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Episode Description
Can a vampire novel lead readers closer to Christ? Sister Allison Regina Gliot says yes. The Daughter of St. Paul joins us to discuss her In Aeternum trilogy and explains how a story filled with vampires can be a powerful way to teach about grace, mercy, and the transformative power of the Eucharist. She also shares the remarkable story of how the idea came to her for the series, and why readers have told her the books inspired them to return to the sacraments, Eucharistic Adoration, and even RCIA.
EWTN host and travel expert Teresa Tomeo takes us on a pilgrimage through Italy to the town of Spoleto – the location where St. Francis of Assisi experienced a pivotal moment that changed his life forever. Drawing from her newest book, Italy’s Shrines and Wonders, Tomeo explores the hidden treasures of Spoleto, and shares why slowing down on a pilgrimage allows God to speak to us in unexpected ways.
Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio!
And don’t forget to subscribe to TCA’s daily media roundup for smart Catholic news and commentary delivered straight to your inbox.
Bios
Sister Allison Regina Gliot is a Daughter of St. Paul, novelist, and speaker dedicated to evangelizing through modern media. A graduate of The Catholic University of America with a degree in theology, she also holds an MFA in Writing for Young People from La Salle University. She serves as an editor with Pauline Books & Media and writes fiction that invites readers to encounter Christ through compelling stories rooted in Catholic theology. She is author of the In Aeternum trilogy—The Curse He Chose, The Sin He Wore, and The Dawn We Seek—which uses vampire fiction to explore themes of sin, redemption, divine mercy, and the transformative power of the Eucharist. Through her writing and ministry, Sister Allison has inspired readers to deepen their sacramental lives, pursue Eucharistic Adoration, discern religious vocations, and even enter RCIA, demonstrating how storytelling can be a powerful tool for evangelization.
Teresa Tomeo is an award-winning Catholic author, radio host, speaker, and travel consultant. She hosts the daily Catholic Connection program on EWTN Radio and is a veteran journalist with over four decades in broadcast media. She co-hosts The Catholic View for Women, a weekly EWTN series featuring news and analysis for women from a Catholic perspective. A sought after media personality, she’s appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, The Dr. Laura Show, and Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk Radio. She is author of numerous bestselling books, including Italy’s Shrines and Wonders: Discovering Sacred Spaces and Fascinating Places in the Life of St. Francis of Assisi, and leads pilgrimages throughout Italy through her travel consultancy, T’s Italy. She and her husband speak about marriage around the world based on their co-authored book, Intimate Graces. Tomeo draws on firsthand experience living near Assisi to help travelers discover its rich spiritual heritage and beauty of Catholic history.
Monsignor Roger Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he served as Attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the UN in New York. In 2024, he was appointed National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA by Pope Francis. He writes for numerous publications, speaks on radio and TV, and served as executive editor for the Diocese of Fall River weekly paper. He is the author of Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God, and was an on-site commentator for EWTN during the last two papal conclaves. He is New York Chaplain for the Leonine Forum. Msgr. Landry traversed the 1500-mile Eucharist Pilgrimage in 2024, coinciding with his 25th year in the priesthood. In June 2026, he was appointed by Pope Leo XIV to the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Evangelization.
The following transcript is machine generated.
Episode 381 Transcript
| Ashley | Welcome back to conversations with consequences now on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Ashley McGuire. |
| Betsy | And I'm Betsy Fentress. |
| Ashley | And today we consider if a short pause on a long journey can actually change the course of history. Our next guest says yes. Catholic author and broadcaster Teresa Tamayo joins us to talk about Spoleto, Italy, the place where Saint Francis heard God's call to follow the master, not the man she's breaking down. Why, this quiet medieval town is a must see for pilgrims and history lovers alike. Teresa, welcome back to the show. |
| Teresa Tomeo | Thanks for having me on. I'm so excited to talk about the Toledo and all things Francis and all things Catholic. |
| Ashley | Well, so are we. And Teresa. We really want to go on a virtual pilgrimage with you to Spoleto today. But before we get into that, we wanted to get your reaction on a story that we were both quoted on a recent rather tone deaf ad from Apple showing a baby holding an iPhone, telling parents to just relax it's iPhone. Teresa, what was your reaction to this ad? |
| Teresa Tomeo | It's like, I mean, talk about not reading the room. I mean, seriously. Yeah, I've been writing about media and I spent half of my professional life in secular media, and I've been writing about the influence of media on children. My very first book, almost 20 years ago was entitled noise, and I get that. They were trying to. As I both said in the article, I get that they were trying to get the message across about durability. All right. So what happens if the cell phone gets in the hands of a child? Because sticky fingers, and maybe they'll drop it in the cereal or drop it on the ground. We've all had those moments when we're worried about, oh my goodness, the phone is such a part of us and such a part of our lives. But when you look at what's happening in terms of media influence, especially on younger and younger children and the fact that so many countries, as I was quoted in the Register article, so many countries are either banning or about to ban social media for young people under 16 years old. I mean, what were they thinking? You know, they had some other, you know, images in the campaign that were fine. They had a dog holding the phone in its mouth. They had somebody taking a picture outside in the pouring rain. We get the durability issue, but some people may think it's stretching it a bit. But if you if you look at the research and the influence of media on kids, I don't think so. I think they missed the mark totally with that. |
| Ashley | Well, and don't you think they've got enough smart consultants in the room that somebody would have flagged this and said, whoa, these other ones are good, but I think this one is going to be a little bit, offensive to parents who are really struggling with this, struggling to get technology out of their kids lives. |
| Teresa Tomeo | You would think. And I would be curious. And I haven't seen anything about this. I don't know if you have, but I'm wondering what kind of feedback they receive because this campaign was all over the place and I think it was even in Times Square. So you've got this huge effort to put this image of a baby. We're not even talking a team. We're talking a baby who obviously, from the way the image was portrayed, is in diapers. So we're talking a toddler holding an iPhone. And all of us know if you have nieces or grand nieces, as I do, that it's the kids that will show us how to use the equipment, right? Because they're so savvy. Do we need that image again? I don't think so. I think I think really they should issue an apology and just knock that image out of that campaign. |
