SAINTS

Exploring the life of Peter, from being a successful fisherman to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ and being dependent on Jesus Christ.

Saint Peter, a reluctant but passionate leader, from the crucifixion of Jesus to his own. The film's first half dramatizes the New Testament's "Acts": early fear, the renewal of Pentecost, Saul's conversion, the decision to baptize pagans, and the Apostles' dispersal. In the second half, an aged Peter goes to Rome to join Paul, arriving on the day of Paul's arrest. Paul's death brings a crisis to Rome's Christians and to Peter; lessons from Jesus's teachings guide his decision to stay. Events within the fictive household of Persius, a Roman aristocrat, capture the upheaval that Christian teachings bring to the Eternal City.

Peter the Fisherman and Paul of Tarsus assume leadership of the Church as they struggle against violent opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ and their own personal conflicts.

Saul of Tarsus is struck blind and converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. Renamed Paul, he endures persecution while preaching Jesus' teachings, travelling widely until being imprisoned in Rome for his faith.

Luke risks his life to visit Paul, who is captive in a Roman prison under Nero's rule. Together, they struggle against a determined emperor and the frailties of the human spirit to live out the Gospel and spread the message to the world.

When Jesus is taken off the cross at Golgotha, THOMAS arrives there. Like most of the other disciples, he had worriedly taken refuge with friends in Jerusalem after Jesus's arrest. After Jesus's burial, the disciples decide to leave Jerusalem quickly, but Thomas refuses to leave Jesus' body behind, as he fears that the tomb may be desecrated. When MARY MAGDALENE tells the disciples that the resurrected Jesus has appeared to her, they are all convinced of his god-like nature apart from Thomas. He sets off to look for the corpse. Thomas still has his doubts even when the disciples tell him that Jesus appeared to them, too. Therefore, he meets a legionary who pretends to know where the body can be found. The man leads Thomas into the catacombs for money # but the corpse he shows him is someone else's. Thomas is told to announce to the others that he has seen Jesus's corpse, and put an end to the belief in resurrection once and for all. When Thomas refuses to do so, a life-or-death struggle ensues. Torches fall from the walls, transforming the underground labyrinth into a sea of flame, and Thomas saves the soldier's life. Out of gratitude, the man sends him to see his superior LONGINUS, who was rejected from the army as a "madman" and almost beaten to death. Longinus now tells Thomas how he witnessed the resurrection. This doesn't convince Thomas either. In despair he starts to reproach himself to Joanna, saying because of his doubts he can no longer be a worthy disciple of Jesus. But Joanna takes him back to the disciples. Then Jesus appears to all of them and convinces Thomas of the resurrection. Overjoyed, Thomas is now prepared to spread the Christian faith.

Set against the magnificent backdrop of classic Rome, "The Sword and the Cross" is the story of a notorious harlot who must choose between her lascivious lifestyle and the love and affection of her decent-minded brother.

When the marriage between AMOS and MARY MAGDALENE turns out to be childless, he casts her out and gets a divorce. Mary has to leave Magdala. She befriends SILVANO, a Roman prefect, who promises her a new life at his side. A few days after her departure Mary meets the prophet JOHN THE BAPTIST, whom Silvano suspects of being a revolutionary. The prefect tells her to cultivate John more intensively. In this way Mary becomes acquainted with the teaching of the coming Messiah, and it begins to interest her. To protect John from the Romans she pretends to Silvano that he is harmless # but when the prefect finds out that how dangerous John is in the eyes of the tetrarch HEROD ANTIPAS, he feels he was wronged and purposely tricked by Mary. He casts her out as well. After a suicide attempt, Mary lowers herself to prostitution. HEROIDAS, the wife of Herod Antipas, invites Mary to come to her because of her knowledge of the healing arts. In this way she gets to know SALOME, who later asks for the Baptist's head. Mary is also drawn into the war for Galilee, in the course of which her home town of Magdala goes up in flames. She tries in vain to save the life of SAMUEL, the son of her friend JOANNA. He dies in her arms. She then takes him to JESUS # who brings him back to life. Mary recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, and becomes one of his disciples.

