Review: Holy Women You've Never Heard Of

Holy Women You've Never Heard Of by Dr. Elizabeth Klein and Dr. Jessica Murdoch

This original content from Formed (a Catholic video streaming service) caught my eye. Doctors Elizabeth Klein and Jessica Murdoch host a short series about female saints from the past two thousand years you probably have never run across. I knew about two of them, so I met three new sisters in the Lord through this series. The visual is just the two doctors at a desk having a conversation, describing the lives and virtues of these women who should be better known. 

Episode One is about Saint Macrina the Younger (died 379). She's actually the older sister of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. The family is described as the "second holiest family" by the hosts. Basil and Gregory are famous especially in the Orthodox and eastern churches. Macrina took over managing the family's affairs when their father died. She was engaged but her fiance died before the wedding. She took this as a sign that she should be devoted to a life of virginity and Christian perfection. She took care of their mother and managed their various estates, paying taxes in three different provinces and to the imperial government. She turned the main estate into what today would be a retreat center. She developed a semi-monastic prayer life and gave hospitality to other Christians who would visit. She often gave good advice to her brothers. Her life story is known through The Life of Macrina by her brother Gregory.

Episode Two is about Saint Mary of Egypt (344-421). Her job was prostitution, which she enjoyed a lot, living the life of a party girl. She decided to leave Egypt on a sort of anti-pilgrimage to Jerusalem where she would be a temptress for actual pilgrims. She tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher but was prevent by an invisible force. She had a moment of conversion, confessed her sins, and went into the desert beyond the Jordan River to live an ascetical life. Years later, a priest discovered her and gave her communion after hearing her life story. She asked him to come back the next Easter so she could receive again. When he came back, she was dead with a note to the priest. He spread her story, which is very popular in Eastern churches. The commentators brought up the insights that no matter how decadent you think modern times are, there's been plenty of similarly decadent times before. More important, no matter how vile a lifestyle one has, God always offers forgiveness and redemption. He loves all of us, even the most hardened sinners.

Episode Three is about Saint Scholastica (480-543). She was the twin sister of Saint Benedict, the founder of western monasticism. Benedict went to live as a hermit in the Italian hinterlands only to be followed by others who wanted to imitate his holiness. Scholastica also went into the wilderness and drew a crowd of women. Benedict made his famous Rules for a monastery; his sister used them for hers about five miles away. They would meet in a farmhouse once a year for pious conversations. At their last meeting, she wanted him to stay, but he demurred. She then prayed to God. A sudden, violent storm came up, preventing Benedict from returning to his monastery.

Episode Four is about Brigid of Sweden (1303-1373; also known as Bridget or Birgitta). She was the daughter of royalty and had a vision of Jesus as a ten-year old. She raised a family with a pious husband. They had eight children, including a saint. She had a good reputation in their society. She and her husband split up so he could join a monastery while she founded a new order, the Bridgettines. She went on a pilgrimage to Compostela and had more visions. She even advocated for the pope to return from Avignon to Rome, much like Catherine of Siena. She had two vocations, an unusual situation. As her life circumstances changed, she changed with them. She did what God wanted her to do in her life.

Episode Five is about Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin (1809-1890). She grew up in Quebec on a farm. She learned to read and write at the age of twenty. She formed an order to teach the rural poor so they could benefit from getting an education as she did. The order grew quickly. The bishop assigned a young priest to help but he turned out to be controlling and made false accusations against her. The bishop eventually sided with the priest and asked Marie-Anne to step down from leadership of the order. She was very reluctant but obedient. She spent the last forty years of her life in humble service to the order. She carried a bitter cross for a long time. She is a great example of living a mundane life with charity. A subsequent chaplain found out about her heroic virtue (this was after she died) and gathered a lot of information about her, the beginning of her canonization process.

I found the series very entertaining and easy to watch. The set-up with just two speakers talking to each other is fine since each episode is ten to fifteen minutes long. It would have been nice to throw up some icons or other images on the screen, but it was not really necessary. 

Recommended.

