JONATHAN DANIELS WINS "GOLDEN HALO" OF LENT MADNESS
UPDATE. April 6, 2023. 7:00 a.m. It's official. Jonathan Daniels has been awarded "the Golden Halo" of LENT MADNESS by winning the vote over Joanna the Myrrhbearer. This is a great day for the Christians of Alabama, particularly the Episcopalians who for years have looked to the saintly example of Blessed Jonathan for guidance in ending the sin of racism that is all around us. He gave his life to show us how to make a better world.
Blessed Jonathan now joins that illustrious class of the saints who won the Golden Halos of years gone by. He, and they, are in good company:
2010---George Herbert
2011---C.S. Lewis
2012---Mary Magdalene
2013---Frances Perkins
2014---Charles Wesley
2015---Francis of Assisi
2016---Dietrich Bongoeffer
2017---Florence Nightingale
2018---Anna Alexander
2019---Martha of Bethany
2020---Harriet Tubman
2021---Absalom Jones
2022---José Hernández
2023---Jonathan Daniels
UPDATE. April 5, 2023. Jonathan Daniels won yesterday's vote. Today is the FINAL VOTE---between Joanna the Myrrhbearer and Jonathan Daniels. At 8:00 a.m. on Maundy Thursday, we will know who will have "the Golden Halo" of the Lent Madness of 2023.
UPDATE. April 4, 2023. Voting today on Lent Madness is for Jonathan Daniels or Chief Seattle. Joanna the Myrrhbearer won yesterday's vote making her the finalist on her side. Whoever wins the vote today (either Blessed Jonathan or the Chief) will face off tomorrow against Joanna for the Golden Halo.
(Note. Next year, let's nominate Bishop William A. Guerry for the Golden Halo. He too was shot to death for advocating racial justice; and he too is the unofficial patron saint of the diocese of South Carolina.)
UPDATE. Apr. 3, 2023. On tomorrow, Tue. Apr. 4, the voting will be between Jonathan Daniels and Chief Seattle. Then, on Wednesday, the 5th, the winner of that contest will go up against Joanna the Myrrhbearer (she is ahead right now) or Martin de Porres. The Golden Halo will be awarded after the final vote on Wednesday.
For years, Lent Madness has provided a bit of levity, with a dose of seriousness, to the otherwise heavy forty days of Lent. Every year, there is a contest on this website to see whom the people choose as the most outstanding Christian and worthy of "the Golden Halo" of the year. It is all by majority vote. Last year it was José Hernández, the year before, Absalom Jones, and before that, Harriet Tubman. As the famous basketball tournament of March Madness, it begins with a long list and whittles down, by paired voting, to the final two. This year, the final four candidates are Martin de Porres, Chief Seattle, Joanna the Myrrhbearer, and Jonathan Myrick Daniels, all certainly worthy of acclaim. The final vote is next week, Holy Week.
Jonathan Daniels is my choice. He is the unofficial patron saint of Alabama. He was an Episcopal seminarian from New Hampshire who came to Alabama in the summer of 1965, after the Selma march and the voting rights act, to help register African Americans, long disenfranchised in the state, to vote. On August 20, 1965, he walked from the jail of Hayneville AL with a group a couple of blocks to a small grocery store to buy cold drinks. At the door, a white man raised a shotgun toward 17-year-old Ruby Sales. In a split second, Daniels pushed her down and took the blast, dying instantly. (The shooter was acquitted by an all-white jury.) In 1991, Blessed Jonathan Daniels was officially declared a martyr. Every August, for many years now, the Diocese of Alabama has sponsored a pilgrimage to the spot of his martyrdom. It is a combination of a medieval pilgrimage and a southern revival. The pilgrims hold up in memory Blessed Jonathan and all of the other martyrs of Alabama (a long list of people murdered for trying to right the wrongs of racism). Mass is celebrated in the courtroom where the killer was acquitted.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13.
In my opinion, no one deserves the Golden Halo of 2023 more than Blessed Jonathan Daniels.
