Mother Joan Of The Angels
Bells
Why are they ringing?
That's the custom here. For lost travelers
Bishop's orders
For people lost in the forest
It is dangerous to be in the forest
- What's your name? - Juray
Going back tomorrow?
Yes. The monks want me
- Are you far from here? - A whole day's journey
What thin slices you are cutting, Father
That way, you won't even know you're eating bread
That's how we always cut bread at the monastery
Why?
It's greed and gluttony to devour large pieces
As I am a Wolodkowicz
You must be an extraordinary glutton, Father
May God repay you
How about telling the Father's fortune, Awdosia?
Why not? Priests too have fortunes
Many a maiden or woman...
...seeks her advice before entering a convent
He'd like to...
He'd like to see his future too but he can't
Tell him something about it
- What should I tell him? - Everything
Whether his journey will be successful...
...and who he'll meet
He'll meet a maid who will be a mother
That's common enough in Poland
You poor, poor lamb
Poor, poor lamb
You'll love a crooked one
Blessed be the Lord
For ever and ever
The holy maids are waiting for you, Father
And very impatient they are too
But no one knew I was coming
They know everything
But they tell lies sometimes
So you too have to come to see the holy maids, Father?
Do you know what's going on there?
What kind of holy maids they are?
Don't say such things
Leave it to the theologians. You just pray and be silent
Sister Porteress even left the gate open last night...
...for the priest who is to save them
How do you know what's going on in the convent?
I do odd jobs there
Are men allowed in there?
What good is a woman at chopping up big logs?
Or slaughtering a bull or a ram?
Surely the sisters do not eat meat
They do. They say the devil tempts them
Guard us from malice, oh Lord!
I do believe in our Holy Catholic Church...
...as I'm a Wolodkowicz
There's a village, Father...
...where everyone's a Wolodkowicz
The soil is poor there. We grow just flax and oats
The apples are sour. The flax is knotty, full of weeds
But the booze is as strong as anywhere
Your health...
...Canon
- I'm not a Canon - Then you will be
- To your heath - To your health
It's time
I must go
You go to sleep, Juray
Get up early
Father Provincial wants you back at once
Kaziuk
I must go to the convent
- Kaziuk will accompany you, Father - May God repay you
Blessed be the Lord
For ever and ever
- He did have some vodka - Not such a saint after all
They're all alike. All of them
Do your holy maids eat pork like us?
What for? They have another kind of life
Don't talk so much. You'll bring some mischief on us
In an evil hour
As I'm a Wolodkowicz, tell us what's going on in that convent?
Are the devils at large among the holy maids?
Stop that, sir
It's no joking matter
People are spying on each other
And reporting to the priests
Are there many priests in the convent?
Four. To do the exorcising. This one's the fifth
In Father Garniec's case...
...there were 12 of them who sentenced him to the stake
They had no reason to burn Father Garniec
How about the holy maids? Still dancing?
They're up to some better tricks
Is it true that Father Garniec was a sorcerer?
Are you really sorry for him?
Not sorry but it's a pity just the same
Even if he were the worst
What kind of man was he?
He was no saint
And he sizzled on the stake like a pig
How can they burn a man like that?
Go on, eat
How did they do it?
They just dragged him to the stake?
Did they take his clothes off?
The clothes catch fire first
So the man is left naked
Father Joseph
Welcome, Father Joseph
I'm Father Brym's housekeeper
Splendid, Krysia. Now leave me alone with our guest
A priest is no guest
No. Go and play, children
Kaziuk
Poor lambs. They're my only comfort
- Orphans? - Their mother is alive
Their father was burnt
They're Garniec's children
What future can they hope for?
The children of a priest and a sorcerer
Do you believe he had bad intentions?
I may doubt his sorcery but not his bad intentions
Did Satan get into him?
You'll have a hard task here, Father
I fasted and mortified myself the whole autumn
I prayed and keep praying. Yet I'm afraid of him
- Of whom? - The Evil One
I never set foot in the convent
I have my parish and church
Father Garniec also kept away but the women...
