St. Genesius — The Catholic Saint Who Converted in the Middle of His Own Joke

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A comedian is on a stage in front of the emperor.
He's playing a dying man getting baptized,

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milking every gesture for laughs in a packed
theater in Rome. Another actor playing a priest

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says the words of baptism over him, the same
words as a joke, same as always. Genesius

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says them back, and for a second, he's not acting
anymore. He means them.

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Hi, my name is John O'Connor and this is Everyday
Saints. This is Saint number 14 in the series,

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so 14 weeks, 14 saints. If you are new, welcome
to the porch. Stick around and if this hits

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you, subscribe so you don't miss next week,
a new saint every Thursday. This week, we are

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back with another almost forgotten saint. Almost
nobody has ever heard of Saint Genesius of

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Rome, but if you have ever mumbled a prayer
before a meal or rattled off the Our Father

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or said, love you on your way out the door so
many times the words have just lost their weight.

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And then one ordinary day, those same words
just suddenly hit different. Like they finally

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meant something real. Well, you have already
felt a little of what happened to this man.

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Genesius lived in Rome in the late third century,
right around 300 AD. He was an actor. and a

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good one. He owned and directed his own theater
group. In that world, that meant he wasn't

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scraping by in some black alley theater. He
was booking real work in real venues for real

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money, and eventually, the kind of work that
gets you noticed by the most powerful man in

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the empire. The emperor at the time was Diocletian.
We have talked about him before, back in the

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Nicholas episode last week. He ran the worst
crackdown on Christians in Roman history. Starting

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in the year 303, he issued a series of official
orders, historians usually call them edicts,

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stripping Christians of legal rights, burning
their scriptures, tearing down their churches,

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and eventually demanding that anyone suspected
of being a Christian make a public sacrifice

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to the Roman gods or face arrest. People were
tortured and killed for their faith. all across

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the empire and it wasn't hidden. It was public.
The emperor wanted people to see it. Fear was

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the point. So when Diocletian wanted a night
of entertainment in the middle of running that

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campaign, he could ask for anything. And what
he asked Aeneas for, at least once, was a joke

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at the Christian's expense. The bit was simple
enough. Genesius would play a sick man on his

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deathbed. Other actors would play priests around
him, going through a mock version of a Christian

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baptism, the ceremony where a person is washed
with water and formally becomes a Christian.

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The joke was in the exaggeration. Big, dramatic
gestures, fake, solemn voices, pitched a

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little too high, a little too serious, so the
crowd would catch the joke and laugh at the

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people they have been taught to see as foolish.
Genesius had performed the scene before. He

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knew every step, every pause, every place the
laughs always landed. By every account, he

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was good at it. Good enough that this wasn't
just another night for him. This was something

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he'd done many times, and the crowd expected
a performance. This time, in front of Diocletian,

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something went wrong. Or, depending on how you
look at it, something finally went right. Before

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we get to that night, it's worth knowing what
it actually meant to be an actor in Rome at

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that time, because it's not what you would guess.
Today, an actor who performs for the emperor

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sounds like someone at the top of his field.
Back then, it was closer to the opposite. Actors

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in the Roman world were looked down on. Many
of them were slaves or former slaves. The law

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treated them as a lower class of citizen, sometimes
barely as citizens at all. Respectable Roman

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families did not want their sons or daughters
even marrying into that world. So, Genesius

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wasn't some celebrated star living a life of
comfort and status. He was a working performer

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in a trade most people looked down their nose
at, doing what that trade required to get booked,

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which, under an emperor like Diocletian, sometimes
meant mocking the people that same emperor

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was trying to wipe out. Entertainment like this
wasn't rare in that era. Making fun of Christians

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on stage was a normal part of Roman comedy at
the time, especially with an emperor in power

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who wanted the public laughing at the very people
he was having killed. These weren't quiet,

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small performances either. Roman theaters held
thousands of people at once, and a acting theater

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such as Genesius's would have performed the
same handful of popular bits over and over.

