Mary after the gospels: six movies
Mary after the gospels: six movies
Imagining the role that Mary played in the early church after the Ascension of Jesus.
Today, August 15, is the day when many churches—Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and others—remember the end of the Virgin Mary’s time on Earth.
I found myself wondering if there are any films that have depicted the end of Mary’s life, and one came to mind right away, plus another that seems to take place very close to the end of her life. As I thought about those films, I then started to wonder how many films have depicted Mary’s life after the gospels to any degree.
In the end, I came up with six: two that limit themselves to the biblical record (which basically stops at Acts 1), two that go beyond it somewhat, and two that depict Mary as an older woman who is basically near, or even at, the end of her life.
Here’s a quick rundown, starting with the films that stick to the biblical record:
The Visual Bible: Acts (1994)
The first, and perhaps most obvious, film is this word-for-word adaptation of the book of Acts. Mary is mentioned once in that book, when it says she was one of the women who were constantly praying with the apostles during the ten-day window between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14).
Alas, when the film’s narrator gets to this verse, the camera makes no effort to indicate which of the women in the room is Jesus’ mother Mary. I’m going to guess it’s the woman in the middle of this frame, though, because she’s got blue-ish clothes and she’s singled out in a few close-ups later on, including one in which she is the only woman who joins the male disciples in reciting the prayer from Acts 4:24-30.
Also, I think that might be John sitting next to the woman in the frame—and John, of course, is traditionally believed to be the “beloved disciple” who was told to look after Mary, when Jesus was on the cross (John 19:26-27). If that is Mary sitting next to John, then this could be another example of how the Visual Bible’s word-for-word adaptation of one text incorporates elements from other biblical texts.1
A.D. Anno Domini (1985)
The NBC miniseries A.D. Anno Domini, which juxtaposes the book of Acts with the lives of the Caesars, is similarly reticent in its depiction of Mary (played by The Diary of Anne Frank’s Millie Perkins). The miniseries does go further than the text by putting her in one of the Resurrection scenes, but after the Pentecost scene, where her presence is dictated by the New Testament, she vanishes from the film.
Brief as it is, though, I’ve always loved Mary’s appearance in the Pentecost scene. It begins with Mary telling the apostles about an ordinary incident from Jesus’ childhood, and then, just as she’s mulling over how much has changed since then, a wind rushes through the room and the apostles start speaking in tongues, and as the apostles run outside to speak to the crowd, she stays behind and looks around the room—and I have always wondered what she’s thinking in that moment.2
Next, the two films that extend Mary’s role deeper into the book of Acts:
A.D. The Bible Continues (2015) aka A.D. Kingdom and Empire
Not to be confused with that other NBC series, A.D. The Bible Continues was another series that blended the book of Acts with secular Roman politics and some totally fictitious storylines. The first two episodes depicted the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and then the third episode depicted Pentecost … and because Mary (Greta Scacchi) stuck around until episode five, she was present for a few more events, besides.
Primarily, she is there to reassure Peter and give him some guidance as the early Church is rocked by persecution from without and turmoil from within. Among other things, she welcomes him when he returns from prison (Acts 4:23), and she consoles him when he worries about the shockwaves sent through the church by the supernatural death of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).
But somewhere around the time Stephen becomes the church’s first martyr, she simply vanishes from the show. A few episodes later, James the brother of Jesus enters the picture and talks about a memory of Mary from his childhood—he seems to indicate that Mary was Jesus’ mother but not his own—and Mary is not there to give her side of the story, or to clarify just how she might be related to James.
The Bible Collection: Saint Paul (2000) aka Paul the Apostle
Despite the title, which makes the film sound like it’s focused on a single individual, The Bible Collection’s Saint Paul is actually a dramatization of the book of Acts that looks at the rise of the early church as a whole. That means it pays attention to characters like Peter and Barnabas before Paul becomes a part of their lives.
And, interestingly, as part of its bigger-picture look at the early church, Saint Paul also gives a prominent role to Mary (Daniela Poggi), who is present for several key events from the book of Acts, and some fictitious events as well. Just consider this exchange from the scene in which Stephen takes Barnabas and his wife Hagar to John’s home, and John introduces Barnabas and Hagar to Mary for the first time:
Hagar (kneeling before Mary): I’m your servant!
Barnabas: Mother of Jesus!
Mary: I’m just a person like you. Don’t kneel to me.
Barnabas: You’re chosen by God!
Mary: We all are chosen for a task by God. It is our job to find what he needs from us. Come and eat with us, and we will tell you all about Jesus.
Here, Mary basically responds to Barnabas and his wife the same way the biblical Peter responded when the Roman centurion Cornelius fell at his feet:
As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” (Acts 10:25-26)
And Mary’s involvement in the film doesn’t end there. A not-quite-complete list:
Mary greets Peter and John after they return from Samaria (Acts 8:25).
