Alex and Melissa Dee, parishioners of Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales Church in Bennington, are bring saints alive for children — and anyone interested — through a popular podcast that has surpassed 1 million downloads.

Saints Alive began more than two years ago and has taken off faster than the young couple imagined.

Both of their families live in the Bennington area — their mothers set them up — but they were living in California where Alex was working in the entertainment industry and Melissa was a nurse.

Alex wanted to tell stories he considered worth telling, stories of truth, goodness, and beauty that would “lead hearts and souls to Christ” and reveal the truth of human dignity and human love. He found such stories “few and far between” in the entertainment industry.

He got a job for Family Theater Productions, a Catholic organization, and he wasn’t ready to move back to Vermont.

But Melissa, pregnant with their first child, was.

They prayed the rosary every night and devoted their marriage and family to Our Lady through the rosary. Melissa committed to helping her husband continue to tell beautiful stories, and they decided to move back to Vermont and begin that venture together.

Back in Vermont with a visiting friend, Tanner Kalina (co-founder and youth missions director), they decided to “go all in” on the podcast project for two years and see where it took them.

They went with a saints theme because, as co-founder and director Alex said, “the Church has the best stories, we just have to tell them and tell them well” — love stories and stories of heroism and faith.

The couple also wanted to produce podcasts their children — James, 4, and Mia 1 ½ — would enjoy without “always having screens in their face,” he added.

The first episode — self funded — was about St. Nicholas and was posted on his feast, Dec. 6, in 2021; it was available on a website, social media and podcast platforms. With 6,000 hits right away, “it kind of blew up,” said Melissa (co-founder and producer), noting that “Catholic moms got the word out.”

The success of that first episode gave the Pownal residents the confidence to dive into production, with one or two episodes produced a month. As time passed and they continued to improve their product, Alex and Melissa left their day jobs and devoted themselves to Saints Alive. They received a $100,000 grant from Our Sunday Visitor, and last year they merged production into the Hallow app and became its employees.

About 40 people throughout the world are involved in each Saints Alive episode including writers (Melissa is the main script writer), history and theology checkers, voice actors, editors, and sound effect technicians.

“We don’t want to dumb these stories down because they are so great,” Alex said. “We want to elevate them with beauty.”

As of mid April, Saints Alive included 32 saints such as St. Joseph, St. Patrick, St. George, St. Valentine, Saint John Paul II, St. Bernadette, and St. Lucy.

Melissa said they have received comments from listeners saying how much they enjoy the podcasts; some have said the saint stories have changed their lives. One woman converted to Catholicism after learning about St. Joan of Arc.

The website also offers a free coloring book and a store.

For more information, go to saintsalivepodcast.com or hallow.com.

— Originally published in the Summer 2024 issue of  Vermont Catholic magazine.