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city to city, the way a torn comedy act might
work a circuit today. Laughing at someone,

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it is a short step away from deciding they don't
matter. Diocletian understood that. So, did

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the people writing these plays. Genesius knew
all of this. He built a career inside it. And

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on that one particular night, doing the exact
same job he'd done plenty of times before,

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that career collided head-on with the thing
he had been mocking. So now I want you to picture

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the scene. Torches lighting the stage, packed
theater laughing along, waiting for the punchline

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they already know is coming. Genesius is lying
on a fake deathbed, playing his part exactly

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the way he played it before. The other actors
lean in, dressed up like priests, robes a

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little too big, and voices pitched a little
too dramatic on purpose. They say the words

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of the baptism ceremony over him, the same words
a real priest would say, but here is meant

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as a joke. And Genesius, still in character,
still performing, says his line back, except

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this time the words don't come out like a joke.
He says, according to the earliest accounts,

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that he saw something as the water touched him
in the scene. Men in white robes standing where

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a moment ago there was nothing but stage lights
and the edge of the crowd. A book held open

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in front of him with every wrong thing he'd
ever done written down inside it. And then

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right as the mock baptism finished, the writing
in that book being washed clean line by line

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until the page was blank. The laughter and the
fear slows down before it stops completely.

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Something is off and the crowd can feel it before
anyone understands why. A few people in the

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back keep laughing for a second, thinking this
is still part of the bit, maybe a new twist

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on the old joke, before it becomes clear that
the man on the stage has stopped performing.

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Genesius stops moving. He gets up off the fake
deathbed, slowly, still in his costume and

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turns to face the emperor. and the rest of the
theater. And in front of all of them, he says

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he believes the words that he just spoke, not
as a joke this time, but for real. And he tells

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them he wants to be baptized because what he
just said as a bit or a comedy show, he now

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means with everything in his soul. Sit with
that room for a second. An emperor who has

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spent years killing people for exactly this
belief is sitting in the crowd. watching his

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own hired entertainer stand up in his stage
makeup and announce out loud that he is now

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one of them. Diocletian has him arrested before
the scene is even cleared off the stage. What

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happens next doesn't take long. Genesius is
brought before an official and told to take

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it back. Say it was a mistake. Say the joke
got away from him. That was the standard offer

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during this persecution to almost anyone accused
of being Christian. A way out, if they just

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deny it, usually by making a small offering
to the Roman gods in front of witnesses. Plenty

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of people took that offer. Genesius does not.
He's tortured in an attempt to change his mind.

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He's asked again. He refuses again. He's beheaded
a short time later. likely still in the year

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303 or 304, right in the middle of the worst
years of that persecution. Here's what gets

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me about this one. Most of the saints we've
covered had years, sometimes decades, to grow

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into their faith. Genesius had minutes. He stood
up in the middle of his own joke and said something

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he never planned to say. By the time that stretch
of days was over, he was dead for it. I don't

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know many people who could hold a decision like
that under that kind of pressure. A decision

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made in seconds with no time to think it through
in front of the one man who could kill him

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on the spot for it. That's part of why the story
has stuck with people for 1700 years. He didn't

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get years to prepare an answer. He gave one
anyway right there and he never took it back.

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There's a reason actors of all people ended
up claiming him. For most of the church's history,

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the acting profession carried the same low reputation
it had in Genesius' own lifetime. Looked down

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on, sometimes even barred from receiving the
sacraments in certain times and places. Genesius

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became the answer to that, proof that God could
reach someone in the middle of the one profession

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everyone assumed he couldn't. actors have looked
to him ever since, not as someone who left

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the stage behind for something holier, but as
someone who found the real thing while he was

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still standing on that stage. His story didn't
stay locked in old church records either.

