The Timoleague Friary in County Cork, Ireland was founded by the Franciscans in 1240 A.D. on site of an ancient monastery of St. Malaga. St. Malaga is credited with bringing beekeeping to Ireland. Honey production is still evident in the area. Cromwellian soldiers burned the Friary down in 1642. Today it serves as a community graveyard.

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Here is a video from Rick Steves blog post from our shoot in Rothenburg, Germany. It’s park of a new, 1-hour Rick Steves PBS special on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

After Martin Luther died in 1546, Europe was plunged into 30 years of war, leaving a third of the continent dead. Like it or not, it’s part of the story of the reformation.

Rick includes the medieval time-capsule town of Rothenburg prominently in his guidebook, so the town was gracious enough to call out an army of 50 stunningly clad reenactors. It was fun!

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Here is Rick Steves blog post from our shoot in Germany. It’s part of a new PBS Rick Steves 1-hour program on Martin Luther and the Reformation. The program will air in the fall of 2016, kicking off the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

By Rick Steves
Published on Jul 9, 2015
We’ve begun a twelve-day TV shoot in Germany for a public television special celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation (due out in late 2016). Perhaps you don’t know yet how exciting this is. Here’s a quick little clip taken by me in the back of a car. I’m recording a creative (low budget) effort to film a “point-of-view” shot illustrating how Luther was kidnapped and taken to a friendly prince’s castle. With the sun glinting through the trees, the hill-capping castle flickering up in the sky, and two cameras rolling, it could be really effective. Be patient; it takes a while for the castle to come into view in my video. (I’m shooting with producer/driver Simon Griffith, our regular cameraman Peter Rummel, and my friend—cameraman Tim Frakes—who produced the travel show I did on Martin Luther for the Lutheran Church 15 years ago.)

For background, read this bit of the script (six sequences out of 120; information in brackets includes shot number and location/image). I hope you can imagine how fun it is to tell this story:

[77a, art] While romanticized in this painting, the drama was certainly real. Imagine the showdown at Worms: Papal representatives, princes, Imperial troops—all power-dressing…and Charles—the Holy Roman Emperor himself—sitting high on his throne—the crowds craning to see the action. In the center of the room, Martin Luther stood alone…beside a table stacked with his rabble-rousing books and pamphlets.

[78, Worms courtroom, art] The prosecutor insisted Luther was a heretic. Summing up his case, he asked, “Who are you to go against 1,500 years of Church doctrine?” He demanded that Luther renounce his theses and writings. Luther would not budge. Perhaps as never before in European history, one ordinary person stood up to power for what he believed. He said: “Unless you can convince me by scripture or by clear reasoning, I am bound by my beliefs… I cannot and I will not recant. God help me. Amen.”

[79, Rick On Camera, Rothenburg] Luther was declared a heretic and left Worms essentially an outlaw. Now “outside the protection of the law,” Luther could be captured and killed by anyone. On his way home to Wittenberg, he was kidnapped and dropped out of sight. Many thought Luther had been killed.

[80, Wartburg, etchings] Days later, a man named Junker Jörg—or “Squire George”—appeared at Wartburg Castle. This was actually a disguised Martin Luther, who had been kidnapped for his own safety on his journey back from Worms by his benefactor, Prince Frederick the Wise. Safely hidden behind the stout walls of Wartburg, Luther spent nearly a year making his next stand against the Vatican and wrestling with his deepening depression. He fought his depression by working…studying and writing.

[80a ] This was Luther’s room. Restless, overfed, and lonely in the castle—he continued his lifelong personal battle with Satan. And it was here that he employed his favorite weapon—the printed word.

[81 Rick On Camera, Wartburg cell] Believing that everyone should be able to read the word of God, Luther began the daunting—and dangerous—task of translating the New Testament from the original ancient Greek into German. He used simplified language, as he said, like a mother talking to her children. As the King James Version of the Bible did for English, Luther’s translation helped to establish a standard German language that’s used to this day.

At http://www.ricksteves.com, you’ll find money-saving travel tips, small-group tours, guidebooks, TV shows, radio programs, podcasts, and more on this destination

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We are working on a new documentary titled: God’s Glory, Neighbors Good, the Story of Pietism. Pietism is the reformation after the reformation.  Anyone even vaguely familiar with church history knows that in 1517 Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church, sparking what became known as the Protestant Reformation.

What most have forgotten, or, perhaps, never learned in the first place, is that the “original” reformation didn’t create the Western Christianity that we know today all by itself.

