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Catholic Sprouts,

the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, sprouts. Hey there, Spouts.

Today is Friday, November 22, 2020, 24.

Today is also the feast day of a very famous Christian martyr named St. Cecilia.

St. Cecilia is remembered as the patron saint of musicians,

and she has a truly incredible story. So St. Cecilia was a Christian during the time when Christianity

was persecuted in Rome. She lived in Rome, but to celebrate and attend Holy Mass, she had to go down beneath

the city of Rome into the catacombs. The catacombs were a creepy place where dead bodies were placed,

and mostly people avoided going down there, so the Christians felt safe celebrating Mass down there.

One day, two members of the Roman Guard caught Cecilia and other people attending Christian Mass.

They were ready to arrest her when one of them, named Valer saw Cecilia thought that she was beautiful and promised

that if he could marry her, then he wouldn't arrest everybody. So Cecilia's father agreed,

and the next day at Holy Mass, the two of them were married. Now, a lot of things happened. Valerian ended up having

a miraculous conversion, where he had miraculous knowledge of the faith. He and St. Cecilia had a very

holy relationship. And eventually, Valerian and his brother became Christians and also worked to help Christians who were in prison. Eventually, Valerian and his brother became Christians and also worked to help Christians who were in

prison. Eventually, they were arrested and martyred for their faith. Soon after, Cecilia was turned in

for being a Christian. She was tortured in many ways. Eventually, she was sentenced to death, but legend tells us that many of the people who came to execute her were actually converted by her witness of faith. In the end, she was sentenced to be beheaded. She was not afraid. Instead, she sang to God in joy as she approached her execution.

So this big huge executioner with a sword attempted to cut off her head. But miraculously, all he was

able to do was inflict a scratch. And he tried many times. Eventually, he gave up and went

home. And since Cecilia was also sent home, although her wounds by this point became infected

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