Lent Madness: Francis of Assisi vs. Cecilia
March 18, 2015 Comments Off on Lent Madness: Francis of Assisi vs. Cecilia
Frederick Douglass won 60% to to Juan Diego’s 40% on the Lent Madness site. On the St. Luke’s site, Frederick Douglass won by an even better margin with 70% of the votes.
The next match up in the Saintly Sixteen is Francis of Assisi vs. Cecilia.
Remember: vote at Lent Madness here AND ALSO below the saint bios here so we see how the readers of the St. Luke in the Fields blog compare! Results of this match up will be reported the next day.
Francis of Assisi
The Francis of ideas is often quite different from his actual life, ministry, and words. We envision him as a quiet man surrounded by animals who founded a gentle monastic order. In reality, Francis lived his life with a holy blend of rashness, mysticism, and devotion many modern Christians would call extreme.
G.K. Chesterton notes the Bishop of Assisi, when visiting the Order and seeing them without comforts, without possessions, eating anything they could get, and sleeping on the ground, was greatly disturbed. Francis met the Bishop’s concerns with a stunning in-your-face-ness (bishops were often called upon to support military engagements) by saying, ‘If we had any possessions, we should need weapons and laws to defend them.”…Read more here.
Cecilia
Cecilia is the patron saint of singers, musicians, organists, and poets. While witnessing the deaths of her husband and brother-in-law, it is believed that she was singing praises to the Lord during her own martyrdom in Rome in 280 AD.
The songs that Cecilia sang while she was being martyred have been lost to the ages. However, the many poems and songs written and performed in her honor remain great contributions to the literary and music world, and are firmly planted in society’s juke box over the centuries.
Henry Purcell’s 1692 “Hail! Bright Cecilia,” also known as “Ode to St. Cecilia,” has a text by Nicholas Brady:
Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail to thee! Great Patroness of Us and Harmony! Who, whilst among the Choir above Thou dost thy former Skill improve, With Rapture of Delight dost see Thy Favourite Art Make up a Part Of infinite Felicity. Hail! Bright Cecilia, Hail to thee! Great Patroness of Us and Harmony!
Equally famous is Georg Friedrich Händel’s “An Ode For St. Cecilia’s Day,” from 1739…Read more here.
