An altar boy or sexton is a lay male who assists the clergyman during the service.
Sexton is an ancient Greek word meaning overseer or gatekeeper.
Previously, only priests were called altar servers, and assistants serving during divine services were called sextons. The term altar server took root in the 20th century.
Theoretically, the sexton is supplied by the bishop, but in practice this rule is not followed, and this service is blessed by the rector of the temple.
Etymology
The word “sexton” itself is an unofficial designation for a clergyman, who is also called “paramonar” (Greek term). The latter, more correct option was forced out of use in the Russian Church and was practically forgotten. It is translated as “gatekeeper,” although the modern functions of sextons hardly correspond to this definition. But we will talk about the history and evolution of the sexton service a little later.
In art
- The miracle of the Archangel Michael in Khoneh - the sexton Archippus of Herotopus, for whose salvation the Archangel Michael performed a miracle.
- The vision of sexton Tarasius is a Novgorod sexton of the 16th century, to whom St. appeared. Varlaam Khutynsky with a prediction; icon for this story
- The appearance of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas of Myra to the sexton George (Yurysh), the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (Besednaya) depicting the appearance of the Mother of God to the sexton George - in 1395 on the Tikhvinka River.
- Ponomarskie doors - side doors of the iconostasis
the Saints:
- Avundius (sexton)
- Arkhipp Herotopsky
History of the sextons' service
The gatekeeper, that is, the minister of the ancient Christian church, whose functions are performed by the modern sexton, is a person whose duties included maintaining order during the service. At a certain time, he closed the gates of the temple so that none of the uninitiated - the catechumens, those of other faiths, heretics, excommunicated or penitents - could penetrate the Eucharist, in which only baptized Christians who are not subject to penance can take part. In addition, sextons in ancient times took care of the safety of temple property, its lighting, and monitored the behavior of parishioners in order to prevent theft, sacrilege, and so on. In special places, such as Golgotha or Bethlehem, sextons were constantly on duty to guard places of mass pilgrimage and provide assistance to pilgrims.
Links
Presbytery Priest • Hieromonk • Archpriest • Hegumen • Protopresbyter • Archimandrite Diaconate Deaconess • Subdeacon • Deacon • Hierodeacon • Protodeacon • Archdeacon Low clergy Beller • Exorcism • Kirofor • Reader
Responsibilities of sextons today
Currently, a sexton is, first of all, a servant, whose main task is the logistical, so to speak, provision of worship. His task includes preparing the vestments of the clergy, preparing some vessels, lighting the censer, lighting lamps and candles in the altar and other duties that allow the service to be carried out decorously and without fuss. In addition, sextons, as a rule, play the role of readers and help the work of the choir, that is, the choir. During non-liturgical times, sextons are responsible for the cleanliness of the altar. This service in the Russian church is, as a rule, performed by male parishioners. Children of parishioners often become altar servers. If there are not enough men among the parishioners of the temple, then pious elderly women can be chosen for altar service. In monasteries, of course, nuns are often altar servers. But in general, entry into the altar is prohibited for women, and this is done as an exception. Such categoricalness is characteristic of the Russian Church. In the churches of the Patriarchate of Antioch, for example, as well as in other local churches, you can often see girls in the altar, also dressed in a surplice - a special robe of a sexton. For Russia this is simply unthinkable.
Where it occurs[edit]
Cinema[edit]
- Any film translated and dubbed by Leonid Volodarsky, the standard sexton from the Chamber of Weights and Measures.
- Almost all the actors in almost all the films written by M. Night Shyamalan. The Hindu himself claimed that this manner supposedly imparts “mystery” and “suspense.” In fact, it's the other way around.
- It is also used as an artistic device by Yorgos Lanthimos.
- The once cult film “ASSA”: Sergei “Afrika” Bugaev and Tatyana Drubich play exactly like this. Perhaps director Sergei Solovyov wanted to hide the rather controversial acting skills of both performers in this way. Or maybe he additionally wanted to emphasize that both characters are residents of the Land of Elves.
- Star Wars Prequel Trilogy - Mainly Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. He had two modes - read like a sexton (in light Jedi mode) and chew props (in dark Sith mode). However, almost all the actors in the prequels are criticized for monotony, even Oscar-winners Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson, who certainly cannot be blamed for their inability to play. Many critics directly blame George Lucas for this situation, calling him a bad director who does not know how to work with actors and is arrogant because of his success. Surprisingly, thanks to this, the Russian dubbing (not bad, but not enough stars from the sky) is head and shoulders above the original. Andrei Zaitsev, who doubled Anakin, especially distinguished himself. Where Hayden sadly reads the text, Andrei gives real play with his voice. It is not surprising that prequels are loved more in the post-Soviet space than the original trilogy, because dubbing, in fact, corrected one of the main problems - poor acting.
- However, let's be fair - even the best actors must work with the script, and this has always been the main weakness of the trilogy, both new and old. Frankly clumsy, wooden dialogues with pretensions to grandiosity greatly reduced the quality of the films from the very beginning.
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TV series[edit]
- In the first seasons of the series Game of Thrones, this tendency was noticed in Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow. Then he seemed to perk up. No, not in the sense of being revived in which he was resurrected. But he simply began to behave more lively and express feelings and emotions more actively.
Cartoons[edit]
- The low, monotone voice of Autopilot from Wall-E is actually voiced by a computer speech generator. In general, robots and computers often have such a voice in animation. And not only in animation, but in general, along with several other features of speech, it has gathered into a separate trope - the language of robots.
Animated series[edit]
- Just "Daria". And who speaks in such a manner? Daria herself?