The series is available on Formed, a Catholic streaming website. My local parish sponsors subscriptions for parishioners; maybe yours does too?

 

Book Review: The Saints Chronicles Collection 4 by Various Artists

The Saints Chronicles Collection 4 by various artists

A collection of graphic-novel style biographies of saints! Here's a saint-by-saint rundown...

Saint Willibrord is called the Apostle of the Frisians. Frisia is now Norway and Northwest Germany. Willibrord was born in England in AD 658. His parents sent him to the monastery in Ripon, England, where he studied hard. After becoming a priest, he went to the continent as a missionary. Northern Frisia was ruled by an inhospitable king, so Willibrord started his mission in southern Frisia (he received permission from King Pepin). The pope blessed Willibrord's mission and made him bishop of Frisia. He continued to preach throughout the area and died at the age of 81.

Saint Margaret of Scotland was born a princess in Hungary. She traveled to England to learn the royal ways in the court of Edward the Confessor. Then 1066 happened and she fled with her family to Hungary. The ship was driven off course and wrecked in Scotland. Her family went to the royal castle where she met King Malcolm, who eventually convinced her to marry him even though she had planned to become a nun. They worked together to provide charity in their kingdom to all their subjects.

Saint Stanislaus lived at the same time as Saint Margaret but he became a bishop in his native land of Poland. His tempestuous relationship with the king (who constantly relapsed into evil ways after confessing) led to his martyrdom. Stanislaus excommunicated the king; the king demanded the bishop change his decision. Stanislaus remained true and was killed by the king. The people rose up and drove off the king, who eventually repented in a Hungarian monastery.

Saint Rose of Lima lived in Peru in the 1600s. She was a very beautiful child of a well-to-do family, though she was more enamored of the Lord than of her beauty. She grew up wanting to serve the Lord. Her parents wanted her to marry. She refused and became a Third Order Dominican, serving the poor and needy in Lima. She died young (at 31) and was the first saint canonized from the Americas.

Saint Dominic worked tirelessly to fight the Albigensian heresy in the early 1200s. The pope called for a crusade against these heretics but Dominic sought to vanquish them by preaching and by example of a holy, modest life. He founded the Dominican Order which focuses on poverty and preaching. 

This book is aimed at kids, mostly middle-school age. The art is very good and the stories are inspiring. The intent isn't just to inform about the lives of these saints. The authors ask the readers (sometimes quite directly) if they can imitate the values and actions of these Catholic heroes from the past. As an adult, I want to read something a little more in depth, but this is a good jumping off point for finding out more about these saints.

Recommended.

Book Review: Fearless: Stories of the American Saints by A. Camille and P. Boudreau

Fearless: Stories of the American Saints by Alice Camille and Paul Boudreau

This anthology of saints' lives looks at men and women who served the Christian faith and the people of North America. The stories range from the French Jesuits (Isaac Jogues and companions) who were martyred in what is now northern New York during the mid-1600s to the millionaire heiress (Katherine Drexel) who worked tirelessly to serve Native and African American communities during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

As a reader might guess from the title, many of these saints faced daunting tasks. Father Damien of Molokai volunteered to serve the Hawaiian community of lepers on an isolated peninsula for sixteen years. Junipero Serra was tasked to establish a few missions on the California coast and achieved twenty-one in spite of an ulcerated leg on which he had to walk up and down the countryside. Some of these saints were humbly obedient to their superiors, even when those superiors were unhelpful or even contrary. For them all, faith in God gave them the steadfastness to work on.

Surprisingly, only three of the fourteen saints were born in America. Most were immigrants from Europe, called by their religious orders or life circumstances to cross the Atlantic and work for the salvation of souls. The immigrant experience is one of the defining characteristics of American life. Like many immigrant stories, these show the dedication and hard work that constantly renews the American spirit and more so the Catholic faith in America.

Each story is ten to fifteen pages long, so none of them are very in-depth but they do give the highlights of what the saints did and a sense of their individual personalities. The book has a bibliography for further reading if a particular saint's story makes a reader want to find out more.

Recommended.