| Ashley | Well, moving as far possibly away from the world of technology. Let's move to your insights on Saint Francis. And you have an article and lots of insights about his life, and especially a lesser known part of his life. And I read this with great interest because I just wrote a Substack piece about Pope, Pope Leo's, his own time of rest. This July, and how lovely it was to see the Holy Father taking time to rest. And so tell us about this part of Saint Francis, his life where he was forced to rest, and how it changed the course of his life. |
| Teresa Tomeo | Yeah. The article was taken from the chapter in my new book, and now we're going to talk about this in more detail a little bit later. But it's part two, volume two of Italy's Shrines and Wonders. And this book is published by EWTN and all about Saint Francis of Assisi. And this is the whole year of Saint Francis as Palermo is just a magical, storybook medieval village. And, you know, my husband and I live in Italy part time. We spent six months a year there, and so we spend a lot of our time on the weekends really exploring. And a few years ago we made love, which is miletto. And at that point I was aware, somewhat aware of the connection with Saint Francis, but not entirely. And that's when we learned, also, as I mentioned in the book, that there is one of two handwritten letters of Saint Francis that's in a reliquary in the beautiful cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Spoleto. But he was not meant to stop and split all that was in his goal. This was after he fought in the Battle of Colo Strada, which is in Umbria also. So everything really pretty much in his early years happened in Umbria. Assisi is in the central part of the region where he was born. It's where he was buried. It's where he started the ministry. But after he'd fought in the Battle of Cold Strada, he was imprisoned for about a year or so. He lost in Perugia, put him in prison. He gets out of prison and he's very sickly. So he recuperates for a while. He starts to have a little bit of a conversion at that point, thinking about his life, he had a lot of time to think. Obviously, when he was in prison. But he doesn't go full in for the Lord. He doesn't, you know, say, okay, here I am, Lord, you know, let me come and do your well. So he's struggling a bit. He decides, oh, Eureka, I'll know what I'll do. I'll become a knight in the papal army. And there was an army. There was a war going on in southern Italy, in the region of Judea. And that's on the Adriatic side. They called the heel of Italy. So he says, I'm going to suit up, and I'm going to be a knight in shining armor for the Pope. So he starts to head from Assisi down to Puleo, which by car would be about a six hour drive. So just keep that in mind how long the journey was. And he has to stop in Spoleto because he becomes sick again. He's still very weak from his whole experience in prison, even though it had been over a year earlier. So he stops in Spoleto and he's hearing things. He's hearing the voice of God. And as you said, God says to him, stop following, you know, follow. Stop following the man. Follow me, the master. And that's when he realizes, okay, obviously I'm not going to be a knight in the papal army or some sort of a war hero in Italy. I have to follow God, but he's still not sure about it. And so he starts to have that conversion in Spoleto. And my favorite image of Saint Francis, which is also on the cover of this book, is actually his journey back from a lot of it's a statue and it's called The Return of Saint Francis. And despite all the incredible artwork that's inside the Basilica of San Francisco, this is my favorite image. It's a very modern image. It was placed in front of the basilica in the early 2000s. I think it was there probably starting in 2009, 2010. It's by a local artist from nearby Spello, Norberto, who does all kinds of images, has passed away now, but he's known for all of his great art about Saint Francis. But it's so significant because here's Francis, he comes back to Assisi, he's on the horse, he's in this armor. And he realizes, oh my goodness, I have to go through my hometown and tell people that once again, I failed. But it wasn't failure. The experience and stiletto and his journey back to Assisi is so crucial, because this is when he finally says, okay uncle, I'm in. Lord, you have me. When we can humble ourselves, ourselves to the Lord and give everything over, that's when everything can begin. Our real lives begin. And that's why this image is so important, because it's directly related to these experiences with the letter. |
| Betsy | So you've admitted, Teresa, that on your first visit to Spoleto, you didn't really realize how rich in history and spirituality it was. What was that moment like? And can you remember exactly when you thought, oh my gosh, this is there's so much architecture. There's so much history here that I haven't uncovered. When was that and what was that like for you? |
| Teresa Tomeo | It was about two years ago. We had been in our, our little home for about, well, a year and a half. And we love, as I said, to go exploring. And I wanted to go back to school at all because it's such an incredible city. There's so much to see. Architecture, as you said, Roman aqueducts. There's an incredible Roman amphitheaters. There's all kinds of great things to see in addition to the great Catholic connection there. And it was like, wow, you know, that old commercial, if you're old enough to remember, I'm probably older than you, but where have I been all these years? Like the V8? That's what I felt like. I'm like, where was I? Why didn't I know this? And I started to cry because I was just so moved by the fact that this was this plateau is the place which if you're looking at the map, you're seeing a car. It's kind of in the, central part of Assisi, and you go to the right and then south. It's about 30 minutes south of Assisi. It's just an incredible place and it's levels. Levels. I was have to take several escalators to get to the top and to get to the cathedral. So it was a very really I think, humbling experience for me to understand his journey and how much I was involved in that. |
| Betsy | Isn't there a big opera festival there too as well? |
| Teresa Tomeo | Yes, every every year there's a big music festival with opera, contemporary music and dance. It's phenomenal. I've not been, but I've heard about it from people in the area. |
| Ashley | What percent of the people that are tourists there would, you guess, are there on a more religious pilgrimage purpose, or are there just to take in all the the richness that you're describing? |
| Teresa Tomeo | That's a great question. In terms of the numbers, I'm writing a new book about Italy, and I was doing the introduction, and last year in 2025, tourism went up 5% from the year before, they had over 180 million visitors in Italy. They didn't break it down between religious visitors and visitors who were there just to have the Italian experience of the food and the beauty and the art. So I don't have an exact number for you, but I would venture to say that it has to be probably especially this year, the last two years, because we had a whole year, which was huge, and that was a lot of the tourism had to do with the Jubilee year of hope that Saint Francis instituted. But I'm this is just a guesstimate, but just from my own experience in terms of living there now and having done pilgrimages for 25 years, I would say probably at least a third of the visitors again, this is a guess, a guesstimate. Are there for a religious experience? Maybe not the entire time, but they're going there to see, for example, the Pieta in the Vatican, or they're going to Assisi to experience Saint Francis or to Florence to see the David and the Duomo. I would say a large number of people. |
