Audio play podcast series featuring local Catholic students returns for Season 3

She’s back to help students at fictional Holy Family School work their way through daily situations by sharing relevant stories of saints. “Sister Justine’s Saint Tales,” a diocesan-produced online audio play series that features voice talents of real local Catholic school students, returns for a third season of episodes this month, with the first new installment premiering Friday, Dec. 6. The series is available for free listening and downloading at the Diocese of Buffalo Sound Hub, the official diocesan podcast channel,

The first episode focuses on the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized in late April. In his brief life, Acutis committed his computer skills to furthering worship of Jesus Christ and our Blessed Mother Mary, by creating a website which catalogs Eucharistic miracles and Marian Apparitions. 

Students from St. Gregory the Great School in Williamsville provided the voices of the students in the episode. One of the students provided the voice of Acutis. Participants in forthcoming episodes include students from Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls and St. Stephen School in Grand Island. Additionally, a senior at Cardinal O’Hara played the role of St. Martin de Porres, one of the ten people to be featured.

The lead character of the series, which debuted in 2023, is inspired by the late Sister Justine Yanics, who taught at several schools within the Diocese of Buffalo. She taught at the former Prince of Peace School (now Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls) from the mid 1970s through the late 1980s. Among the students enrolled there at that time was the show’s creator and producer, Michael Mroziak.

“Sister Justine was teaching remedial reading in a room next door to my fourth grade classroom, and she’d pop in often to say hello, or keep an eye on us if our teacher needed to step away for a moment,” explained Mroziak, who joined the Diocese of Buffalo’s communications department in 2022 after a lengthy local radio career. “Sister would tell stories of saints to keep us engaged. When I first got hired by the diocese, I was encouraged to come up with some creative podcast ideas. While brainstorming, I flipped through some old yearbooks and found her picture. Those memories came back and that’s when I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s the series.’”

Melissa Cumming, also an employee of the diocese, provides the voice of Sister Justine. She, along with the entire cast of youth and adults who also voice roles, did so on a volunteer basis.

Here’s the schedule for “Sister Justine Saint Tales” season three (along with participating schools):

Friday, Dec. 6 – Blessed Carlo Acutis (feat. St. Gregory the Great students)

Tuesday, Dec. 10 – St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (feat. St. Stephen School students)

Friday, Dec. 13 – St. Vincent de Paul (feat. Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls students)

Tuesday, Dec. 17 – St. Clare of Assisi (feat. St. Stephen School students)

Friday, Dec. 20 – St. Martin de Porres (feat. Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls students & Cardinal O’Hara senior Warren Adams as St. Martin de Porres)

Tuesday, Jan. 7 – St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (feat. St. Gregory the Great School students)

Friday, Jan. 10 – St. Florian (feat. St. Stephen School students)

Tuesday, Jan. 14 – St. Sebastian (feat. Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls students)

Friday, Jan. 17 – St. Kateri Tekakwitha (feat. St. Stephen School students)

Friday, Jan. 24 – St. Gianna Beretta Molla (feat. independent youth voice talents)