Mysteries of the Faith explores the history and mystery of important Catholic relics that are believed to have miraculous powers. The docuseries is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Mysteries of the Faith takes a look at various Catholic relics. While some of these relics are believed to be thousands of years old, there are also relics that are very new.
The series features the most important relic of all — the Crown of Thorns. Roman soldiers made Jesus wear a crown of twigs at the time of his crucifixion. The 2000-year-old crown was kept in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris until the Notre-Dame fire.
The docuseries also focuses on the Holy Grail, the vessel that was used by Jesus at the Last Supper. The Holy Grail is in Spain, but there is more than one. The question remains: which one is real and which one is fake?
Centuries ago, the Holy Cross was found and split into several pieces. A splinter of it is found in Rio de Janeiro, and there is a story about how the splinter was brought to the New World.
The other relics discussed in the docuseries include the Holy Face, the Shroud of Turin, as well as the shirt of Judge Rosario Livatino, who was murdered by the Mafia in Sicily in 1990. It also features interviews with experts as well as the people whose personal experiences have led them to believe in these reclis’ miraculous powers.
Positives
The docuseries tells the story of how each relic came to be in a clear and concise way. Apart from that, the interviews with both the experts as well as the believers convey the importance that each of these relics holds in the Christian world.
The interviews also help the audience understand why these relics hold sway over the believers. Various experts talk about how being close to these objects helps people get close to God.
In some cases, it is contestable whether the relic is real or not. The debate between science and religion is neverending, which makes it interesting to see how so many believers stay firm in their beliefs by attributing several miracles to these relics.
Negatives
While discussing a relic, the docuseries often veers onto the subject of another relic before returning to the original discussion. By doing that, it disrupts the account and prevents the audience from getting invested in the topic of any of the relics.
The docuseries tries to pay close attention to events like the Notre-Dame fire. The fire is a small part of the history of the relic, but the docuseries drags it out. It spends a lot of time on various accounts of the fire, which the series could have done without.
Similarly, the series devotes ample time to people’s pilgrimages and experiences that strengthened their belief in the relics. When that happens, the series becomes more about people’s faith than the relics, which makes it somewhat religious rather than investigative.
Verdict
Mysteries of the Faith is a docuseries that focuses not only on the subject of the history of the relics but also other related factors like people’s belief in them. It is not very investigative, and for that reason, it might appeal more to the believers.
Mysteries of the Faith
Director: Robin Dashwood
Date Created: 2023-10-30 13:48
2
Also Read: Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-fi Film Club review: Nostalgic documentary is passable