| Betsy | So I'm going to quote from this piece that you have just published that says, just below the cathedral of the church housing the letter of Saint Francis is a lovely terrace overlooking the rolling hills of Umbria facing Assisi. Although Francis, his hometown, does not come into view from this locations, it's easy to imagine that Francis might have been seeing something very similar. What do you think a pilgrim can take from this vista in this view, and how do you translate sort of the beauty and the architecture here into an unexpected spiritual experience? |
| Teresa Tomeo | That's a wonderful question. And I think I always try to get people to, to be still and know that he is gone in terms of when you're on a pilgrimage or even if you're not doing this as a quote unquote religious experience. There can be certainly, I think, underlying really moments of grace that are occurring, moments of peace. And what I like to to think about. I love our Saints. I wrote a book years ago about the saints, just over 10,000 seats in the Catholic Church, and there's so many of them great ones in Italy. I think if you just stop and as I like to say, smell the cappuccino and just take in the surroundings, that can be a profound part of your experience. Even if you're not taking pictures, even if it's not a destination, but to be able to walk through a town and to pause and to think about what happened there centuries before you, especially with the city. So historic as Esposito, with a direct connection to Saint Francis. And that's what I stress all the time. I have a travel consulting company, and so many of my clients list their hearts, even if they're faithful Catholics and saying, okay, I have a week and I want to go here and I want to go here, and I want to hear anyone go here. I understand if you have a limited amount of time and money, but you are not going to have a powerful experience if you rush from place to place. Quite frankly, the mind can't handle all that much beauty. You get overwhelmed and you need time to just breathe and to download it so it can be a very powerful experience just to sit on a bench, look over the fields. And I couldn't help when we were looking out from that vantage point of feeling very sad for Saint Francis, but very happy for him at the same time, because he's realizing my life is looking a lot different than I thought it was going to be. And yet that step of humility, that step of, okay, this ain't working out the way I thought it was going to, and having to go in a different direction changed everything, really. |
| Ashley | One of the crown jewels of Spoleto Cathedral you mentioned is a handwritten letter from Saint Francis to Brother Leo, one of the only surviving letters in existence who is Brother Leo, and tell us what it's like to to be in the presence of an actual handwritten note from Saint Francis. |
| Teresa Tomeo | A brother, Leo, was someone with whom Francis is very close and did a lot of the note taking and the writing related to the life of Saint Francis and Francis and Leo were struggling. This is toward the end of Francis's life. And, when he went up to Livorno, which is in Tuscany, about, 2.5 hours north of Spoleto, he went up there because he needed time to pray. There was a lot of division within that was within the Franciscan order. Some thought it was too strict, others thought it was too loose. So there was this constant tug of war. And so Francis was going away to various places to pray, to, to receive insight from God. And it was pretty phenomenal to see the tenderness. I think I transcribed it in that article, just it is translated in the book in terms of what he said to Brother Leo, it's obvious that Leo was having similar struggles in terms of his own journey, and Francis is reaching out to him and saying, if you need to come see me, come see me. So there's this real brotherly love, closeness. You can you can sense. But this is the great mystic, the giants, the spiritual giants. Saint Francis in his own handwriting. It's his letter. And it's a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of paper. And it's in this reliquary off the side now of the main sanctuary. And, you know, the Catholic Church is always telling us, write, come and see, come and see. They don't have like a big marquee. And for the church letter of Saint Francis here, you just kind of stumble upon it if you're not aware of it, because there is a sign, a small sign outside that the relic with a chapel that holds a relic. It's just phenomenal, the treasures that we have in the Catholic Church. And I really would recommend if people are heading over to Italy, maybe for obviously, the anniversary of the passing of, say, Francis 800 years ago, which is this year, the holy year. They've got a little it's so worth it on so many levels. But that letter is pretty phenomenal. |
| Betsy | So you mentioned that you now spend half the year in Italy, and you also have a travel advisory company called T's Travel. What made you decide to live there half the year? Was it inspired by a particular, epiphany and a cathedral or in a castle? And, tell us a little bit more about your company. |
| Teresa Tomeo | Sure. Well, we decided to to make the move after my husband retired. He's still serving as a deacon in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where we're based in his West now, to have permission to serve, overseas as well. We go to the English Mass, usually on Sundays in Saint Mary, the angels below Assisi. And so he serves as a deacon there and, also as a deacon in our little parish in our little village, which is about 35 minutes from a key. And it really happens gradually. But I will say this the first time my husband died, or both, as I like to say, FBI's or FBI's football Italian-Americans, we both have nothing but Italian blood running through our veins. We have all of our history and all the documentation. The first time we landed there was in 2021, so just over 25 years ago, and there was a very deep connection for both of us. We had recently, about five years prior, come back to the Catholic faith. We had a major reversion. We had not considered pursuing the diaconate or discerning the diaconate at that point, but when we landed there, we felt home. We felt more at home in Italy than we did in the United States. We recognized our grandparents in the habits of the people, and every time we would leave, it would be very heartbreaking. And especially for me, I, my husband, is an engineer, so it's more balanced in terms of his emotions. But I'm extremely you know, I wear my heart on my sleeve that everybody listens to me on the radio. They know that I would sob, literally sob every time I left. And I said, well, finally a few years ago, I said, look, you're retiring. This is doable because I could do my show. Thanks be to God. Anywhere you have the internet, you're good to go. I've done it in Israel on a cruise ship all over from Greece anywhere. And I said, I think we really need to think about this. And we felt such a connection to our heritage. But more importantly for us, it was a connection to the faith. I wanted to be as close to the church as possible. I wanted to be as close to the saints as possible. I mean, we literally can be in Assisi in like under 40 minutes and have lunch and go prayed at Francis's tomb. We can go to Cortona and see the saints there. We can go to Florence, you know, and we could, you know, experience in Siena the Eucharistic miracles. And we're right smack in the center of the country so we can get anywhere in