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

Hey there, Sproes.

Today is Friday, April 29th, 2020.

We are also still in the Easter season.

And today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena.

St. Catherine of Sienna lived during the Middle Ages in Italy, and she was a remarkably holy woman. From a very young age, she took on many penances so that she could become closer to Jesus.

Instead of using a pillow to sleep at night, she used a rock. And she didn't even sleep that often and said

she spent hours and hours praying at night. She also loved Jesus so deeply that she desired to

receive him in the Eucharist as much as possible. And it got to the point where the only food that she lived on

was the Eucharist sick bread, Jesus present in the Eucharist. She couldn't eat anything else.

She also experienced many visions of Jesus. In one vision, Jesus married her, gave her a mystical wedding ring, and in another she received the invisible wounds of Jesus Christ.

Now, St. Catherine of Siena was a young woman, and yet she was seen as a very holy woman during her time.

In fact, she felt directed by God to go and speak to the Pope, who had left Rome and was

living like a king in France.

And it was through her prayers and her directions that the Pope eventually left France and

returned to Rome.

She was so remarkable that she actually has been named a doctor of the church,

along with just a handful of other female saints. Now this week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast,

we have been talking about church history. We have been talking specifically about the very

early church, starting with our founder, Jesus Christ, our first leader, Peter,

and then also the martyrs, including St. Stephen, who gave their life as testimony to value of faith in Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we talked about St. Paul and reminded ourselves of the important work of the

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