Book Review: English Catholic Heroes ed. by John Jolliffe

English Catholic Heroes edited by John Jolliffe

English Catholic Heroes looks at the 1500 years of Catholicism in England through the stories of nineteen men who contributed in various ways to the growth and glory of the Catholic faith. Some of the figures are quite famous, such as Thomas Becket, Thomas More, Edmund Campion, and John Henry Newman. Other names are obscure, especially to readers not raised on the British Isles. They all had fascinating stories.

While most were scholars and clergymen, others were laymen who did things other than teach, write, and preach. Augustus Pugin was an architect in the Victorian era who contributed greatly to the Catholic Revival of the early 1800s. Leonard Cheshire opened many local hospices for the handicapped and disabled. Robert 9th Lord Petre worked in political circles to improve the freedom of Catholics in the late 1700s. The diversity of contributions is impressive.

The book has some larger narrative threads. Historically, the greatest crisis for the Catholic Faith in England was during King Henry VIII's reign, when the Protestant Reformation snuck into England by way of his desire to have a male offspring. Centuries of oppression and martyrdom ensued. Five of the men in the book were martyrs under the Anglican crown. At the time, the only legal Catholic churches were the chapels at foreign embassies.

Even when the practice of the Catholic faith was permitted again and Catholics were allowed to work in trades and the government, a new challenge arose. Irish and continental immigrants wanted a more "Romish" liturgy with pomp and circumstance and grandeur. The native English wanted a more "British" style with simplicity and without confrontation, a movement known as "Cisalpine" for its "this side of the Alps" attitude. The others were known as "Ultramontane" or beyond the mountains, i.e. in Italy and Rome. Men in this book were on both sides of the issue. Arguments can be made for both sides.

As with any compilation of essays from various authors, some are more well written than others. And they don't always agree 100 percent. Even so, the differences are more in emphasis and style than in substance. The Catholic Church is quite diverse in its appeal, a diversity that can be found within a nation and even within a parish. This book represents the great wealth and diversity of the Catholic Church in England, that wealth being in its faithful members.

The book had a sort of sequel called English Catholic Heroines, which I reviewed here.

Feast of St. Lucy 2016

December 13 is the Feast of Saint Lucy, an early and beloved martyr in the Roman Catholic Church. She lived in Syracuse, Sicily, and died during the Diocletian Persecution. The story goes that she had a strong faith from an early age. Her mother tried to marry Lucy to a Roman noble. She convinced her mother not to let her be married but the jilted bridegroom reported Lucy to the authorities. The governor tried to have her hauled off to a brothel. The guards couldn't move her, even with a team of oxen. They tried to burn her to death but the wood wouldn't catch. In desperation, they killed her with their swords. Another legend tells that the governor had her eyes gouged out when she said he would be punished. When her body was buried, her eyes were restored. So she is the patron of the blind. The name "Lucy" is related to the word "light" in Latin, so images of light and eyes are common in her iconography.

To celebrate the day, our daughter (who is named after the saint) dressed in some traditional garb. What the girls do in Europe is wear a crown with candles. Being safety-minded we used a special hat that she wore with her pajamas.

Looking like a little hipster--I swear that's a drink of water

We made the Saint Lucy Saffron Buns from two years ago, but without the saffron! My daughter was delighted to help out and make a fabulous breakfast treat.

Undecorated buns

Lightly glazing the buns

Putting the "hand" in hand-crafted

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

She insisted on following the usual tradition of the eldest daughter carrying buns to everyone in the family while still in bed. So we all went back to bed. We were happy to receive such delights but did go back to the kitchen to eat them.

You're not going to post this on the blog, are you, Daddy?

We made enough buns that we had them for dessert after diner! What a wonderful feast to celebrate. Saint Lucy, pray for us!