Television[edit]
- Comedian Semyon Altov is famous for this trope. Actually, this was the unspoken standard of a significant part of the satirists of that time - Arkady Arkanov, Anatoly Trushkin, Viktor Koklyushkin also read without unnecessary facial expressions and tones. Odessa residents brought liveliness to the stage - Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Roman Kartsev.
Comics[edit]
- “God is dead”: the local incarnation of a wheelchair-bound scientist, whose name is, of course, not Stephen Hawking, is still quite recognizable in detail (including the famous Hawking TTS translator. The trope in this case is played by lettering.
Anime[edit]
(link)
Cuba using Code Geass as an example
- Although it is difficult to expect acting at the seiyuu level from amateur voice-overs, the so-called Cuba77 especially distinguished himself, who does not even minimally change the tone of his voice. In fact, it became an “example” of why you should watch anime only in the original. However, it should be noted that after Cuba got involved with the so-called “Studio Gang”, the quality of his voice acting has increased sharply, moreover, recently he has been voicing exclusively completely frostbitten characters and outright psychos, doing it quite convincingly. However, he also excels in other roles - in Kono Yūsha ga Ore Tsuē Kuse ni Shinchō Sugiru, he perfectly voiced both the young dragonman Mash and the minor roles of adult warriors. Apparently, good company had such a beneficial effect on him.
- Inspector Gadget from the same Anidub also does not stand out as a game, to put it mildly - what helps is that he usually voices it in tandem with a much more lively acting actress (Nika Lenina or Lelik_time).
- Code Geass voice acting from Anilibria: until the ninth episode they suffered from Cuba syndrome, but then, having recruited more people and professionalism into the team, they corrected themselves and made the most suitable and long-lived voice acting for this anime at the moment.
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an in-world example with a film that Haruhi directed. This is Nagato's natural way of speaking and she acts accordingly, but suddenly the usually theatrical Koizumi suddenly joins her.
- "Black Heaven" is the famous Worst Negro in Japanese dubbing. As one voice actor said, "I didn't think it was possible to speak
in lowercase."
Video games[edit]
(link)
— Disingenuous confirmation: you don’t know anything about Shakespeare if you haven’t heard his works translated by elcor.
- Almost any pirate voice acting from the 2000s. Until the second half it is often official.
- GLaDOS from Portal produces speech in a similar manner. To achieve this effect, all lines were initially created by a speech generator, and the “voice” of GLADOS Ellaine McLane read them with exactly the accents and intonations that she heard (i.e., without intonations). Subsequently, they added “metal” to the voice, but that’s another story. However, there are still interferences, and after the escape, emotions appear. There is also a moment when the voice stops being computer-generated. None of this is preserved in the Russian translation. Everything is really quite monotonous there. In the second part, in the English version, GLaDOS has emotions, in the Russian version - much less.
- Male Commander Shepard in the first part. Then he improved a little. In the original he was always normal.
Board games[edit]
- "Berserk - a universe of magical battles." This is exactly how Yshlok talks, a character turned at the insistence of the community into a comic non-canonical one.
Internet projects[edit]
- “Teach good things”: the speaker’s manner of speech is an unemotional recitation of the text. It is supplemented by a voice that is completely inappropriate for the propaganda of a “reasonable, kind, eternal” voice.
- BadComedian: the sexton mode is activated in response to a similar phenomenon in the film (or to an episode that, in theory, should press some kind of emotional button, but does not evoke any emotions at all).
- YouTube channel “Beresta”: here the announcer also burrs. Coupled with a “deep” study of the issue (faggots are our everything), what comes out is not weapons porn, as intended, but, God forgive me, Pskov porn.
How to become a sexton
In ancient times, “ordaining a paramonar” was a special rank. The ceremony had the character of consecration, that is, full initiation into church service. Today this procedure is rarely reproduced. The duties of a sexton these days are trivial enough to require the usual verbal permission of the rector of the temple. He also blesses the altar boy to wear the surplice. However, when a bishop visits a parish, he must also receive a bishop’s blessing. Many sextons in our time also ask for permission to wear a cassock, which, in principle, is not a church tradition, but is in the nature of a local custom. But to become a sexton, you don't need anything special. It is enough simply to be a regular parishioner of the temple, participate in church life and have a good reputation among members of the community. In this case, you can ask the abbot for his blessing to join the sexton service.
It is important to understand that a modern sexton is most often a layman who is entrusted with special obedience in the temple, and not a clergyman. In large churches, as a rule, some altar servers are full-time, that is, professional. Their work is supervised and organized by the senior sexton in the temple. Such people perform their ministry not only at the call of their hearts and the blessing of their confessor, but also according to an employment contract, and accordingly receive a salary. For them, sextonism is associated with daily attendance at divine services. Other altar servers appear at services only on holidays, Sundays and when they themselves want to.
Requirements for an altar server
A man who participates in the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, leads a spiritual life and is reverent is chosen for the position of altar server.
Since the service of an altar server symbolizes the service of angels at the Throne of the Lord, strict requirements are put forward for the spiritual appearance of an altar server:
- Outwardly, the altar boy should look neat and modest, clothes should be clean, ironed, shoes should be polished, hair should be cut and combed.
- He must live spiritually, which means not only observing external piety, but also doing prayer, fighting passions, and paying attention to the inner life of the soul.
- The altar server needs to develop useful qualities of the soul - humility, hard work, piety, attentiveness.
- Particular attention should be paid to speech - its pace should be measured, the address to people should be meek, sedate, and polite.
According to Tradition, the altar boy, like other altar servers, displays the image of the Heavenly World, and will serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the matter of saving people.