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Centuries later, a Spanish playwright named
Lope de Vega, one of the most famous writers

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of his time, wrote an entire play about Genesius.
In English, the title is usually translated

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as that pretended truth. Think about that title
for a second. That's the whole story of this

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man in three words. He was pretending, and then
it was true. A quick word on how solid this

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story actually is, historically speaking. It
comes from early Christian martyr accounts.

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The kind of records that the church kept about
people who died for their faith, some more

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reliable than others. This one isn't the best
documented story we have covered. It's closer

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to the Nicholas and Aria situation than the
Nicholas in prison situation, if that comparison

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means anything to you from last week. Old, widely
repeated, not something you can prove line

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by line. I'm telling it anyway because whether
every detail happened exactly this way or not,

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the core of it, a Roman actor executed under
Diocletian for converting on stage. sits on

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solid enough ground that the church has honored
him as a martyr for over a thousand years.

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All right, back on the porch. Genesius, well,
he spent his whole career playing other people,

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pretending on purpose for a living. And the
one time it became real, it happened in the

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middle of a scene built to make fun of the very
thing that ended up saving him. I think a lot

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of us do a smaller version of this without noticing.
I know I do. We say things out of habit. A

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prayer before dinner. A line in church we said
so many times it barely registers anymore.

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A God bless you we toss out without thinking
twice. And every once in a while, without any

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warning at all, one of those lines catches us
off guard. We say it, and for one second, We

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actually mean it. We feel the weight of it
land the way it probably should have landed

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the first hundred times we said it. Genesius
didn't plan for that moment. He couldn't have.

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That's kind of the whole point of what happened
to him. Grace doesn't wait for you to be ready.

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It doesn't check your schedule first. It shows
up in the middle of whatever you happen to

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be doing. Even when what you are doing is making
fun of the very thing that's about to save

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you. There's something else worth sitting with
here. Genesius wasn't looking for God that

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night. He was looking for a laugh. He was doing
his job, the same job he'd done dozens of times

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before, with no plan to change anything about
his life. And that's exactly when grace found

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him. Most of the saints on this show made some
kind of choice to go looking for God. Genesius

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didn't go looking for anything. Grace came looking
for him instead. In the last place, anyone

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would expect to find it. The middle of a joke.
So here's the question this week. Is there

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a line in your own life, something you say out
of habit, something you've said a hundred times

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without thinking about it, that might actually
be true if you let it be? What happens if you

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stop performing it and start meaning it? And
now it is time for the closing prayer. Lord,

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thank you for Genesius. Thank you for showing
up in the middle of a joke and making it real.

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For anyone who has been saying the same words
for years without feeling them, give them one

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honest moment, the way you gave him. And for
anyone afraid of what it might cost them to

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mean it, give them his courage, even though
it cost him everything. Amen. Genesius is the

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patron saint of actors, comedians, and lawyers.
People whose work involves saying words that

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aren't fully their own. He's also the patron
saint of converts, printers, and secretaries.

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His feast day is August 25th. Well, that is
episode 14. If this one surprised you, send

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it to somebody who needs to hear it. And here's
a real ask, not something I just tack on at

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the end. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify, hit follow if you haven't yet.

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Then, if you've got just 30 seconds, please
leave a rating. I know it sounds small, but

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it's not. That's how someone new finds their
way to this porch. Apple shows the show to

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more people the more you follow and rate it.
I'd to see this thing crack the top 200 in

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religion in the US someday. And that happens
because of you, not me. So, If these stories

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have meant anything to you these past 14 weeks,
that's the one favor I'd ask. And a big thank

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you to Spain, the Philippines, and Kenya for
letting me break into the top 200 in your respective

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countries. Hopefully that didn't sound too pushy.
I meant it as a nudge, not a push. Next week,

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we're back to a known saint. Someone you will
recognize right away with a story most people

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never got the real version of. I'm John O'Connor.
Thanks for sitting on the porch with me. and

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I will see you next week.