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Catholic Sprouts,

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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Friday, April 4th, 2020. Today is also the feast day of St. Francisco Marto. Now, he was one of the Fatima visionaries. He was the older brother of Hesinta. He was there when Mary appeared in Fatima just

over 100 years ago. One of the interesting things about Francisco is that although he could see

Mary, he could not hear her. So afterwards, after the visions, each time, Lucia had to tell him what Mary had said.

And one of the things that Mary said to Francisco is he asked if he would go to heaven.

And she said to him, and he was young, he was 10 or 11 years old, she said to him that yes,

but he would have to pray many rosaries.

So if you're 10 or 11 years old or older and you think, oh, the rosary is just for old people,

I don't need to do that. Perhaps you should reconsider.

Now, after the visions ended, Francisco was a changed boy. He loved

Mary very much, and he was really dedicated to taking on as many acts of penance and suffering

as he could for the redemption of sinners. About six months after the visions ended, he contracted

Spanish flu, which was a disease there was no cure for at the time was very painful and miserable.

He suffered, and as he was sick, he would oftentimes run away and go and hide in the church and just lay by the tabernacle.

He told his mother that he was keeping our hidden savior company in the tabernacle. He told his mother that he was keeping our hidden

savior company in the tabernacle. He received his first holy communion and died shortly after,

and this is the day that he passed away and joined Jesus in heaven. Now this week on the Catholic

Sprouts podcast, we have been talking about unity, that we as

Catholics are united in faith, in worship, and in the leadership of the Pope.

Now, we've talked about the Gnostic heresy, the Aryan heresy, the Protestant heresy,

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