Newly restored documentary about a dying parish miraculously restored to life is now available on DVD and will be broadcast to 230 million homes worldwide on September 25th. 

Watch our new trailer below to get a good feel for this newly restored and digitally remastered, time-tested documentary "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred".

"Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred" on EWTN Wednesday, September 25 at 5:30pm CT; Also available to watch online and on DVD at storytel.org/cantius

Standing the Test of Time

In the years following this program's premiere on EWTN in May of 2009, the fame of Saint John Cantius Church has grown and people everywhere have connected with our presentation of this amazing true story of how an all-but-abandoned huge, old church, destined for the wrecking ball, became a thriving religious and cultural treasure again.

People are inspired by this production because it's well done and it's true; true to what actually happened and true to the spirit of those who worked with God to make it happen.

It's a great story that we have structured a bit like an opera using the music from the choirs of Saint John Cantius to set and change the mood and to help drive the story forward. The story builds almost by itself as the production elevates liturgical beauty, appreciates Sacred music, and demonstrates how little things like making confession available during Sunday mass can have a profound impact on parishioner participation in the sacrament.

Father Scott Haynes, SJC of Saint John Cantius has described this production as, "A powerful tool for our parish's revitalization and for the work of our religious community!" Father Haynes also called it, "A decisive tool for attracting vocations, a video that clearly proclaims who we are and what we do."

Restoring the Video

During a review of this program, a few months ago, we began discussing how incredibly much video and audioRequest a DVD technology has developed in the years since we originally shot this documentary, way back in the days of Betacam-SP video tape; and we decided it was high time we took advantage of our current technology to re-create this production in widescreen and bring all image and sound quality up a few notches.

So we set to work restoring and remastering. We re-edited the picture into 4x3 widescreen; enhanced and re-mixed the soundtrack; re-created the titles and sharpened the still images; close captioned the whole production for the hearing impaired; dubbed it into Spanish to reach untapped markets; and basically enhanced all the visuals and audio wherever possible throughout the entire program, without altering any content along the way.

It Takes Eight Satellites to Reach the World

After 14 broadcasts dates on EWTN's seven English-language satellites spanning Africa and India; Canada; the United States; Europe; the Pacific Rim; UK and Ireland; totaling 75 individual English broadcasts, viewers are still calling EWTN to praise "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred" -- proof that Catholics around the world are entertained by this production and inspired to see the Sacred elements of our faith restored.

In 2012, StoryTel released the Spanish-dubbed version of the Cantius story, "San Juan Cancio, La Restauracion de lo Sagrado", and since the Spanish program's premiere, "San Juan Cancio" has been televised on four separate dates to EWTN's worldwide Spanish-language channel.

The Spanish and English "Saint John Cantius" productions together are currently reaching over 230 million homes throughout the world with 94 individual broadcasts from eight different EWTN satellites. Both versions are now contained on one DVD in the newly restored and remastered; widescreen; closed captioned; English or Spanish language; and enhanced audio -- "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred".

September 25th on EWTN

If you haven't seen it, the story will astound you -- and if you have seen it before, you know you'll enjoy the experience of revisiting this timeless StoryTel story in the newly restored widescreen edition.

So be sure to tune in to EWTN on Wednesday, September 25 at 5:30PM central, for their 14th televised broadcast of "Saint John Cantius, Restoring the Sacred". (EWTN Channel Finder)

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