Book Review: Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

Boxers written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang

Little Bao is a young Chinese boy who loves the springtime festivals, especially the outdoor operas that tell the great stories of Chinese history and myth. Things are not as peaceful as they seem in 1890s China. A foreign priest visits the town and smashes the local idol, claiming they should worship the One True God, Jesus Christ. The villagers send Little Bao's father to the local magistrate to protest. He get in a fight with foreign soldiers along the way. The father is basically incapacitated, leaving Bao and his two brothers to take care of things. A few years later, Red Lantern Chu comes to the village and starts teaching the locals, especially the boys, kung fu. Bao winds up training with Red Lantern's master on a nearby mountain, where he learns how to channel the ancient heroes of China to help him fight the foreign devils. The situation in China deteriorates and Bao becomes a leader in the Boxer Rebellion, an attempt to oust all foreign influence in China.

This book is a companion volume to Saints, which shows the "foreign devils'" side of the Boxer Rebellion. This volume vividly shows the emotional involvement and motivation of the Boxers. The good and bad actions and attitudes of both sides are shown, making the tragic ending of the story all the more heart-rending.

Highly recommended! Also, the two books, Boxers and Saints, should be read together since they overlap so much and bring out interesting facets of each other.

Book Review: Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Saints written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang

In the mid-1880s, a girl is born into a Chinese family. She was the fourth daughter, though her three older sisters are already dead. The family doesn't name her and takes to calling her "Four-Girl." "Four" is a homonym for "death," so it's sort of a joke. She's isn't well respected. Her grandfather even calls her a devil. She embraces this and starts making a devilish face. After a while, her mother can't stand it any longer and takes Four-Girl to an acupuncturist who sometimes works for free. Four-Girl is nervous about getting pins stuck in her and is all the more worried when she sees a crucifix in the doctor's office. The man has such big pins stuck in him! But the acupuncturist is gentle and kind. He makes Four-Girl laugh which breaks her devil face. He's a Christian, which to the traditional-minded Chinese means he worships a foreign devil. She's ready to adopt this new devilishness, since the doctor seems to offer the love and support that her own family has failed to give her. She studies to be a Christian, which causes her trouble, especially as she grows older. She runs away and has a vision of Joan of Arc in the forest. Joan becomes a role-model for Four-Girl, who takes the name Vibiana when she is baptized. Her Christian life starts just as the Boxer Rebellion, a nationalist uprising against the influence of foreigners in China, begins persecuting Christians.

This book is a companion volume to Boxers, which tells a story of the Boxer Rebellion from the other side. I haven't read that as of writing this review but definitely will (library, here I come!). Vibiana's story is a fine blend of realistic life and child-like fantasy and wishing. She alternates between charming and frustrating for the other characters and the reader. She's not a perfect heroine, but she has a great story.

Highly recommended!

More Shrine of Saint Anthony (Outside)

A year and a half ago, I posted about the lovely grounds of the Shrine of Saint Anthony in Ellicott City, Maryland. That trip didn't let us see everything outside. Here is some more of the grounds.

The first picture from last time

The outdoor shrine to Saint Maximilian Kolbe is part of a garden path. The shrine is a simple covering for a statue of the saint.

Start of the short path to the shrine

The shrine

Inside the shrine

Saint Maximilian was born in 1894 and joined the Conventual Franciscans. He had a special devotion to the Immaculate Virgin Mary and promoted that devotion. He founded monasteries in Japan and India but was forced to return to his native Poland in 1936 because of illness. The Germans invaded and eventually sent him to Auschwitz. There he volunteered to take the place of a family man who was selected to die of starvation. Maximilian died on August 14, 1941.

Further along the garden path is a recreation of the grotto where Our Lady appeared to Bernadette Soubrious at Lourdes.

Lourdes grotto

Our Lady

Bernadette

As a fourteen-year-old child, Bernadette went out with her sister to gather firewood. They came to a small cave where she had a vision of a lady dressed in blue and white. The apparitions continued for about two weeks and caused quite a stir in the town. A spring began flowing at the spot and is now a popular pilgrim destination. Bernadette did not like all the attention focused on her and joined the Sisters of Charity in Nevers. She worked as an infirmary assistant and a sacristan. She died in 1879.

