The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe

Maria wrote:

Justin Kolodziej wrote:

Barbara wrote:

Today was the day of a Martyr Gelasios of Hieropolis. He was named "the Actor". I thought that was worth investigating.
But there was seemingly no material in English online. Perhaps he was a former actor who converted to Christianity,
as his date of martyrdom is given as 297.

I do remember there was one actor who was on stage mocking Baptism, when suddenly, he was illuminated for real and began proclaiming Christ, and therefore was martyred. But, the closest I can currently find is a St. Genesius of Rome, then the source says he may not exist or may be the same as that St. Martyr Gelasios of Hieropolis.

The Roman Church has systematically declassified a lot of their saints as myths.

This list of declassified saints included St. Christopher, who is still honored as a saint in Holy Orthodoxy.

Off-topic, but that was one of the first things that started me questioning the current Roman Church. I bought all 4 volumes of "Alban Butler's" Lives of the Saints only to find out that seemingly every other saint's life was labeled as mythical by the modernist editors, because the miraculous events in them probably didn't happen!!

Anyway, sorry for the digression.

Justin Kolodziej wrote:

Maria wrote:

Justin Kolodziej wrote:

I do remember there was one actor who was on stage mocking Baptism, when suddenly, he was illuminated for real and began proclaiming Christ, and therefore was martyred. But, the closest I can currently find is a St. Genesius of Rome, then the source says he may not exist or may be the same as that St. Martyr Gelasios of Hieropolis.

The Roman Church has systematically declassified a lot of their saints as myths.

This list of declassified saints included St. Christopher, who is still honored as a saint in Holy Orthodoxy.

Off-topic, but that was one of the first things that started me questioning the current Roman Church. I bought all 4 volumes of "Alban Butler's" Lives of the Saints only to find out that seemingly every other saint's life was labeled as mythical by the modernist editors, because the miraculous events in them probably didn't happen!!

Anyway, sorry for the digression.

No, that is really not a digression. I was also in the Roman Catholic Church for many years, and yes, Butler's Lives of the Saints have been extensively edited, especially since Vatican II.

The reason why canons were enacted against acting was because actors had to stimulate sexual acts, or actually do them. It was these immoral acts, which were serious sins, that the canons condemned. But it was not only these actions. It is the very act of acting, of pretending or representing to be another person, that can become a great lie. I do not know if you have ever been on stage.

I had to take a course in college called Creative Dramatics in the Elementary School. This class was designed for elementary school teachers. In that class, we were called upon to stimulate anger, love, jealousy, etc. And our fellow students in the class had to identify these feelings, which we were pretending to act out. The very act of pretending to be angry caused unhealthy feelings to rise to the surface. Pretending is what the devil does the best. Do you see how generating such feelings can lead one into sin?

Then in an English class for elementary teachers, we had to write a ten minute play. That play took me over 40 hours to compose. I literally lived it, and it came to life in front of my eyes. Here I had to use my imagination, something that the Church Fathers frown upon. Why? The Imagination is often used by the devil and if we employ the use of Creative Imagination, then we can play right into the hands of the devil.

Excellent insights regarding the dangers of acting, Maria.