less than a few hours. And we just wanted to be there, I have to say, more than we want it to be here, because I think of our faith. It's just it's so phenomenal. You know, we take the train a lot down to Rome to do events at the Rome bureau. Of course, EWTN is there, but I just feel so much closer to God there. Not that God isn't everywhere he is, but I think for us, because of our reversion in how we didn't pay much attention to our Catholic upbringing until we had a crisis in our marriage, you came back to the faith that I said, you know what? Why not do this? You're retired. I mean, with him still working, he was a he had a very big and important job. He was a vice president of an architectural engineering company. And he got maybe a month off a year. Right. And you're going to buy a home somewhere, whether it's in Florida or Phoenix or whatever, Italy, you don't want to spend that money. And by the way, Italy is really cheap. It's much more affordable than than Arizona and Florida. Trust me, the houses there are very inexpensive, especially outside of tourist areas, but we wanted to be able to spend a significant amount of time there. And so we just said, you know what, let's do it. And we we've I found a place online of all places. And I just knew it the moment I saw it, that it was ours. That was the only place we saw. And we bought it after we saw it once. Yeah. |
| Ashley | Well, so with running a travel company, do you notice? And we talked about the need to kind of sit still and really soak in what you're seeing. Do you notice that in the kind of Instagram iPhone era that people are struggling with, the kind of mania when they visit these sites? |
| Teresa Tomeo | Yeah, absolutely. And as a matter of fact, that's something that I stress in all of my consultations. And the company is called Teas Italy. And the website, if people are interested, is Travel Italy expert.com. And I actually started providing consultations after so many people were coming to me asking for advice on how to see Italy, and a few of my friends said, including corporate travel, with whom I work on a regular basis for pilgrimages. They said, look, you know, more than most travel agents, you need to start a consultation company. So what happens is we get so overwhelmed by the imagery and by the beauty that we start taking all kinds of pictures and selfies and whatnot. And certainly we want to take photos. But what I tell people is you're not going to really experience, especially since most of the people there are some non-Catholics, right, because it's out there on the internet. But most of the people that come to me are Catholic pilgrims. You're not going to experience it unless you slow down, unless you do only one tour day and then take the afternoon off and go and back to that church, or go to a park, say the rosary, reflect, write down some notes. But this whole thing was always having to get that perfect shot, you know, in front of the David or in the Piazza Navona, or, heaven forbid, some of these people who are not dressed appropriately and standing in front of a holy place and taking pictures. It's very frustrating to me, but I would say most of my clients, I think the biggest challenge is they're so excited about going to Italy that they just want to do too much in too little a period of time, which can really impact a trip negatively if you don't slow down. |
| Betsy | So you mentioned that you have a new book out just in June, Italy's Shrines and Wonders Discovering Sacred Spaces and Fascinating Places in the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. So we've touched on, obviously, Assisi and Spoleto. Can you give us some other highlights of the book? |
| Teresa Tomeo | Yes. Thank you for asking because there's so many great little places you can go to, not only in Umbria, of course, which is a home region of Saint Francis in the central part. But you can go to Tuscany, of course, for the amazing place of La Verna, which is now a beautiful shrine. And that's where he received the stigmata. You can go south to a great show, which is in the region of Lazio, about an hour north of Rome. That is a must do. It's very easy to get to right off the freeway. And that is where Saint Francis established the first live nativity. So we always like to take pilgrims there, like Christmas music, and go into the actual town of Redstone and give them a nice, a nice meal. So, so many little places. I mentioned Spoleto. There's also a whole area outside of Assisi called The Path of the birds. Now, if anyone's familiar with any of the images, even if you've never been there, you'll recognize a picture of Saint Francis standing next to Saint Clair. And he's bending over and he's chasing the birds. Well, I just thought that was kind of just an image of his love for animals, which we know is very true. But there's actually a there's actually a place outside of Assisi. There's a whole path is actually three important spots, which I highlight in the book, including a shrine that's been there for many years. But this path of the birds is literally in the middle of nowhere next to a horse farm. I'm not kidding. Dirt roads. But it's an official part of the Way of Saint Francis. And it was interesting. I just came across this site when I was doing research for the book. Now I knew that he preached to the birds, but I didn't think there was an actual place where you could go and see what what actually happened. But the Diocese of Assisi and the cultural leaders in Umbria had documented over the years. And during Covid, there was a company that wanted to come in and take over the particular part of land and put solar panels in it. And they said no. And they had a contest, and they asked an artist artist to submit etchings and draw a statue of Saint Francis at a young man from northern Italy won. And he designed this beautiful bronze statue. And it's entitled fill the Sky with song. And you see Saint Francis surrounded by birds, and there's a bird that he's reaching out to. And in the same area next to this horse farm, there is an outdoor church and a marble altar with birds carved into it. And then you go about a mile down the road, and there's the actual shrine that had been there for some time. The secular Franciscan headquarters are very close to that shrine. And then you had a little bit the up in the opposite direction and go to the town of Varna, which is stunning. And there's a Church of Saint Francis and there's a relic, and they have a stone at a site altar, which is said to be the stone on which Prince Francis stood when he preached to the birds. So, you know, these kinds of places, I just thought, it's so unique for pilgrims if they're staying in Assisi more than a day, which I highly recommend. If you have a car, even if you don't hire a driver, go there. You're in the middle of this peaceful place, and there's a whole huge sign that says that this is an official part of the Way of Saint Francis, which is a pilgrimage journey you can follow all throughout Italy. In terms of the many sites where he prayed. And there's many shrines. So you have Spoleto, you have the path of the birds. You have Leo. And the story of the Wolf of Nubia. My, my favorite town, one of my favorites. It's just so pretty. Another medieval place. Many places in Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany related to Saint Francis. It's just incredible. |
| Ashley | We have just a minute left, but can you talk a little bit about the effect of one of the most recent saints that we have, the saint in sneakers, Saint Carlo, a cutis being buried there. How is that impacted the area? |
