't perfect -- but it's freeing to remember that perfection isn't the goal but faithfulness. Lent Madness helps make real these heroes of the faith by reminding us that they were living, breathing human beings not lifeless statues or distant figures immortalized yet immobilized in stained glass.

So as we stand at the cusp of another season of "madness" (it all begins tomorrow at 8:00 am EST), it's important to take a step back to remember why we engage in this unique online devotion. Yes, Lent is a time for self-examination and repentance but the essence of Lent Madness is to remind us that Lent is also a time of joy. After all, what could be more joyful than a time specifically set aside to grow our individual and collective relationships with Jesus Christ?

Know that you are all in our prayers on this Ash Wednesday and we encourage you to attend today's liturgy as an entrance into the season. Fortunately, the church has many "branch locations" spread throughout the world -- check your local listings. Then reflect on these words from the Book of Common Prayer:

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.

Have a blessed Lent.

In Christ,

Tim and Scott
(AKA the Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness)

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash

With all major sporting events, there's the game, but only after the pre-game show. It's no different with Lent Madness. This year's pre-game entertainment comes from the Cathedral of St. James in South Bend, IN. Each year, they paint peg dolls of all the saints in the bracket. Yes, really! As if that's not cool enough, they then make an amazing video. So here is the pre-game video for Lent Madness XIV.

And of course, you won't want to forget to sing along with the official hymn of Lent Madness, brought to you by St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ladue, MO.

Today is a great day to fill out your online bracket (go to the Bracket tab and click Play a Bracket to compete against everyone who fills one out in advance). Then, tomorrow, we hope you'll be in church for Ash Wednesday. The Saintly Smackdown begins at 8:00 a.m. EST on Ash Thursday, February 23.

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Join Tim and Scott for the one and only pre-season episode of Lent Madness 2023. Or, if you're fancy, are a Roman gladiator, or think of Lent as the Super Bowl of the church year, you can call it Lent Madness XIV. In this episode, the Supreme Executive Committee shares some exciting news about a new location for 50% of the Lent Madness governing body (Spoiler Alert: Scott's still in Cincinnati).

As you watch, you might be inspired to visit the Lent Madness website and fill out an online bracket. If you do this, you can track your bracket-picking success compared with the rest of the Lent Madness global viewing public online. While the Lentorium is sold out of giant bracket posters, you can print your own giant bracket using the free image.

Whether you're using a beautiful professionally made giant bracket poster or a quick do-it-yourself special, why ruin it with your own semi-legible handwriting? Thanks to Fr. David Simmons of Waukesha, WI, we have a lovely label sheet for you to download FOR FREE. Just print out this sheet onto Avery 5160 labels, and your bracket will be museum-ready.

Please do invite your friends and neighbors to play Lent Madness. But don't forget to get yourself to church on Ash Wednesday to get your Lent off to the right start. Then enjoy the rest of the season as you alternate between repenting and voting.

See you on Ash Thursday (February 23) as Augustine of Hippo takes on Hippolytus on Opening Day of Lent Madness 2023!

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Following the heady days of Nominationtide, and the submission of hundreds of saintly nominations from the Lent Madness faithful, the Supreme Executive Committee is pleased to release the highly anticipated 2023 Lent Madness bracket. Following their Spring Retreat, held in a secure, undisclosed coffee shop, amid the consumption of massive amounts of single origin black coffee, Tim and Scott whittled the field to 32 saints, who will compete for the coveted Golden Halo.

This year's bracket is broken up into four themed quadrants: Ancient & Apostolic, Mostly Monastics, Royals Roundup, and Modern Mayhem. As always, the bracket contains well known saints along with some obscure ones. But they all inspire us by following Jesus in their own times and in their own ways. (click on the bracket below to enlarge and/or print it)

As a reminder, or if you're new to this wacky online devotion, you can learn how it all works by clicking here. Unlike professional and collegiate sporting events, there is no admission cost for Lent Madness, but souvenirs and study aids are available in the Lentorium. These include the ever-popular Saintly Scorecard: The Definitive Guide to Lent Madness 2023 (order as single copies or in discounted 10-packs) and giant Bracket Posters. All of which are AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW! 

Why pre-order Lenten materials before Advent? Because the Scorecards and Posters always sell out and you don’t want to disappoint anyone in your church and/or household. And if you're marking your calendar, Lent Madness begins on Ash Thursday, February 23.

We're pleased to welcome ten Celebrity Bloggers from across the country to write for Lent Madness 2023: the Rev. Laurie Brock of Lexington, KY; Anna Fitch Courie of Columbia, SC; Dr. David Creech of Moorhead, MN; the Rev. Megan Castellan of Ithaca, NY; Neva Rae Fox of Somerville, NJ; the Rev. Heidi Haverkamp of Indianapolis, IN; Emily McFarlan Miller of Chicago, IL; Miriam McKenney of Cincinnati, OH; the Rev. David Sibley of Walla Walla, WA, and the Rev. Eva Suarez of New York, NY.

In the meantime, start choosing your favorite saints and...Happy Lent!

Alleluia, Christ is risen and it's time for another episode of Monday Madness! The Lord is risen indeed, and Tim and Scott are here with an action-packed episode. Naturally, they celebrate the incredibly dramatic victory of Dr. José Hernández to win the 2022 Golden Halo. With just a three-vote margin, it was the closest champtionship contest in Lent Madness history.

