The life of St Porphyrius the Martyr
What began as mockery turned real. Coming up from the water, Porphyrius found himself changed, and instead of finishing the joke he declared himself a Christian before the whole theater. At first the audience took it for part of the performance, but he would not take the words back, and turned from ridiculing the faith to confessing it. Julian had him tortured for his defiance and then beheaded, in the year 361. The Church remembers a similar turn of heart in other actors of the age who mocked Christian rites on stage and were themselves taken hold of by what they mocked, and keeps this Porphyrius distinct from another actor-martyr of the same name who died decades earlier under Aurelian.