After Luther’s death in 1546, Europe suffered through the Thirty Years War, leaving the continent divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic versions of the faith.  It also left a third of the population dead.

What emerged in lands most influenced by Luther (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, northern Germany) was an idea know as Orthodoxy which had a lot to do with the head, and very little to do with the heart.   One church historian quipped, “sermons sometimes were about how to plant better potatoes.”

Along came the pietists in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.  These 18th and 19th century awakened folks were interested in a personal faith, reading the Bible in home studies and then acting out what they learned in practical ways that included caring for the poor, and evangelism.  The pietists also generated an ocean of music that describes how much God loves us.

Mark and I traveled all over the place, from Stockholm to Oslo to Copenhagen and many places in between, interviewing scholars, pastors, lay people and recording many historic churches, landmarks and local scenery.

One great story is a photo I spotted of Onesimus Nesbid at the Johannelund Theological Seminary in Uppsala, Sweden. Johannelund is run by the Lutheran Swedish Evangelical Mission (In Swedish: Evangeliska fosterlandsstiftelsen) and began its existence as a training institute for inland and overseas missionaries.

Onesimos was a 19th century Ethiopian slave, purchased out of slavery by Swedish Lutheran missionaries. Taken to Uppsala, Onesimus earned his theological degree and returned to Ethiopia to found the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, the fastest growing Christian church in the world.

All of this will be combined with footage we record later this summer in Germany plus additional interviews with scholars and theologians here in the United States.

In fact, much of what we understand today in American Evangelical Christian practice has its roots in the story of Pietism.  This project will likely take at least another year to complete.  We will need to do additional fundraising to get the work done.  But, I’ve no doubt that we will get this thing done… to God’s glory and our neighbors good.

Here is a promo for the documentary:

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Glory to God Alone: The Life of J. S. Bach, is an award winning introduction to the great composer. Awarded the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award for best in class, the video features scenes from Eisenach, Ohrdruf, Weimar, Kothen, Muhlhausen and of course, Leipzig and showcases insights from noted J. S. Bach scholars Christoph Wolff, Robin Leaver and guitar virtuoso Christopher Parkening. The program includes a Bach performance recorded at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke in Chicago, and an added interview with Mary Greer, Vice President of the American Bach Society. Carl Grapentine, morning show co-host, WFMT-FM, Chicago, is the narrator.

Glory to God Alone: The Life of J. S. Bach
Broadcast Version Narrator Script

For the past 250 years the boys choir at St. Thomas Church has sung the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. This is Bach’s story told with words, pictures and of course, music. Our journey takes us across Central Germany, from Bach’s ancestral home in Eisenach, to Ohrdurf and Luneburg, where he grew up. We’ll also trace the growth of his musical career in Arnstadt, Muhlhausen, Weimar, Cothen and finally Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach lived from 1685 to 1750. Changes revolutionized Europe. Advances in science, politics and literature affected kings and commoners alike. It was an age of fine art, architecture, and a time of celebrating the human spirit. In England, Sir Isaac Newton was laying the foundations of modern science. In France, Voltaire wrote Candide and most of Germany was still known as the Holy Roman Empire. French, German, Italian, Dutch and English artists were busy painting up a storm. In architecture, the Palace of Versailles set the tone for an entire age. Composers such as Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi were famous.

Bach’s day was a flurry of creative excitement. Rich nobles constantly tried to outdo one another. They embellished clothes, houses, and lifestyles with ruffles and flourishes. Any prince worth his powdered wig, had a staff of hired musicians. And whether your castle was in Germany or Scotland, French was the preferred language of the court. As far as music went, there wasn’t much separation between secular and sacred. Music written and performed both in the King’s chapel and the village square glorified God. And if the king shared a bit of the spotlight… so be it.

Changes didn’t affect everyone, however. Parts of Europe were still quite medieval. Feudal Lords ruled over illiterate serfs who tilled soil they didn’t own. And if the Prince was Protestant, chances are you were too. Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a large, musical family. He was the youngest son of Maria Elisabeth and Johann Ambrosius Bach, a prosperous town musician here in Eisenach. It was here, 200 years before, that Martin Luther made his famous translation of the New Testament in the Wartburg Castle, overlooking the city.

Johann Sebastian, spent his first nine years in a large house in Eisenach. The family wasn’t rich, but they weren’t poor either. Their life revolved around family, music, school and the church. Then, tragedy struck.

