You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Friday, February 14th, 2020. It is also the feast day of

St. Valentine and also the feast day of St. Cyril and Methodius. This week on the Catholic

Sprouts podcast, we have been talking about the

sacrament of anointing of the sick. We talked about how Jesus instituted this sacrament,

what happens at the sacrament of anointing of the sick, and then we started talking about

powerful intercessors. We've talked about St. Ludwina, who intercedes oftentimes

for those suffering from chronic pain. We talked about St. Dymphna, who intercedes for those

with mental illness. And today, we are going to talk about the patron saint of cancer patients,

and this is St. Paragrin.

Now, St. Paragrin lived in the 12th in Italy, and she has a bit of an interesting story.

So when he was a young man, he was very much against religion and against the Catholic Church.

In fact, there was a religious uprising when he was a young man, and he was demonstrating,

and he got so furious that he went up and he struck, he punched a priest.

Now, this priest went on to be a saint, so he was a good guy.

So instead of getting mad and hitting back, this priest went on to be a saint, so he was a good guy. So instead of getting mad and hitting back, this priest simply turned to him in love,

did not fight back, but turned to him in love.

Now, St. Paragrin was so impressed by this.

He couldn't believe that this man wouldn't fight back or at least yell at him.

So he went home and this moment changed the rest of his life. He started to look into the faith.

And he began to feel a calling to become a priest himself. Eventually he joined a Franciscan order.

He was ordained a priest and he started to take on extreme penances, meaning he recognized all of the sins that he had committed as a young man, and he wanted to make up for those,

...