Produced, written, and directed
by Gerard Thomas Straub
Introduction to the Film
The Patients of a Saint is the story of an American doctor working in the high-tech world of a university hospital, who in 1983, felt compelled to abandon everything and enter the harsh world of extreme poverty and weakness in Peru. At first, Dr. Tony Lazzara worked in an adult clinic operated by Franciscan friars in Lima. Eventually his deeep concern for poverty’s children prompted him to open his own clinic and home geared for the needs of destitute and sick kids. Today, 50 kids live in this home – “Hogar de San Francisco de Asis” – suffering from an array of illnesses and deformities. Dr. Tony absorbs all the costs. All housing, food, education, medical treatment and medication are offered free while a child is under his care.
Throughout this 115-minute film, Gerry’s statements of his deeply held and courageously lived out religious convictions and his poignant visuals disturb and challenge viewers at many levels. Gerry makes us see and consider what we would rather not. His film engages us emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and behaviorally. He invites us to feel and empathize more deeply, to think more critically, to pray more faithfully, to abandon ourselves to God more fully, and to act more courageously. His personal witness is as inspiring as it is troubling. As an expression of the Gospel, Gerry’s life and films are indeed “good news for the poor.” But they await the viewers’ response to become even “better news for the poor.” |
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