| Teresa Tomeo | Well, it's impacting it in terms of crowds in a good way. A course always been busy, but now with Saint Carlo buried there, he's been there for for a while. But since his canonization, then the tourism and the pilgrimages have even increased. So if you're looking at Assisi, when you're coming up to it, it's just so grand. It's a vision that never gets old. But the very top of Assisi on the right would be San Rufino, which is a very old and main cathedral. Then below that is Saint Clair. Every Saint Clair is buried and then in the middle is Saint Mary Major. You can see the steeple from the road. And then at the very bottom, if you're looking at Assisi, which is built on the top of Mount of Sebastiao is Saint Francis of Assisi, now Saint Mary Major. It's the basilica where Saint Francis is, is buried. Saint Mary Major is very small in comparison, and so the lines to venerate the tomb of Saint Carlo cutis are very long. But it's really kind of a nice journey because you can start at the top or at the bottom and just go right, you're going to go right by it smack in the middle of a CC. But it's just beautiful and it's so great to see so many young people there visiting this tomb. And what's really cool about his burial place is the Church of Saint Mary. Major is very specific. Carlo Kudus wanted to be buried not only in CC, but at that spot, because outside is the area where Francis, of course, see, Francis tore his garments and told his father he was leaving this life of of luxury and becoming, you know, the poor man that IL Parma row of of Italy. So it's just a great place. The whole city is it's just been on fire with pilgrims and so many beautiful events, but it is a little bit more crowded, so you need some more time, but it's just great. |
| Betsy | There's a lot of people talking about how the faith in Italy is waning. What's your take on that? |
| Teresa Tomeo | It depends, I think where you are in our area, because we live in a very small village. It's very strong. I mean, our church is very active, a little parish is very active. If you're looking at places like a CC, you know, the local church is there. I would think in the bigger cities it's somewhat like in Milan because Milan is very much New York, but and in the South, the faith is on fire, always has been. And I think that's because the conditions in the South are much more rough. They're much more dedicated, the much more prayerful because they have a lot more suffering in terms of the poverty and whatnot. But, I mean, it's been waning. I think that's always been the case. You always see the old men sitting outside the churches and the women inside. But I'm seeing I'm seeing a growth spurt. I'm seeing parishes. If we would just go to any church, like if we're out traveling on the weekends, which you normally do, there's usually a good number of people inside the parishes. And I think the canonization of Carlo Kudus is having a major impact, or even the beatification of progress is having a major impact. And now the canonization last year of Pierre Giorgio Rosati is really starting to impact it. And people are just crazy about Pope Leo. That's helping too. So I think it's changing slowly, but I think it's changing. |
| Betsy | Great. That's great to hear. |
| Ashley | Well, Teresa, you're making me want to go. And this conversation of Book of Light right now, but we are just so grateful for all of your wonderful insights on these beautiful and holy places. Where can our listeners go to read your work, find out more, follow you, listen to you, I'll be sure. |
| Teresa Tomeo | Well, of course they hear me every day on Catholic Connection, which is a WTM production, and I would highly recommend the network's terrific website, ewtn.com, my main website with all the information on my books and all the events and things that I'm doing, is just to reset cameo.com. And the new book, which is also published by EWTN, is available at the EWTN religious catalog. And also there's a series that goes along with this, and you can find that at EWTN, dot com, slash, Saint Francis and eight part series. We take you all over Italy. Everything's filmed on location. It's beautifully done. It was put out by the official advancement team earlier this year. |
| Ashley | Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today. |
| Teresa Tomeo | Thank you. |
| Unknown | For coming. Italy. |
| Ashley | Welcome back to conversations with consequences now on EWTN radio. I'm your host, Ashley McGuire. |
| Betsy | And I'm Betsy Fentress. |
| Ashley | And when one thinks of Catholic evangelization, vampires might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But our next guest is using the world of urban fantasy to show how even the darkest fiction can point us toward divine light. Sister Allison Regina Goliath is a member of the Daughters of Saint Paul and the author of the In a Turnham trilogy. Her final book, the Dawn We Seek, is out now, exploring themes of sin, redemption, and the bounds of God's limitless mercy. Sister Allison, welcome to the show. |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. |
| Ashley | So, one of my all time favorite books that I ever read is Dracula, and I read it before I became a Catholic. And in, looking at your book and reading about your story, I realized that in the book Dracula, there's a lot of Christian and explicitly Catholic themes. And so I think, you know, as I mentioned in the intro, people don't really think about vampire books as necessarily Christian literature per se. But tell us how it is that you, a nun, came to decide that you were going to write a vampire trilogy? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | It's kind of a long story. I did not set out to become a nun. Vampire books. I read a lot of them as a teenager and enjoyed a lot of the ones that came out kind of in the early and mid 2000, but I really wasn't thinking about vampires in a theological way until I was at college at the Catholic University of America. I was studying theology there, and all my friends also loved sci fi and fantasy. And so we would get into these hypothetical discussions about things like what would happen if a vampire was exposed to the Eucharist, because that's the blood of Christ and vampires and blood and, you know, like just kind of in a fun way, kind of teasing out different consequences of things. But it was actually when I was already in the convent as a postulant, that Jesus inspired me with the story idea about vampires. And it was advent, actually. I was preparing for Christmas, trying to pray about what to do to get ready for Christmas, and I was thinking something like, oh, I'll, like read a book of Advent reflections. I'll spend extra time in chapel. And Jesus was like, well, actually, there's this vampire story, and you're going to write that in your free time. And I was like, what? Vampires are not Christmasy. And I don't think that like, I mean, that sounds crazy. The nuns are going to think I'm crazy if I'm writing vampire books. But he really over and over again in my prayer, I kept bringing it up like, why aren't you listening to me? I told you, we're going to write down a vampire story. So finally I was like, okay, I guess I'll just trust him and see where this goes. And so that advent, I started writing down the first book in a trilogy, which is The Curse. He chose. And it was so good for my spiritual life and my relationship with Jesus, to kind of trust him and go out on a limb and writing this story, dedicating my time to that. But also that a lot of the things that different characters were going through, and a lot of the spiritual themes that came up were things that I was actually grappling with in my formation and in my prayer life at the time that God helped me work through, through writing the story and seeing it play out in the story. So it ended up being really good for me. And as I was writing it, he's like, okay, well, this isn't just for you, it's going to be for other people too. And that was kind of the first time I started thinking, oh, maybe this is a story I could actually share, not just something between me and Jesus. |
