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

Hey there, Spouts.

Today is Wednesday, August 4th, 2021.

Today is also the feast day of St. John Vienny.

Now, all week we have been talking about the fifth beatitude, which is, Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

We've talked about how mercy is what God is.

Mercy is a combination of love and forgiveness, and mercy from our God is without end.

Yesterday, with the example of St. Martin of Tours, we talked about the connection between loving other people and loving God, and how loving and being merciful with

other people is the best way to invite God's love, his grace, and his mercy into your life.

Now, today we have an incredible saint to talk about, especially on the topic of mercy.

St. John Vienni lived during the 17 and 1800s in France.

He was a parish priest, a pretty simple man.

He wasn't incredibly intelligent or working ridiculous miracles

on public display. He was a pretty simple man, but he lived during a very difficult time.

He was born in the 1780s, and in the 1790s, the French country went through a terrible revolution.

Many people died, but also the church was attacked.

Priests themselves were attacked.

And St. John Vienny grew up watching parish priests attacked by ordinary people and the church under terrible attack.

He came to believe that parish priests were heroes, and he decided to become one himself.

When he was old enough, he was ordained into the priesthood, and he was sent to a small country

parish of ours.

Now, it was a small country town, only about 200 parishioners. But when he arrived, he found that the people in this small town were living

...