08/25/2022
Saint Genesius of Rome
☆☆☆☆ Martyr ☆☆☆☆
☆☆ Quick Facts ☆☆
Born: the 3rd century
Died: 303 beheaded
Major shrine: Church of Santa Susanna, Rome, Italy
Feast: August 25
Patronage: Actors, clowns, comedians, comics, converts, dancers, musicians, stenographers, printers, lawyers, people with epilepsy, thieves, torture victims
☆☆ Life ☆☆
Anyone who was a member of a Catholic high school or college drama club during the 1950s and ’60s no doubt knows about St. Genesius—the patron saint of actors. According to legend, he was an actor during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the third century. To win the emperor’s favour, he satirised a Christian about to be baptised.
While reciting the act of faith during his performance, Genesius was seized by the truth of what he was saying and converted, there and then, to Christianity. The emperor was infuriated, demanding that the actor recant his faith. When he refused, he was immediately put to death.
Genesius was an actor who worked in a series of plays that mocked Christianity. One day while performing a work that made fun of Baptism, he received sudden wisdom from God, realised the truth of Christianity, and had a conversion experience on stage. He announced his new faith and refused to renounce it, even when ordered to do so by emperor Diocletian. Martyr.
