John Pielmeier began his career as an actor, working at Actors Theater of Louisville, The Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Alaska Rep, Baltimore’s Center Stage and the O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference.  Agnes of God was first staged at the O’Neill. It was a co-winner of the 1979 Great American Play Contest, and premiered professionally at Actors Theater of Louisville. There followed a number of regional productions and a seventeenth month run on Broadway. He wrote the screenplay for the movie.

Other plays by Pielmeier include Courage, a one-man show about J.M. Barrie; Jass; a musical comedy called Young Rube, about Rube Goldberg; and Willi, based on the speeches of mountaineer Willi Unsoeld. He has also written several movies for television, including Choices of the Heart.

Pielmeier has received a number of other awards and grants and lives in Garrison, New York with his wife Irene O’Garden.

Basis for the Play

Agnes of God is believed to be based on an actual incident, which occurred in a convent in Brighton, N.Y., near the conservative community of Rochester.

The play features a young novitiate of French ethnicity, who was molested by her mother as a child, sang in an ethereal voice, and, as an innocent, may have been impregnated by an alcoholic priest. The nun, Sister Maureen, who was actually accused of killing her baby was 36 years old and Irish. She was a Montessori teacher, and at that time in New York State, all teachers were required to be certified by NY. At the time of the baby’s death (found, asphyxiated in a waste basket in her convent room), police found ticket stubs and other information in her room indicating that she had traveled out of state to an educational conference to complete certification requirements.

During the trial, the father of the baby was never named. Also, during the trial, Sister Maureen denied she had given birth and could not remember being pregnant. She waived her right to a jury, and Judge Hyman Maas presided. There was some controversy about whether a Jewish Judge would give a Catholic nun a fair trial. It was over in ten days, and Maas found Sister Maureen innocent of all charges by reason of insanity in March 1977.

The girls’ high school near the convent, where many of the nuns taught, was called St. Agnes – now closed.

Convent Life

Convent originally signified an assembly of Roman citizens in the provinces of the empire, gathered for purposes of administration and justice. The term has evolved to be related to monasticism and is generally applied to a religious community of women. The life lived by the inhabitants of a convent naturally varies in its details, according to the particular object for which it has been founded, or the special circumstances of time and place of its origin. Convents are usually roughly divided between the enclosed and unenclosed, but in terms of the present day, this division is unsatisfactory because of the variety of work undertaken by these communities. Generally the enclosed communities are contemplative, but even they undertake some educational or service-oriented work, while the “active” communities will also have a contemplative component. It may be stated that the contemplative life, in which women are motivated by a desire to save their own souls and the souls of others by their lives of prayer, seclusion, and self-denial, was the idea of older orders.

About the “contemplative life:” the complacent loving gaze of the soul on Divine truth already known and apprehended by the intellect and assisted and enlightened by divine grace. In his investigation of divine things, the contemplative is driven by love for those things, and to increase this love is his ultimate purpose. He does not rely on the natural powers of his intellect in his endeavors to gain understanding of the truth, but seeks aid by prayer and by the practice of all Christian virtues and strives to fit his soul for the grace he desires. The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and even silence, are aids in this effort as well, as they help to free the contemplative from earthly concerns. Having a fixed set of duties and obligations as well as a prescribed routine also contribute to the experience.

Examples of contemplative orders for women are the Carmelites, who originated in the 13th century in Israel (Mount Carmel). There are now about 11,000 Carmelites in  75 countries. An order of Carmelites here in the US spends up to seven hours a day in prayer, for themselves and for others. They receive requests for prayer from visitors and rarely leave the convent.

Another order is the Cistercian nuns, founded in 1098 in Citeaux, France by Benedictine monks (there are also Cistercian monks). The order was established to create silence and solitude in the community, “to be truly poor in Christ.” In 1957 the first group of Cistercians came to the United States from Switzerland, where they settled in Wisconsin.

The Roman Catholic Mass

Much of what Agnes sings comes from the Roman Catholic Latin liturgy, primarily the service of the Mass. The term is taken from the words of dismissal of the congregation at the end of the ceremony: “ite missa est.” By the 7th century the Mass had developed into an elaborate rite of chants, prayers and readings. By this time also a distinction was made between those parts of the service whose texts and music were appropriate only to a particular feast (the Proper) and those whose texts and music could be used on any day (the Ordinary). The five portions of the Ordinary are most often set to music, and it is from those selections that Agnes sings. The five sections are known as: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.

The beginning of the final section, the Agnus Dei, translates as “lamb of God.” One can surmise that Pielmeier is referencing that text in his choice of name for the main character of the play and in the title “Agnes of God.” Agnes is indeed portrayed as an innocent (or lamb), and her alliance with God is an important aspect of the drama.

Other music in the play
“Virgin Mary,” which is sung by both the Mother Superior and Agnes in the middle of the first act is an African-American spiritual.

“Ave Maria,” the other Latin text, besides the portions of the Mass, which Agnes sings is the familiar Roman Catholic prayer “Hail Mary,” part salutation and part petition for deliverance from sin.

“Charlie’s Neat,” sung by Agnes at the very end of the play is an American folk song from the Appalachian Mountains, sometimes described as a “dancing game song.”

