“I’m Wearing a Stupid Costume While 800 People are Watching Me.”
How an Actor Died and a Priest Was Born.

Fr George granted a Russian-language interview to journalist Polina Borovikova of pravmir.ru regarding his interesting life’s path.

Archpriest George Zelenin has had the same nightmare for many years—he is late to emerge on stage. Zelenin was a Moscow actor who worked with some of the great performers of the time, but eventually understood that he wished to be a priest.

Secretly baptized in the USSR, he was fascinated as a youngster by the image of clergymen in their black cassocks. He studied acting, during which time he had a grave illness and was close to death; after that he began to attend church services.

Upon graduating, the future Fr George became a professional actor and traveled the world with the Moscow Art Theater. During a tour in the US, he enrolled in Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY and was later ordained.

Today, Archpriest George is the Rector of Archangel Michael Church in Wayne, NJ, and the father of three.

https://www.pravmir.ru/stoyu-v-duraczkom-kostyume-a-na-menya-smotryat-800-chelovek-kak-umer-artist-lenkoma-i-rodilsya-svyashhennik/