The driveway has a large statue of Saint Anthony and a donkey. The story goes Saint Anthony went to a town where a heretic denied that Christ is present in the Eucharist. Anthony told the man (who was a farmer) not to feed his donkey for a week. After the week, the farmer came back with the donkey and a basket of feed. Saint Anthony had the Blessed Sacrament with him and the donkey walked past the basket and knelt down before the Eucharist. Anthony told the farmer if a donkey could understand than he could too!

Donkey acknowledges God

Reverse view

Donkey's view

Near the main building is a statue of an unidentified saint. I thought it looked cool, so I took a photo.

Maybe more sombre than cool, what with the skull and cross

Book Review: Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage by Gerard B. Wegemer

Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage by Gerard B. Wegemer

This birth-to-death biography of Saint Thomas More has an interesting twist. As it goes through the personal history of More, it stops to review his various writings when he wrote them. Thomas More was the first great Christian humanist to write in English. He was close friends with Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutchman who was also a scholar and committed Christian. They studied and translated the Greek classics and both agreed that humor was a more persuasive weapon in the literary arsenal than dry logic or harsh rhetoric. More wrote poetic and literary works (the most famous being Utopia) as well as theological reflections (like his commentary on the Christ's Passion). As author Wegemer describes More's family life and career, he throws in chapters reviewing the contents and significance of works written by More. Having the literary output interwoven with the biographical history gives the reader a deeper understanding of More's character.

The book is a little bit repetitive. Sometimes the life story gets ahead of itself and is repeated later on. Favorite little anecdotes show up multiple times, such as More's desire "to think my greatest enemies my best friends: For the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred." [p. 192, also p. 219] This is a reference the Book of Genesis. Jacob's son Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and taken off to Egypt where he eventually became a high official and was able to save his family from famine. The repetition is only a minor distraction and makes me wonder if some chapters were written as separate essays before the whole book was written.

Reading this after seeing A Man For All Seasons (the 1966 movie) is also fascinating. Many of the speeches in the movie are taken verbatim from the actual recorded words of Thomas. Some details in the movie are left out (like More's other children besides Meg or other charges More had to answer in his final trial), which is both typical and to be expected in a theatrical presentation of More's life. The book gives a fuller, even more inspiring portrait of this saint of great integrity, intelligence, and humor.

Highly recommended!

Book Review: English Catholic Heroines edited by Joanna Bogle

English Catholic Heroines edited by Joanna Bogle

English Catholic Heroines covers the history of Catholicism from the 600s up to the present day (the last woman, Helen Asquith, died in 2000). Readers get a clear historical picture, seeing the original evangelization, many key figures during Reformation, the intellectual rebirth of Catholicism in the 1800s, and the many different works accomplished during the 20th century.

The women are quite diverse. Some of the women, like Queen Margaret of Scotland and Queen Mary Tudor, are royalty who dealt with serious challenges. Some of the women, like Mary Ward and Margaret Hallahan, were pioneers in women's religious movements, the former applying the Jesuit model for women, the later organizing Third Order Dominican women into communities that pray together and serve in their community through education and charitable works. Other women were educators, like Mother Elizabeth Prout. Still others traveled far and wide spreading the Catholic faith from their English origin, like Caroline Chisholm who traveled to Australia in the 1830s. She did tremendous charitable work there and returned to England to raise awareness and helping relatives follow those who had gone to Australia as criminals or in search of fortune.

Their stories are inspirational and fascinating. They dealt nobly with crises both on a personal scale and often on a larger scale, either politically or ecclesiastically. The social upheavals begun by King Henry VIII still impact Catholics, even with the many reforms of the 1800s. Many of the women started new orders, always a challenge to find approval and assistance. They overcame such hardships with integrity and forbearance, qualities needed but not always appreciated in our day.

