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Catholic sprouts

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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Tuesday, February 25th, 2025. This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we are talking about relics as we continue to work our way through the ABCs of

the Catholic faith.

Yesterday, we heard about what a relic is and why they are important to our faith.

Today, we are going to talk about perhaps the most well-known relic of all, the true cross.

Before we get into that, though, join me in our February prayer, the Jesus prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, Jesus Christ,

Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Amen. So as we mentioned yesterday, a relic is a physical object

that serves as a reminder of the life of a saint or the life of Jesus Christ. And one of the most

important objects for Christians is the cross. It was, of course, on the cross

that Jesus Christ willingly suffered and died to save us from our sins. So since around the 300s, the True Cross has been found and passed around in little

bits and venerated. But here is the story of the finding of the True Cross, and this is actually

commemorated on the feast day of the exultation

of the cross. So here's the story. So as you likely remember during the time of Jesus and for

hundreds of years to follow, Rome controlled much of the known world, including Jerusalem and of

course the city of Rome.

Peter and Paul traveled to Rome. They spread the word. But when Nero decided to burn down the

city of Rome, a great persecution against the Christians erupted. Many Christians were

killed as martyrs, not only in Rome, but throughout

the Roman Empire. However, because of the witness of the martyrs, the faith continued to spread.

And so, in the 300s, a man named Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire. His mother had been

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