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The first four episodes of Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints are airing now on the Fox Nation streaming channel. While there are a number of faith-based films and television series out there, The Saints stands out from most of them because of its artistry and for its often-gritty realism.
Viewers who are expecting the more family-friendly vibe of a show like The Chosen will probably find themselves disconcerted by certain aspects of The Saints. In particular, this is certainly a series made for adults, not children, with moments of intense violence and even nudity.
Some will find these aspects objectionable, but if we look at the motivations and influences that inspired The Saints, it may help us better appreciate what Scorsese and his collaborators are up to. (While Scorsese did not direct any episodes of the series, he has been trying to get it made since the 1980s and his strong creative influence as producer is evident throughout.)
1. Iconography of ‘The Saints’
Scorsese has been clear that the inspiration for the series went all the way back to his childhood, when he sought refuge in New York City’s Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. In interviews, he has said that he was captivated by all the statues of the saints inside the church. “Who are these people? What is a saint?” Scorsese wondered.
Many of the saint statues we see in churches today tend to be friendly and inviting, but the old statues that young Scorsese saw would have been much more intense. They often depicted the saints at their moments of martyrdom and could be gory in their depictions of wounds and suffering.
We can see this iconography clearly in the first four episodes of The Saints: St. Joan’s direct and fervent gaze, John the Baptist’s wild appearance, and even the shocking nakedness of the starving Maximillian Kolbe all find their origin in those old saint statues that have haunted Scorsese for the past 70 years. Certainly the image of St. Sebastian tied to a tree and pierced with arrows is directly inspired by statues and paintings of that saint.
2. Classic cinema and ‘The Saints’
Scorsese is a great admirer of classic cinema and has devoted much of his time to the preservation and promotion of these works. Two films that seem to have heavily influenced The Saints are Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s
.Both of these films come from the tradition of Italian neorealism, which rejected the spectacle and overwrought dramatization of Hollywood-style epics. When the two films were released, many Catholics objected because Jesus and St. Francis weren’t depicted as superheroes but as real people in mundane circumstances that all of us can relate to. Eventually, however, their spiritual power was recognized and both films were even placed on the Vatican’s 1995 list of “important films.”
In The Saints, the holy men and women depicted are not superheroes but real people who sweat and have flaws like the rest of us. It makes sense, then, that elaborate miracles and visions are not depicted, because the real miracle is the inner grace that transforms these everyday people into the saints we admire.
3. Secularism and ‘The Saints’
It is important to note that both Rossellini and Pasolini claimed to be atheists. They made their films not as advertisements for Christianity, but as creative artists who were haunted by the figures of St. Francis and Jesus. Oddly, part of the power of their films may stem from the fact that they were made by nonbelievers.
In contrast, Martin Scorsese has a much more open attitude to Catholicism and is a seeker at heart. “At times I’m a practicing Catholic,” he told the New York Times. “At this point my relationship with it is a dialogue that I have with certain clerics and priests.”
Like the two films that have clearly influenced the series, The Saints is not intended to be a piece of Catholic propaganda. It is instead made for seekers who want to explore what place God might have in their lives.
That doesn’t mean The Saints isn’t for practicing Catholics, too. The questions raised – How can a saint have flaws even after they have converted? What does it mean to be holy in a violent world? – are of interest to everyone. And while you may not agree with all the choices Scorsese and his team have made, the admiration they have for these holy people is clearly genuine.
4. Dialogue and ‘The Saints’
Each episode of The Saints ends with a brief discussion that Scorsese has with three friends – Fr. James Martin, scholar Paul Elie, and poet Mary Karr. Their dialogue is freewheeling and drifts from point to point – much as any authentic dialogue among friends might.
A viewer might ask: What is the value of this discussion and should I skip it? But these conversations are worthy conclusions to the episodes.
The panelists aren’t afraid to voice the kinds of thoughts that any seeker might have. As they grapple with their ideas and questions, we might recall what Benedict XVI said about his personal mission: to “show what faith means in the contemporary world … and give people the courage to have faith, courage to live concretely in the world with faith.”
The German Pope was a big believer in the goodness of questioning, confident that the faith could hold up to any doubts we express. The panel discussions on The Saints, then, are part of this acknowledgment that the human mind is made to seek the truth, and that we have to wade through the ideas of today’s culture to do so.
The next four episodes of The Saints will run in March and April 2025. Scorsese and his collaborators will look at the lives of St. Francis of Assisi, Mary Magdalene, Thomas Beckett, and Moses the Black.
And today we celebrate...