Johann Sebastian watched four of his siblings die before the age of 19. Then his parents died too. Long life was by no means a guarantee – a reality Johann Sebastian was reminded of, again and again. Now orphans, Johann Sebastian and his 13 year old brother Johann Jacob moved to the nearby town of Ohrdurf where the boy’s oldest brother, Johann Christoph was organist at St. Michael’s Church.

The nine year old Johann Sebastian couldn’t keep his hands off of music. Even if it was locked away.

While living with his older brother, Johann Sebastian now continued his education in Ohrdurf’s Latin school. He did so well, and showed such promise as a student and singer, that by the age of 15, he earned a university scholarship at the prestigious St. Michael’s School, in Luneburg.

While at school in Luneburg, Johann Sebastian tapped into a thriving music scene, 30 miles away in Hamburg, then Germany’s largest city. The most famous organist of the time was Johann Adam Reinken.

With formal education in Luneburg behind him, Johann Sebastian was now an educated and versatile musician. He could read and write music, sing, play and repair just about any keyboard instrument. Ready to set out on his own, he needed to look no further than his own back yard.

Armed with a new instrument and time to play it, Johann Sebastian’s talent blossomed. He devoted himself to composing and performing music. He played the organ three times a week in church and lead a local choir. That duty led to a brawl with bassoonist Geyersbach.

Johann Sebastian had other problems with his employers here in Arnstadt. He requested a one month leave of absence to visit the famous organist, Dietrich Buxtehude. That visit stretched into three months. When he returned, an angry congregation was shocked by new-fangled styles of music the young organist brought back with him.

On top of everything else, Johann Sebastian was unfairly accused for allowing an ‘unfamiliar maiden” to sing in the choir loft. In those days women weren’t allowed to sing in church. Now, his days in Arnstadt were numbered. Bigger, better things awaited in Muhlhausen.

Johann Sebastian’s second major post came as organist in this Free Imperial City. It was here that he began to refine his skill as a composer, writing large-scale works like “God is our King.” Since the Muhlhausen job meant a pay raise, the 23 year old was ready to wed his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, at this church in Dornheim.

The marriage produced four children who survived to adulthood. Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel both went on to become famous composers in their own rights. While in Muhlhausen Johann Sebastian found himself in the middle of the biggest religious controversy of his day. Orthodoxy verses pietism.

Pietist’s saw faith as personal and life changing. The orthodox tended to be more understated and traditional. Johann Sebastian served two churches in Muhlhausen. One pietistic. The other orthodox. All Bach wanted to do was glorify God with his music.

Fed up with religious squabbling in Muhlhausen, he decided to take advantage of his growing reputation and find a new job. The opportunity came as court organist back in Weimar, a leading German cultural center. Previously, the young genius made do with local, town musicians. In Weimar, they were professionals.

The city of Weimar was the seat of a Duchy. That meant the land was controlled by a Duke. In this case, two Dukes. Not only did Johann Sebastian have professional musicians to work with, but the job was prestigious. It nearly doubled his salary. The best part, his employer loved music. Johann Sebastian’s musical output began to blossom. He experimented with the works of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi and wrote numerous cantatas and organ works such as “Christ lay in Death’s Strong Bands” and “The Little Organ Book”.

Johann Sebastian’s fame as a performer spread throughout Europe. This, of course, led to a promotion.

Johann Sebastian was not only a master performer, he was rapidly becoming a master composer. Back in Weimar, the now famous Johann Sebastian missed out on a promotion when his boss hired a relative for the court’s top musical post. Johann Sebastian’s response landed him in jail.

As Capellmister, Johann Sebastian was now at the top of his profession. Personally, the 32 year old musician’s family had grown as well. He and Maria Barbara now had four children under the age of 10. Cothen was a small principality in Anhalt-Cothen. Compared with Halle or Leipzig, it was a back water. On the bright side, the Reformed Prince Leopold loved music and the arts. When the nearby Prussian King fired his court musicians, Leopold seized the opportunity and hired a large contingent for himself.

Life for the Bach family in Cothen began well. Johann Sebastian worked in this castle. He performed for the Prince, and for the church. He also wrote six concerts for Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg. We know them well as the Brandenburg Concertos. Sadly, it was also a time of tragedy for the family. Returning home from a business trip of several weeks with Prince Leopold, Johann Sebastian learned that his beloved Maria Barbara, whom he had left in good health, had died and been buried.”

More than a year after Maria Barbara’s death, Johann Sebastian fell in love. She was a young professional court singer, Anna Magdalena Wilcke.