This book is a companion work to English Catholic Heroes which I have not read but am now very interested in reading. Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Millions (2004)

Millions (2004) directed by Danny Boyle

A dad and two sons move to a new house (in a newly built neighborhood) after the death of the mother. They settle in quickly and the younger son, Damian, takes some of the moving boxes to make a little fort or house near the railroad tracks. Being England, there are plenty of trains going by. Settling in at school is tougher. Damian has a great devotion to the saints and can go on and on about them. Occasionally it's awkward and it seems to keep him from making friends. He has the saints as imaginary friends. One day while Damian is in the moving box house and talking to St. Clare of Assissi (he asks her if his mum has shown up in Heaven; she's not sure since she doesn't see everyone who comes in), a satchel full of money falls out of the sky and flattens the boxes. Damian shows the money to his brother Anthony. Damian assumes it's a gift from God, since he's been praying for his mum. He naturally wants to do good with the money, giving it to the poor and such. Anthony has more practical and selfish plans for the money, like impressing his fellow students and such. The secret can't last forever, though, since the British Pound is a few weeks away from being replaced by the Euro.

The movie is very charming and has a lot more going on than the relationship between the brothers and the money. Damian is innocent and imaginative but not unintelligent. He has a great moral sense and strength of character. Yet he's still a child, with a sense of wonder and what's right. He believes in miracles even though the movie seems to be at pains to provide natural explanations. Even so, it doesn't ridicule him for his belief and even ultimately affirms his view as more valuable than that of his brother or his father (who thinks his wife is gone and they will never see her again in an afterlife).

The movie is a surprisingly funny and upbeat work from the director of Sunshine and 28 Days Later...  The movie gives viewers a lot to mull over afterwards, something I like very much. I would definitely recommend the movie.

For a deeper discussion of the movie, check out A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #123. Thanks for recommending the movie, Scott and Julie. I probably wouldn't have watched it without the motivation!

Halloween 2015

This year, we followed the stores' lead and celebrated Halloween early and often.

Our first big Halloween outing was to Savage Mill on October 17. They had trick or treating at the stores and pumpkin painting at the Ram's Head Tavern. We hadn't signed up ahead of time for the pumpkin painting so we didn't get to do that. We had fun none the less.

Going to the mill!

Minecraft creeper and Rapunzel

A big hug!

A week later, a local grocery store had trick or treating. My daughter went and got many snacks and a little pumpkin to paint. It's on our front porch now! They also had a drawing for a five dollar gift certificate which we won the next week. Double win!

Getting a snack

Pumpkin painting

On the Thursday before Halloween (the 29th), my children went to Main Street in Laurel where the businesses were giving out candy. Halloween was on a Saturday this year and most of them would have been closed. As it turns out, a great many of them didn't participate anyway. The kids in the street exchanged info on which businesses were open.

Getting ready for Main Street

On Halloween, the kids went to religious education where they had a "dress as a saint day" for the kindergartners and the first graders. My daughter was a happy participant, choosing Saint Lucy for her costume. She wore a crown of candles, a popular tradition in the north countries of Europe, along with a white costume to represent her virginity and a red sash for her martyrdom.

Getting ready at home

Her brother waiting for the parade to come by

The beginning of the parade

More of the parade

Still no Saint Lucy

There she is!

My daughter was chosen to carry a sign, which was more visible when they made a u-turn around the chapel and came back down past the cheering crowd.

Return of the saints

Saint Lucy again!

Her sign has Saint John Chrysostom.

In the evening, all the children went out trick or treating. We had Rapunzel, a gnome (or possibly a North Pole elf), and a Minecraft creeper.

Ready for door-to-door collecting

I stayed home and gave out candy. I can report that three out of four teenagers actual make an effort to dress up. One guy in the quartet of teenagers wore a store-insignia hoodie, so maybe he was trying to be a store employee? I don't think they wear hoodies. The other guy had a plain black hoodie but had a scary mask on his head (not over his face, mind you, but pushed up on his forehead--I give him partial credit). The girls were dressed up--maybe they were on a double-date. They all had the classic bag...a pillow case.

I tried to keep track of how many visitors we had by eating one piece of candy for every trick-or-treater. I should have stopped at twenty.

Being dutiful parents, we screened the goodies that came back. Here's the best and worst they got...

Full-size Snickers bar in a cardboard decorative box!

One individually-wrapped Life Saver

Movie Review: The Wizard of Heaven (1949)

The Wizard of Heaven (1949) directed by Marcel Blistene

Part of my Lenten movie viewing that started with Becket last week.

