Wednesday 5 October 2022

Saints and Blesseds for October

We celebrate some inspiring Saints and Blesseds through the month of October. For Catholic devotional and informative films about many of these Saints we have more information here (posting worldwide) including Blessed Bartolo Longo, Saint Faustina, Saint Francis and more at Mary's Dowry Productions







Friday 12 August 2022

Saint Catherine of Siena, a summer 2022 filming day from Mary's Dowry Productions



Yesterday (August 11th), Mary's Dowry Productions spent several hours filming at Cissbury Ring in West Sussex. We used the sun scorched fields and hazy heat to capture our silent portrayal of one of the great Saints of the Universal Church, Saint Catherine of Siena. As always we like to use our local surroundings. The South Downs at this time of year work well for European settings. We decided to work on our film about Saint Catherine of Siena and capture our own imagery for our film.




This film will be told from Saint Catherine's point of view. A popular and quotable Saint, her life is of interest and inspiration. She remained a single laywoman all her life and in her later years joined the Dominicans as third order member. She is a mystic and a Doctor of the Church. She is renowned for her great love of the Papacy and of the figure of the Pope and had a special calling for the Church in her time.


Mystically, Saint Catherine is remembered for her many spiritual letters, her book The Dialogue, as well as bearing the stigmata and the Crown of Thorns. She was the only one who could see this, it was invisible to everyone else. She lived in the 14th Century and was of special importance to the Papacy. She carried out many missions entrusted to her by the pope, which was quite rare for a woman in the Middle Ages.


During her life, Saint Catherine sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote obedience to the Pope, at that time, Pope Urban VI, and to defend what she calls the "vessel of the Church". After spending much of the middle of her life in silence and solitude, Saint Catherine was called by Christ to be among people. She travelled with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God".




During our filming at Cissbury Ring, we had to walk down the steep hill from the Iron Age hillfort and into a wooded area. It was here that we discovered an area of trees and branches shaped like a Crown of Thorns. We used this for some imagery of Saint Catherine of Siena bearing her stigmata and Crown of Thorns.



Our film about Saint Catherine of Siena will be available soon from Mary's Dowry productions. Celebrate the lives and missions of the English Martyrs, Saints and Blesseds with the films of Mary's Dowry Productions - more here: Mary's Dowry Productions


“If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.” - Saint Catherine of Siena

Tuesday 1 February 2022

Margery Kempe filming morning - New film

 Margery Kempe

This morning, Tuesday 1st February 2022, the Mary's Dowry Productions filming team went out on location to shoot footage for an upcoming film about Margery Kempe. Here are some screenshots from the filming morning.


We filmed for an hour and a half on location at Patching village once again, local to us, with its old church and grounds and walks and fields.


This enabled us to shoot some interesting shots of Margery Kempe travelling with her staff and pilgrim bag.


We also filmed her with one of her babies as on one pilgrimage she was pregnant and gave birth.


With the narration, written by Tony Triggs, for guidance, we were able to recreate various scenes and moments from Margery Kempe's life. Here she hears the sounds of bellows, which was the breathing of the Holy Spirit in her ears, as well as a bird singing joyfully in her right ear.


Margery Kempe was known for her displays of emotion and outbursts of prayer or sobs.



We filmed Margery Kempe with her baby walking on pilgrimage.


Margery Kempe also experienced mystical visions and ecstasies. We filmed these inside the church and outside the church.



Margery Kempe also saw devils. She was tormented by them and fought them off, as well as being dragged and pulled about them.


Thank you to our mum, Theresa, who did a wonderful job of portraying Margery Kempe.

We are pleased to now be able to make further progress with this film now we finally have the visuals to accompany the narration. This film will be made available from Mary's Dowry Productions website soon. Check back for more information and visit our website at: