GYMFLESH® - SAINT CHRISTOPHER THE DOGFACE™

Gymnasium Is Not The Flesh®

ST DOGFACE™

Saint Christopher the Great Martyr, the Dogface,
according to the Orthodox Christian Tradition

Christopher was once an exceedingly handsome, incredibly muscular young man. He was so beautiful and desirable that all the women of his village wanted him. In fact, so attractive, even all the men of his village wanted him. From what's been said about his beauty, a few friendly farm animals followed his scent as well, but anyway, back to the story....

Each day Christopher would be approached by women and men who wanted to take pleasure with his face and body. This, however, saddened him. Christopher could not understand why they only found his physical appearance attractive without a thought to his inner man. People would be excited by his flesh, not by the beauty and splendor within him, which Christopher believed was more attractive and more intriguing.

Day after day, Christopher had to fight off the sexual advances of women and men (and, yes, even the goats). Here he was, a young handsome, muscular young man, rather proud of how he had cared for himself, strengthening his flesh, his mind, his heart. But, alas, all the villagers ever really saw was a face and flesh that made their hormones rage with insatiable desire.

Christopher had a plan. Each day and night he started praying to God to make him ugly. Yes, to distort his face, make him repulsive. After time, his prayer was answered.

One morning he awoke to find his handsome face gone and replaced by the head of a dog. He was happy. Relieved. But the townspeople weren't as understanding. Now their passionate rage was against him, not for him. The hideous face of Christopher disgusted them all. Once desirable, now hated. Hated so much they all decided to kick him out of town. Immediately. Still they couldn't see the inner integrity of the man. Once blinded by sexual necessity, now blinded by physical repulsion, the people still could not see the-Christopher-within.

So he ran. Before, he ran from them when they wanted him. And, now, again, he still ran from them when they hated him. Christopher was double-screwed (so to speak). Life can be unfair this way sometimes.

Christopher fled into the forests. The Dogface needed to work, to make a living. He came across a river with a deadly and violent current that no one could cross through. Except for Christopher. His strength never left him. He made a living for himself by carrying people on his shoulders through the fatal waters, taking them from one side to the other (hence, the idea of Christopher being the patron saint of travelers, get it?).

Christopher gave up his handsome face, and accepted the face of a dog in order that maybe one day people would see his inner beauty, not just the outer one. How many of us have met beautiful people, ones we'd all want, but once we got to know them we found their insides empty, ugly, unattractive, simply repulsive. The outer flesh does belie the inner person. Gymnasium is not the flesh.™ It is the invisible person that we are making greater; the outside one is nice, too, but, without the internal wonder and excitement, a person is simply flesh, nothing more.

So he continued to do his work. And he did it with integrity and pride. With care and dedication to those he carried. His job was clear: Get his traveler to the other side, no matter what. Regardless of the depth of the river, or the speed of the current, or the water-creatures waiting submerged, Christopher was committed to do his work: Take onto his shoulders each and every stranger, promising to carry them safely, and with his arms embracing them, get them to the other shore so they could go on to where they were going. Christopher's work was a temporary one, but while in his care, he had to be the best he could be for the travelers, had to hold and cherish them dearly, almost a work of love, then ... let them go. It was not an option to let one drown or not get to the other side ... not open for debate, not multiple choice, nonnegotiable. Period. His task: Pick one up, carry that person, embrace and care and promise, fulfill the promise, let the person go. To love and then let the beloved go. That really pains one’s heart to death.

One day as he stood by the river's bank, a small child approached him asking to get to the other side. As usual, Christopher promised to get the lil'one to the other safe shore. Placing the child on his shoulders, Christopher entered the river. But this day the river seemed deeper. The current more thrusting against him. The winds attacking him. The river even wider. Raising the child above him, Christopher fought through the water with all his strength. All his will power. And, to make matters more challenging, what seemed like a 45 pound child now became a heavy burden, more like three times Christopher's own flesh-weight. This became the most dangerous and painful trip he had ever made. But he had integrity to fulfill his promise to the lil'one. So he hoped. It took more than his flesh alone to get the child to safety; Christopher's mind and heart came alive and took over (see, Gymnasium Is Not The Flesh®). The skies blackened. Christopher, now underwater and holding his breath, lugging an enormous weight above, with sea-creatures attacking his legs, finally pulled together all his beautiful inner man, and, after a long battle between water and will, got the child to the other side and placed him down safely. Promise fulfilled (even though it damn near killed St DogFace™).

Spent and delirious, Christopher couldn't understand the events that happened. He had taken hundreds of people through that river. Knew each and every secret and strength of that river. But this was different. The child looked up at Christopher with such a slight smile, almost an arrogant grin, and introduced himself as the Christ-Child, a divine being that came in disguise to test the real interiority of Christopher by making the travel as hard as possible. Christopher passed the test. Not by flesh, but by will and heart.

Gymnasium is not the flesh.®

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Your physique was overwhelming and your face horrifying. / You willingly suffered trauma from your own people. / Men and women tried to arouse consuming fires of passion in you, / but instead they followed you to your martyrdom. / You are our strong protector, o great martyr Christopher!

                ◊ Eastern Orthodox Christian Hymn of St Christopher the Great
                    Martyr, 3rd c CE, (Kontakion Tone 4), Feastday 9 May.
                ◊ Trans. from the original Greek © 2004 Gymflesh Corporation.

N.B. — Where the modern West joyously chastises Christopher's flesh in favor of the ethereal, the ancient East humbly extols the flesh as the spiritual, as sacred and godlike. In both stories, he is recorded has having been a very handsome and physically attractive man. The Roman West relays that he was excessively narcissistic, and to reduce his inflated self-opinion and teach him humility and contrition, God transformed his face into absolute ugliness, that of a dog. The Byzantine East has a very different, modest version of the legend wherein Christopher pleads with God to give him the face of a dog. The Eastern Orthodox edition makes for thoughtful reading on the spectrum of social values we cast upon interiority and exteriority, between the esoteric and exoteric, contrasting passions we all succumb to with visions of the flesh and secrets of the heart. Christopher's example and his challenges may seem remarkable to us, but the Christ-Bearer archetype (the meaning of his name in Greek) transcends culture and spacetime.

Gymnasium Is Not The Flesh®

Saint Christopher the Great Martyr, the Dogface, according to the Orthodox Christian Tradition

Saint Christopher the Great Martyr, the Dogface,
according to the Orthodox Christian Tradition