Themes

1. On one level, the play is an allegory which explores fundamental conflicts. The most compelling of these is the tension between Faith and Science, to some extent represented by the doctor and the Mother Superior. This dichotomy is directly explored during a scene between these two characters in the middle of the second act, but the struggle runs throughout the play – the clash between the religious life and the “real world.”

2. Another theme worth exploring is motherhood. Each of the characters has had traumatic issues with her mother or with images of herself as a mother, spiritual or actual.

3. Pielmeier makes use of the idea of addiction as it relates to each of the characters. The doctor admits her obsession with cigarettes. Depending on one’s point of view, Agnes can be seen as a fanatic or as an addict in regard to her relationship with God. And the Mother Superior is addicted to the notion of Agnes as an innocent, an attitude which helps to keep her centered in the religious life.

Symbols

The whole play can be taken as a symbolic event. The facts about the conception and birth of Agnes’ baby are never entirely revealed, and much of what happens is ambiguous. References to miraculous episodes of the Christian tradition run throughout the drama and enhance the sense of unresolved mystery.

Annunciation, or Immaculate Conception  – an episode described in Luke I: 26-38 – is the revelation to Mary that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit who will be the Son of God.  This event is an important theme in Christian art and the countless images depicting it include the Angel, Mary and the dove of the Holy Spirit descending towards her – often aimed at her ear. In the play, Agnes says that babies “come from when an angel lights on their mother’s chest and whispers into her ear.” During one conversation between the doctor and the Mother, it seems that the Mother entertains the notion of an Immaculate Conception for Agnes. The doctor asks her if she thinks “a big white dove came flying through her window.” She does not, but she does not discount the idea of some kind of miracle taking place.
 
Stigmata  – These are wounds believed to duplicate those of Christ’s crucifixion that appear on a person’s hands and feet, and sometimes on the side and head. Of course, when cases of stigmata are reported, there is always a good deal of controversy about whether they constitute a hoax or a manifestation of a tortured soul. In the long history of the world there are reports of the ecstatically religious who have born the marks, and even the bleeding, of Christ’s suffering. Famous stigmatics include Stephen Langton of England, the first recorded case in 1222, and Saint Francis of Assisi in 1224. Naturally, there have been plenty of women inflicted by stigmata.

“non-religious” symbol
cigarettes –  these not only signal the doctor’s addiction, but also her sense of emptiness and lack of fulfillment. They can be said to represent worldliness and even a connection between the two worlds (religious and outside), when the Mother Superior shares a cigarette and a moment of humor with the doctor. We also learn that they are used as weapons against Agnes by her mother, when a deeply traumatic memory is revealed.

Script references

Greta Garbo in Camille – famous 1936 film based on the Alexandre Dumas story of the Parisan courtesan “La Dame aux Camilles.”

“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God” Mark 10:14

Hindenburg – German aircraft zeppelin destroyed by fire while landing in New Jersey in 1937, an accident widely reported by film, photographic and radio media.

Extreme Unction – traditional Catholic rite of the Anointing of the Sick, also called the last rites

ascetics – those (in any religious faith) who ascribe to a life characterized by self-denial and abstinence from worldly pleasures

vespers – evening prayer service in the Christian church, one of the seven so-called Canonical Hours, ancient divisions of time which mark the prayer events of the day.

Saints and their cigarettes – In the last scene before Act II, the Mother and the Doctor have a conversation about certain saints and what brand of cigarette each was likely to smoke.

St. Thomas More (1478-1535) – a lawyer and judge, born in London, admitted to the bar and entered Parliament in 1505. He became one of the leading intellectual figures of the time, one of England’s leading humanists and an outstanding poet and scholar (his Utopia is a classic) and an influential figure in the court of Henry VIII. Because of his refusal to support the king’s break with the Pope and his Act of Succession, he was beheaded.

St. Ignatius (of Loyola, 1491-1556) – founder of the Jesuits, was originally a soldier, and after an illness, decided to dedicate his life to God. He traveled as a beggar on many pilgrimages and established the missionary work of the church.

St. Peter, the Apostle (d. 64 or 67 C.E.) – the first Bishop of Rome, important figure in the founding of the church. As one of the apostles, much of his life is legend and closely linked to that of Jesus. He was crucified under one of Nero’s anti-Christian persecutions.

Mary Magdalene – history’s most famous reformed prostitute (in the Catholic tradition), she is venerated as the most ardent and loyal of Christ’s followers (and never mind about Dan Brown’s theories…), one of the women disciples with him when he died and traditionally the first witness to his resurrection. The line “you’ve come a long way, baby,” refers to an ad for a brand of cigarettes marketed to women, called Virginia Slims.

St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431) – the pious French woman, whose voices told her to save her country by leading her young king to victory. Following the fulfillment of some of her prophecies, the Dauphin became convinced of her mission and she enjoyed a brief time of glory. When her army began to fail, she was eventually charged with heresy and witchcraft and famously burned. She was declared innocent by Pope Callistus III in 1456 and canonized in 1920.

Questions

• What do you think of the doctor’s use of hypnosis to try to unearth Agnes’ memory of the conception and birth of her child? Does it seem realistic?

• Discuss in depth some of the themes listed above.

• How would you characterize the relationship between the Mother Superior and Dr. Livingstone? How does it develop and change during the course of the play?

• How does the past life of each of the women in the story influence her actions and view of the world?

• Discuss the relationship between visions and madness. Do you think that having a religious vision always signals insanity?