...I mean the nuns, were his undoing
True, he was young and handsome
While I'm old I won't come to Mother Joan of the Angels in her dreams
Did Father Garniec come to her?
He apparently came right through the convent walls
That's just the women's tales
You think so?
I do, but that's between us
The nuns wanted Father Garniec to come to them
These maids or the demons in them...
...tell such things at the top of their voices, in public
Saying where the devils sit in them
In church too. During exorcising
Such a shame. In church?
Tell this to the exorcising priests
They say if the people see the devil...
...their faith in God and the Church grows
That's why they show such things to the people
Like tricks at a fair
Can you bring God to a man through the devil?
Who knows, Father
It may not be such a bad way
Maybe saints are made that way
Unless...
Unless there are no devils in there at all
Every woman is naturally inclined to fall
And to be a saint
It's enough to look at the world
I don't know the world
I couldn't say
My mother became a Carmelite. My sisters were nuns
I grew up among women who were almost saints
It is well, dear Father, that you're pious...
...and that you don't know women
I fear you'll have some hard moments here
Pray for me, Father
What's worth the prayer of a sinner?
But pray I shall
Give me your blessing, Father
Come on, children. Let's go home
I'll see you to the convent, Father
Don't bother
It's more dignified for a priest that way
- I don't care - But we do
I'll always accompany you, Father. We're good people
- All of you? - Perhaps not all
Who knows before evening what the day will bring?
Here we are
One of the sisters will open the gate
Sister Margaret
Mother Superior's been expecting you since yesterday
Welcome, Father. It's good to see you
We've been longing for your help
Our common prayers will help us
Won't you sit down, Father?
For months we've been beset by great miseries
The priests who are staying with us...
...have no power over them
Our only hope is in you, Father
I've been sent to take care only of you
The other priests will look after the sisters
If the spirits leave me, they will leave the sisters too
It all started with me
I'll try to free you from your demon
Eight of them!
Behemoth, Balaam, Isacaaron...
...Gresil, Aman, Asmodeus, Leviathan and Dog's Tail
Do not listen to them, my daughter. Evil has many shapes and faces
How long is it since you've been to confession?
Since we were first possessed, half a year ago
That's a long time. Why did you put off penance?
We didn't
The demons keep us away from the holy sacraments
The demons keep you away?
Hasn't perhaps your spiritual laziness...
...taken the shape of those demons?
You don't believe I'm possessed, Father?
I have to, my child, though unwillingly
Satan enters our souls in many ways
Oh, he's very powerful
We know little about the nature of demons
And what they make the possessed say is not to be trusted
You know they're the sons of falsehood
What is falsehood, Reverend Father? And what is truth?
Every Christian's conscience...
...should tell him the difference between black and white
Was it evil that Father Garniec perished because of me?
Ask your conscience
If I told you what horrors this man did to me
What abominable things!
I will tell you. I must
You have to know my inner life...
...all my torments, past and present...
...if you're to save me from the pit of solitude where God has cast me
Calm yourself, my daughter
No one is alone on earth. No one
I saw him by my bedside
My Guardian Angel
He looked like Kaziuk from the inn
But he had such long hair, down to his shoulders
He bent over me and touched my breast
There were five drops of fragrant balm on my gown
Forgive me. I've no one to tell of my misery and horror
Defend me
Defend me, Reverend Father
All right
Go to your duties, my daughter. I'll pray here
Then we'll think of our sins and failings
Don't think it will be so easy...
...to drive me out of this sweet body
- Mother Joan! - I'm not Mother Joan
I'm no one
Don't think we're afraid of your Latin
You filthy priest!
What is happening to you?
May God be blessed, Sister Margaret
- For ever and ever - I thought you weren't coming today
There's so much work with those exorcisms
The nuns pray while you do all the work
I'm out of breath
I like it here
It's nicer among people
I'm very happy to see a representative of the famous convent
You must have some exciting tales to tell
What can I tell? You come from the great world
But for you and your convent...
...we wouldn't be here at all
The exorcisms brought us here
The demons leave me alone
I seem to have a hard soul and an undesirable body
The new priest will do some real exorcising
He's too weak for our convent
He was as pale as death after talking to Mother Superior
And she only did the trick with the sooty door handle
Does Mother Joan cheat?