| Betsy | There are a lot of literary devices that you use. There's flashbacks and, kind of all of a sudden you think you think you're in the late 1800s, but you're actually people are texting on their phone. Did you study creative writing, per se? And also because this book takes place in Europe, did you do a lot of historical research? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah. So, at the time when I wrote most of the series, I had never studied creative writing. I just read a lot of books and really liked them and kind of thought about what I would do differently if I was doing that, like analyzing them as I read, just because that's the kind of person I am, I guess. And I wrote for fun, but I never really had any formal training. But at a certain point when I kept writing books, the nuns were like, do you want to, like, go to school and actually learn what you're doing with all of this? And I was like, actually, that would be really good. So I did actually get earlier this year an MFA in creative writing from LaSalle University. And, that was like, I had already written the series at the time, but I did go back and revise the second and third book with things that I was learning in school. As far as the historical research goes, I had grown up hearing stories of Germany. My parents lived there before I was born, and so I had also studied German and middle school and high school and a lot of German culture. But I had to do a lot of research about the specific time period that the book is set in, because I realized that when you're in a US high school learning about history in the 1860s, you learn about the American Civil War. You don't learn about all the crazy stuff that was going on in Europe at the time. And when I really started digging into the time period, like kept turning up more and more things that were going on in this, specific area of Germany where the book is set and like, okay, this is I got to really make sure that this all works and it makes sense and really like, make sure you're like, okay, I can't just put a fireplace in their house. That's not what these types of houses in Germany at that time period used. They used stoves. So all of those little details, I had a lot of fun actually going down different rabbit holes and trying to find, like, to get it right. |
| Ashley | So your book and just vampire books by definition deal with dark themes. Evil. And so how did you did this affect you kind of delving into darkness in such a deep way to be able to write a book or a series of books like this? And, and then how would you say, what would you say to, you know, parents who are concerned about, you know, this topic? In other words, how do you how does the book actually point people towards goodness and towards towards truth and towards Christ? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah. So vampires, yeah, are a dark subject in many ways, and I think especially because in my books, in my worldbuilding, I'm using them to really explore the nature of sin and evil. So that's really dark. There's nothing darker than sin. And I think that it's something that, as I was writing about it in the story, it's always through the lens of the Paschal mystery and my Catholic worldview, the fact that, yes, sin is really real. Readers encounter that, the characters encounter that. But at the same time, Christ was already victorious over sin. He came to save us. He's more powerful than any evil, even maybe in our day to day life, when it doesn't feel like that, or when we see this darkness and we don't see Christ sweeping in to save the day. And so I think that in these stories, I really wanted to grapple with presenting evil like as it is. So not romanticizing it or idealizing it, but really showing evil in its ugliness and its horror through, the different vampire themes that are in this story. But then bringing that around to, okay, well, when we bring grace into that situation, what happens? It doesn't instantly fix all our problems. It's not like darkness just vanishes. But at the same time, Christ enables us to fight back against this darkness. He saves us even when it doesn't feel like anything on the outside is necessarily happening. And those spiritual realities of what's really going on beneath the surface, I think, are able to come through really clearly in the story, because the prayers are actually effective against vampires in a very literal way. And, and you see those things in the story, you see the power of the sacraments in a very literal way, kind of playing out. And so it's all there, like, like the grace is really apparent on the page as well as the darkness. And I think looking at the overall trajectory of the story, I don't want to spoil the series for anyone who's listening, but but I think that you see, ultimately the answer that it gives to evil and to God's mercy ultimately coming out on top in every situation. |
| Betsy | There are so many themes in this book. There's romance, there's family turmoil, there's worry about the anti-Catholic sentiment growing in Germany. There's so many interesting plots and subplots here. But you've said that vampires can serve as a mirror of our wounded humanity at its worst. So how did writing, from the perspective of an outcast or monstrous character shift your own understanding of empathy for people in our modern world who fear or who feel irredeemable? Because this this book is about redemption. |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah, that's a great question. I, I think it's interesting because when I'm writing for Christopher, who's the vampire character, I'm also writing from my own experience, like I have never killed lots of people or become a vampire. Any anything like what you see happening in the series. But at the same time, I am a sinner and I am broken in many ways, and there are many moments in my life where I have not chosen God and I have chosen the alternative, which is not good. And so when I write for these monstrous characters, I am writing from my own experience and writing from the perspective of someone who also needs God's mercy and God's redemption in my life in so many ways. And so in that sense, it doesn't really feel to me like writing from the outside. Like it it is. Christopher is me, a version of me, not me as I actually am today. But I can understand him and empathize for him because I could see myself also getting there under different circumstances. So. So that's one aspect of it, but I think that it just helps me kind of keep in perspective. Two of like when we see people who seem really far gone or really evil, I guess is is another way to say that, like, like we don't know where they've been. We don't know what God is doing in their life. We don't know what their future holds, and we can hope for the best for them without condoning the evil that they do or without assenting to it or supporting it. And I think that that's something that is throughout our church tradition, like, you know, Saint Augustine saying you love the sinner but hate the sin. And that's something that I think comes across in these books, especially when it comes to the vampire characters. |
