After four years on tour and 313 performances as Saint Faustina, actress Maria Vargo has retired from the role. Here are her reflections on portraying this saint:
Faustina was more than a show for me; it was a living, breathing prayer! With each performance, I got to fall more deeply in love with Our Lord and offer him my desires and struggles, my joy and anger.
In my life and in this performance, I’ve learned that Divine Mercy is life-changing, life-giving, and soul-saving. I've seen it, I've heard about it and I've lived it.
Mien Yockmann has spent the last six months editing the Faustina film. Here he reflects on what this experience has meant to him:
If you were to tell me just a year ago that I’d be working for a Catholic organization on a film about a mystic saint, I would’ve looked at you cynically, and said, “Yeah, right!”
In the year and a half that I’ve been working on the editing of Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy, I’ve come to such a profound understanding of not only Saint Faustina’s sacrifice, but how it has transformed my inner life.
During the scene where Faustina begs Jesus for the conversion of a soul for every stitch she makes, actress Jennifer Pagano crochets a little piece of needlework. After the show, she asks the Holy Spirit to show her someone to whom she should give it. Here’s what happened one night in San Clemente, CA:
Elena was not planning to come to see Faustina, but her boss had an extra ticket, so she agreed to go. She knew nothing about Saint Faustina or Divine Mercy, yet when the play began, she started to cry.
Over the past year I have traveled from east coast to west portraying Faustina, Messenger of Divine Mercy. Performing the show has been a powerful experience for me as an actress. By God’s grace, I have learned to appreciate the greatness of God’s gift of mercy.
With the Holy Spirit’s help, we are striving to capture, in cinematic form, the sorrowful mystery of the Scourging of Jesus.
Picture Faustina alone in her convent cell. All of a sudden, she is transported in a vision to the time and place of the scourging. Seeing her weep like the holy women of Jerusalem, Jesus looks up in great anguish.
“I suffer even greater pain than that which you see, my daughter,” He tells her.