Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mysteries Of The Faith’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About The Beliefs Surrounding The Holiest Of Religious Relics

In almost all organized religions, there are particular objects that inspire reverence from the faithful. They either represent something holy or are actual objects used by the founders of a religion. A new docuseries takes a look at relics that are considered holy by Catholics, the stories surrounding them and the power they hold with the faithful.

MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The Gist: Mysteries Of The Faith is a four-part docuseries, narrated by David Harewood, that takes a look at the holiest of artifacts in the Catholic faith, where the artifacts come from, the search for those that are missing, and the faith and belief that Catholics have in those artifacts. Do these objects foster miracles? Are people healed by being in their presence?

The main discussion in the first episode is about the Holy Crown Of Thorns, thought to be the very crown of thorns that the Romans placed on Jesus Christ’s head right before he was executed via crucifixion. The crown had been held at Notre-Dame for almost 800 years, until the fire at the cathedral in 2019.

First, the concept of “passion relics” are explained; they’re relics that are directly related to the crucifixion. Relics like the Holy Grail, which he drank from at the Last Supper, or the shroud that Jesus’ body was wrapped in after he died, hold a mystical power to those of the Catholic faith that come in contact with them, as if they’re coming in contact with Jesus himself. These relics are so powerful that people make pilgrimages to see them. The producers follow two such pilgrims as they follow the path the Holy Grail traveled to its current location in Spain. Of course, the experts interviewed are quick to say that the one shown to the faithful isn’t the actual grail and that there might be more than one.

It’s the same with the Crown of Thorns. How it went from Jerusalem to Constantinople then finally to Paris is detailed, with the acknowledgement that about 200 years of its provenance is unknown. Then we hear from the protectors of the crown, as well as the firefighters who were tasked to save the crown during the 2019 Notre-Dame fire.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Mysteries Of The Faith has the same vibe as the PBS docuseries Secrets Of The Dead or Netflix’s Unknown: The Lost Pyramid.

Our Take: There is a lot of credulousness in Mysteries Of The Faith, perhaps a little too much. The producers of the docuseries do try to give lip service to the fact that the relics that they’re profiling may not actually exist and that there’s no real way of knowing the provenance of these relics. But much of that is couched in language, like when Harewood refers to “the thorny crown that might have once pierced Jesus’ head”. There are many more experts that are interviewed that speak to the power of these symbols to the faithful than question if these relics are what they say they are, and why people seem to need these things to exist in the physical world to begin with.

The part of the first episode that really brought this home was the discussion of the devastating Notre-Dame fire in 2019 and the risks firefighters went to in order to save the crown and other relics from being consumed by the flames. The idea that these firefighters would risk their lives to save the crown is one thing; the power of the crown in the minds of those that were tasked to save it is an individual thing that is too personal to be judged by a pop culture critic. But the fact that the crown wasn’t on a map of relics given to the fire department, the fact that a “fake” display model was found first and that the curator called to give the code to the safe it was in didn’t know it at first just shows how truly insane the treatment of these relics are.

Yes, these relics are priceless and to those of the Catholic faith, about as holy as any object can be. But given the utter lack of provenance, the lengths that the Church goes to to protect these relics boggles the mind. This is where the credulity issue comes into play. There’s no questioning that these relics may just be symbols, not the actual items they represent, and there’s no comparison between the effort the Church goes to in order to protect the relics and the lack of protection the Church gives to its actual living parishioners.

We hope that subsequent episodes, ones that examine how the faithful interact with these relics and the supposed miracles that have happened in relation to those relics, have a bit more nuance than the first one did.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Scenes from the second episode, which continues to discuss the Holy Grail as well as the Veil of Manoppello.

Sleeper Star: None that we could find.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hubert Borione, a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepluchre who is tasked with protecting the Crown of Thorns when it’s in public, tells the interviewer that his father, grandfather and great grandfather were all Knights. That is one heck of a lot of generations of non-clergy giving their lives to the Church.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you can get past the credulous nature of Mysteries Of The Faith, you’ll find an interesting examination of the power of holy relics.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.