| Ashley | So you're, a sister with the Daughters of Saint Paul, which has a mission to evangelize through media. What was the reaction of your superiors, your fellow nuns? Were they like, this is not what we had in mind when we talked about evangelizing through the media. Were they excited, supportive? What was that like? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah, I was very nervous to show anyone this story, especially when I was in initial formation, because like, you know, I'm just a little postulant starting out. I don't really know what kind of things would get me kicked out, which, I mean, it's not easy to get kicked out of the convent, but when you don't know how it works, you're like, oh no, what if they think I'm crazy? And then they asked me to leave. So I, I kind of dragged my feet about sharing the story with my sisters. I like, worked on it for a long time before I felt ready to, like, actually show it to other people. Which is probably good because, you know, the first draft of anything is not necessarily in in good enough condition to be shared. But when I finally decided, well, I wouldn't say I decided to show it was Jesus pushing me to share it with with my sisters. Like, finally, it's time. I shared it with some sisters that I was closer to who worked in the editorial department of our publishing house, Pine Books and Media, and I was careful to pick sisters that I knew liked sci fi and fantasy. Like, like, who would be the kind of people who would enjoy a vampire book? And I gave it a lot of framing to as far as, like, this is why I wrote a book like this. This is the kind of evangelizing, you know, potential it could have. And then just kind of sent it out and, and was waiting to hear, like, what they thought of it. And I was very surprised by how supportive they were. Like, I was afraid that they might not understand what I was trying to do, but I think that even in that, like early form, that still needed a lot of editing and revision. They could see, like, this is a story that's written in genres that are popular today with young people. And there's so much Jesus in this book, like the Catholicism in this is so clear, this is a book that can help readers fall in love with God and fall in love with their Catholic faith in a very real way. And I have to hand in to my sisters for being willing to, like, follow this series and see, like where it could go and having the guts to publish it too, because we don't publish very many other urban fantasy books for teens, especially of the vampire variety at this time in our publishing house. But they really got all on board with it and, and were very supportive and have been sharing it with many people as well. And it's been beautiful to see that, like their initial like confidence in me and in this story and in what God was going to be able to do through this story, has really been paying off in the lives of readers that I've been hearing from, who have been sharing the different spiritual fruits that this series is baring in their lives. |
| Betsy | That was my next question, so I'm glad you brought that up, because you really started this as a solitary endeavor. Endeavor between you and Jesus for advent. But now, as readers share their personal faith struggles with you, you were taking on this role as a pastoral listener. What can you share with us some of the types of ways that they've reached out to you and what they've said, and what the series has meant to them? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah, and this is something that I hold so precious as an author, but especially as a religious sister that like, people don't just reach out to me to say, oh my gosh, I loved your book. This is my favorite character. They reach out to me to talk about their faith life and their relationship with Jesus in a way that you probably wouldn't do to most random items that you meet, because they're trusting me as a religious sister. So I very much feel the responsibility to pray for the readers as well, and to share their stories with my sisters, who are also praying for the readers. But I've had different readers talk about how they've started going to Eucharistic Adoration or daily mass because of this book. One young lady became a Eucharistic minister in her parish because of it, several discerning religious life, and they have now been 2 or 3 people have told me that they've started Osseo. Not young adults, just adults. Because this story kind of gave them the push that they needed to really look deeper into Catholicism and take their relationship with God more seriously in their lives. But at the same time, sometimes I have readers who reach out to me saying, I loved this book, but I also don't know what to do because I'm not sure if God exists or I'm going through a really hard time and I feel like the worst sinner. So it's beautiful to see Christopher's journey. But like, what does that mean for me? Or how do I how do I move forward with God? And in those cases, like I just pray before I respond and really just try to like give them the kind of advice that I would want to receive if I was in their position. And like a book, can't do everything it has to translate over into real life action, and I always encourage them to, like, reach out to your parish priest or to like adults in your life that you trust, and talk to them about your questions or about your struggles with doubt or your faith in different ways, because everybody goes through those types of things, and it's good that you're asking these questions. It's good that you're taking your faith seriously enough that you care enough to try to pursue this. And so don't give up. Don't lose heart. Jesus is with us even when we don't feel him with us. |
| Ashley | You dedicate the book to your parents who you say we're very supportive of this endeavor. How? How have your parents cultivated your interest in creative writing and also in your vocation? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Yeah, I've my parents are amazing. They they really are. They ever since I was little, would read me stories and tell me stories. Some of my earliest memories are my mom reading me The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. And even as I got older, books were something that we kind of shared as a family that we would either read together or like my dad would give us the books that he loved as a teenager. So he was, you know, still reading those. And, as I started writing myself, I think, like I mentioned before, I don't usually share stories early on, like I work on them a lot before I'm willing to show them to other people. But when I was finally brave enough to show it to my parents after I had had, like, you know, my best friend read it, my little sisters read it and stuff like, okay, it's time for the parents. I think it's a good enough now. They were just so supportive in everything I was trying to do and just like, okay, well, it's not perfect, but, you know, it's it's good, and there's something here and you can do this and just every step of the way, really beautiful encouragement from them. And in my vocation, it was very similar. They raised us as a Catholic family to really love Jesus. And my dad actually became a deacon when I was in college. So he was discerning when I was in high school. And so when I was going on my own discernment journey to become a daughter of Saint Paul, he was very, understanding in the sense that he knew what it was like to discern. And they well, I don't think they assumed when I was a kid that I would grow up and become a nun. But, you know, once they got to, like, reorient, like, okay, this is what Allison is thinking for her life. They were, like, full on supportive with their prayers and with helping me find kind of my place within the church to enter a religious life. So I love them so much. I'm very grateful, sister. |
