Wednesday 18 October 2017

This month we remember Saint Richard Gwyn, one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales


Saint Richard Gwyn is one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, executed during the Elizabethan Era for refusing to deny the Catholic Faith. He was interested in history and studied the Welsh Bards. The Welsh Bards were especially known for using song and rhyme to keep alive the persecuted Truths of the Catholic Faith. Saint Richard Gwyn, a school teacher, husband and father, imitated their style and is most famous for his own poetry and outspoken defense of the Catholic Faith in Wales.

After being hunted, fleeing with his family, keeping good cheer and driving Protestant preachers and judges to frustration with his blunt and sometimes humorous banter, he was executed in Wrexham Market on 15th October 1581 aged 47. His feast day is celebrated on 16th October and in some places on 17th.

We were keen to produce a film about this great Welsh Catholic Martyr that not only gives a biography of Saint Richard Gwyn's life but also looks at the Welsh Bards and Catholicism in Wales during the persecutions.

There is only one portrait of Saint Richard Gwyn (seen on the cover of our DVD) so we recreated our own visuals for this film. 


We loved the contemplative spirit that he kept with him constantly amidst his family life, writings, debates, arrests and imprisonment.

www.marysdowryproductions.org 

Thursday 12 October 2017

NEW FILM RELEASE - Blessed BARTOLO LONGO, the former Satanist who became the Apostle of the Rosary, Bartolo Longo

BLESSED BARTOLO LONGO
Now available on DVD


Our NEW FILM about Blessed Bartolo Longo is now available on DVD worldwide through our online shops:


and


Bartolo Longo was an Italian lawyer who, while studying for his law degree in Naples, Italy, drifted away from his childhood Catholic Faith, was influence by the anti-Catholic thoughts in the university and fell into occult practices. His search for meaning in life drew him towards Spiritualism which was popular among the students in the college. His experiences with the occult, New Age practices and Mediums attracted the demonic. Bartolo eventually decided that he wanted to be the one to communicate with these beings. He joined a Satanic cult, was ordained into the order and received an evil spirit who communicated with him about everything, often giving him contradictory answers and information. Gradually Bartolo was living a life of terror, nightmares and darkness. The prayers of his family assisted his escape from the occult. A Dominican priest gradually led Bartolo back to the Truth through Confession and exorcisms of his mind. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart Bartolo Longo was reconciled to the Catholic Church and longed to give his life totally to God. Our Lady guided him. After much searching, Bartolo was inspired to help catechize the people in Pompeii and build them a church. Over the years, the church became a famous Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii and a Basilica where the miraculous painting of Our Lady of the Rosary in housed. Bartolo wrote many works about the Rosary, the Fifteen Saturdays devotion, and led a long life spreading devotion to Our Lady.


Blessed Bartolo Longo's experience with the occult and demonic activities, influence and deception makes him a powerful teacher against the dangers of the New Age. In this film we cover many aspects of the New Age that have crept into Catholic Churches, parishes, schools and sometimes convents and monasteries. We look at Church documents and statements that clarify the Church's teachings against practices such as Reki, Labyrinth, Astrology, Horoscopes, Yoga etc...


Bartolo Longo had a very deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus after joining a prayer group dedicated to the Sacred Heart. He had a very special love for Our Lady and advocating the power of the Most Holy Rosary which earned him the title of APOSTLE OF THE ROSARY.

Our film about Blessed Bartolo Longo runs for 50 minutes.
Our unique film production style has been praised for not only presenting facts and biographical information but a prayerful and spiritual film experience

AVAILABLE NOW - OCTOBER 2017


Tuesday 10 October 2017

SOLDIER OF THE CROSS - Saint Alexander Briant, English Martyr

SOLDIER OF THE CROSS
SAINT ALEXANDER BRIANT - ENGLISH MARYTR


When Father Alexander Briant was arrested, his thoughts were immediately drawn to the Cross. His had been a mission where the Cross had always been present. He had had to leave England to study for the priesthood and return as a hunted man. His journeys would have taken place in all sorts of weather, oftentimes cold, wet, uncomfortable and he would have rested or slept often without a roof over his head. He could not wear his cassock in public if he wished to maintain his missionary work for he would have been arrested and the people would have been deprived of the outlawed Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. His heart would have been saddened to see the destruction of England's Catholic heritage about him and the majority of Elizabethans following the State Church. There were times of joy when he reconciled Protestants to the True Faith, heard Confessions, administered the outlawed Sacraments, but he knew he would one day be captured and so, like Our Lord, he kept the Cross, his final destination, always before his eyes.


