Life of St Oliver to hit world screens
Wednesday July 30 2008
The film, A Journey to Sainthood, was made in 2006 by a group of local priests, aided by lay people with a devotion to St Oliver and a Drogheda based video camera enthusiast.
Now it is set for world wide release on the Catholic satellite station Eternal Word Television Network.It is a great honour and a testament to the quality of the film making. It?s also fantastic because the life of St Oliver, which has many parallels with situations we face today, will become known to a much wider audience,? said Fr Paddy Rushe.
A curate in St Peter?s Parish at the time, Fr Rushe helped narrate the film.
Laytown Parish Priest Monsignor John Hanley is equally pleased. It is wonderful to know that St Oliver will be made know to a far wider group of people that we originally thought the film would reach.?
Msg Hanley was the Postulator for the canonisation of St Oliver. A renowned Catholic historian, he wrote the film script.
What started out as an idea of providing visitors to the shrine of St Oliver with a 20 minute video of his life, grew into a sizeable film project lasting over an hour.
?As it happens many aspects of St Oliver?s life have echo with today. He helped broker a peace deal between Government and rebels and he too lived at a time when the church faced great difficulties,? Fr Rushe pointed out.
For Drogheda man Tony Breen, who helped broker the deal with Eternal Word Television, this is the culmination of a long labour of love.The idea came from Fr Rushe?s, along with Tommy Burns who set up the peace and reconciliation prayer meetings. Within a week of deciding to do it we were on our way to Rome to interview the woman, Mrs Giovanna Martiriggiano, who was cured by St Oliver. She was 92 and we were the first people ever to record an interview with her,? a delighted Tony Breen told the Drogheda Independent.
It was a Medical Missionary of Mary nun Rita Quigley from Donegal who as Sr Cabrini, began the process of St Oliver?s canonisation.
She was nursing the dying Mrs Martiriggiano in a Naples hospital, when she invoked the power of pray to the then Blessed St Oliver.Giovanna had been operated on and pronounced incurable. She was expected to die within 24 to 48 hours. Instead her recovery astounded the medics,? Tony explained.
On a tight budget but with a passion for their cause, the volunteer crew of Fr Rushe, Msg Hanley, Tommy Burns and video cameraman Tony Breen, devoted six months to researching and producing their film.
Now the results of their labours will be seen on Eternal Word TV, satellite number 589, in the autumn.
Copies of the film are also available from St Peter?s Parochical house.
