Saint Phanourios, Patron Saint of Karagiozis Puppeteers

Karagiozis is the main character of the tales narrated in the Turkish and Greek shadow-puppet theatre going back to at least the 19th century. Karagiozis is an anti-hero hunchbacked Greek, who is very clever and very poor, his right hand is always depicted long, his clothes are ragged and patched, and his feet are always bare. He lives in a poor cottage with his wife Aglaia and his three sons, during the times of the Ottoman Empire. The scene is occupied by his cottage in the left, and the Sultan's Palace on the far right. Because of his poverty, Karagiozis uses mischievous and crude ways to find money and feed his family, poking fun at himself, his friends, the Pasha, taxes and the audience in general. His shows usually tell comedic stories of his adventures.

The Drama Of My Life: Blogs, Cell Phones, and the End of Privacy

By Father Geoffrey Korz

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." - Matthew 6:24

As much as our southern cousins like to take credit for him, the inventor of the telephone was Canadian. Although born and raised in Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell's best years were spent on his family homestead outside Brantford, Ontario, where his early experimentation with sound and language flowered into detailed studies of the Mohawk language on the nearby Six Nations Reserve. It was also here that Bell invented the telephone, the device that would transform modern communications, and which would later branch out into the Internet technologies we know today.

Marilyn Monroe and Dostoevsky

I wrote this on August 5th to commemorate the death of Marilyn Monroe, but had issues publishing anything to this site that needed to be resolved. So here it is, albeit late.

On my last night in Los Angeles in March of 2018, I decided to take a self-guided tour to about a dozen locations associated with the dark side of Hollywood, basically where famous murders or deaths took place. One of the locations I visited was where Marilyn Monroe died of a drug overdose on August 5, 1962 at the age of 35. It was her house at the time, in Brentwood.

I visited the location because I always had a great admiration for Marilyn Monroe, and have read a lot about her, and seen pretty much all her films. One thing most people don't know about her is how she was admired as somewhat of an intellectual and voracious reader by her peers, despite the media pushing her image as a dumb blonde and sex goddess, to her dismay, and to which she responded: "Maybe I’m a sexless sex goddess."

Byzanfest 2019: An Orthodox Christian Online Short Film Festival

Established in 2014, Byzanfest is the world’s first and only online festival that screens short-films made by Eastern Orthodox Christian filmmakers. The Festival will go live from Sunday 21st July until 4th August 2019, running concurrently with live venue screenings which are hosted by Global Screening Partners.

As the world’s media and entertainment have become increasingly on-demand and interwoven with social media, Byzanfest saw the opportunity to venture into an emerging concept: the online festival. New and innovative, such an event is not limited by the physical constraints of traditional venue-based festivals. Byzanfest looked ahead towards the future of entertainment and wanted to engage globally with both Orthodox and non-Orthodox audiences. The Festival encourages interactivity where viewers can share through all social media platforms. The Festival showcases films which reflect Orthodox Christian themes, beliefs, culture and values, as well as being artistically creative. It is worth mentioning all funds raised from this Festival will go towards funding small individual Orthodox film and art projects.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and His Orthodox Christian Faith

Much has been written about Giannis Antetokounmpo, the so-called "Greek Freak," from his humble beginnings in Greece to his enormous success as a professional basketball player in the United States. Little if anything however has been reported about the Orthodox Christian faith of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Though I cannot speak for his faith now, as it seems to not be reported on, though there are positive rumors (ex. he and his brother became godfathers in June 2018), below is some information from his background.

 

Charles and Veronica Antetokounmpo are the parents of Giannis, who migrated to Greece from Nigeria in search of better opportunities for their family. Settling in Athens, they gave their children Greek names, a Greek education and raised them as Greek Orthodox Christians.

 

Sepolia is a neighborhood north of the center of Athens, Greece. There is located the Church of Saint Meletios, with an older church now in ruins on one side of the street and a newer church on the other side of the street, both bearing the same name. It was in the newer church where Giannis Antetokounmpo first started playing basketball, and it was here where his spiritual father, Fr. Evangelos Ghanas, served as parish priest. It was also here where Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brother Alexandros were baptized Orthodox Christians on 28 October 2012, when Giannis was 18 years old, after attending weekly catechism classes.

 

Fr. Evangelos Ghanas

According to Fr. Evangelos, Giannis chose the date for his baptism on the 28th of October on purpose, because it is also a national holiday in Greece known as Ohi Day. He also says that it was Giannis who kept his family attached to the parish, because it was here that he attended catechism classes that shaped his character.

Fr. Evangelos says that many of the children in the neighborhood, because they grew up poor, also grew up very angry, but Giannis was different: "I never remember him having a grumble or a sense of being wronged by life and being aggressive towards society. I have also distinguished this in his mother, a woman with a good soul. What I cannot forget was John's gaze. I find it difficult to describe it. There was an innocence but also a hope. No fear and no resentment. His mother wanted him to be present in the parish, not as a man seeking help to overcome economic problems but as a person who feels he is a living member of an equal community."

Church of St. Meletios in Sepolia

Giannis fondly remembers his catechism class, and how it helped shape his character, as he stated in an interview: "There was a man at my Catechism school, who helped my household a lot. I cannot tell you how much he helped us, and he knew that when you give, you should not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. This is why I help people. This cannot be taught in a class."

Giannis with his catechism class

He also has and maintains a great love and respect for Greece, as is well known. One particular example of this was shown one day when some Greek-Americans presented to him a Greek flag and asked for his autograph on it, to which he responded: "Not on the flag, kids!"