Mary sees Saul leave for Damascus and informs the disciples that they need to warn the Christians there (Acts 9:1-2).
Mary consoles a Sadducee’s wife who feels responsible for Peter’s arrest (Acts 12:3), and she teaches the Sadducee’s wife the Lord’s Prayer.
Mary serves food at the Council of Jerusalem, gives her approval to the new nickname “Christian” (Acts 11:26)—“I think Jesus would like this,” she says—and she gives her “Amen” when the council arrives at its resolution permitting Gentiles to become Christians without following Jewish customs (Acts 15:1-35).
Mary is still there in Jerusalem when Paul returns at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 21:17-19). Most historians believe he returned around AD 57, so Mary would have to be in her mid- to late 70s by this point, but there is no indication that the Mary of this film is feeling her age.
Mary’s role in the film is, perhaps, less pronounced the further it gets into Paul’s story and the further it gets from the story of Peter and the other earliest Christians. But her presence lingers in this film far, far beyond the one brief reference to her at the beginning of Acts. And she is not simply living with John, or mentoring Peter, or anything narrow like that; she is actively involved in the life of the entire community: serving food, teaching prayers, and basically being part of the overall group.
And then there are the films that focus on the end of Mary’s life, when her focus is less on guiding the church into new territory than on helping to shape its legacy:
The Chosen: Season 2 (2021)
The life-of-Jesus series The Chosen is based on the gospels, but two episodes have now had framing devices that jump ahead to the AD 40s, twenty years or so after the series proper—and Mary (Vanessa Benavente) is a prominent figure in both of them.
In ‘Thunder’, the first episode of Season 2, the apostles are mourning the death of James the son of Zebedee (Acts 12:1-2), which took place sometime in AD 41-44, during the brief reign of Herod Agrippa I. Mary, at this point, is living with James’ brother John—she and John even address each other as “mother” and “son”—and they discuss some ideas for the gospel that John is planning to write.
Then there is ‘The Messengers’, a Christmas special that came out late last year. This episode has a framing device set in AD 48, when Mary is staying with Lazarus and recovering in bed from a fever, and she tells Mary Magdalene her version of the story of Jesus’ birth so that Luke can include it in the gospel that he is writing.
And so, just as the series makes Mary a much more active figure in the ministry of Jesus than the gospels do, it also shows her being actively involved in the creation of the scriptures that will shape the church’s memory of her son and his ministry.
Full of Grace (2015)
Full of Grace is the one film I can think of that actually dramatizes the death of Mary.
Written and directed by Andrew Hyatt—who went on to make 2018’s Paul, Apostle of Christ—this film is set “almost ten years” after the Resurrection, at a time when the church has endured some persecution (as per Acts 12) and is still dealing with controversies like whether Gentiles need to follow Jewish customs (pre-Acts 15).3
In the middle of all these arguments, the early Christians look to Peter for leadership—and he doesn’t feel up to the task. So it falls to Mary (Algerian actress Bahia Haifi) to provide the reassurance he needs before she, too, leaves this earthly life.
Mary doesn’t directly address any of the controversies that Peter is dealing with—except for taking a sly dig at the claim that Jesus had “brothers and sisters”. (“Of all people, I would imagine I would have insight on that,” she says.) Indeed, there’s something of a split, in this film, between the apostles, who are living in the present and looking to the future, and Mary, who is basically looking to the past.
It is the male apostles who talk amongst themselves about Paul’s letters, the death of John’s brother James, and similar issues. But Mary, in her flashbacks and monologues, dwells mainly on the birth, childhood, and death of Jesus—i.e. on the events of the gospels. The main exception is an early scene in which she talks to Peter about his preaching at Pentecost (Acts 2), and she recalls how the people of Jerusalem hoped they could be healed by lying in Peter’s shadow (Acts 5:15). And that is as close as this film comes to fully integrating Mary into the dramatic action of Acts.
Notably, the film kind of hedges its bets on whether Mary had a special relationship with John—possibly because it might have diluted the significance of the time she spends with Peter. John shows up half-way through the film and asks Peter, “How is Mother?”—so, okay, he feels entitled to call her that. But Mary doesn’t seem to be living with him. Indeed, we learn that the Mary of this film adopted an orphan named Zara at some point after the Resurrection and raised her as her own, and now Zara is looking after Mary as the film begins—so the Mary of this film, rather than live under someone else’s protection, actually offered protection to someone else.
Thematically, the Mary of this film emphasizes her unique connection to Jesus—she shared flesh with him while he was growing in her body—but she also takes pains to tell the early Christians that all of them can play a part in bringing Jesus into the world, by saying yes to him in their hearts and being his hands and feet, etc.
