Lent Madness begins with the Battle of the Thomases. I'm partial to both as Thomas is my middle name. In one corner, we have one of the Twelve Disciples, Saint Thomas the Apostle. He can certainly claim seniority in this matchup, though there are a LOT of biblical saints in this year's competition.
In the other corner we have Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of the English Church under Henry VIII, and one of its first martyrs, as Thomas lost his job, and then his life, when Henry's Catholic daughter Mary took the throne. However, Cranmer left a lasting legacy in his Book of Common Prayer, which we still use today in various forms.
One of the things I like about both these saints is their humanity. Thomas the Disciple of course earned the name Doubting Thomas for wanting proof that Christ rose from the dead. Imprisoned under Queen Mary, Thomas Cranmer tried to save his life by signing a letter recanting his protestant faith, but when the sentence of death was passed and he was burned anyway, he is said to have held the signing hand out to the flames as a sign or remorse for his weakness.
Both are saints that we can see something of ourselves in.
I predict a narrow win for Thomas Cranmer because this is Lent Madness is an Anglican thing, but I've been wrong before!
Vote here.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing
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