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Catholic Sprouts

The daily podcast for Catholic kids

that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Spouts.

Today is Wednesday, May 21st, 2020.

Today we also remember the heroic sacrifice of over 25 Mexican martyrs, who gave their life in testimony to Jesus Christ in the early 1900s.

So what happened is that there was a revolution in Mexico,

and the government that came to power wanted to suppress and even end the Catholic Church's influence in Mexico. However, 95% of the people in Mexico

at the time were Catholic, and many of them were heroic priests who had no intention of abandoning

their vocation or denying their savior.

And so in the end, over 22 priests and three lay companions, all members of the Cristeros movement were killed by the government.

Each of these men have an incredibly just heroic story.

The youngest was little Jose Lito, Jose Sanchez del Rio, who was just a boy

when he died a martyr. But another that we celebrate today is Father Christopher Melanus.

So Father Christopher worked for many years before the revolution in Mexico.

He worked with the indigenous people, teaching them about Jesus, offering them an education,

helping them find good work. He really gave his life to this group of people that needed him.

But after the revolution, the churches were closed and seminaries were closed.

It was illegal to train a man to be a priest. But Father Christopher knew how important this was,

so he opened an illegal or underground seminary. He continued to train young men for the priesthood, even though he was caught

and shut down, he would open another seminary until finally he was arrested and sentenced to death.

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