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This first week of June the Eastern Orthodox Church will celebrate the annual Feast Day of St. Philip the Deacon, also known as Philip the Evangelist. He was an influential and powerful leader in the early church, and is most often remembered for his role in the conversion of an individual known simply as “The Ethiopian Eunuch.”

This Ethiopian was an important man, a national treasury secretary for a wealthy country of the day. He was also a spiritual seeker, and was in the midst of a dogged 3,000 mile pilgrimage from his home in Africa to the temple in Jerusalem. This information is rarely discussed, however, as the Ethiopian’s, shall I say delicate physical condition, usually steals the headlines.

As alarming as it is in the twenty-first century, the castration of high ranking political figures was once common in some cultures. Any man who worked in close proximity to…