The Wizard of Heaven tells the story of St. John Vianney, a famous French priest from the 1800s known as the Cure of Ars. At the beginning of the film, he is traveling to Ars, a small provincial town that is weak in its Christian faith. Few are the locals who go to Mass on Sunday. As he arrives, a wedding feast is going on outdoors. Some of the locals are excited to help him but most are indifferent or mistrustful. Vianney sets about his work in a humble yet forceful way. He begins to win people back to the faith even as he is tempted by the devil (a shadow that follows him around with a voice that constantly taunts him or argues with him). Vianney has the gift of reading souls--he can see what is truly troubling a person and can get them on the right way. His faith, preaching, and example win over the town. Eventually his reputation spreads and the town of Ars draws visitors from all over Europe, mostly pilgrims seeking to confess to a great confessor. The movie gives a good sense of the saint's character. That's the good news.
 
The bad news about the video is the quality. The sound is muffled and the image is fuzzy. It looks like a transfer from an old VHS tape, which makes it difficult to watch. The subtitles (the movie is in French) have been updated and are clear to read. Another difficulty is the addition of introductory and concluding English voice-overs to fill in the rest of John Vianney's story, which are a bit unnecessary and make the movie feel more like a pedagogical tool than a work of art. The movie ends with the saint's death, which would be fine, but a whole speech is tacked on about his canonization and becoming the patron saint of parish priests. The information is nice to know and surely the addition is motivated by piety, but it comes across stiff and preachy. The DVD includes plenty of special features describing Vianney's life and even providing quotes from his writings and sermons.

Cathedrale Sts Michel et Gudule, Brussels

The Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule is the national church of Belgium. The site has had a church on it since the 1000s though the current cathedral was begun under Henry I, Duke of Brabant, in 1225, completed under Charles V in the early 1500s. The Protestants destroyed most of the interior art circa 1579-1580 as part of the iconoclastic movement. In 1783 the French revolutionists took what they wanted. Happily, restoration work in the 1990s leaves a fine example of Brabant Gothic architecture for all to enjoy.

Cathedrale Sts. Michel et Gudule, Brussels

Doorway detail

View from the doors

The nave has the great airiness and the flood of light we've come to expect from Gothic cathedrals.

Nave

One of the apostles on the nave pillars

A fascinating work is the Baroque pulpit. St. Michael is on the top slaying a dragon. He and a host of other characters come to life in the sculpture by Henri-Francois Verbruggen. It was designed in 1699 but only installed in 1776.

Baroque pulpit

View from other side

Some of the confessionals are quite ornate and evocative. The angels on this one have a certain melancholy that caught my imagination.

Confessional

The cathedral's stained glass windows are an amazing sight. The vividness of the colors is hard to capture with a camera. They are breathtaking and make the visit worthwhile on their own.

Stained glass

Last Supper

Window and sculpture!

The main altar is a little simple for my taste. Sadly, it reminded me more of Superman than of the Lord.

Main altar

Other sculptures around the church are quite ornate, well evoking the Gothic style if not actually dating back to the Gothic period.

Stations of the Cross, Third Station

Triest Tomb

Annunciation, Crucifixion, Visitation

Madonna and Child

St. Michael, patron of the church and of Brussels

We also came across a memorial to the English who had died during World War I, many of whom are buried in Belgium.

WWI Memorial to the Brits

Who was Saint Gudule?

Saint Gudule was born in the 600s to a Belgian count. She was trained for the religious life but seems to have never taken vows. Legend tells that she would go to church early in the mornings when she lived in Moorsel. Her candle would be blown out by the Devil only to be miraculously re-lit. This legend lives on in the name of the tremella deliquescens, a flower that blooms in January--even the harsh cold of winter cannot stop it from blooming. The flower is commonly known as Sinte Goulds Lampken or St. Gudule's lantern. Gudule is often represented in art holding a candle or lantern which a demon tries to extinguish. Her relics were kept in this church but were lost when the Calvinists ransacked the church in 1579. She is the patron of Brussels, Belgium, lay women. Her feast day is January 8.