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Dream of Gerontius (Version 2)

John Henry Newman was an English theologian, academic, writer and poet. Initially a Fellow of Oxford University, where he helped to found the Evangelical Oxford Movement, he later converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Cardinal.

The Dream of Gerontius follows the journey of a man through death and purgatory to the sight of God. It has been described as a metrical meditation on death. It is more than that; it is the realization by means of a loving heart and a poetic imagination of the state of a just soul after death,—Gerontius typifying not the soul of a particular person imagined by Cardinal Newman, but your soul, my soul, any soul which may be fortunate enough to satisfy the judging and merciful God. No poet has ever presented the condition of the soul, as made known by the theology of the Catholic Church, so forcibly and appealingly as Cardinal Newman.

The Poem owes much of its imagery to Dante's Divine Comedy. It was adapted as a Choral Oratorio by Edward Elgar.

(Summary by Alan Mapstone and the Editor)

Cast List

Gerontius: Larry Wilson Assistants: Alan Mapstone The Priest: Inkell Angel: ShrimpPhish Demons: ToddHW Choir of Angelicals: Alan Mapstone Angels of the Sacred Stair: Brian Fullen Angel of the Agony: Agnes Robert Behr Souls in Purgatory: Jon Hunter Narration: Alan Mapstone