In 1723, Johann Sebastian, his new wife and growing family left Cothen and moved here. To Leipzig. It was the peak of his career. Leipzig’s major attraction was its university. Johann Sebastian wanted his sons to further their education and this may be part of his reason for moving here.

Johann Sebastian was hired as Cantor, or chief musician, at the St. Thomas Church and school. Ironically, he was the third choice. George Phillip Telemann and Christoph Graupner both turned down the job. They had to make do with Johann Sebastian Bach.

In some respects, Johann Sebastian’s Leipzig post was a step down compared with Cothen and Weimar. He no longer served in a prince’s court. The Leipzig musicians he worked with were amateurs, not professionals. He not only made the most of the situation, he triumphed. Johann Sebastian’s Leipzig work represents one of the greatest musical achievements in the history of Christendom.

It was in Leipzig that Johann Sebastian wrote the St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. John Passions. A Passion is simply a musical way of telling the story of Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection in a worship service. While only two, St. Matthew and St. John survive today, both rank as classics.

Johann Sebastian continued to compose at a phenomenal rate until his last days. In his 65th year, following two unsuccessful eye operations, the now blind master died following a stroke. He left behind Anna Magdalena and nine children. Four of them were still minors. In the decades following his death, Johann Sebastian’s music began to be replaced by newer, more popular styles. Composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and even Johann Sebastian’s sons Carl Philip Emanuel and Johann Christian (called the “English Bach”) became popular throughout Europe.

In 1829, 79 years after Johann Sebastian’s death, German composer Felix Mendelssohn performed the St. Matthews Passion. The performance sparked a revival that has influenced the music of every generation since.

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Dotting the ridge around the village are limestone rock outcroppings. Nested in the rocks are caves once used as dwellings and early Christian churches.

For the next two hours, two locals showed us around. In the years after Paul and Barnabas, a small Christian community developed here. One cave is a carved rock basilica. Archeologists have excavated other caves; their entrances blocked by iron gates. Some are used to store hay for the sheep. We couldn’t communicate very well with our hosts, but they gave us a grand tour anyway. At the conclusion, we offered to pay them for their time. They refused, shook our hands, waved good-bye and walked back into the village.

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New Testament characters Paul and Barnabas passed through here on the way to Antioch in Pisidia around 50 AD. It was also at this point that Barnabas?s nephew, Mark, decided to turn back. Maybe the sight of a major Roman city and its garrison of soldiers gave him second thoughts? Paul and Barnabas pressed on, so did we.

