Glennamarie Consentino, a cast member of the "Back from the Dead" tour at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton the past six years, plays the role of the shrine's namesake Oct. 9 in Emmitsburg. Photo by Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff
As dusk fell on the mountains surrounding the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg Oct. 9, a wise old woman standing outside of the shrine’s cemetery warned those who passed to “listen closely.”
“Don’t waste the time of the dead or the ones who still live!” she told each of the 11 groups of 24 people as they passed. “The dead would like to have some words with you tonight.”
Ten “souls,” including saints, martyrs and souls in heaven and purgatory, shared their stories of struggles and joys during the shrine’s Back from the Dead cemetery walk. Even the devil appeared...
“You get to hear stories of people you might not otherwise hear of and having this historical setting is phenomenal,” said Vincent Smith, a seminarian for the Diocese of Colorado Springs who is in his fourth year of theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg.
Smith portrayed Blessed Stanley Rother, a martyr, who attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and was killed while working at a mission church in Guatemala in 1981.
“I think that affects how you present it when the audience is three feet in front of you,” Smith said, of the ability to walk amongst the participants. “To be able to have that engagement with them, I think, makes it very real for the actor but also hopefully makes this story very real for the people who are on the tour.”
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