No. It's the devil who tells her to blacken the handle every morning
- That's not cheating - She mustn't cheat
She mustn't cheat. It has to be real!
We should have gone to the fair to see the tightrope walkers
I don't like these fiendish nuns
A pity the demons don't lift their skirts
Sometimes they take off their clothes
Before Father Garniec was burnt...
...they used to run naked in the garden and call him
Let's teach the nun to drink
Let's go
Sister, as I am a Wolodkowicz
Have a glass of mead, Sister
- Gracious, you're just like Tartars - Take your chance, Sister
- No - You have to sin at least once
- Drink, Sister, drink - Dear God, what a brute
- Here's to the convent - And to Mother Joan
Oh, my dear, dear mother I would take the veil, please
Rather than a husband, who would be a brute, please
Rather than a lover with a stick to beat me
Rather than a thrashing I would take the veil, please
I would rather sing with the nuns in the convent
Than take me a husband and much trouble with it
I would not mind singing Matins at cold daybreak
If this could but save me from a husband's beatings
Father Joseph is coming
What are you doing here, my daughter?
I only came to see this woman
Go and sin no more
The devil is there and here too
That's how it is in this world
What do you know of the world?
- Do you, Father? - Not much either
I have spent all my life in a monastery
Watch your step, Kaziuk
To hell with this axe
I know how you abhor my coming to fight you
Here is your kingdom but I've been sent in the name of God
I belong to another kingdom, the Kingdom of Light
As you to the Kingdom of Darkness
I belong to Good and you to Evil
Kaziuk
- Do you believe in the devil? - I do
- Have you seen him? - I have
- With horns? - Stupid
With wings
And with Mother Superior's face
- What did he look like? - Don't be so curious
Tell me
I've never seen the devil
Nor have I
I didn't see him properly
But I saw him torment the sisters
Particularly our Superior
Mother Joan of the Angels
- Is that what she's called? - Yes
Mother Joan of the Angels
She ought to be called Mother of the Devils
It's awful to be alone in the world
What if the devil gets into me?
Devils don't care for the likes of us
You're only saying so
Sometimes I hate my dad so much I could kill him
And if you kill your dad, the devil will never let you go
Why kill your dad? He'll die some day anyway
If he dies, he dies
But before he dies he'll go on being bad
He beats Mother and me too
Pray for him
To hell with him
Say, "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
"God, guard my father"
That I can say. God guard my father
Now go to sleep
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
I am asleep
Good night
Satan!
I order thee to leave the body...
...of the most reverend Mother Joan of the Angels
Leave her!
Leave her, Satan!
I won't! Whatever you do
I won't. I don't want to. I don't want to
Balaam, Isacaaron, Asmodeus...
...Gresil, Aman, Leviathan
Speak, which of you is it?
It's Dog's Tail, at your service
Answer me, Dog's Tail
Wilt thou leave the body of this woman if I order thee?
I will at once but what about my brothers?
Balaam is in my head, Gresil in my belly...
...and Asmodeus...
Satan, I order thee to leave her!
Dog's Tail has left me
I'm not Mother Joan
I'm Satan! My name is Gresil
Gresil. Satan
Thou didst not enter this woman against God's will
Thou owest obedience to those who speak in God's name
Wilt thou be obedient?
I will
Show us, Evil Spirit, how Seraphs worship the Lord of Hosts
How do Seraphs worship the Lord of Hosts?
Gresil...
Now show us how kings praise the Almighty
I order thee in the name of God...
...to pay homage to the sign of our salvation
Don't order him to do it, Father. He'll torment me
Pay homage, I order thee!
No, I won't!
I won't pay homage
No earthly or heavenly power can force me to do that
Humble thyself!
No. No!
Accursed be God the Father and the Son and the Ghost...
...and the Blessed Virgin and all Heaven!
Oh, Holy Cross. Oh, Holy Virgin
Forgive me all my blasphemies
Oh, God!
Oh, Lord, defend me from Satan