You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast 11th day in the second month in the year of our Lord

2003. My name is Sir Roland Paterlot, and you're listening to Saturdays with Sir Roland on Catholic

Sprouts for every Saturday we discuss the art of dragon slain. Today is the memorial of our

Lady of Lords when Mary appeared to St. Bernardette, the poor and humble girl, to give her a message

of healing and hope. So today is a great day to be trained by another legendary dragon-slayer who

I've asked to train us to slay the green dragon of greed. This legend was not born into poverty like

Bernadette, but God taught him to embrace it so that he could slay the green dragon. Here now,

to read the letter I have received for all of you from St. Francis himself is my friend, Sir Eugene.

To the gildings of Sir Roland Paterlott's Dragon Slayer's Training Guild, peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom all glory and honor and blessings in praise is due.

My name is Francis of Assisi and I write to you at the request of your guildmaster in hopes of training you to slay a dragon who once had an awful grip on my life.

You know me as St. Francis, who lived over 800 years

ago and captured the imagination of the whole world by embracing Lady Poverty as my bride to bring

glory and honor back to our Lord and Savior. Even in your day, people still have cities named after me

and sing songs and canticles that I wrote. But I tell you, it wasn't always

so. Before I was St. Francis, I was the king of feces. I was a trouvador, singing love songs

and serenading young maidens before I wrote my canticles and love songs to Lady Poverty and

our Lord Jesus. My father was a wealthy cloth merchant, and so I had all the treasure I needed to live a life

of endless revelry. Even then, though, I had dreams and aspirations of being a glorious

and chivalrous night, but I did not yet know and understand was what truly worth fighting

for and what chivalry actually meant. My day was not so different than yours, so many people

have lapsed in their Catholic

faith. The priests and laity alike had been wounded badly by the yellow dragon of Acadia,

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