St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Mililani will show a new movie about the eucharistic miracle of Bolsena and introduce the extraordinary 18-year-old fledgling filmmaker who produced and directed it, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 11 in the parish’s One Community Center.
The 40-minute film, “Faith Prevails: Miracle of Bolsena,” is the first for Solenne Santiago, who is originally from Wahiawa and who now lives with her family in Bremerton, Washington. She will be in Hawaii visiting relatives.
The movie tells the story of Father Peter of Prague, a 13th century priest who, doubting the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, had his faith restored when the host he consecrated began to bleed. Bolsena is the name of the Italian town where the miracle took place.
Santiago made the movie to earn the top Stars & Stripes Award from American Heritage Girls, a faith-based character development organization to which she belongs.
Santiago will speak on how she overcame the challenges making the film, which according to a June story about her in Northwest Catholic, the magazine for the Archdiocese of Seattle, took “1,864 volunteer hours, about 500 of them hers alone as writer, director, producer and editor.”
Helping her were family, friends and fellow American Heritage Girls troop members.
“We have an opportunity to have a young person address and connect with our youth, young adults and their families,” said Laleen Ramiscal, faith formation leader at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish, “hopefully witnessing how, with commitment and faith, anything is possible.”
“They will enjoy her back story of the making of this film,” she said. “Solenne believes that God was with her throughout this journey. This was her first ever attempt on this very challenging project that yielded many positive results.”
Admission is free. Register at stjohnmililani.org.