You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Wednesday, February 1st, 2003. Today is also the feast day of one of my favorite saints, St. Bridgett of Ireland.

Now, today we start February, which means a new month in the Bia St. Kids Club. Our patron this month is St. Josephine Bakita, another one of my favorites. We will have

so many fun and really life-forming challenges from her. The first one is to memorize a pretty beautiful prayer called the

Anima Christi. This is a Eucharistic prayer that we will talk about in depth. But for now,

let's just work on hearing and receiving these words and committing them to memory.

If you'll join me in the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit, amen. Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ save me. Blood of Christ,

inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. Good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds

conceal me. Do not permit me to be parted from you. From the evil foe, protect me. At the hour of my death,

call me, and bid me come to you to praise you with all your saints

forever and ever. Amen. So we are going to talk about that prayer in depth next week. But for now,

let's talk about the incredible saint we are celebrating today, a saint who had a true

beautiful relationship with the Eucharist, which is what we just prayed about, and that saint is

St. Bridget of Ireland. So St. Bridget lived a long time ago. She lived in the 400s when

Christianity was first coming to Ireland. St. Bridget was actually born into slavery. Her mother

was a slave, and her father was a sort of tribal king chieftain who owned her mother. So right before

Bridget was born, her mother was sold to another owner, and that's where

Bridget was born. She remained with her mother in that new place for a while, but when she was old

enough, she was sent back to her father because according to the brutal laws at the time, she

technically belonged to her father as a slave.

Now, although the Christian faith was new to Ireland, Bridget's mom was Christian, and she was raised Christian.

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