Once in his prison cell, Saint Alexander carved a small Cross out of wood which he held with him at his trial. Before that, he was subjected to torture on the infamous rack. While suffering, he united himself to the sufferings of Christ and afterward manged to write to his superior that it seemed to him as though he experienced the hidden stigmata. He no longer felt the pains of the rack. He was profoundly moved.
St. Alexander Briant was chosen to be executed with St. Edmund Campion and St. Ralph Sherwin at the Tyburn gallows, December 1581.
He was a serene presence for both priests who suffered before him and the crowd came to look upon the young Fr. Briant as an angel for his face was radiant with light. He earned his crown of martyrdom on December 1st and was canonized a Saint in 1970.

Our unique film production style has been praised for not only presenting facts and biographical information but a prayerful and spiritual film experience.

Our film about Saint Alexander Briant is available through our online shops:


and


Shipping worldwide.


From a young Catholic boy in Somerset to a hunted missionary priest in the City of London, St. Alexander Briant gained a reputation throughout Elizabethan England for being a Catholic force of good. He preached the Truths of the Faith not only during his celebration of the outlawed Mass, the priesthood and the Sacraments but in the shining example of his young, fervent life. Father Alexander Briant traveled the country in disguise, sharing hidden lodgings with Fr Robert Persons who organised great Catholic missions for the hunted missionary priests. Although he was eventually arrested, his time before his trial and death was spent showing everyone the power of prayer. He declared that he was a Soldier of the Cross and stood like an angel of encouragement for his fellow Martyr Saint Edmund Campion. 
Saint Alexander Briant is one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. 

Wednesday 4 October 2017

St. Francis - A Legacy of fire and blood - Saint Francis of Assisi, Feast Day 4th October, Mary's Dowry Productions 2011 DVD

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
A LEGACY OF FIRE AND BLOOD
DVD


His heart was on fire with such love of God that Saint Francis has been compared to the Seraphim. His love was so profound that he shed his own blood through the gift of the stigmata, bearing the Wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.

Our 2011 film about Saint Francis of Assisi is a good way to journey prayerful and spiritually with Saint Francis while refreshing ourselves with the details and events of his life and mission. Not all of us are called to give such a striking witness of our conversion and love of God and although Saint Francis stands out in an almost extreme way, his message is profoundly simple.
We are called to imitate him in our own unique journeys in the way that God calls each of us, and Saint Francis is a powerful guide to help us along that path daily.

Someone recently wrote to us to thank us for our style of film, saying 'I hate films about the Saints (but) this is how films should be done. Mary's Dowry, great job!'
It is true that we put a great deal of trust in filmmakers and many films can be off-putting especially when they deal with matters of our precious Faith.
Our film production style offers a personal way to encounter a Saint or English Martyr.

Saint Francis of Assisi DVD blurb:

He was "the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation." (- Pope Francis).
In this film we look at the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, probably the most popular Saint in the Catholic Church. He was an Italian Roman Catholic friar, deacon and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land and remains one of the most venerated religious figures in history, not because of his achievements but because of his life and message of simplicity, love and peace as well as his profound love for the Church, the Passion of Christ and his great example of prayer.
We journey with Saint Francis through his whole life including his conversion, his miracles, prayers, devotions and his legacy which is especially relevant today.
In 2007 Mary’s Dowry productions created a new form of film media to present the lives of the saints. Mary’s Dowry Productions recreates stunning silent visuals, informative, devotional narration, and original contemplative music that touches your spirit to draw you into a spiritual encounter with the saint. Watch with your spiritual eye, listen with your spiritual ear. Our films seek to offer a window into the lives of our saints. Using your spiritual senses we invite you to shut out the world, sit prayerfully and peacefully and go on a journey of faith, history and prayer with this Holy Saint and Founder.
Length and Format:
The film runs for 45 minutes and is available on Region Free DVD worldwide.

www.marysdowryproductions.org