Each year the Seton Shrine stages the faith-based drama, Back From The Dead (BFTD). It is a guided nighttime cemetery walk where visitors encounter actors portraying saints who tell their stories. It is one of the Shrine’s most popular programs, drawing a couple thousand young people, families, and school and church groups who are looking for an alternative to the secular messages surrounding Halloween. This year, the Shrine’s production featured American saints and individuals in the canonization process — Servants of God, Venerables, and Blesseds. The theme was in keeping with the recent 50th anniversary celebration of the canonization of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint.
BFTD serves as a spiritual jumping off point to examine life, death, and eternal salvation. The program emphasizes God’s love and mercy and His desire for all of us to be saints. While it is designed to provoke thoughts and emotions for visitors to the Shrine, it also deeply affects those who participate in the production.
Corey Kinna, a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s who served as a debrief leader for the tour groups said the experience deeply moved him. “I personally went through the program each night to experience the different actors and their stories. A few brought me to tears,” he said. “I enjoyed my role as the last person the groups talked to and it was good to hear how they were affected by the experience.”
He also said that the focus on American saints was eye-opening. “I think we tend to think of saints as dusty historical figures, mostly from Europe, but Mother Seton did break that glass ceiling. This year’s program really put forth the truth that sainthood is within reach for everyone,” he said .
Amanda Williams portrayed Mother Seton this year. Taking on the role was a bit overwhelming, so she went to the primary source for inspiration, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton herself. “I went to her tomb. I wept. I asked her to help me reach the people. I asked her to please help me tell her story, to please use me to speak through,” she said.
Although Amanda has been involved in past productions portraying several other saints, she acknowledged that this year was special and challenging. She relied on her relationship with Mother Seton to guide her in her role just as she has relied on her to guide her through life. “As a mother, I have gone to her as an intercessor. For our kids, for spiritual battles, for marriage,” she said. “And BFTD has increased the faith of my family.”
A Chance Encounter, a Deepening Faith
Sister Judy Dusellier, D.C. was similarly moved by her participation in BFTD. She met a woman and her son in the basilica when they came in from the cemetery walk and asked for someone to join them in prayer. She was there to accommodate them. The woman had moved to the U.S. from Pakistan. In her native country she received instruction in Christianity from a group of sisters. She joined a group of 300 others, studying underground for fear of persecution. Once in the U.S., she was able to pursue her Christian faith openly, and she found she had plenty of reason to pray. Her son was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent chemotherapy and radiation, but his prognosis was not good. She prayed for his recovery and his condition turned around, eventually bringing him a clean bill of health. A neighbor suggested that she and her son attend BFTD and upon meeting Sister Judy, the woman asked to pray with her in thanksgiving.
“We sat and prayed together for a while. I took her to the tomb of Mother Seton, and we also prayed there. I told her a brief version of Mother Seton’s life story and how she experienced some of the same struggles and the same graces that Mother Seton had to live out her life as a Catholic,” said Sister Judy
The woman told Sister Judy that she understood why her neighbor had sent her to the Shrine. She felt blessed to hear Mother Seton’s story. “She hugged me for a long time and cried,” Sister Judy said. “I was tearing up and was trying to be strong for her, but then I realized how blessed I was and how much closer I felt to Mother Seton. I think before that, I kind of took the presence of Mother Seton for granted. The power of the woman’s prayer that night brought me to the realization that I too could connect to Mother Seton within areas in my life I have taken for granted and not expressed my gratefulness for the graces I have received living here on these hallowed grounds. It always surprises me how one person’s story can touch areas in my life that I have never seen or felt before. They may not be ‘big’ miracles, but they are small glimpses of light that awaken the places in my life that may need healing or the reception of grace that I never felt before.”
An Unlikely Actor Makes a Holy Connection
Seminarian Ryan Gerbes was late for dinner. But curiosity overrode hunger when he saw a group of people going over lines from a script at Mount Saint Mary’s University. He stopped to ask what they were doing. That inquiry introduced him to the life of Venerable Bishop Alphonse Gallegos and landed him a part in BFTD. He had no experience as an actor but when he read the script and learned about Gallegos, a man he had never heard of before, he felt a deep connection. “It was God’s hand at work,” Gerbes said.
Gallegos served the homeless, gang members, and prostitutes and was known to be an affable presence, always smiling and finding joy in the service of God. Ryan has spent some time serving the homeless in his hometown of Baltimore, smiles easily, and eagerly explains where he finds joy.
“Joy comes from everywhere, from Jesus, the Eucharist. In John 15:11 Jesus tells us ‘These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full.’ He calls us to abide in Him, and by keeping His commandments, we will abide in this love. He invites every soul into true, full joy, which we can only find in His love.”
Ryan said Mother Seton provides an endless source of joyful guidance to him. In the propaedeutic stage of his formation, he spent a year living at the Blessed Stanley Rother House on the grounds of the Seton Shrine and many hours praying in the basilica. “She has become a real mother to me. Every night before BFTD I prayed at her tomb.”
Ryan’s joyful portrayal of Gallegos and his connection to Mother Seton prompted him to reach out to Father Eliseo Gonzalez, postulator at the guild supporting the cause of sainthood for Gallegos. Father Gonzalez was unable to personally join the other guilds at information booths at the 50th anniversary celebration of the canonization of Saint Elizabth Ann Seton this year. But, at Ryan’s invitation, Father Gonzalez attended BFTD and they connected over their deep admiration for Gallegos. “The Venerables and the Blesseds — this is having an impact on them,” said Ryan. “BFTD is helping with their causes.”
The Most Difficult Role
Michael Moore is a seminarian who has participated in BFTD for more than five years. He said each role he played helped him to connect to a different truth and in some cases introduced him to new saintly friends. “When I portrayed St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, I grew in my appreciation for the majesty of God’s creation and was challenged to grow in my love for the poor. BFTD also allows us to experience some redemptive suffering because there are some nights it is really cold or even a little rainy! But it is all worth it to bring Christ to the hundreds of pilgrims who attend.”
This year Michael may have found himself in the most difficult role. “This year, I portray the devil, an incredibly important role in the arc of BFTD which reveals how the devil works and serves as a reminder that he does in fact exist. However, this has been spiritually demanding as I have no point of connection with this role as I have been able to find in the past with the saintly characters I played. Instead, I am constantly aware of the evil that is present in our world, and I portray that evil to 11 groups a night. This reality has led me to prayer. Between groups I find myself meditating on how Christ defeated evil by coming face to face with it on the cross and in the harrowing of Hell. I also pray for the groups that come through that they may be delivered from the temptations of Satan and that they may become aware of his attacks and so overcome them with the help of Christ.”
In the end this year’s production was all about sharing the lives of Americans saints, showing visitors that they are accessible. Seminarian Cory Kinna described BFTD as a device to bring people close to the saints so that they connect with them and realize they can live saintly lives, too. He said, “In The Seven Story Mountain, Thomas Merton records a great conversation he had with a friend about becoming a saint. His friend told him, ‘All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe God will make you what He created you to be, if you will consent to let Him do it? All you have to do is desire it.’”
*The Seven Story Mountain, Thomas Merton, p. 265, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Modern Classic edition.