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Fr. Mike Schmitz is one of the most well-known faces on Catholic YouTube, but even he’s never seen something quite like this.
Garnering 358k views in just 24 hours, The Bible in 10 Minutes (feat. Fr. Mike Schmitz) has become Fr. Mike’s most viral video ever, more than doubling his previous 1-day record of 160k views set in 2022 with his review of The Sound of Freedom.
The Bible in 10 Minutes is a new offering from Fr. Mike and Ascension, the multimedia Catholic network which hosts the Ascension Presents YouTube channel and produced The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)™ podcast. Bible in a Year was #1 on Apple Podcasts for 3 weeks across 2021 and 2022.
“The Bible is amazing,” Fr. Mike begins, seated on screen. “But sometimes confusing and hard to read… We’d like to read it, but without a map, it’s easy to get lost. There is a narrative throughout the Bible that tells a single Story. The Story of God’s plan for our Salvation. Once we understand that Story, we can understand the context of every book of the Bible. So, here’s the Story in less than 10 minutes.”
In addition to Fr. Mike Schmitz, a dedicated team of employees at Ascension spent months on the production of The Bible in 10 Minutes. The video’s animation was developed in collaboration with Coronation Media, a boutique animation company which specializes in unique, impactful Catholic videos.
At the end of the video, Fr. Mike invites the audience to decide whether or not they’d like to see more high-quality Catholic videos like this one. Those interested in supporting future projects like this from Ascension can contribute at www.AscensionPress.com/ Support.
“We would love to make more videos like this that impart the truths of the faith in such a beauty-forward manner,” comments senior video producer Sean Boyd. “It’s up to our audience to help us fund more videos and make it possible!”
Fr. Mike Schmitz is a priest for the Diocese of Duluth who serves as the chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries (bulldogCatholic) at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He also serves as the Director of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth, and travels nationally to give talks at Catholic retreats and events.
Fr. Mike’s work with the Bible in a Year podcast has been covered by the CBS National News, The New York Times Magazine, Fox News, Washington Post, The London Times, and the Wall Street Journal.