This footage appears in “The Life of Apostle Paul with Rick Steves.”
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Posted by Rick Steves, December 13, 2007
Squeezing a few days in Rome between a Greece tour and researching in Istanbul this fall, I met my friend Tim Frakes — who produces videos for the Lutheran Church (www.elca.org) — to finish a video about St. Peter.
Over the years, Tim and I have collaborated on five teaching videos, taking us from Lutheran-funded hospitals in Papua New Guinea to the room where Martin Luther translated the Bible from Latin to the people’s German (…really annoying the pope).
For this video (similar to an earlier one on St. Paul), Tim filmed places around the eastern Mediterranean where Peter had lived and worked. We planned to have me “host” the video in Rome by filming (over two days) about 20 “on-camera” bits at the Vatican and in generic ancient settings.
Filming on St. Peter’s Square is always thrilling, with a backdrop of the greatest church in Christendom and so much rich Church history to share. While the square is a crowded mess through midday, it is glorious — rich colors, striking architecture warmly lit by a low sun, and no crowds — early and late. That’s when we filmed there.
(Of course, there is the nagging issue of whether St. Peter ever even went to Rome. Scholars differ on this. And as Lutherans, we didn’t want to anger Roman Catholics by questioning the veracity of the claim that Peter is buried under St. Peter’s Basilica. We proceeded as if the tradition itself of Peter’s work and death there authenticated the story.)
We needed distinct and evocative sites for each of our 15 generic ancient setting on-camera performances. We tried for Ostia Antica, but failed to get permission (without paying the $3,000 fee that they asked). Finally the people at Hadrian’s Villa gave us permission, supporting our church’s educational work (but didn’t quite understand why we were “filming St. Peter” at a place he certainly never visited). As it turned out, Hadrian’s Villa was much better than Ostia Antica would have been for our needs.
Tim and I scouted the site and set out to shoot all the on-cameras. It was an exhilarating day and we were both happy with the work. Exhausted, we returned to our hotel and went out for a celebratory dinner.
Later that evening, Tim knocked on my hotel room door with panic and horror on his face. He asked me if I had seen a videocassette. One was missing.
It was the nightmare of every TV producer: While working at his laptop, he had knocked three tapes from his desk to the floor. He bent down a bit later and picked up two. Then he joined me for our pasta and red wine.
Rome is not a place where garbage moves fast…unless you dropped a precious videocassette into a trash bin. While we were out, the maid came in and emptied the garbage into a big plastic bag that went outside…and then, with incredibly bad luck, the garbage truck came and went.
We got lovely Annamaria from our hotel (The Aberdeen) to go into her building’s garbage room. With plastic gloves on, she emptied bags on the floor, analyzing the empty jugs and so on to determine which bags were from Hotel Aberdeen. All her bags had already been picked up and taken to the Rome dump. Heroically, Annamaria and her husband actually drove to the dump…only to find that all had been smashed together. Our cassette was hopelessly lost.
Tim felt so bad, considering how hard we had worked. We just agreed not to punish ourselves, changed our morning flights home, and arranged to return to Hadrian’s Villa to re-shoot the 15 on-cameras…which were absolutely critical to the production.
Back at Hadrian’s Villa, the weather was as good as the earlier day. But there was a different man in charge. We explained our story (with the help of our gracious driver and Annamaria on the phone). The bureaucrats running the site seemed to enjoy watching this humbled American film crew begging for a chance to enter and reshoot our lost bits. They said no.
I couldn’t believe this. The light was perfect. We were permitted the day before. I had a flight that night to Turkey. And the gate was closed to us and our camera. We sat there looking like abandoned little puppies, sad faces, trying to stay cool…until noon, when they finally agreed to let us in “as tourists” and re-do our work.
With time ticking away, Tim and I lined up all 15 stops efficiently and, with precision focus, re-shot the entire list. The work went perfectly, and I was impressed by how easy it was to call back the lines I had previously memorized. I think my performance was actually better this time around. By 3:00 p.m., we had shot the last bit — just in time for me to zip out to the airport and resume my itinerary in Istanbul.
Tim flew home with all the footage to complete his St. Peter video. A week later, I was home and recorded the general voice track. Within about a month, the project was compete and a new teaching video was in the mail to all 11,000 ELCA Lutheran churches.
Our friends at the ELCA website have organized all the videos Tim and I have done into one fun page at www.elca.org, so anyone can click on over and see our work.
My favorites of this work have been the Papua New Guinea show (even thought it’s pretty old…our first collaboration, which let me share my thoughts on First/Third World relations) and the Martin Luther story (since I had to sit through the old-fashioned, black-and-white versions when I was a kid in Sunday school, and this would pump up the color and energy for kids warming those same little chairs today). And for understanding the work that St. Paul and St. Peter did in the formative early years of the Christian Church, the other videos tell that story.
If you’re interested, I hope you can enjoy our latest work: The Life of Apostle Peter.

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Rick graciously offered his time and energy to not only host these programs on camera, but also do much of the writing and coordinate many of the travel arrangements.

This is the last installment of Mosaic, the video magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2007 the ELCA discontinued the series after a 21 year run.

The Lutheran Magazine ran this story announcing the end of the Mosaic Video series and our Life of Apostle Peter with Rick Steves video.

The Life of Apostle Peter with host Rick Steves is the final episode of Mosaic Television.
Launched in 1988, Mosaic was the quarterly video program produced by ELCA Communication Services. It was intended for educational use in a variety of congregational settings.

Frakes resigned in March 2007 to form Tim Frakes Productions, Lombard, Ill.

Thanks go out to Jim Parks who edited the last 48 programs. He is a gifted artist and musician. Jim Quattrocki was along to do much of the shooting over the years. I am grateful for his talents. Wendy Blanck worked with me on the administrative side for many years. She held the whole thing together as no one else could. Melissa Ramirez Cooper, Barbara Berry-Bailey, Wyvetta Bullock and John Bachman also made major contributions as hosts of the program.

Finally, thanks go out to Larry Foreman, creator of the Mosaic series and the many ELCA communication staff members both current and past who contributed in many ways. Personally, it was an honor and great privilege to be part of this small contribution to the reformation movement in modern times.

Tim Frakes Productions produces documentary and image video for faith-based, non-profit, broadcast and corporate clients. www.frakesproductions.com

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