You might like to celebrate the win of Dr. Hernández by raising a toast in a commemorative 2022 Golden Halo winner mug. Limited quantities will be produced, so get your order in today! We expect them to ship in early summer, but shipping dates and the exact final appearance of the mug may vary due to supply chain issues. But once they're gone, they're gone. Order yours today!

If you do order a mug, when your mug arrives, please send us your mug shot! We love sharing photos of the Lent Madness Global Viewing Public enjoying their coffee (or tea) while they discuss bracketology or relive the drama of the Saintly Sixteen.

Speaking of ordering things, if you're looking for a way to sustain Easter joy, Scott's latest book is Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Meditations for the Fifty Days of Eastertide. You can get it in paper from Amazon, Forward Movement, or your local bookseller. It's also available as an ebook.

Tim wrote a humorous look at the season some years ago, Dust Bunnies in the Basket: Finding God in Lent & Easter, available as a book and ebook.

Visit the Lentorium regularly for updates on books and merchandise for Lent Madness fans.

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As you might guess, we're pretty devoted to Lent here at Lent Madness HQ. But even we have often said that Lent is the warm-up for the bigger season, the great fifty days of Easter. Indeed, the liturgy of the Episcopal Church reminds us that Lent is a season to "prepare with joy for the Paschal feast."

So let us be among the first to wish you a joyful and blessed Easter!

Whether you are celebrating José Hernández's win, weeping bitter tears over Teresa of Avila's narrow loss, or among those whose brackets were totally busted early on, Jesus rose for you. Jesus rose for saints and sinners, liberals and conservatives, old and young, and every glorious variety of human on this beautiful world in which we live.

In Easter we celebrate the triumph of God's grace and mercy over the powers of sin and death. The universe is changed, and for that we shout a hearty, "Alleluia!"

We worry though that some people have a momentary blip of Easter joy and then get on with business as usual, even though the cosmic powers of the status quo are permanently cast down.

Today we want to invite you to celebrate Easter for the full fifty days. There are lots of ways you can do that. Over at the 50 Days blog, you can find daily reflections for whole Easter season. Sign up to get daily emails, or just visit the site each day.

Tim and Scott have both written books to help you out. Scott's latest book, just published, is Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Daily Meditations for the Fifty Days of Eastertide. You can get it in paper or start reading right away on your Kindle. Tim approached this time of year with humor in Dust Bunnies in the Basket: Finding God in Lent & Easter, also available in paper or for your Kindle.

You can decide to read the Book of Acts over the Easter season. Or commit to daily prayers. Write Alleluia on someone's sidewalk (in chalk!) every day. Find your own way to keep up the Easter joy.

Speaking of keeping up joy, there's one more annual appeal left for us to make. Forward Movement is proud to sponsor Lent Madness. It's a way to encourage more joy in a sometimes joy-less world and to help us see the ways Christ's light shines in the hearts of people of all cultures, races, types, and times. While we do sell some merch, we keep Lent Madness free for anyone who'd like to play.

Forward Movement offers other resources for free. If you or someone you know is wondering how to raise children in the faith, check out Grow Christians, a free resource for households with chidlren trying to sort out what it means to follow Jesus together. Forward Movement offers free podcasts, apps, and a rich daily prayer website, all for free. They also give over 100,000 books and booklets away for free each year, mostly to prisons, but also for hospitals, nursing homes, and military bases.

Everything Forward Movement does is made possible by the generosity of donors. If you are able to make a gift to help Forward Movement continue to share the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, your gift will make a difference. If you can't make a gift, that's OK too.

We wish you a joyous fifty days of Easter. Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

In a year marked by razor-thin margins of victory, the championship round between Teresa of Avila and José Gregorio Hernández did not disappoint! In the end, José  snuck past Teresa in a photo finish to win the 2022 Golden Halo. Both of these saints captured the imaginations of the Lent Madness global voting public and both are worthy of this ecclesiastical accolade. We are pleased to award Teresa the (rare) Silver Halo to mark this year's accomplishments.

Rest assured the result, while exceedingly close, is accurate. The Supreme Executive Committee spent the morning in the mezzanine-level review booth conducting a forensic analysis of the voting. There was some cheating involved on both sides and we eliminated those votes (come ON, people!).

José joins previous Golden Halo winners George Herbert (2010), C.S. Lewis (2011), Mary Magdalene (2012), Frances Perkins (2013), Charles Wesley (2014), Francis of Assisi (2015), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2016), Florence Nightingale (2017), Anna Alexander (2018), Martha of Bethany (2019), Harriet Tubman (2020), and Absalom Jones (2021).

To celebrate José's victory, perhaps you'd like a commemorative mug? You can enjoy your favorite warm beverage (the SEC recommends fair trade single-origin coffee, though they understand these also work well with tea) while remembering this epic season of Lent Madness 2022. Order your own mug today! They're just $11 and should ship sometime in the early summer.

Would you like to nominate a saint for Lent Madness 2023? Tim and Scott will be opening up the week-long nomination process (aka Nominationtide) in the coming weeks. While many are called, only 32 are chosen. Stay tuned for details!

Finally, blessings to all as we head into the Triduum and enter into the death and resurrection of our Lord. It’s been a privilege to have you join us on our Lenten pilgrimage. Happy Lent!