Twelve men heard and spread the message of Jesus. Only one woman understood it.

Dioscuro, governor of Scandriglia, is willing to do anything to get to the Roman government. His daughter Barbara, instead she is disinterested in everything and continued her studies in astronomy from Polycarp and along with her friends: Giuliana, Tito, Crio and the soldier Claudio. With them she will starts a spiritual journey that will totally change her life, also marked by the death of her mother, making the Christian faith its raison d'etre. All this will bring it into conflict with the government, including the prefect Marciano and especially with the father who does not share her choice and that she had not predicted this future course.

This biography tells the life story of Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, a North African region during the last years of the Roman Empire. The film details Augustine's struggle to maintain religious decorum in a civilization on the verge of plunging into the Dark Ages.

The story of the life and conversion of Aurelius Augustinus to Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Constantine joins the Roman army to find his missing childhood friend. Once alerted to his friend's whereabouts, he prepares for an all out war between the East and the West.

The life story of the multi-talented German nun Hildegard von Bingen. The film portrays an original woman - best known as a composer and religious visionary - whose grand claims often run counter to the patriarchal world around her. The monks and nuns at the convent become a kind of family, offering both confidants and enemies. For example Jutta, struggling with her jealousy of Hildegard's success, and the young Richardis who worships Hildegard both as an intellectual role model and a mother figure.

King Henry II of England comes to terms with his affection for his close friend and confidant Thomas Becket, who finds his true honor by observing God's divine will rather than the King's.

A series of vignettes depicting the lives of the original Franciscan monks, including their leader and the bumbling Ginepro.

In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.

The plot is loosely based on the legend from Galicia in north-west Spain of the founding by St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) of the Convent of San Francisco near Santiago de Compostela in 1214 with the help of a poor charcoal burner named Cotolay, who found a buried treasure which paid for the construction. This slow moving but engaging film opens with St Francis arriving in Santiago with two other monks - Juan of Florence and Bernardo de Quintavalle - during a pilgrimage there to visit the tomb of St James the Apostle in the cathedral. He receives a divine revelation to tarry there until the meaning of his vision becomes clear. Faint with hunger he meets Cotolay (the 14-year-old Didier Haudepin) who gives the monks (stolen) figs to eat and leads them to the nearby Mount Pedroso where logging-master Tarna gives them food and lodging in return for work during their stay. While praying on the mountain St Francis believes he has been divinely instructed that his order of mendicant friars should found convents, starting at Santiago. Because St Francis is struck down with fever and blindness, Cotolay promises him that he will build it for him. Believing his grandfather's tales of buried treasure at a ruined abbey Cotolay vainly goes in search of it, until St Francis tells him that real treasure lies in one's self, in faith, humility and obedience; with these qualities one can build a whole world, not just a convent. With charm, piety, zeal and kindness Cotolay sets about his task, persuading the abbot of St Martin's Benedictine Monastery to grant a parcel of his land as large as a bull's skin in return for a basketful of fish. The abbot agrees but Cotolay cuts the skin into thin strips and marks out a far larger plot of land than expected in the Val de Dios (Valley of God). Next Cotolay gets the cathedral master mason Mateo to donate a pile of stones and has the loggers transport them to the chosen site in a competition of strength. After Mateo has constructed the convent St Francis is taken to the new building where his sight is restored. The film ends with St Francis taking his leave of a tearful Cotolay, who wants him to stay. (It should be noted that the version of the film with English subtitles is usually known as Cotolay, rather than by the original Spanish title of El Nino y El Lobo - The Boy and the Wolf.) The wolf of the Spanish title plays only a very minor part in the story and is eventually tamed by St Francis.

A WWI English officer is inspired the night before a dangerous mission by a vision of Joan of Arc, whose story he relives.

Dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.

The life of Saint Francis, a saint who was born rich, in the medieval Tuscany, and abandoned all his goods to live closer to the population and is nowadays remembered as the saint protector of Italy.

The life of St. Francis of Assisi from rich man's son to religious humanitarian.

In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.

The abbreviated life of the 15th-century French heroine.