| Ashley | We just have a little over a minute left. But briefly, what is your advice for young Catholic writers who want to follow in your footsteps? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Pray about what you write and write a lot. Like, don't worry about being just right. That's how you get started. You're never going to get started if you don't start perfect. |
| Ashley | Well, it has been wonderful talking with you about your very exciting and creative venture. Where can our listeners buy her book and follow all the work that you're doing? |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | So my author website is my last name. Goliad g l I o t Pauline. Like daughters of Saint Paul. Paul, I'm dawg so you can find it there. I'm also on social media at Sister Allison. |
| Ashley | Wonderful. Well, Sister Allison, thank you so much for joining us today. |
| Sister Allison Regina Gliot | Thank you for having me. God bless you. |
| Betsy | Welcome back to conversations with consequences, where I am joined by TCA Chaplain Monsignor Roger Landry, who is also the national director for the Pontifical Mission Societies here in the United States. Monsignor, we have a beautiful feast this week, the feast of the Transfiguration. What are some things that we can think about as we get ready for this wonderful feast? |
| Msgr Landry | So the church, East and West, celebrates with great joy the transfiguration of Lord Jesus every August 6th. And I think that there are at least three things we can ponder as we mark liturgically what we pray about every Thursday in the fourth Luminous Mystery. The first is about the exertion on which Jesus takes us. He took Peter, James, and John, representing the whole church up an exceedingly high mountain. To follow Jesus isn't easy. Sometimes it requires an uphill climb. We need always to be alert to the effort that sometimes Jesus demand of those of us who want to be as disciples want to be as followers. And so Peter, James, and John were willing to make that exertion with Jesus probably huffing and puffing a little bit as they would sandals or climbing, whether it was Mount Hermon or Mount Tabor doesn't really matter. But it was an exceedingly high mountain, and they should inspire us likewise to the effort in faith. The second is I've always been blown away by what God the Father said to Peter, James and John up at the top of the mountain. Jesus was covered by a cloud. They saw him conversing with Moses and Elijah about Jesus upcoming exodus. According to Saint Luke, the, Exodus that he was going to lead us not from Egypt through the desert into the Promised Land, but from death all the way to eternal life. So they were talking about that Exodus Jesus was going to do through his passion, death and resurrection. But then at the very end, God the Father said, This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him. For the previous two plus years, they've been doing nothing but listening to Jesus as he was given the sermon on the Mount as he was given the Bread of Life discourse is teaching all of his parables, lecturing them along their journeys. They had been listening to Jesus, but they'd been selectively listening to Jesus. And what they were particularly tone deaf to was what he would describe about his passion, that he was going to be a messiah who would be betrayed, mocked, scourged, crucified. And on the third day, rise. And as we've seen throughout the Gospels, Jesus disciples didn't really want to pay attention to that. So God the Father was saying, tune in precisely what my son is saying here. Don't duck it. Don't let it fly out through the other rear. Really hear it and obey it. And so to pay attention, to really listen to what Jesus is doing. We have lived 2000 years after Jesus's crucifixion, and we know that there's a happy ending to it. And so a lot of the times we can be as tone deaf to his command, that if we wish to be his disciple, we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross every day, and follow him. We like to affirm rather than deny ourselves. We like our crosses, as I prefer to say, made out of velvet, styrofoam, and on wheels rather than the harder ones that God gives us. We need to really listen that if we're going to be Jesus disciples, we must not just tolerate a cross, but seek it every day as a means by which we can die to ourselves and allow him to live. And then the third is super beautiful, where Peter just wanted the experience to go on forever. Lord, can we build three booths here? One for you, one for me, for Elijah. Protect you from the sun. Just let it all go. He. It's good Lord, that we are here. And he wanted it to last. And of course, the answer to that question was no, because Jesus still had a lot more to do. But much like that time in the Old Testament where King David wanted to build the temple in Jerusalem for the Lord, Lord said, no, I'm going to build a temple for you through the prophet Nathan. So Peter wanted to build a booth, a tabernacle for the Lord, and Moses and Elijah at the top of the exceedingly high mountain. And what God wanted to do is he wanted to make a booth inside us. He wanted to tabernacle himself inside of us, which is precisely what he does first, through baptism and a life of sanctifying grace. But in a very literal way, he does it when we are able to receive him in Holy Communion. And so it is good that we would be with the Lord. But he has done something mindblowing that he has tried to tent himself, tabernacle himself within us, and Holy Communion. And I think that these are the three great lessons of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The exertion that's required, the listening to Jesus, even some of the times, those words that aren't pleasant to our ears, and the fact that he fulfills an even greater desire than we would have ever asked for not to build a booth for him, but to allow him to make us his holy dwelling place. |
| Betsy | I'm so glad that you brought up that it's one of the Luminous Mysteries in. Do you feel like since Pope John Paul the Second initiated those, that there's a greater awareness of some of these feasts that we might not as been as likely to ponder? |
| Msgr Landry | No question about it, that the Transfiguration is marked, of course, by daily mass goers every year. And when August 6th falls on a Sunday, then we mark the Transfiguration, likewise on a Sunday. But the average Catholic only celebrates it at mass. One every six years or so. Yeah. The fact that we're if we're praying the rosary, that we're meditating upon this mystery at least once a week helps us to, benefit so much more from the graces that mystery contains. Like we pray in that prayer at the end of the Rosary, may we obtain what it contains. And, this great feast has a lot for us in the West. We celebrate the Transfiguration much less than those in the East. To the East are always focused on God's glory. Whereas a lot of the times in the West we're focused on the practical way of helping Christ's kingdom come in this world, etc. they're not, contradictory, but they are sometimes in tension and there can be a different emphasis. And so the East always emphasizes God's glory. And this was the foretaste of God's glory, where his real divine nature started to radiate from within, out, through his flesh and blood. We can learn from our eastern brothers and sisters about how really to make this one of the most important feasts of the year, in which there's a foretaste of the heaven to which God has implanted, within us, the desire to beg. |
| Betsy | What a great meditation on the feast of the Transfiguration. Thank you so much, Monsignor Landry. |
| Msgr Landry | Happy feast. Betsy. |