So, those are the six films. And what patterns do we see in them?
First, it is very rare for a cinematic depiction of Mary to go beyond the one reference to her in the first chapter of Acts. A.D. Anno Domini doesn’t even try, and The Visual Bible never quite clarifies which woman she is. A.D. The Bible Continues keeps her around for a few more chapters but then kind of forgets her, and even films that are set a decade or two after the first chapter of Acts, like Full of Grace and those two episodes of The Chosen, tend to portray her as someone who lives to the side of the biblical narrative, dwelling on her memories of what happened before Pentecost. Only Saint Paul makes her an active participant in current events, beyond the first few chapters of Acts.
Second, despite the fact that John’s gospel says quite clearly that Mary lived with the beloved disciple (traditionally believed to be John) after the crucifixion of Jesus, no film has really dramatized this—possible subtle nods in The Visual Bible, Saint Paul, and Full of Grace aside—with the exception of the prologue to that one episode of The Chosen where John is processing the martyrdom of his brother James. But even The Chosen loses track of John, the second time it depicts the older Mary.
Third, of the four films that go beyond Pentecost to any degree, two of them, A.D. The Bible Continues and Full of Grace, depict Mary as a mentor to Peter, specifically, because of his leadership role in the church. In Saint Paul, she plays a role like Peter’s, by telling someone not to kneel to her, but she is basically a mentor to everyone, biblical and fictitious. And in The Chosen, she interacts primarily with John and Mary Magdalene (and with Luke, who has already interviewed her for his gospel, and who receives some extra information from her through Mary Magdalene).
Fourth, the longer a movie keeps Mary around, the more elevated a role it gives her in the early church. In A.D. The Bible Continues, she mentors Peter through some of the church’s earliest growing pains. In Saint Paul, she gives her imprimatur, as it were, to some of the key developments in early church history. In The Chosen, she inspires some of the writing in the gospels, and she gives Mary Magdalene a relic (the swaddling cloths) and a priestly blessing from the Torah (Numbers 6:22-27). And in Full of Grace, shortly before she dies, she reassures the apostles that, like Jesus, “I will never leave you. I will be with you until the end of days” (cf Matthew 28:20).
So, there may be only a few films that show the life of Mary beyond the events of the gospels, but already, it’s possible to see some recurring patterns as well as some notable differences. And it’s striking to see how cinematic interest in Mary has risen across the denominational board, both in basically Catholic films like Full of Grace and in shows like The Chosen that reflect a basically Evangelical point of view.
Did I overlook any films? If so, please let me know.
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Here is where you can stream the films above, at least if you live in Canada:
The Visual Bible: Acts can be streamed via Pure Flix.
A.D. The Bible Continues can be streamed via Pure Flix.
The Bible Collection: Saint Paul can be streamed via Tubi and Pure Flix.
The Chosen can be streamed via VidAngel or the show’s app (Android | Apple). The two episodes discussed here are also available on the show’s YouTube channel, embedded in livestreams (‘Thunder’, ‘The Messengers’).
Full of Grace can be streamed via Tubi, Pure Flix, and The Dove Channel.
I do not currently know of any official way to watch A.D. Anno Domini online.
The Visual Bible’s press kit promised: “No scriptwriter’s liberties. No interpretations. No dramatic license.” But if you were doing a straightforward visualization of Acts 1:14, which says the apostles were praying “with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers,” then you would arguably put Jesus’ brothers, not John, next to Mary and the other women. Inserting elements from another text into the text you’re adapting—harmonizing texts—is, itself, a form of interpretation, and arguably a kind of scriptwriter’s liberty.
Also, as you can tell from the frame, the woman who might be Mary doesn’t really come into the shot—which is panning across the room—until the narrator has moved on to the verse that comes after the verse that mentions Mary. This stands in stark contrast to the film’s many close-ups on Saul during Peter and John’s trials before the Sanhedrin, long before the text actually mentions Saul. Focusing on Saul before the text mentions him is a form of scriptwriter’s liberty, or dramatic license, too. And, it shows that the filmmakers could have focused our attention on Mary when her name is mentioned if they had wanted to.
It’s an interesting question, whether Mary would have experienced Pentecost the same way the others did, given that she was already filled with the Holy Spirit when she became pregnant with Jesus (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35).
Some of the controversies mentioned in Full of Grace feel decades, if not centuries, ahead of their time, like the accusations of incest and cannibalism—which Simon the Zealot seems to think some Christian heretics are actually doing!—or the disagreements about “the Trinity” and the “real presence”, theological concepts that certainly have their roots in the New Testament but weren’t fully fleshed out, or given those names, until much later.