Hello and welcome to St. Stories for Kids! A weekly podcast full of fun stories and facts

about the holy men and women that have come before us. I'm your host, Shantel Baros.

St. Stories for Kids is brought to you by Shining Light Dolls. Discover a war-winning Catholic

toys, books and more, passing on the faith through proven play-based learning. Catholic

mom designed, Catholic kid approved. Visit www.ShiningLightDolls.com to learn more. And

check out our brand new water reveal cards which just launched this week and we're so excited

about them. Today we'll be telling the story of Servant of God, Brother Juniper. A servant

of God is someone who is on the first step in the journey of officially being canonized

as St. Juniper lived in Italy in the 13th century and was one of the very first followers

of St. Francis of Assisi. We don't know a lot about his early life, but have stories from

his life after he joined the Franciscans. He was received into the order in 1210 by St. Francis

of Assisi himself. Brother Juniper was known as the Jester of the Lord, but St. Francis loved

him for his incredible generosity, simplicity and humility. Another Catholic saint, St.

Honopero Sarah, who was an 18th century Franciscan, actually took his name in honor of Brother

Juniper. Now it's time for our story. Brother Juniper sat down at the kitchen table

and looked around. There wasn't much food in the kitchen, the pantry shelves were nearly

empty. He sighed. All the other brothers had gone out for the day, leaving him alone

and in charge of preparing supper for when they returned. He stood up and looked through

a few baskets for ingredients. Cooking is a waste of time he said to himself, I'd much

rather spend my time praying. I bet the other brothers would prefer to spend their time

in prayer too, having to cook three meals a day every day. And then Brother Juniper had

what he thought was a stroke of genius. I know he said, I'll cook enough food today

...